Best Supporting Actress Nominee Jessica Chastain: The Hollywood Flashback Interview

In May of 2006, I sat down with actress Jessica Chastain, then an unknown and untested 25 year-old who was on the precipice of her first big break after being tapped by Al Pacino to co-star in his stage production of Oscar Wilde's "Salome" at the Wadsworth Theater. Then as now, Chastain's fresh-faced beauty made every passerby do a double-take as we spoke. Her ambition to succeed as a performer was palpable, and paid off last year with Chastain appearing in six high-profile films: "Take Shelter," "The Tree of Life," "Coriolanus," "The Debt," "Texas Killing Fields," and "The Help," for which she received a Best Supporting Actress nomination yesterday. 


JESSICA CHASTAIN TRIPS THE LIGHT FANTASTIC AS SALOME 
By Alex Simon 

Jessica Chastain is living the dream that most young actresses never get to touch: co-starring with the legendary Al Pacino in the eponymous role of Oscar Wilde’s Salome. Jessica, a Julliard graduate, has been working steadily on stage and television since graduation several years ago, but her latest foray on the boards, currently running at The Wadsworth Theater through May 14, marks the arrival of a major new talent. Directed by renowned actress Estelle Parsons (Best Supporting Actress, 1967 for Bonnie & Clyde), the production also co-stars Kevin Anderson and Roxanne Hart, and is presented as a “staged reading,” with no sets and many of the actors reading their lines directly from the script. A riveting, challenging theatrical experience, Salome is an evening that most discerning theater-goers will not soon forget. The lovely Miss Chastain sat down with us poolside at a local hotel recently.

When did you know you were an actor? 

Jessica Chastain: When I was five, my grandmother took me to see a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, with David Cassidy. And I remember saying to myself, ‘I want to do this!’ (laughs)

Chastain as Celia Foote in The Help.

So that was the catalyst? 

Yeah, my mom teases me and says that ever since I was a little kid I always wanted to crawl inside the TV, and play all the time. When my grandmother took me to that show, I realized that was my calling. So my play turned into make believe, and from then on, everyone knew that I was going to be an actor.

After high school, you went to Julliard. What was that like? 

It was great, because I showed up, and I didn’t know anything about Shakespeare, or any of the other great playwrights. I spoke with my voice in a really high register, and I was just untrained. Plus, I was in New York, and I’d never really left the Bay Area in my life. I was surrounded by all these amazing musicians, dancers, actors and artists, the cream of the crop, and it was just amazing. But it was also difficult, because we all showed up thinking we were hot. I was with 22 other people in this program, and you realized very quickly the things that you were doing to avoid the work. (laughs) I remember at one point after we’d done a Shakespeare play, the instructors had us all in a group, and asked us what we’d learned. I raised my hand and said, not trying to be funny, ‘I learned that it’s important to know what you’re saying when doing Shakespeare.’ And of course, that got a huge laugh. But before, I just would do it, speak the words, without knowing what it meant. It was just one of the most important lessons I ever learned. The fours years there was very difficult, I’m not going to lie, but that said, those four years were also invaluable.

Plus you were so far from your family. 

Yeah, that was very hard, and then I was there for 9/11, and the next year there was that blackout in New York, so I really had to grow up. It was baptism by fire. But I got to do Chekov, Strinberg, and so many other playwrights I’d never been exposed to before. I’d never been to a classical music concert or a dance concert before. My family was really not into art. The closest we got was David Cassidy. (laughs)

You started working on stage and in TV soon after graduation, but Salome must make you feel like you’ve arrived at a whole different level. It’s the role of a lifetime. 

It’s just amazing! Working with Al Pacino, first of all, that’s great, because he’s one of the most amazing artists I’ve ever met. Even if I was doing it in my basement, it would still be the best role I’ve ever had.

Chastain with Al Pacino in his stage production of Salome, 2006.


Tell us about Salome herself. She’s a very complicated character. 

She’s so complicated, and many people have different takes on her. What I got from her, and from Oscar Wilde’s play, was that she’s this 14 year-old girl who’s grown up in this household with everyone drinking and partying, with a very promiscuous mother, with a step-father who’s lusting after her, and she’s just becoming a woman through all this. She decides that she’s going to be pure. She’s going to be a virgin, and she won’t be sullied by all that’s going on around her. Then she meets John the Baptist, who is all that she aspires to be: this chaste, beautiful man who is condemning her mother, and this awakens this very pure love in her. But she’s so young and naïve and used to getting what she wants that by the end of the play she loves him so much that she doesn’t understand the difference between selfish love and selfless love, so she needs to possess him. She needed to own him. Once she gets his head, she realizes that she wanted that intangible thing that you can never have, which is that you can’t possess someone else. So she destroys the only tangible thing she ever loved. It breaks my heart, because I realized that when I was doing research on Oscar Wilde, he wrote this as a love poem to Lord Darlington, knowing it was a doomed relationship.

Tell us some more about Al Pacino. Were you intimidated before meeting him?

I actually met Estelle first, which was really intimidating, because she’s such a brilliant artist. Plus, she doesn’t sugarcoat anything. She’ll tell you like it is. She doesn’t play games. When I met Al, I was auditioning again at the call-back. I was so nervous, knowing that I was going to meet Al Pacino, I was afraid I was going to blow my audition. So I said to myself ‘Okay Jessica, you know Al Pacino. You’ve seen all his movies. He’s been in your living room during those movies. You’ve seen his most vulnerable, personable moments. You should be more nervous meeting a stranger than you should with Al, because you know him. There’s not going to be anything that’s going to surprise you.’ So I went to meet him, and he couldn’t have been nicer. Since then, he’s never made me feel like he is “Al Pacino, the icon.” He’s always approached him as an artist who wants to create good work. I’ve never felt like he’s pulling rank with me.

Chastain with Brad Pitt in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life.


Generally people who are at his level aren’t insecure, and don’t need to pull rank on people. They’re usually the coolest ones on the set. 

Yeah, exactly. There are so many actors whose work I admire, but then I hear these horrible stories of how they treat people. But so far, you haven’t succumbed to the old adage of “never meet your idols, for they’ll disappoint you.” Hopefully never!

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Best Actor Nominee Demian Bichir: The Hollywood Flashback Interview

I sat down with actor Demian Bichir during the final months of 2008, when he was appearing in “The Waters of Babylon” at the Geffen Playhouse. Since then, Bichir has become a recognizable face north of the U.S.-Mexico border following his lauded turn in last year’s indie hit “A Better Life,” for which he was tapped with a Best Actor Oscar nomination yesterday. 


DEMIAN BICHIR DRINKS FROM THE WATERS OF BABYLON, FIGHTS A REVOLUTION WITH CHE AND TAKES A WALK IN THE WEEDS
 By Alex Simon

A native of Mexico City, actor Demian Bichir is currently batting a triple with two high-profile supporting roles on the big and small screen, as well as the male lead (co-starring with Shannon Cochran) in Robert Schenkkan’s play By the Waters of Babylon, which is currently onstage at The Geffen Playhouse. Prior to trotting the boards in Westwood, Demian wrapped Steven Soderbergh’s back-to-back films on Cuban Revolution icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara: Guerilla and The Argentine (later retitled to the simpler Che), playing the pivotal role of Fidel Castro, and debuted on the Showtime hit series "Weeds," playing the wily and charismatic Mayor of Tijuana, Mexico: the new love interest to series star Mary-Louise Parker.

The second of three sons born to renowned theater director Alejandro Bichir and actress Mariacruz Najera, Demian and his brothers Odiseo and Bruno are three of Mexico’s most renowned performers, so much so, in fact, that one year at Mexico’s MTV Movie Awards, there was a special category called “Best Bichir in a Movie,” which Demian won. A veteran of stage, screen and television in Latin America, Demian Bichir’s star has arrived on American shores with a vengeance. He sat down recently at The Geffen to reflect on his life as a performer.

Demian Bichir in A Better Life. 


Let’s start out with Che. You spent five months working on it. 

Demian Bichir: I was lucky enough to get the offer when I had enough time to work on it. I dove into the character, the process and research of it. Plus, growing up in Mexico, we are very close to the event of the Cuban Revolution, because it was planned in Mexico City. I already knew many, many things about it. I read Castro’s spoken-word autobiography, called “One Hundred Hours with Fidel” (U.S. title: “Fidel Castro: My Life”), which is a series of interviews he did with Ignacio Ramonet, who’s a famous journalist. I also got a lot of DVDs, many from Havana, where I was able to study footage of Fidel, which was very helpful.

Tell us about Fidel. What was your take on him?

Well, when I put myself on tape for the audition, I remember thinking that there were so many great characters involved in the Revolution; I knew I just had to play one of them. I didn’t have my heart set on playing Fidel, to be honest, and didn’t even really think of him. Then I got the call at five in the morning that Steven wanted me to play Fidel! I was like ‘What…?’ (laughs) I looked at myself in the mirror and thought ‘What the fuck is wrong with this guy? Me, as Fidel?!’ Then I started to see Fidel in my own face, and I thought ‘My God, Soderbergh is a genius, because he saw Fidel in me before I did!’ Then by the time I’d started working on it, and really getting into the character, people would stop and ask me for pictures! I was having breakfast at the Urth Café one morning, and this guy kept looking at me, and he asked “Do you mind if I take a picture with you? My grandfather is Cuban, and you look a lot like the young Fidel Castro.” There was another time where I was picking up my girlfriend at the airport, and there was an orange alert on, at the time. I had my beard fully-grown out by then, and they pulled me over and asked to look in my trunk. So I said ‘Sure,’ and got out and opened my trunk. And one of the cops said to me “What’s with the Fidel Castro look?” And I said ‘Well, I’m glad you asked.’ He said “Why is that?” And I said ‘Because I am Fidel.’ (laughs) And he gave me his “don’t fuck with me” face, and I said ‘Yeah, I’m doing the film with Steven Soderbergh, and Benicio Del Toro is playing Che…’ Then they were like “Really? Really? Hey Bobby, Richard, come over here! This guy is playing Fidel in the new movie!” (laughs)

Bichir as Fidel Castro in Steven Soderbergh's Che.

You managed to get Fidel’s voice down, his mannerisms, and his Cuban accent. Was all that difficult? 

Yes, that was all a big challenge, which is what drew me to the part to begin with. As soon as I don’t know what to do with a character, that’s when I say ‘yes’ to it. When on paper it’s really difficult, and I have questions, then I know it’s going to be a nice journey, a nice trip, especially if you’re with the right people.

How were Benicio and Soderbergh to work with? 

They both are where they are in their careers because they’re great, just the absolute top in terms of their talent and commitment to their work. They’re both extremely clever and Steven actually held a boot camp for us prior to filming, which helped us all get into character: sleeping outdoors, living like the rebels did in the Sierra Maestra. Benicio is so funny, and such a real human being. So often you meet stars that you admire and they disappoint you, but with Benicio it was just the opposite. He got into character and pretty soon was commanding the whole boot camp.

Men in black: Demian Bichir (center) with brothers Odesio (L) and Bruno (R).

You come from a theatrical family in Mexico City. 

My parents met when they were studying theater in a small town in northern Mexico called Torreon. They traveled to Mexico City without knowing anybody, and my father became a theater director and my mother an actress. Both my brothers are actors, as well. So it was in the blood from day one. (laughs) My parents had a theater company that would perform shows in every plaza in Mexico City. And we were always there, backstage, trying on the fake mustaches and driving everyone crazy! One day, the actors locked us up in a back room because we were such a nuisance. It was a real revelation for us when we figured out that our parents were making a living playing make-believe just like we did. Pretty soon, we all started doing professional theater when we were kids. When I got a little older, I wanted to play soccer professionally, and one night, my soccer coach came to see me in a play when I was about 14. And my coach was very impressed, apparently. At our next soccer practice, my coach took me aside and said “Listen, I had a great time last night. You were really amazing and fantastic. Do you know who Pele was?” And I said of course I knew who he was. My coach said “Do you know how he started playing soccer? He kicked coconuts around barefoot on the beach, because he didn’t have money for a soccer ball. He didn’t have any other choice, and you, you are a great actor.” (laughs) So that was a very nice way of telling me that my talents lay elsewhere than the soccer field! That was it: from then on I was an actor.

It’s interesting that you go from playing Castro to a victim of his regime in By the Waters of Babylon.

(laughs) Yeah, this play is really very poetic, in many ways. That’s why I love it. The characters are really well-written and (my character) Arturo has this duality and ambivalence that most Cubans feel and live with. There are so many Cubans in the world that have these amazing stories to be told, and Arturo’s is just one of them. I have many good friends who are writers that had to leave Cuba, and the story that Arturo tells is so heartbreaking and moving and special, and really hit close to home for me after hearing what so many of my friends went through, so that’s what really drew me to the character.

You and Shannon Cochran had to go to some very intimate emotional and physical places. I’ve always heard that love scenes are very difficult for actors. 
Oh, absolutely, very difficult, especially if you don’t really know the other actor all that well. Most of the films I’ve done have involved some sort of nudity in the love scenes, but I’ve known most of those actresses prior to that time. It was much harder recently with Mary-Louise Parker in Weeds because the scene we did was filmed just a few days after we’d met. It was really intimidating for me because she’s such a great actor and so beautiful that…well, you don’t want to mess it up, you know? (laughs) So yes, it can be very tough, but that’s what they pay you for, is the hard stuff.

Bichir and Mary-Louise Parker in "Weeds."

Your character in "Weeds" is very interesting because he’s morally ambiguous and quite pragmatic: he’s forced to tread in some dark areas in order to get good things done for his people.

Yes, and that’s what I find fascinating about him and the characters on that show: they’re very real. It’s all about the gray, because none of us are black & white. We can all be angels or demons, or both.

What category does your take on Castro fall into?

I think the big difference between a dictator and a leader is what you do or don’t do for your people. All of Fidel’s tasks and goals were always aimed at helping his people. That’s my perception, and when you think about Fidel’s actions and words, they were always aimed at helping his people. He knew that many things had to change in order to make things more equal. It made me think of our own revolution that we had in Mexico a hundred years ago, for the same reasons. It seems that now we need a revolution again in Mexico, because things have not been equal there for far too long.

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SLAMDANCE TURNS 18: Talking with Festival Co-Founder Dan Mirvish on the State of the Indie

David Mirvish, filmmaker and Slamdance Co-Founder 

By Terry Keefe


As the Sundance Film Festival gets underway this week, the neighboring  Slamdance Film Festival also kicks off its 18^th edition in Park City as well. This writer was there for the first Slamdance Film Festival in 1995, where a small group of the festival’s founding filmmakers were screening their films in whatever venues were available, including restaurants, and soliciting whatever audiences they could find in the snowy streets, via fliers and posters. Since those early days, Slamdance has grown into a powerful force of the independent film world with its spotlight on first-time filmmakers and has screened first features from the likes of Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), whose feature Following screened at Slamdance in 1999. Films are now regularly picked up for distribution at Slamdance, including the debut installment of the Paranormal Activity series, which was purchased by Dreamworks Pictures after its Slamdance screening in 2008.

Dan Mirvish was one of the co-founders of Slamdance in 1995 and has remained one of its guiding forces, while also sustaining a directing career which began in 1994 with his first ultra low-budget feature Omaha (the Movie), and continues today with his just-completed feature Between Us, starring Julia Stiles, Taye Diggs, Melissa George, and David Harbour.  Although the recession certainly cut back on the acquisitions budgets of independent film distributors, Mirvish believes that Park City will see a lot of film-buying activity this year.  “I think it’s going to be a good year, judging from what I know of the films that are going to be there, at both Sundance and Slamdance,” says Mirvish. “The word on the street is that distributors are going to be buying films. There’s a couple of big filmmakers, like Spike Lee, who are coming to Park City, without distribution (with Red Hook Summer), with films which 10 years ago would have been made by a studio.”

The digital revolution in filmmaking has made it possible for anyone with access to a camera and computer to make a feature film now. While that has unquestionably increased the numbers of other filmmakers that a first-time director has to compete with today, the lower costs of shooting on digital, as opposed to film, have sometimes freed up budgets for directors to hire better-known actors on a small project. Eli Perle, Mirvish’s manager at Provocation Entertainment, who also represents a number of other indie filmmakers, including previous Slamdance Grand Jury winners Daniel J. Harris (The Bible and Gun Club) and Kevin DiNovis (Surrender Dorothy), elaborates, “With the whole digital aspect of getting films made, you can make a really good-looking movie for a lot less money than you used to. But more importantly, actors, and, even more importantly than that, their agents, have realized that the big studios are not making adult dramas.” Mirvish nods, adding, “Studios don’t really make Oscar movies, independent films become Oscar movies. Because of that, the agents and the actors are realizing that they need to pay a lot more attention to indie and low-budget filmmakers in a way that they hadn’t so much before. Which is great for the filmmakers, because it means that you don’t have to necessarily raise millions and millions of dollars to get A-list actors. You can raise a few hundred thousand dollars, get great actors, great cameras, and make a really amazing movie.”

Another trend that has dovetailed with the ascent of digital filmmaking has been the use of “crowd-funding” via sites such as Kickstarter and IndieGoGo to raise budget financing. Mirvish says, “This year, I think Kickstarter was involved with around 20 films at Sundance.  And probably half the films at Slamdance did some type of crowdfunding. I think it’s become a lot more acceptable, and mainstream, to just ask friends for money to help make your movie.”

At the same time, Mirvish, whose Between Us received some of its initial funding via a successful Kickstarter campaign, points out that there is a reason the site is called Kickstarter and not KickFINISHER. He elaborates, “You don’t raise all your money through Kickstarter, and one shouldn’t expect to. A lot of people really emphasize the money aspect of these crowd-funding campaigns, but also important is the emotional aspect. You know, the hardest part is convincing yourself that you’re making the film. The second hardest part is convincing others.  What Kickstarter and these other campaigns do is convince you that you’re doing this thing. And even though you don’t necessarily owe those people back the money, you sort of emotionally do. In a very real sense, it sort of forces you to put together business plans and trailer reels and get your act together.”

The 18^th Slamdance Film Festival runs January 20-26 in Park City, Utah.

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