Patricia Clarkson, Woody Allen, Evan Rachel Wood, and Larry David at the premiere of Whatever Works, at The Tribeca Film Festival.WORKING ON WHATEVER WITH WOODY:
Larry David, Patricia Clarkson and Evan Rachel Wood on orbiting the universe of Woody Allen
By
Alex Simon
Few, if any, figures in American film have had the career arc of Woody Allen. Born Allen Stewart Konigsberg, Allen cut his teeth on Sid Caesar’s TV landmark Your Show of Shows as a staff writer in 1950, while still in high school, and graduated to standup comedy. One of the nation’s hottest young comics in the early and mid-1960s, Allen wrote his first screenplay, What’s New Pussycat? in 1965, and also co-starred in the film, making his writing/directing debut with Take the Money and Run, in 1969.
Since then, Woody Allen has not only been one of America’s most beloved and unique voices in cinema, he’s been one of our most prolific, averaging a film (or more) per year, and gathering a respectable coterie of plaudits along the way, including three Academy Awards.
Allen delivers his 42nd film as a director to theaters this Friday, June 19th. Whatever Works tells the story of Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David), an aging curmudgeon whose once-promising career as a professor of String Theory at Columbia and marriage to a beautiful, successful woman is undone by his bitter, pessimistic view of life, and hatred of the human race. Now living in a dingy coldwater flat in lower Manhattan, Boris finds his life changed when a teenage runaway (Evan Rachel Wood) from the Deep South enters his life. When the girl’s ultra-conservative parents (Ed Begley, Jr., Patricia Clarkson) arrive, a domino-like series of events befall them all, resulting in one of Allen’s funniest and most charming films in years. If Whatever Works seems more reminiscent of “early, funny” Woody Allen, there’s a good reason: it was written by Woody in the late 1970s, who penned the lead with the late Zero Mostel (whom Allen co-starred with in Martin Ritt’s classic The Front, in 1976) in mind.
The film’s stars: Larry David, Patricia Clarkson, and Evan Rachel Wood, sat down recently to discuss working on Allen’s latest comic outing. Here’s what followed:
There was a lot of buzz about the fact that this film dealt with the relationship between a much older man and a younger woman. Were there any love scenes that were cut?
Larry David: Of course. Well, no, but there should have been. (laughter) No, everything we shot is there. There weren’t any. That was it. And I don’t think it’s odd. I don’t think anyone wants to see me having sex with anyone at the movies.
Evan Rachel Wood: I don’t know, I had an awful lot of people who seemed excited about the idea.
Patricia Clarkson: That was the first question my sisters asked me.
ERW: Remember in Harold and Maude, there was just fade to black! (laughs)
Woody Allen and Larry David on the set of Whatever Works.Patricia, how was it going back to your Southern roots? It’s been a while since you played a Southern belle.
PC: Divine. It’s always nice to be home, in spirit, and with such a delicious character. She was a character that required all my Southern-ness in all its glory and all its fanaticism. (laughs) It was very, very nice. Sometimes I have to be careful about my accent, which can slip out when I get tired, and have a bourbon or two, not that I drink on the set. (laughs) But it was great, just to let it all hang out, so to speak. (laughs)
Patricia Clarkson in Whatever Works.When you read the script, what was your first reaction to the story and your characters?
LD: I don’t really know. I just sort of memorized it, and said it. (laughter)
Do you think the character of Boris is negative, or realistic?
LD: Both. I think to be realistic is to be negative.
What was the experience of working with Woody Allen like? Patricia, this is your second time in a row working with him, so why don’t we start with you.
PC: It’s very theatrical in nature. He does big, long takes. You have to be prepared. You have to have done your homework. You have to be able to improv. I mean, an actor prepares, and you really do with Woody. There are no short takes. He does the entire scene. If it’s a ten page scene, he will shoot it from beginning to end, and if you’re at the second-to-last line and you screw it up, you go back to line one.
LD: Back to base.
ERW: It’s not like you say ‘Can I take that line again?’
PC: You don’t take a line again…
LD: Patricia came up to me one day and said (imitating Clarkson’s renowned throaty purr) “Honey, I did Blanche DuBois at The Kennedy Center, but nothing’s harder than this!” (laughter)
PC: Yeah, it’s hard, but it’s also character-building in the true sense of the word. You really have to know your character and know what you’re doing when you walk on the set every day. We get lazy as actors in film. We walk in after we’ve learned our page of dialogue. (whiny voice) “Ugh…where’s my coffee? Where’s my slippers…”
ERW: I don’t sound like that. (laughter)
PC: “And maybe we’re ready to shoot.” No, with Woody, you have to be ready.
ERW: And we were lucky because we were able to spend a lot of time together and run massive amounts of lines together. That was the best part, was picking it apart, finding out what worked, and all the “moments.”
Larry, getting back to the amount of dialogue you had to memorize, what was it like for you to work this way when, on Curb Your Enthusiasm, you’re used to working mostly unscripted and off-the-cuff?
LD: It was hard. It was hard.
ERW: I wish I could have seen the look on your face when you opened the script and just saw that first page! (laughter)
LD: I opened the script and saw the first page was all Boris, then I turned to page 50, and saw Boris on page 50! And then I went to the last page…
PC: And Boris again…
LD: And I went ‘Oy vey!’ (laughter) So yeah, it was kind of daunting to have to learn all of that, to tell you the truth. As far as the improvising goes, that was another aspect I found daunting, because I am used to improvising and making it up as I go along, and it was challenging, and I don’t really care for challenges very much. (laughter)
ERW: It was hard not to laugh, too.
LD: Yes, that too.
PC: Although we were all too terrified to laugh most of the time.
ERW: Yeah, I was terrified. (laughter)
Larry David, Ed Begley, Jr. and Evan Rachel Wood in Whatever Works.So there was a huge intimidation factor for the three of you working with Woody, in spite of the fact that you’re all established, experienced actors. Can you talk a bit more about that?
PC: Sure. There was an intimidation factor. (laughter) You get over it and get past it…
LD: You want to please him.
PC: Yeah, because he is so mono-syllabic in his responses, and very judicious in his praise.
LD: You don’t want to be the one to screw up his movie.
PC: You don’t, and you don’t want to be the one to screw up a take. So as I said, it’s a different way of working than most directors, who can stop and start, and shoot in pieces.
ERW: It’s unpredictable. You could get it in one take, and then you’re done, but if it’s not, you could be there forever. My Southern accent is coming back just talking about it! (laughs)
Were there any specific moments of praise he gave that stick out in your memories?
LD: Yeah, he said to me once “It wasn’t horrible.” (laughter)
PC: He’s very kind. He’ll say “That was good!”
ERW: He said to me, quite often, “That was much better than I thought it was going to be.”
LD: He’s very sweet, really.
PC: He has great respect for us actors, and there is a euphoria when you get to those big takes. There is a payoff to it.
Evan, how did you and Larry establish your chemistry?
ERW: It was tough, because his character is such a miserable person.
LD: I have chemistry with pretty much everyone. Good or bad. I can tell right off. I really can. It doesn’t take me long to get to know somebody. There’s a very visceral reaction I have, very quickly. We were very comfortable with each other. With you, for example, I have a reaction to you. I can tell what I can say to you, and what I can’t. I know just by looking at people whether I can say something nasty to them, and how they’ll react, or whether I can kid around with them, or if they’re going to get it or not. I have a sixth sense like that.
How much did Woody work with you on your characterizations, and how much did you just develop on your own?
ERW: Well, luckily, I’m from the South, too. I kind of based my character on my stepmother, not IQ-wise, but just that sweet, Southern hospitality and the idea of always trying to be a good person. It was really hard. I didn’t want her to be annoying. I wanted her to be endearing. I wanted my accent to be right, because I’m Southern and it would drive us crazy if it was wrong. It just happened…
PC: And Woody wanted us to have very pronounced Southern accents.
ERW: Yeah, that was the most consistent piece of direction I got from him: “Bigger, more Southern. You should be in a potato sack with bare feet, with a Bible,” whatever that meant. (laughs) Once you get that hair goin’, and the nails, and the outfits, it’s hard not to become a different person. The tan was the hardest part.
Woody Allen with Evan Rachel Wood and Henry Cavill on the set of Whatever Works.The title, Whatever Works, seems to refer to a specific philosophy that Woody Allen has always adhered to. Do the three of you relate to it, as well?
LD: It’s actually in conflict with my own philosophy, which is "whatever doesn’t work." (laughter)
ERW: That’s the sequel.
LD: That’s pretty much what I subscribe to. Anyone who finds me unattractive, that’s the one I want. (laughter)
Larry, a lot of people are saying that you’re playing the “Woody Allen character” in the film, and people have been comparing the two of you for years, since you started doing Curb Your Enthusiasm. So how are you different from the character of Boris, and how are you similar?
LD: I didn’t want to “do” Woody Allen, first of all. Boris and I are different in that I’m way more normal than he is. I enjoy life. I play golf. I like having sex. I have normal wants and needs. He’s insane, really. He’s really on the edge. Like I was telling somebody earlier, I don’t wear shorts, so that’s a huge difference. I’m a much better dresser than he is. We’re similar in that we both have some disdain for the human race, and we both come from similar roots. We both had over-booked Bar-Mitzvahs, I’m sure. (laughs)
ERW: God, I wish I could have seen that.
Do you think a lot of Boris’ misery was born from the fact that he’s so brilliant? Don’t you think that the smarter you are, the more difficult it is to be happy? And this question applies to all of your characters.
LD: Yeah, I think that’s probably true. I think religious people for the most part are much happier than atheists.
ERW: Though we get to have sex. (laughter)
LD: That’s true.
PC: I don’t know. I don’t know that there is a correlation. I think there are brilliant people who are very happy and really stupid people who are very unhappy. I think happiness is not intellect-driven. And I think that’s what Woody is saying with this film.
ERW: Sometimes I’ve known people to be so smart they’re stupid. They’re so in their heads and get so caught up in themselves that they miss out on so much, and it’s a shame. It really is. (laughter)
Conleth Hill and Patricia Clarkson in Whatever Works.One great thing you all got to indulge in was the theatricality that goes into the performances of a Woody Allen film. Patricia, you especially really got to let ‘er rip with your character.
PC: That’s exactly it. And a lot of it has to do with the way he shoots. He puts the camera in such a way that he’s always shooting you at the right distance and capturing you in the right place. He makes you look good, and you don’t realize it in the midst of shooting it. He also gives you breath, and he shoots the body. The body never lies. That’s what’s beautiful about Woody: he shoots you in all your glory. Films so often are neck-up acting nowadays, there’s a lot that goes on south of the Mason-Dixon line that the audience can see. No pun intended. (laughs) The very fact of how he shoots it is theatrical in its own way.
Larry, how was it breaking the third wall, and talking into the camera?
LD: That was actually not as hard as communicating with the other actors. It was easier for me not to have to talk with anyone but an audience, to some degree, so I like that.
On the theatricality point, how did you keep yourselves from going over-the-top into caricature?
PC: We relied on Woody’s judgment. He’s Woody Allen.
ERW: He’ll tell you if it’s too much, and it’s usually too little for him. I’m used to doing such subtle stuff and he was like “Act up a storm!”
LD: You know you’re in good hands, so you don’t really think about it.
What’s next for you all?
LD: I just finished shooting the newest season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and I’m editing that right now.
Any plans to write something new?
LD: Yes, but I’m not sure what that is right now. I’m pretty sure it will be a comedy, though. (laughter)
PC: C’mon, we all want to see your take on Medea. (laughter)
ERW: I would love to see that! That’s a genius idea.
And Evan and Patricia, what’s next for you?
PC: I should say a new translation of Medea. (laughter)
ERW: That’s a good one! (laughs)
PC: I have two other films coming out this year, Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, and a beautiful film called Cairo Time. I just finished shooting a film called Main Street, which was Horton Foote’s final screenplay. I’m in that with Ellen Burstyn. I’m not sure what’s next, which is a good place for me to be in. I have a movie about Tallulah Bankhead that we’re in the process of getting going, so we’ll see.
LD: I could see that.
PC: Thank you!
ERW: What am I doing? I’m doing a couple episodes of True Blood, playing a vampire queen, then I’m playing Mary Jane in Spider-Man on Broadway…
PC: Which I will be at on opening night! Whoo-hoo!
ERW: Yeah, you will. And that should be up and running by February, I think.
Larry, do you plan on doing more film work now?
LD: That would depend on the people who are making the movies. I haven’t been inundated with offers yet, so we’ll see.
Theatrical trailer for Whatever Works.
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