Hawke's done a fair amount of theater work also; though I've never seen him in anything on stage, I hear The Coast of Utopia, Tom Stoppard's 9-hour 3-play epic, was really something. That was on Broadway a couple years ago, and Hawke I think was nominated for a Tony as Best Featured Actor or something for his performance. This interview was shortly after.
Is it ever awkward to direct a friend and work on another friend's script?
I've done it my whole life. I've done six movies with Richard Linklater. I've done a couple of movies with Andrew Niccol. I enjoy getting to work with people who are like-minded. You have to treat each other with as much respect as possible, and then your friendships deepen. The only thing I've learned is that you can't ever do each other a favor. If you want to do your friends a favor, you should pick their kids up after school or lend them your umbrella. If you do each other favors in your work, your friendship doesn't last very long. Josh [Hamilton] and I have worked together so much, not only through the theater company we ran; we were in the movie Alive together and we did Hurlyburly and Coast of Utopia together. We've literally spent years backstage together. When he hears me waxing poetic in the director's chair, he rolls his eyes. He was 15 minutes late to rehearsal yesterday, and I laid into him in a way that I would only with somebody I've known for 20 years.
Why have you remained so loyal to the theater?
I guess it's my first love. There's something about the theater that's not precious; it's so humble and human. There's a myth out there that movies are immortal. But the truth is, the first movie I made, Explorers, when I was 13, is really dated. You can watch it, but it's not the same. The music is kind of cheesy. It feels like the early '80s. But if somebody comes up to me and says, "I saw you in A Joke," which was the first production Malaparte did, there's some magic to that. It means we shared an evening together once 15 years ago, and if they loved it, it's not dated in their minds. It's still fresh and relevant.
Mary-Louise Parker once said that nobody in Hollywood cares about people's theater credits. Do you find that to be true?
They're slightly intimidated by it. They feel that it's somehow legitimate, and that bothers them. But they haven't seen any of it and they don't really care. Who's a better actress than Mary-Louise Parker? Nobody. She should be in everything! Let's face it, they hire [movie] directors who are ad guys. Every now and then there's a serious filmmaker, but most of them want a product, they don't want art. Art is dangerous. Art is scary. Art is movies like Apocalypse Now that they're not going to know how to sell. They don't want people to take risks. If they're going to spend that much money, they want to know how many units they can sell. It's like Coca-Cola to them.
What are your favorites of the films you've acted in?
Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. And Gattaca. There are a few that I like, but those three might be my favorites.
I do find it interesting that he says that Hollywood doesn't respect Broadway cred. A couple other interviews I've read with major theater players have said the same thing, and I just think that's funny, when you see more and more frequently, big stars going to New York from Cali to prove themselves through theater. That revival of American Buffalo that was barely open? It starred John Leguizamo, Cedric the Entertainer, and Haley Joel Osment. And a couple years ago, Three Days of Rain was on Broadway with Julia Roberts. Personally, I would have gone to see either of her costars over her--I love Paul Rudd, and Bradley Cooper is pretty good too.
Also, the mention of Mary-Louise Parker...she's coming back to Broadway this season in the Roundabout's production of Hedda Gabler, which is very highly anticipated. I know the story is German and the eponymous character is a really strong female part, which is refreshing. It's one of the reasons I loved August: Osage County--Tracy Letts wrote several great parts for women in the show. The mother and her three daughters really are the stars. Speaking of that--it's being made into a film for 2011! That's so exciting. I hope, though, they don't ruin it by trying to recast it...the original Steppenwolf cast was amazing. I can't think of a single star who could play Barbara better than Amy Morton.
It seems I never wrote about it. Well. In the play, an Oklahoma family patriarch, Beverly Weston, hires a woman, Johnna, to help around the house. His wife Violet is sick in all sorts of ways, and their relationship is very dysfunctional--he drinks, she pops pills--and they have three middle-aged daughters. Their middle daughter Ivy lives near home. Their oldest daughter Barbara lives in Colorado and works at a college, as does her soon-to-be-ex-husband Bill; their daughter Jean is a cool, complacent, pot-smoking fourteen-year-old. Their youngest, Karen, is recently engaged to a greasy guy named Steve, and she lives in Florida. All three girls, plus Violet's sister Mattie Fae, her husband Charlie, and her son "Little" Charles, come to the old family homestead when Bev disappears shortly after hiring Johnna. All sorts of hijinks ensue and the play approaches about a thousand and a half different issues, from the mundane like drugs and alcohol, to the taboos pedophilia and incest. It's very well done--the pacing alone is an accomplishment, as the play runs about three hours and never drags. Originally, Bev was played by the playwright's own father, until he passed away. The entire cast was from the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago, which was started by Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney, and Jeff Perry. Nearly everyone moved with the show when it went to Broadway, and it was nominated for/won a host of Tonys. Letts also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for 2008, which made me happy.
Anyway, it's being adapted for film, and first off, I hope the changes aren't too devastating, even though I have a feeling they will be. They're going to try to condense a 3 hour play to a 2 hour movie, maybe even shorter, and unless it's done well, the pacing is going to be destroyed and it's all downhill from there. And the cast--there are very few Hollywood names I can imagine in it. Maybe I'll adapt plays and screenplays for film after college. I'm taking a course "From Fiction to Film" presently and I bet I could do a much better job than half of these. Adaptations are, I feel, not given enough respect. They're a lot harder to pull off than you'd think. Often, while the structure and plot and characters are important, what you're really trying to maintain is the integrity of the theme, the tone, and the "meaning" in general. I used to nitpick and hate when the movie deviated from a book at all, but now I'm at a point where I can mostly separate my feelings for a book from my feelings for a film. Mostly. Hehe.
And again, I'm off on tangents and writing way to much. Meh. Stopping now.
No comments:
Post a Comment