Shohreh Aghdashloo: The Hollywood Interview

Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo


SHOHREH AGHDASHLOO CASTS NO STONES
By
Alex Simon


Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo made history as the first Middle Eastern woman to be nominated for an Academy Award, when she received a Best Supporting Actress nod for her work in House of Sand and Fog (2003), opposite Ben Kingsley. Born in Tehran in 1952 to an upper middle class family of intellectuals, Shohreh spent her youth performing with various avant-garde theater companies during the country’s period of social and artistic freedom under the rule of Iran’s Shah. Most prominent among these groups was the renowned Drama Workshop of Tehran. Based upon her work with the latter group, Shohreh was cast by the two leaders of Iran’s New Wave filmmakers—Abbas Kiarostami and Ali Hatami—to play starring roles in Gozaresh and Sute-Delan, two seminal films of the period, both released in 1977.



The following year, 1978, changed everything with the Islamic Revolution and the deposition of the Shah by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, and his band of extremist Shiite Muslim followers. After relocating to England, where she earned a B.A. in Political Science, Shohreh’s planned transition from actor to politician ended before it ever started when she was cast in Rainbow, a landmark play about the Iranian Revolution and its discontents. She hasn’t stopped working since.

After House of Sand and Fog, Shohreh’s body of work has been varied, from prestige TV productions such as 24 and HBO’s House of Saddam, to features such as The Nativity Story, The Lake House, American Dreamz, and X-Men: The Last Stand. Shohreh’s latest film promises to be the landmark of her career, not only for its skillful production and her fine performance, but for the timeliness of its release.

The Stoning of Soraya M., based on Freidoune Sahebjam’s best-selling book, tells the true story of an Iranian woman in 1986 who was buried to her waist in the square of her rural hometown, and stoned to death by her fellow villagers. What led up to this heinous act supplies the drama of this harrowing, unforgettable film, made all the more prescient with the real-life drama unfolding on the streets of Iran today, following the controversial re-election of right wing leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over his popular, more centrist opponent, Mir-Hossein Mousavi. In the rioting that followed in the streets of Tehran, a 26 year-old woman named Neda Agha-Soltan, who had no politcal affiliations, was gunned down by a Basiji sniper on June 20. When the video of her death spread across the Internet, awareness mixed with outrage around the world at the brutality of Iran’s current government—a palpable parralel to the story, and message, of Soraya M. Co-written (with his wife Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh) and directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, The Roadside Attractions release also stars Mozhan Marno, superb as Soraya, and James Caviezel as Sahebjam. It arrives in theaters June 26.

Shohreh Aghdashloo sat down with us recently to discuss this remarkable film and her equally fascinating life.

This is one of the first films in years I’ve attended where the audience just left in stunned silence. It reminded me of the climax to Bonnie & Clyde. Was it equally emotional during the shoot?
Shohreh Aghdashloo: It was hard, but actors tend to have their own fun time to break the tension. So we told jokes, and just tried to comfort each other. The stoning scene took six days to film, which was really hard. Day after day, we had to see these angry men, screaming for Soroya to be stoned, shouting “God is great!” with the dust in the air, and voices choking in their throats. At one point I opened my eyes, I was crying, and realized that it’s really hard to tell the difference between cinema and reality now. All of the extras in the village were real villagers. It was really hard to tell the difference. I’d never had an experience like that before, working with non-actors in that kind of intimacy.

How long a shoot was it?
A month and a half, one month of which was in the village in Cyprus. I’m a Method actor, so it was wonderful to be immersed in that setting.

Was it easy or difficult to step into the shoes of your character, who is such an outspoken woman in a repressive society?
Zahra is very much like I am. She’s not afraid of telling the truth. I was proud of what I was saying and proud of this woman’s character, who I believe was a product of the Shah’s reign, as am I. She has the strength she has and as she also says, she was once somebody in the town, when she was married to the Mayor. One day she had a voice and the right to choose, and then one day she didn’t, but she chose to keep her voice, even though as the character of Ebrahim warns her, “This is not the Shah’s reign anymore.”

Were you familiar with the practice of stoning before doing the movie?
When I was living in Iran, nothing like that happened during the Shah’s reign. I had heard about it happening in the past, and then saw one on video tape, in the ‘80s. That involved two young men who were stoned to death because they were homosexuals. A friend of mine gave it to me, and warned me “Don’t watch it during the evening.” I put it on at eleven in the morning. What we show in Soraya is a condensed version of how long and brutal a process stoning is. It goes on for a long time before the people actually die, which is part of what makes it so horrific. I couldn’t eat or sleep for days after watching it. So I was familiar with the subject matter. I was a reporter at the time, for the local Iranian TV station in Los Angeles, so I felt it was my duty to watch the tape, both as a journalist and as an activist who cares about her birth country.

Shohreh and Mozhan Marno in The Stoning of Soraya M.

Were you familiar with the book before you did the film?
No, strangely enough, I had no idea about the book. Cyrus was introduced to me by one of my favorite producers, Joel Surnow, the producer of 24. When Cyrus called and told me about the subject matter, I took a long pause and said ‘Where were you? I’ve been waiting for you for 20 years.’ I read the script twice that night, and just loved it.

What are you hoping people will take away from the film?
To see for themselves what kind of a barbaric punishment is still being committed around the world, the Islamic world. I would hope that this film will be shown not just in the countries that oppose this kind of brutality, but in the villages where these kinds of things still occur. I hope they put a print of the film on a donkey, send it up into the mountains into these small villages which are full of people who have never seen television, project it onto a white sheet, and let them see and decide for themselves how inhuman this is.

Are you concerned at all about the film garnering a negative reaction in its portrayal of Iranians?
Yes, I’m very afraid. I had negative reactions with 24, which was a lot milder than this one is. I’m sure there will be negative reactions, particularly those who don’t read their holy books. Pious people truly read their holy books and understand what is written. But there are people who are ignorant and get their viewpoints from others, and have no idea what the content of that holy book really is, who think that stoning is part of the Islamic religion, which it is not, really. In Islam, we have Qur’an, which is a holy book. We have Hadith, which are stories told after Mohammed’s time, and we have Sonat, which means traditions and superstitions. Stoning is in that latter category. One needs to be really educated and read his or her holy book to understand that this is not part of religion.

You obviously have a real passion and verve for the film and the subject matter, in spite of it being so devastating. You have an enthusiasm for getting this message out.
Yes, absolutely. Every time I talk with a journalist like yourself, I feel happy. I feel proud. I feel like…I have an odd feeling, to be honest, when I sit and speak with you. I feel like I am fulfilling Zahra’s wish. This was her wish, for the whole world to know and now, when I tell you, you will tell the world. So it’s very close to my heart, very close to home for me. And of course, by shedding light on the injustices, I am doing something I am passionate about. 30 years ago when I left Iran, I promised myself that I would never aiding helpless, voiceless women and children, no matter where they are. Things like this happen not just in Iran, but in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, all over. So it’s not only a story that begs to be told, but it’s told with such skill and such style, that audiences everywhere are being affected by it, deeply. It is our job to put it out there, and not be afraid of the ramifications or the consequences.


Have you been back to Iran since you left, and do you think you could return at this point?
No, it’s been almost 30 years now and I’m quite sure I could not go back.

Because you’ve been so outspoken?
Yes.

What was it like growing up in Tehran during the Shah’s reign?
It was beautiful. We used to call it “the Paris of the Middle East.” We had a lot of tourists, especially from the U.S., particularly hippies, who traveled through Iran to get to the Silk Road, which went to China. We would see them out and about in the street. I have a little brother, who is now a doctor, and every week we’d be having lunch, and he’d bring a hippie home my mother would give him lunch. My mother would give them food, but not the soda, and my brother would buy them soda out of his own pocket. (laughs) He loved anything that was American. Anyone he’d see with blue eyes, he’d say “Blue eyes, are you American?” (laughs)

Then came the Islamic Revolution in ’78. Do you have any specific memories of that?
Well, I was quick and I got out and luckily missed most of the turmoil of the Revolution. I wouldn’t be a good witness for you. I saw the writings on the wall and people burning the Shah’s pictures, setting car’s tires on fire, but nothing major happened while I was there. After I left, I heard a lot and read a lot about what happened.

Then you moved to England?
Yes, I didn’t want to be an actress anymore. I was already on my way when the Revolution started, so I decided this time I’m going to become a politician and I studied political science and international relations. As soon as I got my B.A., a dear friend of mine who was a playwright came to me at my graduation, and said to me “I have a new play and I want you to be the lead in it!” And without hesitation I said ‘Why don’t you bring it around and let me read it?’ To this day, I still don’t know where that voice came from. (laughs) The play, Rainbow, was a political play and I realized that I could help my people more by raising awareness through the theater and the arts than I could by being a politician. So the play was a sold-out hit in America, and I made a bit of money, and it allowed me to move to Los Angeles, where I’ve been ever since. That’s how it all started.

After you got out of Iran, did the rest of your family follow?
No, but I eventually helped my other brother get out when he was accepted to study at Oxford. He got his PhD there.

Do you see the portrayal of men in the film as being emblematic of men who hold these extremist views in the Middle East?
The portrayal of men in this film, more than being realistic to me, is very metaphorical. When I read a screenplay or a theatrical play, I always try to read between the lines. So their portrayal shows, I believe, how in a corrupted society men can use divine law for their own benefit. Metaphorically-speaking, they did it.

Life imitates art imitating life: Above, the shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan on June 20, 2009. Below, Soraya M. is led to her death by fellow villagers in The Stoning of Soraya M.

What are some of your impressions regarding post-election Iran, and what’s been happening there?
It’s amazing. I’m so proud, as are all Iranians living abroad, of these people fighting in the streets, literally bare-handed against militia who are armed to the teeth. The pictures we’re seeing are very heroic, and now with Neda’s picture, we’re all devastated. Until the photos of her death were released, I think we were all very cautious about not getting too involved (as ex-patriots) directly. After Neda’s picture was released, I think the general feeling was “Okay, we’ve had enough. Words are not enough anymore.” If Neda’s picture isn’t a call for action, then I don’t know what it will take to pull the trigger next, so to speak. Everything is changing before our eyes, and it is changing by minutes! Sometimes I try to update myself between interviews on what is happening so I will be prepared, but when I arrive at the interview 20 minutes later, things have changed so much. It’s hard to keep up with it all. But it’s happening, and it’s amazing that this timeless film has now turned into a timely film, and (the themes) that the film suggests: change, reform, reversal of the injustices that are going on in this village, have now become the mantras in the mouths of Iranians, whose political movement suggests the same things. It was beyond anyone’s imagination that things would work out this way. The film turned out to be prescient, especially if you look at the parallels between Soraya and Neda. As I said earlier, it’s almost like the line between reality and cinema has become blurred into one.



Trailer for The Stoning of Soraya M.

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Jennifer Lynch--The Hollywood Interview

Filmmaker Jennifer Lynch


JENNIFER LYNCH TURNS HER EYE ON SURVEILLANCE
By
Alex Simon

Few filmmakers have survived the professional excoriation that writer/director Jennifer Lynch had to face with her film debut Boxing Helena, in 1993. In spite of being nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, the film was universally massacred by critics and tanked at the box office (it has since garnered an impressive cult following, with more than a few of its naysayers penning re-evaluations of the film and its merits). Having penned the script of Boxing Helena at the age of 19, and seeming to be washed up in show business by 25, Lynch spent the next decade and a half surviving a near-fatal car accident which left her with severe spinal damage, adjusting to life as a single parent with a young daughter, and getting sober after years of alcohol and drug abuse. F. Scott Fitzgerald said that there is no second act in American life, but Jennifer Lynch is living proof that if there is no second act, perhaps there are nine lives for certain humans blessed with that particular feline gift.




Jennifer Chambers Lynch was born April 8, 1968 in Philadelphia, the daughter of then-neophyte filmmaker David Lynch and painter Peggy Reavy, who divorced when Jennifer was six. After attending Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, Jennifer moved to Los Angeles at 19 to be closer to her father, who by then was an Oscar-nominated director of such films as Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Dune, and Blue Velvet. At 22, Jennifer wrote the best-selling book "The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer," a tie-in to her father’s hit TV show Twin Peaks, a landmark of the medium in the early ‘90s.

Now, after years spent putting the pieces of her life back together, Jennifer Lynch has returned to the cinematic fold with Surveillance, one of the boldest, most unsettling thrillers since Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers. Telling the Rashomon-like tale of two FBI agents (Bill Pullman, Julia Ormand) interrogating material witnesses (Pell James, Ryan Simpkins and French Stewart) to a brutal series of killings in a rural section of the Midwest, Surveillance gives the audience a mind-bending ride, combining thrills, dark humor and several twists that will shock even the most jaded of filmgoers. Co-starring vet actor Michael Ironside, Cheri Oteri, and Kent Harper (who co-wrote the script with Lynch). The Magnet release hits selected theaters June 26.

Jennifer Lynch’s third feature, a supernatural thriller entitled Hisss, won Lynch a Best Director prize at this year’s New York Horror Film Festival, marking the first time a woman has captured the honor. Jennifer Lynch spoke with us recently about her remarkable life as a filmmaker and show biz survivor. Warning: spoliers ahead! Read on…

This film unsettled me more than any film since Natural Born Killers. How was this story born?
Jennifer Lynch: Through a series of strange events. Admittedly, I had quite a bit of time off from the business, during which I was raising a daughter on my own, getting sober and having three different spinal surgeries. I was re-evaluating my life. A doctor said to me, unfortunately in front of my child, that I would probably never walk again. It occurred to me at that moment that not only would I walk again, but that I really wanted to make movies, because I couldn’t take what my daughter’s face looked like when she heard the doctor say that. So I’ve always loved a good serial killer story, but I’d never really seen the perfect one, the one that I’d always wanted to see, that raised and/or answered certain questions I had: What do good and bad really look like? How much dark fun would it be to be that serial killer? And why do we kill? Why do we hurt other people? What kind of hurt has been committed against people who go on to cause other people pain, because I honestly don’t think (serial killers) are born. I believe they’re made. As much as I want to believe Jeffery Dahmer’s parents were nice people, I just don’t buy it.

Jennifer Lynch and Bill Pullman on the set of Surveillance.

Yeah, or something really twisted happened to him outside the home.
Yeah, something out in those woods changed things. I don’t think anybody innately wants to harm other people. So I really wanted to play with the part of the human condition that made us think certain people were good, and certain people were bad. So I built some characters based on those things. So that’s where surveillance came from. That, and having raised a daughter, I was reminded of certain memories of being in the backseat of a car during a cross-country trip, where I saw things and wanted to be heard (by the adults), but wasn’t. We forget how smart kids are. They’re not concerned with “Am I thin enough?” “Will I get laid?” “Will I get the job?” They’re just in the moment and see all of us for what we are.

David Bowie summed it up with the great quote “And these children that you spit on…” in “Changes,” didn’t he?
Yes, exactly! I’m thrilled you used that quote because all the best things come through that child’s eye perspective. It’s universal. And that’s why I wanted the kid to be the one to figure it out in the film. It’s not a child’s nature to become hysterical. Children pitch fits if they know it gets them what they want. But in real crisis, children are the calm in the storm, because they’re looking for anything to hold onto that’s real. And that ability to take hold of what’s real helps Stephanie figure out what’s going on.

She winds up being the touchstone for every character in the movie, doesn’t she?
Exactly. You’ve got Bobbi the drug addict. You’ve got Julia’s character, who was that sad little girl once. Everyone has been that small child. Regardless the level of our catastrophe, we’ve all had them. It’s what has constructed us. I found this kid in Ryan that wasn’t just a child actor, but was a kid, a real kid. My daughter was so pissed off that I didn’t just use her. (laughs) I said ‘Look Syd, if you want to give me the finger when you’re 18 and say you want to be an actress, go ahead. But I’m not going to put you through that right now.’ Ryan is lucky: she’s the product of a beautiful environment. She’s not a showcasey sort of child actress. She comes from a very loving, supportive family. Ryan and Syd got along great together on the set and I made it very clear to Ryan that she was playing Syd. I was also very careful not to show Ryan any of the violence during the shoot. With children you don’t need to say “You see this horrible fucking thing!” You can just say “It tastes bad,” “You feel bad,” like that. Kids innately know what that hollow feeling is. It’s not necessary to suffer in order to relevant or potent, or even real. I think that’s horseshit. It’s an alcoholic’s excuse for being an alcoholic. But I do think there are genuine human emotions we can all feel, and I knew that I didn’t need to give Ryan Simpkins nightmares in order to do that. And at the end of the film, I’d love for people to discuss over coffee whether Ryan’s character chooses the side of light or the side of darkness after what she’s been through.

Bill Pullman in Surveillance.

Earlier you mentioned something about how suffering isn’t necessary to make one complete. You’ve been a true survivor, both personally and professionally. You survived the firestorm of Boxing Helena, of a near-fatal car accident, and you’ve been sober eight years. Haven’t all those elements given your work more depth?
Well, to clarify, there’s no reason to mask one’s self or dramatize or make more important any situation in order to become creative. Life provides us, as can be evidenced by my life, with enough drama naturally. We don’t need to create more of our own. I’m so tired of hearing people say “I sat up all night drinking and wrote four pages I loved.” I want to respond ‘Okay, but you probably would have written six pages you loved if you hadn’t stayed up all night drinking.’ And it’s not that I don’t see the value in everybody’s dysfunction because, trust me, my favorite characters are fucked up.

French Stewart and trouble lurking over his shoulder in Surveillance.

Train wrecks are compelling to watch.
Totally. House is one of my favorite shows. If that character ever stopped taking Vicodin, he wouldn’t be the same! (laughs) I love a human flaw. I love someone who’s clinging to something that makes them vulnerable.

Sure, that’s what makes a character compelling, are their flaws. That’s why I think the most boring character in American pop fiction is Superman, because he’s fucking flawless!
No shit! And I’m going to tell you, not that I wouldn’t sleep with the guy, but what is that guy gonna do for me that Bob Geldof isn’t gonna do for me? Seriously. Superman vs. Bob Geldof. Superman can take me flying around, but who needs that when I’m already floating listening to Bob Geldof play guitar, or anything recorded by Pink Floyd.

Dark Side changed my life.
The Wall changed mine. There isn’t a word in that album that I don’t know.

Are you a fan of Alan Parker’s film of The Wall?
Oh God! Give me a fucking break! To have been a fly on the wall during that shoot. Please!

Anyway, we digress. Let’s get back to your film. I pray at temple of Kurosawa, and I’m sure you know that the Rashomon conceit has been used by storytellers ad nauseum since that film came out, but you had a very original take on it here, the way you incorporated technology and made it a metaphor. Can you talk a bit about that decision?
I’d like to think that certain things are conscious, but I have to admit that other things are completely unconscious. There’s no doubt in my mind that what’s in operation here is that the voyeur in me was enjoying watching others know they were being watched. I’m a child born of both non-technology and the birth of technology and a need to make use of the fact that there this technology to observe each other, and there is in men and women a very different response to being observed. Men want to be one thing, and women want to be another.

What are those two different ways, as you see them?
I think men want to come across as stoic and informed, and women want to come across as very delicately knowing the truth. In a very casual, sensitive way, we want to deliver the truth, and we want to make sure that everyone sees that any mistakes we’ve made, we’re aware of. Men want to know that any mistakes they’ve made are not really mistakes they’ve made. (laughs) They’re choices they’ve made. Women would also rather open their blouse and show you half their breast than men would rather open half their zipper. There’s a nudity about being on camera, even when you’re fully-dressed.

I’m a fan of Boxing Helena, and have never understood why both you and the film got slammed with the vitriol that you did.
I would love to know why people were so mad at me for telling a crazy fairy tale. I’m the first to say I didn’t know what I was doing. I did the best I could at 19, and all these crazy things happened. The idea that the film was faulted when everyone involved worked so fucking hard and believed in me, and there were these adults believing in me, who was essentially a child…when the National Organization of Women slammed me, that was sort of the final straw. It was no wonder I put my legs behind my ears and got pregnant. (laughs) Not that I didn’t love sex before then, but seriously. It was my child, essentially, who saved my life.

Sherilyn Fenn and Julian Sands in Boxing Helena.

So it really hit you hard when that happened.
It really fucking hit me hard. I mean, I was born with these terrible clubbed feet. They put me in casts the day I was born. I was operated on when I was four. I was sat at the base of the statue of the Venus de Milo and was fascinated by how people looked at her as if she was beautiful, even though she was broken. And that sort of helped give birth to the basic idea of Boxing Helena. Then I had my own sort of dysfunctional relationships in junior high and high school. I was the last of all my friends to lose their virginity and had had all sorts of experiences and influences, from my father’s movie sets to my mother’s paintings and sculptures…and all of the sudden people were saying I didn’t deserve to be loved because I’d made this film, and I thought ‘Oh my God, everyone is finally seeing something I was afraid they were always going to see (about me), and it’s the truth. I’m not worth it. They’re right. I’m done.’ Then I got angry. Either you like the film, or the painting, or you don’t, but what does that have to do with the artist? Kubrick made films I adore and films I hate, but that doesn’t mean he was a bad person or a good person.

But Kubrick was vilified in the UK after A Clockwork Orange came out, and he actually pulled it from theatrical release there. He was able to come back from it because he was “Stanley Kubrick.” In your case I think there were many factors at play: you were the daughter of a famous director and that you were a girl, not a woman, because you were so young.
I’ll tell you what happened. I was reading poetry at a fucking nightclub before I was old enough to drink. This person came up to me and said “I have this screenplay I’d like you to write about a woman who is cut up and put into a box.” I said ‘I won’t do it.’ They said “What would you like to do?” I said ‘I’ve always had a fascination with the Venus de Milo, who has no legs and no arms. I have a story I’d like to tell based on that.’ But I didn’t think in a million fucking years—I mean I was reading goddamn poetry, which is the most schmaltzy fucking thing you can do in LA—and I never fucking thought it would go anywhere. I was 18 when they approached me, 19 when I finished it. I was trying to pay the rent by fucking doing fucking phone sales for Vegas trips, cleaning houses, and thinking how am I going to pay my fucking rent, and everyone thinks my father is paying the fucking bills, which wasn’t the case, and then all of the sudden, Madonna was interested, and Ed Harris was interested. Madonna backed out, but paid us all the money back, and was so wonderful, I have nothing but nice things to say about her. Then Kim Basinger came in. I have nothing but nice things to say about her, but it was her agency, when she switched agencies, that said “We can’t have her do this movie.” Then I was forbidden to speak with her. I kept saying ‘I don’t care if she doesn’t want to do it now, just don’t tell me she didn’t have plans to.’ I had effects and prosthetics and an entire set built, so don’t tell me she didn’t have intent. It was this complete rollover and I was like ‘Are you kidding me?’ I was this kid stuck in this world of men in suits who were berating me in a way I had never expected, and all I had tried to do was tell a story. If you will, if I can be very graphic, it was like masturbating for the first time, being discovered, and then being criticized for it. That will fuck your shit up! All I was doing was discovering and playing and the idea that you’re going to tell me that I’m bad for it, that’s going to fuck me up for the rest of my life. Why don’t you see that I’m just being me? I didn’t do this to hurt anybody. I’m grateful that out of all of this, my daughter has learned not to be bamboozled by the same sorts of people I was, and also knows who her grandfather is, and sees him as the guy who tucks her in sometimes or reads her a story. She’s much more grounded than I ever was as a teenager, or maybe than I ever will be. (laughs)

You’ve obviously inherited a lot of your father’s artistic sensibilities, which are evident in both your films, but you definitely possess your own voice, so much so that apparently your father was really horrified by the ending of Surveillance. Is this true?
Yeah, he was completely horrified. He said “You’re the sickest bitch I know. You can’t have the forces of darkness triumph over the forces of light.” He challenged me to write a different ending for the film, which I did because a daughter always wants to make her daddy happy—and I don’t mean to sound sexual when I say that. I shot both endings, and the alternate ending will be on the DVD. I kept saying ‘Why are you calling me sick, when I’m just following the idea of what my characters do? It’s not about dark and light. It’s about humanity. It’s not as simple as black and white. We’re in the gray area here.’ My father and I had very different childhoods. His was idyllic. He literally grew up in the Midwest behind the white picket fence with two amazing parents, two beautiful siblings, perfect education, total support. He was interested in the darker side of things, however. Contrary to popular opinion, I did not grow up around darkness. I grew up in a beautiful environment with a minimum of eight different people in the house at a time, all of them artists, who inspired, thrilled and challenged me as a child. I was made curious by the things I was made familiar with, the darkness being one of them. I am fascinated by what we don’t talk about and where I would go if I were given the opportunity to flee from my own life and the values I was given in my upbringing. Certainly the character of Stephanie is who I was. Julia’s character is who I was afraid I was going to become and Pell plays the girl that I was at one point, for sure. So somewhere in there, lies Jennifer.

Ryan Simpkins in Surveillance.

Was making this film a cathartic experience?
Totally. Again, talking about what do good and bad look like, I’ll be the first to say even when I look at You Tube and see all the horrible things that are said about me, I want people to know that I am as naked as I know how to be in my work. I don’t profess to know the right or wrong way to do things or the right or wrong way to see things, but you will never catch me lying to you—ever. Ever.


Trailer for Surveillance.

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Julia Ormond: The Hollywood Interview

Actress Julia Ormond


JULIA ORMOND IS “IN HER ANIMAL”
By
Alex Simon

Julia Ormond made an auspicious debut as an actress in the landmark 1989 British miniseries Traffik, on which the Oscar-wining Steven Soderbergh film was later based, playing the drug-addicted daughter of a member of Parliament. By 1994, Ormond was being touted as the next Audrey Hepburn, with her old school glamour and classically-trained acting chops, earned at London’s prestigious Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts. High-profile turns in big studio pictures like Legends of the Fall and First Knight suddenly propelled the young, working actress into superstar status, with all the baggage that accompanies that much sought-after, and ultimately regrettable moniker.

With her turn in Sydney Pollack’s ill-fated remake of Billy Wilder’s classic Sabrina, in 1995, it all seemed to turn 180 degrees for Ormond, who suddenly found herself excoriated by the press that had built her up the year before. Fine work in such art house fare as Smilla’s Sense of Snow and Nikita Mikhalov’s epic The Barber of Siberia got her on the good side of a handful of critics, but did little to re-establish her as a movie star.

Rather than bemoan her return to “regular actress” status, Ormond took some time off, married, had a baby, and threw herself into philanthropic work, including work with The United Nations and founding FilmAid, a non-profit that, according to their own mission statement, “uses the power of film and video to reach the world’s most vulnerable communities with messages that inspire them, address their critical shared needs, and effect social change.” She also did fine work in such varied cinematic fare as The Prime Gig, Iron Jawed Angels, and David Lynch’s Inland Empire. Julia appeared in two of last year’s highest-profile films, David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Steven Soderbergh’s epic Che.

Ormond reinvents herself with her turn in Jennifer Lynch’s Surveillance, playing FBI agent Elizabeth Anderson who, with her partner (Bill Pullman), must interrogate three material witnesses to a brutal series of murders in a rural Midwestern town. Ormond offers a complex, double-barreled performance that’s a testament to the adage that artists, like fine wines, just get better over time. Julia Ormond sat down with us recently for a chat about film, the nature of violence in our society, and the beauty of being a survivor. Warning: spoilers ahead!


So tell us about going on this wild ride with Jennifer Lynch at the wheel.
Julia Ormond: It was really an amazing ride. It was right from the start, in terms of reading the script, I was aware of how clever it was, and what I believe it says, but of course they’re not going to consider me for it. (laughs) It’s just not the sort of thing I get cast in. Then she let me come in and audition, and beg for the role, and when I got the role, she asked me “Because of the nature of the film, do you think you can afford to take a risk on something like this?” My response was ‘I don’t think I can afford not to.’ Then when I actually got to work with her, I discovered this amazing force, who was so open and so…I think it was just the fact that she’d been so burned by the whole Boxing Helena experience and how indicative that was of what can happen to a filmmaker who steps out with something wholly original, then ends up being misunderstood, and then how deeply personal that response is for somebody. To come back with something like Surveillance, that is so out there and risky and be completely behind it, and not to cave to deliver something that’s more traditionally palatable or what’s “expected” from a woman director, just has to be admired. She made sure that everybody on that set felt respected and nurtured, from the cast to the drivers, and that helped get the best out of them. I wish it was something you saw more of in this business.

Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond in Surveillance.

You brought up something interesting in terms of Jennifer’s story of being a survivor. When I spoke with Jennifer earlier, we talked about you in that sense, as well. When you first “arrived” so to speak, you were being touted as the second coming of Audrey Hepburn, even before the remake of Sabrina. You were a movie star overnight, then after Sabrina, it was like the press turned on you, many of whom were really nasty to you. So you took some time off…
Yeah, I did. I had a baby and did some other things, but what I think happened to me is I believe I’m pretty grounded, and in the maelstrom of what was going on, hype is something that happens externally from you. It’s not something you generate yourself, and so you have your own perspective from within, and my sense was that when somebody is built up that high, particularly if it is movies that are not banking on you—I mean (Sabrina and First Knight) were made because of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery and Richard Gere being in them, not because of me. Until you have that legitimate grounding, that’s the point when everybody in the business recognizes you can make some claim. Up until that time, it’s just hype. What happened for me was that after I’d had the opportunity to do these movies that were high profile, I had the opportunity to do smaller films, like Smilla’s Sense of Snow and Barber of Siberia, and the experience of shooting the latter for a year in Russia really kind of wiped me out. What I perceived about myself was, aside from being creatively exhausted, I’d somehow gotten into a rut in terms of typecasting. I thought I was doing all these different movies: a cowboy film, a breezy romantic comedy, an Arthurian adventure, they all felt like they were different genres, but people would say “Oh, you’re the woman stuck between two guys, or three guys.” And I kind of had to admit, ‘Yeah.’ And that wasn’t good. So you throw that into the mix with everything else, and especially being British, you have the feeling that if you’re built up that much you have nowhere to go but down. So yes, there were people who said some nasty things, but there were also people who said some really amazing things, that were equally untrue! (laughs) I had to look at it from that perspective and what has been sort of a hard graft was stepping away from all that and doing some different stuff: having a kid, investing a lot of time in philanthropic things: building FilmAid International and doing work with the U.N. to raise awareness about human trafficking, also wanting to come back in at a certain point and do things differently, to take on roles that deliberately cut against that rut I found myself in. I’ve had a lot of people say to me “You turned your back on Hollywood,” and I never really felt that. I only felt grateful that I’d been given the opportunities that I’d been given and it took me a bit of time before I realized that the choices I’d made are what created my own rut. What has been really nice is that during the down time there has also been aging during that time (laughs) and wondering am I still going to be doing this in my forties? I breathed a big sigh of relief that I’m still employable (laughs), which was the first part of it, the second being that I find it really liberating in terms of what you’re cast as at this point in your life. So I’ve been enjoying the different range of work I’ve been doing for the past few years.

Ormond in the original Traffik, her film debut.

It makes sense that you would have made those decisions at those points in your life. We’re contemporaries, so when I look back at decisions I made in my 20s and 30s, they’re choices that I would never make now, given the perspective that I have. On the flip side of that, is the character of Elizabeth Anderson one that you would have wanted to play when you were 28?
Yes! But that stuff wasn’t coming my way. Part of stepping back is about saying no to the stuff that is coming your way, that maybe career-wise is what other people would like you to do, but I’m fortunate now to be surrounded by a team that are in synch with what I see as a creative trajectory that I want to follow. What I also found was that it took me a while to process the fact that if an actor’s career is a journey and you from point A getting into drama school, point B getting your Equity card, Point C getting a lead in theater, point D getting a role in a film. The things that you relied on, your own resources that got you from A to D are not necessarily the things you want to stay with. You have to look at what’s going to get you from L to M and being an actor is the same as anything else in that it’s a craft that you learn and you grow in, and it’s sort of easy to believe that that’s what my success was founded on, and I needed to fall back on that. And feeling that I was stuck in a casting rut, that was something I had to let go of.

Julia Ormond in Sydney Pollack's remake of Sabrina.

What I hear you saying is that throughout the course of one’s life there are reset buttons. And you have to be willing to push the reset buttons.
Yes and there’s a lot of risk involved in that.

This is a risky film on many levels. Jennifer said that one reason she thinks she was so vilified was that she was a woman who was tackling this dark material, whereas if a man, like Quentin Tarantino or even her father, tackle a dark subject honestly, they’re held up as being innovators.
I think there’s a lot to that, but I would say this: it speaks to how we see violence and I think a big part of what this movie is about, is how we’re anesthetized to violence and part of what works about the movie for me is that it uses humor to provoke you to laugh at something that your brain is kind of saying “That’s bad!”

This film reminded me of two of my favorite movies for that very reason: A Clockwork Orange and Natural Born Killers, both of which were satires that employed black humor to get their very serious points across.
Okay, I see it being very close to both of those films, but also Reservoir Dogs in how you’re laughing at something that is threatening to a character within the piece. I really want this film to be something that people will go to see, then walk away from it without analyzing it to death, which is something I could definitely be criticized for (laughs), but there’s something it that says violence is something that exists within all of us, and we kind of have an approach to it globally where we’re looking to put a face on it. We’re looking for symptoms of evil. It’s like we have this fairy tale approach of still expecting to see the wicked, evil stepmother or the villain in the dark cloak, and I don’t think they exist. I think it’s much more the fact that it’s something within all of us, and until we recognize that, we can’t really tackle it. So we don’t expect something like this to come out of a woman. People also don’t like to see strong sexuality in a woman.

In terms of the woman being the seducer or the aggressor, you mean?
Yes, there are still a lot of areas in which men and women don’t have equality and to me, part of that equality is gained when I will celebrate the day when a woman directs the next Bond film. Then we’ll be in a position to be treated as equals. At the moment, the expectations of us are still somewhat in a box, and what I love about Jen is that even after all that stuff she went through in her life, she knows how to make a film. With her contacts and resources, she could have picked up any number of more conventional scripts, executed them brilliantly and done a great job. But she didn’t. She stuck firm by her artistic voice and what she wanted to say as a human being, and that to me takes a great deal of courage. I like the fact that all of us are flawed, all of us make crazy choices. Some get stuck in a pattern where they’re consistently doing it (laughs). But what does that say about our capacity for violence? And when somebody is under surveillance and they’re doing something that is perceptively dubious, what does that then lead people to think of as our connection to it? So often, when you look at abuse, and this is a story about violence that has come from abuse, it’s right there close to us where we least expect it. We’ve sort of normalized violence as it’s seen culturally. Explosions. Guns. Legends of the Fall, violence. A situation that is violently dealt with, but nobody is outraged by that. It was deemed as heroics. Look at kids’ films today. How many animals use force, bash each other over head…

Julia Ormond and Anthony Hopkins in Legends of the Fall.

But that’s always been the case, going back to the old Warner Bros. cartoons.
Right, it’s always been the case, even earlier, with classic fairy tales, the poisoned apple. So I think how we see violence is blurred and distorted and normalized. And by losing the capacity to own it, we lose the capacity to see it. And the child in this story is the center of it all. Because she is still innocent, she is able to see.

I thought it was a really brilliant touch that the child was the touchstone for every very disparate character in this film. Each person who came in contact with her had a different take on what had happened. They all met different fates and different epiphanies in the process. I also liked your character’s backstory of abuse.
Yes, exactly. I don’t want to give too much away because there are so many great twists and turns in the film, but the way I describe her is usually ‘I play an FBI agent who has to go in and find out who saw what, who knows what, and then deal with them appropriately.’

That’s both a very honest and very ambiguous answer.
(laughs) Why, thank you.

You said something interesting in the press notes about Jennifer “being in her animal” during the shoot. What did that mean?
She’s on her game. It’s like she was in her stride. I think she is somebody who has done a great deal of work on herself, knows herself, is still growing, still speaks of that, but it using herself in a totally full-blooded way to draw herself forward. It’s a very powerful thing when you see somebody hit their sweet spot as an artist. It’s very infectious and it rubs off on other people.


Trailer for Surveillance.

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Pell James--The Hollywood Interview

Actress Pell James


PELL JAMES TAKES A HOT ROD TO THE DARK SIDE IN SURVEILLANCE
By
Alex Simon

Virginia native Pell James hit the ground running following graduation from NYU’s drama school in 1999, mixing TV and stage work, then landing her first high-profile part in 2005’s The King, co-starring with Gael Garcia Bernal and William Hurt. Since then, James also made impressive turns in Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers and David Fincher’s Zodiac, in one of the film’s most unsettling scenes, as one of the notorious Bay area killer’s victims.

Pell James shines in an entirely new light as Bobbi, a drug-addicted drifter who comes face-to-face with evil incarnate in Jennifer Lynch’s Surveillance, a smashingly original thriller hitting theaters June 26 from Magnet Releasing. She also appears in Shrink, a tableaux-like satire of life in L.A., starring Kevin Spacey, which arrives from Lions Gate on July 24.

Pell sat down with us recently to discuss life, film and motherhood. Warning: spoilers ahead!

Tell us about taking a ride to such a dark destination. Does it stay with you after the director says “cut”?
Pell James: It’s funny because we were just talking about this. When you shoot these movies, and you’re literally stepping over pools of movie blood and Ryan (Simpkins) was talking about how the actor who plays her brother was eating the macaroni that was supposed to be his brains, and it’s all over the road (laughs)…no, it doesn’t stay with you. I see fake blood. I see macaroni. I see “cut.” I remember the boom guy being really stinky on a certain day. When you watch the movie all cut together, I’m only going to see the film in that context, which is really hard. So many of the films I’ve done, I’d love to watch with a sort of amnesia from my involvement with them, so I could just enjoy them as a regular audience member.

Pell James in David Fincher's Zodiac.

Even Zodiac didn’t stay with you? In a movie full of disturbing scenes, I think yours was the most unsettling.
See, I find it all so not disturbing. I’m sure it is, obviously, and many people have told me that. A lot of my friends and family haven’t watched it for that reason. But it’s the same thing. I remember (David) Fincher gave me knee pads because my knees were getting wrecked from doing so many takes of being hog-tied on my knees. We weren’t cracking jokes between takes on that particular film, because we were trying to be respectful, but you often do crack jokes during the down time on a really dark film. On this, we were just laughing the whole time we were shooting.

There is an undercurrent of dark humor in this film, like in A Clockwork Orange or Natural Born Killers.
Especially French Stewart’s character. You can’t help it: you just look at him, and you laugh.

So by and large then, it’s just a job for you. Another day at the office.
Yeah, more or less. There was one hardcore Method actor on set, who will remain nameless (laughs), but most of us, I think, shared the same work ethic.

What was having the one Method actor in your orbit like? Did it add or subtract from the process?
It was a little uncomfortable. When I got the gun shoved in my face, that was a little uncomfortable. I didn’t think it would go that far.

It sure got a realistic reaction from you.
(laughs) Yeah, it sure did.

If anything, it thought the humiliation scenes with the cops were tougher to watch than the splatter scenes, mostly because so much of the splatter was so gleefully over-the-top.
Yeah, exactly. Even in the room, seeing the blood packets go off, there were such conspicuous amount of blood coming out, we had to be careful not to step in the puddles and make footprints on the floor.

It was like Sam Peckinpah blood.
(laughs) Yeah, exactly—Straw Dogs. They’re remaking that, you know.

Pell James as Bobbi in Jennifer Lynch's Surveillance.

They were also trying to remake The Wild Bunch, which thankfully I think they’ve given up on, setting it in present day South of the border, with Mexican drug cartels instead of revolutionaries.
Just change the name and slightly change the story. I really hate the idea of remakes. There are so many great, untold stories out there.

Yeah, you can’t remake perfection.
They’re also remaking Bonnie & Clyde—with Hilary Duff. (laughs) Sorry.

Yeah, I hear you. Supposedly they’re going to stick closer to the real facts of the story, like the fact that they weren’t lovers, that Clyde was gay.
Yeah, but I even got that he was gay in the original.

No he wasn’t gay. He was impotent.
I know, but he seemed gay to me. Did he not to you?

No, he even at one point says “I don’t like boys.” Warren Beatty, apparently, wouldn’t play him as gay.
Oh, that’s why. Okay, that makes sense, then. I always thought he was gay, and that line was just an excuse.

No, I think they portrayed him as being more or less asexual until he and Bonnie consummate their relationship in that field right before they’re killed.
It’s funny, I heard that Shirley MacLaine was originally supposed to play Bonnie. That wouldn’t have worked! (laughs)

There was a whole string of actresses that they wanted: Natalie Wood, Tuesday Weld. Truffaut and Godard were each attached to direct at one point. I think it was Godard who wanted to cast Bob Dylan as Clyde. Can you imagine?
(laughs) No, no. Oh God…that’s bizarre.

On the subject of movie violence, I think Jennifer presents violence in a very honest way in this film, and that it didn’t have a happy ending. Sometimes the forces of darkness need to triumph in stories because they so often triumph in life, don’t you think?
Yes, I do, and we actually shot several different endings, but I’m glad she went with this one, too. It was interesting, because I kept texting her, asking which ending she was going to use, because her father was really pushing for her to keep Bobbi alive at the end. It’ll be interesting to see how people react. I did a movie called The King, which also had a really dark ending where there was no hope.

I really liked that film.
I loved that film! That’s my favorite of all my films, so far. I loved working with James Marsh, who just directed Man on Wire. Did you see that?

Yes. Big fan of that film, too.
I love that movie.

Gael Garcia Bernal and Pell James in The King.

I thought The King was an unheralded film.
Those movies are really hard to push. My husband works at Lions Gate and it’s really hard to get people to go out to movies now. It’s tougher and tougher to make “smaller” films. People are still making them. We did Shrink, and it was just tiny, a really tough shoot. But it’s hard to get people to show up now unless it’s an “event” movie. I hope that changes.

You’ve always done small movies, though. Your first screen credit was for James Toback’s Black and White.
You know, I never even appear in that film, yet it’s listed on my bio on the IMDb and I still get residual checks for it!

That’s not something I’d be complaining about!
(laughs) No, I’m not, trust me. But it was just this thing I showed up for in New York when I was still a student. It’s so odd how these things happen sometimes.

You grew up in Virginia, but went to school in New York?
Yeah, I went to NYU, at the Tisch School, for acting.

When did you know you wanted to be an actor?
I don’t know that there was one moment. I just always did plays and loved the theater and was sort of surrounded by it, going into D.C. a lot, which has a great theater scene.

What do your parents do?
My dad’s a lawyer. My stepfather works for The State Department. My mom is a substance abuse therapist.

That’s interesting. Did you consult her for your research on Bobbi?
(laughs) I did, but it’s hard to get advice from your mother. It kills me saying that, because I know I’m going to have loads of advice for my sons. It was very quick. I read the script on a Saturday, and had to have an answer for them that night. I had a six month-old, and had been in a nursery for six months, so I was itching to get out, and shooting a movie in Canada sounded great. Plus, the opportunity to do a movie this good doesn’t come along every day. Most of the stuff actresses get offered tends to be pretty boring, so I don’t do it. But anyway, I emailed N.A. or some kind of online anonymous narcotics treatment group. I emailed them and said ‘I’m an actress and I’m researching this part I’m about to play as a drug addict. Could you answer these few questions for me or send me a packet of information about these questions. Thank you very much.’ So they email me back: “Thank you for talking about your addiction with us. We’d like to speak with you further. Call me. Craig.” (laughs) So I wrote back, saying ‘No, no, no. I’m an actress. I’m researching my new part.’ And I get another reply: “Thank you for reaching out to us…” It wasn’t an automated response from this guy. We were literally emailing back and forth, and he thought I was being in denial. And I continued to get emails from him months after we finished shooting, so I sent him the link to the IMDb page saying ‘Look buddy, it’s really a movie. See? It’s online.’ I haven’t heard from him in about six months.

Maybe he’ll go see the movie and think how authentic you were.
(laughs) Exactly.

“You’re too authentic. You should reach out!”
(laughs) That would be the ultimate great review, wouldn’t it?

Tell us about working with Jennifer. I hope this film will finally give her the recognition she deserves.
She’s so gung-ho. Every day she woke up she was so grateful, and her attitude was infectious. It was great to be around that kind of energy. She also cast a lot of her friends in the movie, so there was a very relaxed feeling on the set and everyone was very happy to be there. She’s very thoughtful that way, giving people chances. It was great to work with her.

You mentioned earlier that there aren’t that many interesting parts out there for actresses.
Well, not for the number of great actresses that are available, no. There’s so much talent out there, and not enough good parts to go around.

If there’s one actress whose career you could emulate, who would it be?
I love Faye Dunaway.

Pre-Mommie Dearest Faye Dunaway?
(laughs) I love Mommie Dearest. She directed a short a few years ago, based on a Tennessee Williams story. It was good. I’m such a huge fan. I met her around the time The King was at Cannes, and I saw her at a party out here. I was pregnant with my first son, and she pointed at my stomach and said “When is this going to be done?” (laughs)

What’s your favorite part she played?
Probably Network. I mean, where’s that part now? There’s no Diana Christensen parts out there now.

Well, there’s no Paddy Chayefsky now. I don’t think they make writers like that any longer, and with Sidney Lumet behind the camera. That movie was world-class for a reason.
That’s true. I was lucky enough to work with Sidney Lumet once. My part got cut, but everyone’s part got cut. It was this thing for HBO called Strip Search. Maggie Gyllenhaal and a bunch of other people were in it. This was back around 2004. I was so excited to work with him. I had this scene with Tommy Guiry, who was in Blackhawk Down, and I was terrified. It was one of my first jobs, and I had to kiss Tommy. We got to rehearse it in the Polish dance hall in the East Village where he’s rehearsed all his movies for years and years, with everything blocked out on the floor with tape. He told us stories and was very methodical and thoughtful and even though I just had a small part, he really made me feel a part of the process and made me feel important.

Let’s talk a bit about Shrink. Were you actually pregnant, like your character, when you shot the film?
I was. My best friend, Tom Moffett, wrote the script. Originally the character wasn’t pregnant, but then when I was, everyone was like “We’re going to have to recast,” and Tom said “No, we’re not.” He just added it into the script, which added a lot to the character. It was a very simple fix, that wound up working out really well.

Pell James in Shrink.

So Tom wrote the part with you in mind?
Yeah, he did. And my husband worked on it, and my friend Braxton Pope produced it. My 2 ½ year old plays Saffron Burrows’ son. It was very homegrown. A lot of it was even shot in my old house. The intervention scene was shot in my old living room. It was very “guerilla,” stealing locations left and right. It’s funny, I worked more when I was pregnant than I ever did when I wasn’t. Hmm…maybe a sign? (laughs)

Surveillance took you into its own world, whereas Shrink was very immediate and very real, almost too close for comfort in some ways.
(laughs) Yeah, I really loved Dallas Roberts performance, because he reminded me of so many agents—not mine, by the way—that I’ve sort of met in passing: very neurotic, crazy, self-involved. I thought Dallas really nailed it.

How was Kevin Spacey?
He was great, so much fun. He’s an amazing mimic, and kept us entertained during the whole shoot.

Now that you’ve seen Surveillance in its final form, what are your thoughts and hopes for the film?
I’m very proud of it. I think everyone does their best work in it, especially Jennifer. I hope people finally recognize her and she makes many more movies after this.


Trailer for Surveillance.

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John Lithgow: The Hollywood Interview

Actor John Lithgow


John Lithgow: Confessions of a Actorholic
By Ben Braddock

Veteran performer John Lithgow is a member of the impressive cast of Confessions of a Shopaolic. The zany comedy revolves around shopping crazy Becky Bloomwood(Isla Fisher), who can’t resist temptation when it comes to shopping. Whether it’s dresses or accessories, this irrepressible young woman has no self-control and will get out her credit card at every possible opportunity. She cannot pass a shop window without walking in and buying something.



Hoping to get a job on a leading fashion magazine – she ends up instead landing a job on a financial publication and actually becomes successful – helping readers to sort out their money problems, even though she cannot stick to a budget herself. Hugh Dancy plays the magazine editor; John Lithgow is the powerful boss. Witty and charismatic, the actor hits just the right notes in the film, directed by P.J. Hogan, which arrives on DVD and Blu-ray June 23.

Lithgow grew up in Ohio in a theatrical family - the son of a classically trained actor and college professor. He won a prestigious Tony Award just weeks after his 1973 debut in The Changing Room on Broadway. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in 1967, followed by a Fulbright scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Since then he has appeared in dozens of plays, and over 80 film and televison roles.

On screen he earned Oscar nominations for The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment. On TV, Lithgow has won four Emmys - one for an episode of Amazing Stories, three were for his role on the hit series 3rd Rock From the Sun- he has been nominated for Emmys a total of ten times and has had a distinguished career in every area of the entertainment industry. Lithgow recently starred in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. He has also written several best selling children's books and composed CDs for children. The delightful, amusing and fascinating actor sat down recently in New York to discuss his latest adventure before the cameras.

What was the appeal of this film and story to you?
John Lithgow: When I heard about the film I was impressed by the wonderful list of people already involved, and I wanted to be a part of that group. I love the work of P.J. Hogan and I think Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy and Kristin Scott Thomas are so talented, also John Goodman and Joan Cusack, they are formidable names and I respect them all. Isla and Hugh remind me of young versions of Irene Dunne and Cary Grant – they are a throwback to that wonderful era, with great characters sets against a glamorous back drop.

What did you like about the story?
When I read the script I knew it was going to be a beautifully acted and timed piece of work and a wonderful comedy. The subject matter took me by surprise, I think it is a great subject that everyone can relate to.

Can you describe your character?
Edgar West is the head of the publishing company, he would be someone like the CEO of a company such as Condé Nast, the head of the entire magazine empire, in charge of many different magazines. He is not a fashionista at all, he is at the very pinnacle of the magazine publishing world and he is extremely powerful. As I figured out his character, I see him as a man with a twinkle in his eye. He sees and absorbs everything and he is involved in the big reversal, the surprise at the end, that is all him – he is the one who surprises Hugh Dancy’s character. He likes keeping things secret.

John Lithgow in Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Can you talk about his journey in the film?
Whenever you have a big boss like Edgar West, he represents sheer power, everyone quakes when he walks down the hall, it’s an easy part to play because everyone else has to do all the acting and respond to him.

How do you play it?
I play him fairly straight, with that twinkle.

Lithgow and Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment.

What was it like working with P.J. Hogan?
I hadn’t met him before showing up to work on the movie and he is my kind of director, he is wonderful and creates a terrific atmosphere on the set. He makes movie making seem fun and movie making is not fun, it is hard drudgery as I am sure you know, you wait around for hours and hours.

Most people think it is glamorous and fun?
Oh it is tedious. If you like waiting in an airport for an entire day, you might like it, you will love being on a movie set. That said, within a whole hour you may have a minute of wonderful fun and of course that magical minute of filmmaking is all you will see, the results of those special minutes are put together into a two hour movie and it looks like it was ecstatic fun making the film, but that is not quite true. Of course you meet wonderful people. I have become such a good pal with Fred Armisen, he makes me laugh so hard and it is great working with Lynn Redgrave.

Do you interact with her?
No we don’t interact, but we are old pals, we worked together on Broadway, Good God it was about 30 years ago for an entire eleven month run, so we are very good friends. It was great to see her; I didn’t even know she was in the movie till I arrived to start work. What a lovely surprise.”

Lithgow in The World According to Garp, his first Oscar-nominated role.

What do you think of Isla and Hugh, who are rising stars?
They are a terrific combination. Isla is just perfect for this part, she is bursting with manic ideas, she is just lovely, she is so talented and funny and Hugh is a very, very attractive and talented guy, you just root for them as a couple. I think the whole film is fantastically well cast.

Your career is so varied and extensive, what do you look for these days in terms of work?
I really love meeting fabulous, new, talented people. It was such a thrill to meet Kristin Scott Thomas. I sat next to her for a whole scene, so basically we became like old friends and she is a marvelous person, that is the kind of thing you look forward to making movies.

In general how do you choose your projects?
If you’re very lucky you get a project that challenges you and interests you. This is just a wonderful little ‘bon bon’ for me, a real treat, it is a small part in a very endearing movie. I recently created a one man show that was fantastic, called Stories By Heart (tracing my history as an actor and story teller) and did Arthur Miller’s play All My Sons, which was very exciting.

Do you prefer theater to TV and film?
As far as the actual process and activity is concerned, theater is much more exciting for me. I love film, but you are there with the audience in theater so it is much more satisfying. I guess it is because I grew up in theater that I like it so much, it always feels like the real thing to me. Everything I do in movies and television stems from my work and background in the theater. I did the TV show 3rd Rock From the Sun for six years which was so much fun, but the downside was that it made me extremely public and well known for one thing, everybody got to know all my tricks and everything about me, it had a very big audience. Then as soon as it was over, my instinct was to go right back to theater and I have done five plays since then and have more on the way. So I enjoy going back to the smaller audiences, going back to my roots. Everything is cyclical though. Even though you get a bigger audience for TV shows and big films, I will never stop doing theater. If you are in a hit show on Broadway, a lot of people see you, but it is still just one percent of the people who see you on TV and in movies. I am lucky I can do it all.

Lithgow in his Emmy-winning role on 3rd Rock From the Sun.

You also do children’s entertainment; you write books and perform kids concerts.
I love doing my kids concerts, they are fantastic and not many people know I do them, I work with an ensemble of jazz musicians and the concerts are based on my kids albums. I think attention must be paid to kids. It is very important that they have great entertainment. But it is also purely for me at the end of the day, I do the kids albums and concerts because I love that part of my work and I am really good at. I keep the kids in the palm of my hands for a whole hour. It always seems to me to be such a challenge and such a joy. But it is exhilarating. It is more than a side line for me, it is central to my work.

Has fatherhood inspired you to write children’s books?
I doubt if I ever would have written for children, or entertained them for that matter if I hadn't had my own. My children have taught me what kids like to hear. They've also given me a sense of when I'm talking down to them and when I'm talking on their level. The authors of bad children’s books never actually got that straight I don’t think.

Are acting and writing linked at all for you?
Well for me, writing is a means to an end. I write the words to be spoken out loud, as all the best children's books should be. And I suppose I always intend to be the primary reader myself. So in a sense, I write to act, not the other way around.



Do you plan your career these days?
Not really, this business has a way of surprising you. They think of me for the most unlikely projects and I love these surprises. I love what I do. Sometimes I feel a little feverishly active, I never rest and occasionally I must say, I ask myself: what am I running from? But really my work is all so much fun.

Were you born with this gift and passion - is it drive and practice or is it in your blood?
It doesn’t seem that special to me. It comes very naturally to me. I did grow up in a theater family so it certainly it was a huge part of my life growing up. My dad was a Shakespeare fanatic. He created Shakespeare festivals and produced them in Ohio when I was growing up. And he was also a great storyteller and a reader of stories to all of us kids. 

It was just there in our household, and of course, I did a huge amount of acting as a young kid. I was in A Midsummer Night's Dream. I loved to act. Shakespeare really just washed over me like a warm bath as I was growing up.

So did you dream of becoming an actor?
Not at all, I never intended to become a professional actor as a child; I was more interested in painting. But I knew I would be doing something creative in the arts. I wanted to be an artist, a painter, but I went off to college and started acting and I realized I'd better give into it. It seemed to be my destiny. I still do painting actually and have a studio in LA; I wouldn’t show my art to you though (laughs) it is private. I respect really great painters too much to pretend that I am an artist.

How would you describe a perfect day?
A perfect day would always be spent with my wife and having my moments of creative fulfillment: that means curtain calls, finished paintings, perhaps unlocking the last puzzle of a piece of writing. But I actually think life is imperfect though very enjoyable.

And finally, your greatest achievement?
My greatest achievement is my children – definitely.


Trailer for Confessions of a Shopaholic.

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ARI FOLMAN: The Hollywood Interview

(Ari Folman, above, as the on-screen version of himself, in Waltz With Bashir.)

Our Waltz With Bashir Interview with the Oscar-nominated director, on the occasion of the film's release on DVD.

by Terry Keefe

“So, Terry, what is it you want to ask me?” queried Israeli film director Ari Folman, and there was exhaustion in his voice. It was on the Friday before Oscar Weekend, back in February, that I met Folman and he was understandably weary after having logged long hours on the vigorous awards campaign trail for his film Waltz With Bashir, regarded by many for months prior as the front-runner for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. When we had our talk, the ballots had long since been cast, but Folman still hadn’t tired of speaking about Bashir, physically worn out though he likely was. The Oscar ended up going to the Japanese entry, Departures, but although Bashir didn't make history by becoming the first Israeli film to win that particular award, it had already become a landmark creation, the influence of which will be felt for decades to come. As the first feature-length animated documentary to gain a relatively wide audience, Bashir also dazzled audiences with its unique blend of a harrowing real-life war story, the backdrop of which many western audiences were unfamiliar with, or had forgotten; a personal journey-style documentary; and searing animated imagery. For the still-uninitiated, the story of the film is that of Folman himself, as he attempts to retrieve forgotten and/or repressed memories from his days as a soldier for the Israeli Army during the first Lebanon War in the beginning of the 80s.

The DVD for Bashir features a standout Director’s Commentary, which is both entertaining, and highly educational from a filmmaking perspective, going into great detail about how various sequences were created, all peppered with Folman's somewhat self-deprecating style of humor (the Commentary begins with this quote, “My name is Ari Folman, and I’m kind of responsible for the film you’re about to see...”) Also of particular note is a special features section entitled “Animatics,” which breaks down a number of the key sequences of Bashir and shows how they were created by Folman’s animation studio, “Bridgit Folman Film Gang,” from the live-action guide images to the layers of animation which followed. The “Animatics” section is a must-watch for animation fanatics, and, particularly, for students of animation.

You’ve sort of started a new genre, that of the animated feature documentary, with Waltz with Bashir.

Ari Folman: Well, it is a new genre! It never was a feature film. You had "Ryan" (the 2004 animated documentary short by Chris Landreth about the Canadian animator Ryan Larkin), which was the short - and [now] the first feature-length film. But I don’t know if there’ll be a flood of animated documentaries, because it’s so expensive.

Yeah, and difficult.

And difficult. It takes so long to do. But you never know.

As a filmmaker on this type of project, it has got to be daunting, because even once you get the first part of production completed, you’re nowhere close to being done.
Not even done with half of the first part. You haven’t even started. It’s very frustrating, you know. The transformation from real action to animation for a director is incredible. It’s like, you know, for example, you have the shot of a couple of guys, like us, one of them is the interviewer, and the other is smoking a joint - [laughs] So you come to the studio, and it’s like, Sunday, the joint is here [indicates position] - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday…weekend, Monday, Tuesday - and then, after two weeks you see they had somewhere a mistake, and it goes like this [make inhaling noise and the “joint” switches position abruptly] You know? And you have to start all over again. This is frustration. And two weeks are lost, just lost.

Did you have any technique for keeping yourself motivated during the long process?

Yeah, well, I consider myself a pretty cool guy. I was not like…once you realize there’s nothing you can do to control the pace of things, you relax. It’s…you just have to try to raise more money, this is it.

Do you have a favorite of the type of animations that you used? And least favorite?
I never got used to 3D animation. I like some of the Pixar films - the ones that have better scripts - but out of taste, I prefer 2D. It’s better. And even now, I see the original Peter Pan, it was done in the ‘50s, but it’s better than most Pixar films I see. It’s more gentle and it’s more beautiful. Not so violent.

I feel the same way. I wonder though if it’s because 2D animation was what I grew up on, and I prefer it for nostalgic reasons.

Yeah, yeah, but I try it on my kids now, and I give them a lot of 2D, and the classic "Looney Tunes" and everything, and they love it. They love it.

Something that struck me watching Waltz with Bashir was that animation is a perfect tool to do a war film with, because it allows for the easy incorporation of the hallucinatory elements of war.

Yeah, and you know, war is such a surreal thing, it’s the most surreal thing on earth, and animation can do it. Surrealism is perfect for animation.




(The rabid dogs at the beginning of Waltz With Bashir, above.)

There was also something uniquely striking about the use of pop songs in the film. I think it’s that 60s era rock and pop songs have been used in so many Viet Nam films that they’ve become a cliché. But the events in Waltz with Bashir we’ve only seen really in the U.S. as part of news footage with no stylization, and when you add Johnny Rotten singing over those events, this creates a time capsule of that moment and place which hasn’t existed in film before.

It is the beginning of the ‘80s, and that’s what he sang, right? [laughs]

Obviously, the making of the film was a therapeutic process for you, in terms of reclaiming memories. Did any new memories pop up after the production period, which you weren’t able to include in the film?

Yeah, during traveling for the film, I discovered more things that are not in it. I wish they were in the film. You know, for example, I read this article on one flight, in which this American soldier is telling how he comes back from Iraq, and I realized it took him six days, to get from the front, to somewhere in Oklahoma. And then I thought, “How long did it take us?” And then I realized that from the middle of battle in Beirut, to back home to Haifa in helicopter…it took us twenty minutes! Just think where you are, and after twenty minutes, you are in the middle of town, and all those beautiful girls [laughs]. It’s shocking, twenty minutes of transformation. It’s crazy. And I didn’t think about it while I was making the film, so that isn’t in the film. I wish it was.

Animation also seems to be a perfect medium for stories that are about revealing hidden memories, as memories can be so elusive, and, once again, surreal.

Yeah, definitely. It’s so flexible, memory. I totally agree. And animation, you know, with Persepolis and Bashir, hopefully, in the very near future, we’ll have more animation for adults, which I think is great.


Is there anything you want Americans, in particular, to take away from the film? (Special thanks to Saskia Smith for this question)

Just to let you know that wars, they have no glory, no glamour. Don’t believe Platoon and Oliver Stone films. And wars have no bravery and brotherhood of man. It’s totally bullshit. It’s all a useless idea. It’s a cliché. It’s like a Bob Dylan song. It’s like “Masters of War,” you know? Remember that song? It’s nothing more than that. It’s like, those people with big egos, behind desks, sending other people, very young people, to die for the cause of nothing - this is what war is, there’s nothing more to it. So I tried to put that in my film.

The film has recently been adapted to graphic novel form.

The first edition is sold out! The American work…they released it in eight countries as a graphic novel. But the work they did here is, by far, it has, it’s like, on a different scale -

Better?

It’s way better. It’s not just better, it’s a great graphic novel.

What was your involvement?

I had to cut all the text, and dub it. Had to arrange it, you know, as a graphic novel. It was exciting, and because I was mostly interested by graphic novels with this film, not by animation, I loved the process…and they did a great…it’s a beautiful piece of art, really what they did.

Do you know what you’re working on next?

Yeah, I am adapting a Stanislaw Lem novel - it’s called The Futurological Congress - of course, we call it only The Congress, and it’s about the world of an actress, she’s in decline because the studios just sampled her and they kept using her image, and she walks into the future, which is a world that is totally controlled by the manufacture of psychiatric pharmacology products. And the book is very crazy, and the film’s gonna be…less crazy. But very wild.

The Waltz with Bashir DVD can be ordered via Amazon.

FIN.

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