What prompted you to film Conversations?
Well, first the script did. It’s such a well-written script with and adult love story that you don’t see too often, a lot of good dialogue, a lot of chances to act. Helena was on it before me and I just like her so much that I had to do it. To act with her, and do a love story with her…
To make out with her…
To make out with her, yeah, to play with her. I respect her so much and I think that we are such an unlikely couple that to make that work would be a lot of fun. To believe that Helena and I are going out and have a relationship, I think it works and I think we had a great time making the movie. I felt like we had good chemistry. I’m really proud of the movie.
How difficult was it to film in split screen?
Well the way they film split screen is that she has one camera and I have one camera on me at all times.
But do you have to stay in certain areas?
Probably, I can’t remember. It was no more difficult than the restraints of a normal procedure. It actually opened us up and allowed us to be freer as actors. In normal film-making one person would be on camera and the other would be feeding their lines off camera, so this person doesn’t really have to, I mean they have to act but it’s not like they are on camera, they’re not responsible as on camera acting right there, so you can get lazy at this point. When the camera is on you at all times you have to play, you know, you have to be there. By virtue of the fact that we were on camera at all times, we were at our best at all times. That was good for us because we are more creative. The moments that we took we knew were on camera so that we knew that they would play and we didn’t have to turn the camera around and try to recreate a moment because it was there already, so it actually made us better.
About the story…your character doesn’t seem to really have any closure about the relationship in the past. Do you think that there is any catharsis for him at the end of the movie?
I think that there’s realization. It’s so interesting making movies because you don’t have to know the answers to those questions, and I really don’t know the answers. All I can say is that, I mean, what Helena thinks and what I think can be two completely different things. [Spoiler warning] Whether she thinks whether she had a baby and aborted the baby or she was carrying my baby and didn’t tell me about it. [End of spoiler] What I think is immaterial; it’s what’s in the script. I think my character portrays more of the generalization of man, this kind of perpetual youngster, bachelor, kind of immature attitude towards love and possession of love and commitment. I think hers is a more rational, I think women are much more, in my experience, able to realize when something is over and commit to that fact that it’s over and men are always trying to hold on to something – to always conquer and always to keep and not commit, and I think that plays out in the story.
In both Thank You for Smoking and this film, you seem to play people that are very persuasive and rely on words, is that a characteristic that you’re familiar with?
I don’t know – I think that it’s my appreciation for good scripts. This is a really good writer giving me words and giving Helena words and also Thank You for Smoking or whatever. I do appreciate good writing and it’s fun to say those words. The roof-top scene for example, is one of my favorite scenes and I think it’s beautifully done. It’s playful and touching and sad at the same time, and hopefully completely idiotic. But those were words and circumstances that I was given and that Helena was given. I like words but I don’t know that I can convince you of anything, you know what I mean? I wouldn’t want to. That’s were I would differ from something like TYFS. I have no intention or desire to convince anybody of anything. I don’t want to be a salesperson.
I bet you have so many scripts to read right now…
Yeah I do, and I do read a lot of scripts. Not as many as I should. Reading scripts is not the same as reading books. You just get through as fast as you can and the one that you can get through is the one that you do. No, it’s not as bad as that. There are a lot of good scripts out there. The scripts that read like novels are the ones that you should do.
Did you read The Black Dahlia?
Yeah. Oh, you mean the book? Yeah.
Did you ever get to meet James Elroy?
Yeah, he came to set one day.
Was he creepy?
No, not at all. In fact, I don’t know if he told me or if somebody told me this but I guess we had done a scene and I think he was there that night, we did a scene and he was there and I think he might have come up to me or said something, I can’t remember, and he said, ‘when I wrote that, that’s exactly how I imagined it’. And that’s nice. That’s nice because mostly authors want to kill you, you know, for ruining their material. You never want to sit next to an author at a premier. They want to shoot you and themselves…and the director. It’s so hard to adapt a book because books as you know are so dense and movies just can’t be because of the constraints of time and budgets. It’s good. Christopher Buckley was very happy with TYFS, which is nice and a testament to Jason.
I’m interested in your experience reading this script – you talked about some scripts being a slog…
This one read very fast. My history with this was…it’s a great script, I just didn’t want to do the movie because I was just sandwiched between movies, two movies and I didn’t want to work at the time, but you read a script like that and you’re an actor and you can’t say no to something like that, even if you want to. You might hate yourself for saying yes but you say yes to it because the words are so good and Helena is so good and it’s such a great concept for the movie. Words mean a lot, words make you do things that you wouldn’t normally do. Because what else do you have? Action’s is rarely going to save you, unless you have a great action director and a lot of money. So, words for an actor… and when somebody’s doing that you really have to do it.
I imagine there is a lot that isn’t on the page. As you said, people can surmise any number of things about what your character implies…
I don’t feel compelled to talk to talk about history of characters. You know, if the director wants to write me out a five page history of my blah blah blah…he can do it. I won’t read it. Because, nobody knows from where you draw your material, and nobody has to know. That’s the beauty of acting. That’s the beauty of technique…what you have to do is fulfill the authors intent. You have to give them what they wrote on the page, you have to manifest that for them. How you manifest that is your business. If I’m going to talk to an actor or a director or whatever about subtext, history, what good does that do me? That’s their history, I have to be concerned about my history, my past. How do I relate to this character? How do the dynamics of that movie parallel the dynamics in my own life? Who are the characters in my own life that parallel those characters? Nobody knows that but me. So, whether we are on the same page historically has no significance.
Later in the film we see an increasing use of slight overlap. Consciously, were there a lot more takes?
No. No, that is Hans’ editing. I’m sure at one point Hans told me about split screen but I probably just saw his mouth moving. That’s his. As an actor, I’m looking at character, what can I do as a character, how much fun can I have with Helena? Just let us go. The split screen is completely his. It’s so great. I love the movie. I love the way he did it. I’m in awe of the way he edited it. I know that he shot the movie with the split screen in his mind, I didn’t and I know Helena didn’t either. The great thing about shooting on DV, like I said, is we’re not concerned about film. Between takes the camera just kept rolling. I would freak out, do some weird thing, dance around the room to keep my energy up or to have fun or whatever, and I know he put some of those in the movie. Whenever I’m doing something weird, he put it in the movie. Which is fine, which is cool, it keeps things lively and keeps things unpredictable. For the most part the movie was verbatim script. I think that two words or lines were adlibbed.
How much do you think that the guy they got to play the younger you looks like you?
I think there are definite similarities. I think our faces are a little different. I think he inhabited the younger characters subtleties and his sensitivity…I think he did a very good job being sensitive to Helena’s younger self and I appreciate that because it makes me look good and it makes my character look good. It’s important that you not be rough with her, that you be playful, that you be sensitive, that you be caring. I used to have long hair. It’s kind of weird seeing your younger self.
At the beginning of the movie, it’s kind of unclear about the relationship history, what was your approach to performing that ambivalence?
I don’t know. Just kind of hitting on her, how I’d hit on her. How I thought about that was role-playing. You know, if you have a girlfriend and she’s waiting at the store for you and you kind of role-play something. That’s how I thought about that. It’s important to be ambiguous and to play more of an archetype there – the guy hitting on the girl. I think that pays off in the end. I think people will think ‘oh this guy’s a slime’ – not ‘slime’, but ‘typical’. I think at the end of the movie we’ve dispelled any negative typicalness. We find out that this guy is pretty genuine and has problems with commitment, like all guys probably do. Not all guys. And women too, right? She [Helena’s character] has a problem with commitment with her current husband.
I think that what’s wonderful about the movie is that it watches like a novel – it’s very interpretive. Personally, I thought that your character was much more sympathetic than hers…
I felt like my character was more open than hers. I felt like my character wanted to make it work but knew that it couldn’t. I think she did a good job of wanting and yet keeping her distance from my character, which I thought was essential to the movie. If she gave herself too early I think the film would have been over. I think that she held out beautifully and kept that connection with London all the way to the end. You knew she was going home to her husband. She’s a great actress, I really feel lucky to have worked with her.
How invested do you get in your characters? Are you able to snap it off at the end of the day?
That’s interesting. I don’t know if any of these characters are so deep or so flawed that anything perceptible would happen, they’re not drinking themselves to death…I think that what you think about predominantly throughout the day will stay with you. When you’re making a movie you have to have one foot in at all times, so consciously everything plays all the time. What else do you have to think about? You’re thinking about your character and the film 24 hours a day… what you just did and what you’re going to do. I don’t know that you can get too far away from your character and be good at the same time.
What about when you’re playing someone like in Thank You for Not Smoking, more flamboyant?
I think that if you’re playing a romantic character it serves you to do romantic things. If you’re playing a romantic character and there’s women on the set, and guys you know, it serves you to be creative with those people, to compliment those people, to always embody your character in a certain way without manipulating or being dishonest whatever it is. Anything you can do to stay closer to the character will only make it easier to do your part and not have to re-vamp for everything. I think it’s true. I think it’s true. It is true. Whether you chose to do it or not, that’s your business. I think the great performances that we see; they’re usually pretty into it.
Aside from the rooftop scene that you mentioned earlier, was there a particular scene that was really enjoyable for you to shoot or even to watch?
Yes. I enjoyed particularly watching the entire movie. There were two scenes I’d like to shot over, but I’ll take it. I really like the rooftop scene, I really like the love scene. I really like the scene that precedes and proceeds – is that what you say? – the love scene, the scene where we are walking down the hall I think is enjoyable. I think that Helena and I were, for the most part, pretty much in tune to each other. And had fun. We were really talky to each other. I love the scene where I challenge her to go back to her husband, where I say that he sounds like Elvis Costello – I think that’s a good scene.
I love the scene where you’re listening to her on the telephone and you get really ‘playful’ with her phone, threatening to call her husband…
That’s ad-lib. The one thing that’s in there ad-lib of mine that I like. I love the scene where Helena’s on the phone in the bathroom, I think she does a wonderful job. I haven’t seen the movie as recently as you guys, but I’m proud of the movie and I loved the way it played. I love the music – Carla Brody did a wonderful job. I love the other actors in the movie. I love the elevator scene – I think it’s funny. I love the scene where I put her in a cab – I don’t know why I love it I just like the way it looks. It was touching. I don’t think that may people will see this movie, but I think the people that do will have a good experience.
How often do you go to a movie?
I rarely go to see movies. I haven’t seen a movie that I wasn’t in…
What about stuff that you were in?
Ah, it’s so painful. I think it’s so painful for me, it really puts me into a catatonic state. I like watching this movie, but if I didn’t have to see these movies I wouldn’t.
Which experience is more rewarding for you, working on an independent film or with the studios?
It doesn’t matter as long as it’s well directed and well written. And well acted. Really there is no difference. The only difference really is that fact that one is independently made and one is studio made. You still have to act the same and prepare the same, have the same discipline.
You don’t find more interference on the studio films?
When it gets to my level – nobody’s really interfering with me. There’s more politics in it for sure, but there’s politics in independent films too. There’s still money in independent films, whether $6 million or $10 million. This movie cost far less than that. You’re still taking a risk with somebody’s money and they want you to be accountable with their money. You feel responsibility too, I mean as an actor you always want to make peak money for the people you’re working for, so that they can go on and make more movies and you can go on and make more movies. I feel a personal responsibility to do my best.
How do you feel about Black Dahlia?
I had a great time making the movie and I haven’t seen it yet. I’ll see it next week. I’m excited for it, and what can I say? I think people have a genuine interest in the story. Femme fatale, Cop movie, Noir, tough guy, sexy, ambiguous. I am self confident enough to be able to go into any situation with any director and just do my job.
You always seem to get the hot girl in your movies – is it like that in real life?
Yes [Laughter]. And there’s the quote.
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