Speaker 1: M M. You're listening to playback a Variety I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio podcast. I'm your host, Variety Awards editor Chris Tapley.
Speaker 1: I'm talking to actor Jason Clark today, who you may
Speaker 1: have just seen in mud Bound if you caught that
Speaker 1: Oscar nominated film last year. He's starring as Ted Kennedy
Speaker 1: this year in Chap a Quittic, a story of the
Speaker 1: late politician's fateful nineteen nine car accident on Martha's Vineyard.
Speaker 1: We talked about that and preparing for such a psychologically
Speaker 1: complex role on today's show. So sit tight. This is
Speaker 1: playback mentioned. Oh there was one. Oh go, thank you,
Speaker 1: So if you want to sit over here, you can
Speaker 1: sit out. No, actually we don't have yet back. Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, Joe, Thanks thanks Dan, all right, all right,
Speaker 1: oh wait, where's my computer? Dad? Thank you to what's
Speaker 1: your name? What's his name? Names? Foster? Sorry, Foster? Nice? Yeah,
Speaker 1: like the beer like Kim a shoemaker in London. It's uh,
Speaker 1: kind of a Charles Foster Kane thing in Kane deal.
Speaker 1: So you enjoying it? You can't not enjoy it. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know it's exhausting at times, obviously, but
Speaker 1: full on weekend this weekend with dude, which is my wife.
Speaker 1: She's about to get birth and she's a little bit six,
Speaker 1: so it's like she did some rest and he was
Speaker 1: just you know, he's just up and at it, and
Speaker 1: he's just he's also a bit, you know, because another
Speaker 1: baby coming along. He feels a bit you know, he
Speaker 1: can't stantly with mom or mom can't sleep in his
Speaker 1: bed or should put a bed sometimes and her wakemes
Speaker 1: he's not there, it's me there, you know. And yeah,
Speaker 1: so he's find it a bit strange like that. So
Speaker 1: it's just been if if he can't sit on anymore
Speaker 1: that there's another bait. You know, you can feel it something.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, he's a little special time. That's the
Speaker 1: way our cat was. The cat could tell there was
Speaker 1: this go on. All right. Uh So with these mikes,
Speaker 1: if you can, if you're able to lean in a
Speaker 1: little bit like this, that'd be great. Yeah, and we're
Speaker 1: up and running. So let's go. We've got Jason Clark
Speaker 1: here today. Jason is the you've seen him and stuff
Speaker 1: like Everest, which, by the way, I want to talk
Speaker 1: to you about Everest in a minute. That movie was
Speaker 1: great because it made me feel like I didn't have
Speaker 1: to go climb Everest like I did him, As Climb
Speaker 1: has actually said, it was the most realistic that scene
Speaker 1: of you know, their expedition to Everest in terms of
Speaker 1: being on the mountain. Yeah, I felt, you know, satisfied.
Speaker 1: I don't have to go do that now, Terminator. I
Speaker 1: don't need to go to Evers to know that. It's
Speaker 1: called the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Great
Speaker 1: Gas zero Dark thirty mud Bound last year, and we're
Speaker 1: talking to him today because the chap of Quittic, which
Speaker 1: is a great film which we're going to dive into
Speaker 1: in just a moment. But I actually wanted to start
Speaker 1: by wrapping up last year for you a little bit.
Speaker 1: When the mud Bound, I mean that was a long
Speaker 1: haul from sun Dance January all the way through the
Speaker 1: Awards season. D gave that impassioned speech at the Spirit
Speaker 1: Awards and then of course the Oscars. Did you go
Speaker 1: to the Oscars? Went to the Oscars? Okay, uh, you
Speaker 1: know what was that night? Like? What was it like
Speaker 1: wrapping up that long haul for that movie and particularly
Speaker 1: just that speech that you were there for when I
Speaker 1: when when I went up to give that speech. Behind
Speaker 1: the mic, you can't hear what's going on. So I'm
Speaker 1: standing there and I can see D's getting into it.
Speaker 1: I want you, i know, or a bit too to
Speaker 1: know when she's actually switched right on, and um, I
Speaker 1: can hear bits some pieces of it. And then it
Speaker 1: wasn't too afterwards that I actually went through and read
Speaker 1: it on a piece of paper, and then you know,
Speaker 1: people were talking about it. We came off stage, I
Speaker 1: knew that she said something. And then and then I actually,
Speaker 1: you know, I watched it on a video that you
Speaker 1: know that the following day. I mean, you know, I
Speaker 1: always expect D too come up with something intelligent and
Speaker 1: from the heart and that is relevant, and so I was.
Speaker 1: I was very happy for her that she decided to,
Speaker 1: you know, put words to her thoughts and tell a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of people. We had her on the show
Speaker 1: last year actually, or last year earlier in the year
Speaker 1: January or so. She's great. She really had strong really
Speaker 1: just you know what was just that full experience of mud,
Speaker 1: because it is a full experience that's like you know,
Speaker 1: you've made it well, it even goes back to really
Speaker 1: before when it started, when you know, I mean a
Speaker 1: lot of these independent films now, and that was a
Speaker 1: big film, big cast in terms of just numbers and
Speaker 1: all that locations and shooting days in war War War
Speaker 1: two and spent ten years or fifteen years, um. So
Speaker 1: it was touch and go right to the very very
Speaker 1: end in term so trying to make that budget work,
Speaker 1: the pages work. It was stressful, particularly for the producers,
Speaker 1: you know, for the actors involved, and everybody really did
Speaker 1: literally and figuratively have to come together to to to
Speaker 1: be able to shoot that film to begin with, you know.
Speaker 1: So that was the lead up to it, um before
Speaker 1: we shipped out to New Orleans and the shoot was
Speaker 1: you know, it's brutal in in New Orleans that time
Speaker 1: of the year, particularly on the cruise. I mean, you
Speaker 1: know you're out there and we were out there and
Speaker 1: there was no where. There was no shade, you know,
Speaker 1: for the for the grips, the gaffers, know, the prop department, everyone,
Speaker 1: everyone was working very very hard time. It was summer.
Speaker 1: It was like it was a bit of something, you know,
Speaker 1: and then you get the big reins. I mean sometimes
Speaker 1: you's got to shut down because as an electrical storm
Speaker 1: coming in. But but the heat was was was intense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well the Oscars, you know the Oscars. Yet I still
Speaker 1: from still Mary seeing that song, Yeah, I went. I
Speaker 1: actually else for two reasons. But I want to see
Speaker 1: Mary sing that live because I love that song. And
Speaker 1: I thought such a you know, like an old, good,
Speaker 1: old an acting theater ensemble that you know, one of
Speaker 1: our main actresses had written and performed so just happened
Speaker 1: to be one of the great checkers ever. So I
Speaker 1: loved seeing that. I thought, she just I mean, you
Speaker 1: can see what that woman can do. I mean, my god,
Speaker 1: she can sing. And whether you were there now I
Speaker 1: wasn't there actually was. And I went to see Gary
Speaker 1: oldman when you know, he was my drama school and
Speaker 1: you know, and going into drums where he was the
Speaker 1: guy that we all used to you know, that's the
Speaker 1: man that was the guy that was you know. We
Speaker 1: watch his performances performance, I mean the first movement Gary
Speaker 1: on playing of the Apes. I insisted that we that
Speaker 1: we do the photo of him with Joel d and
Speaker 1: as as um what's his namese other character's name, the
Speaker 1: one Alfred Molina. I come from with a character's name,
Speaker 1: but you know I was Alfred and Gary was it.
Speaker 1: And I just sitting out to three or four my
Speaker 1: friends from drama school. You know you heard that. It
Speaker 1: was just it was one of those wonderful, funny things.
Speaker 1: I loved him and he was I was very happy
Speaker 1: to be there when he won. He's of the greatest
Speaker 1: actors I've ever seen on Sally Lloyd. Yeah, absolutely truly.
Speaker 1: Uh speaking of that actually, uh you know, also from
Speaker 1: last year was War for the Planet of the Apes.
Speaker 1: What do you think of where Matt took that final
Speaker 1: chapter of the of his trilogy where I guess it
Speaker 1: became his trilogy and started with Rupert But you know,
Speaker 1: it really did. I mean he made three films. I
Speaker 1: mean he made but there was three, and I thought
Speaker 1: it was I thought it was wonderful. I mean it
Speaker 1: felt like, you know, the Sopranos. I love the ending
Speaker 1: of the Sopranos. I love the ending of of what
Speaker 1: Matt did. You know He's um, you know, and then
Speaker 1: he's doing Batman. I mean, he's the right guy for it.
Speaker 1: He's he has a depth in his simplicity at the
Speaker 1: same time, and that's exactly what it went. I mean,
Speaker 1: it moved you as well as it felt like the
Speaker 1: ending of something. It completed it in some kind of way,
Speaker 1: you know, did did as he reached out to you
Speaker 1: to play Batman. Yet let's break is getting ready to
Speaker 1: knock on my door. I love Matt. We had him
Speaker 1: on the show, on the show. All these people we've
Speaker 1: had on the show. It's kind of awesome. Yeah, let's
Speaker 1: talk about some great people. You really are. It's awesome, dude,
Speaker 1: Like my job is ridiculous, so chap Aquittic. This movie
Speaker 1: premiered at Toronto right last year, trying to film festivals
Speaker 1: about the time I saw it. I think this movie
Speaker 1: is great. You play Ted Kennedy and and obviously the
Speaker 1: episode with the car and the chap Equittic bridge and
Speaker 1: all of that. And before we get into the kind
Speaker 1: of the serious matters, this Massachusetts accent you always have
Speaker 1: to talk to actors about that. Is it Is it
Speaker 1: as tricky as they say? I mean, is it a
Speaker 1: weird place to get into? Yeah, but it's one of
Speaker 1: the great accents, Like it's a clear cut, yeah, you
Speaker 1: know sound. I mean, Kennedy is in a different sound
Speaker 1: of that. But you've got to be able to do
Speaker 1: Massachusetts in New England for starters, and and it's anytime
Speaker 1: you get a wonderful, strong voice. It adds to the character.
Speaker 1: You know, it gives you some idea of where they're
Speaker 1: energy lies, you know, you know, the different types of
Speaker 1: people over that, you know. I mean, America's wonder what's
Speaker 1: got so many different localizers. So it doesn't have many
Speaker 1: different accents in England hundreds of them, but America's got
Speaker 1: a bunch too. And and I've always loved that was
Speaker 1: one of the first jobs in Rhode Island, and you know, providence,
Speaker 1: and and and so to go back to it, but
Speaker 1: to do it for a full fourteen hour or fifteen
Speaker 1: now a day is yeah, it hurts. This movie is
Speaker 1: it's it's about human frailty. You know, it's about like
Speaker 1: the corruption of that moral compass. I mean, when you're
Speaker 1: watching him try to salvage things, it makes you cringe.
Speaker 1: I mean throughout really. I mean that talk about that
Speaker 1: quality of the script when you read it, and that
Speaker 1: quality in the making of the movie, because it's got
Speaker 1: to be like a tight rope walk to pull that
Speaker 1: kind of an atmosphere off but also not make you
Speaker 1: hate the guy fully. You know. It's just it's just
Speaker 1: this interesting balance, right, So it is I mean, that
Speaker 1: was one of the toughest things, you know, when I
Speaker 1: decided I wanted to do this was that. And for
Speaker 1: every you know, the directors that we then talked to,
Speaker 1: was that, how do you how do you follow a
Speaker 1: lead character when he commits a heinous act or crime
Speaker 1: very early on? And it is very because you don't
Speaker 1: want to hate the person, but you don't always want
Speaker 1: to you know, sentimentalize it or re rewrite in the script.
Speaker 1: Stuck to the facts. And the more we went down
Speaker 1: that road and examine them through books and publications and
Speaker 1: court records, it was you know, they were pretty close,
Speaker 1: and they didn't sensationalize, you know, the the sensational staff
Speaker 1: of like the affair and that. But two you what
Speaker 1: what you said is correct? The frailty, what's your man?
Speaker 1: What's your man? Be responsible for his own moral corruption,
Speaker 1: for his own moral destruction, almost you know, to save
Speaker 1: him something. We all want to live. We want to
Speaker 1: save ourselves. You know, it's natural for any man to
Speaker 1: kind of or any woman, any person to want to
Speaker 1: come up and grab air and breathe and live and survive. Um,
Speaker 1: he has many, many opportunities ted to be true to
Speaker 1: the truth and his soul, and he keeps taking these
Speaker 1: small little diversions, which then I think John is a filmmaker,
Speaker 1: is shown lead to you know, even without giving away
Speaker 1: too much, you know, it changes the way you feel
Speaker 1: about the two thousand and eight speech at the Democratic Convention.
Speaker 1: You know, there's no getting away from what Ted did,
Speaker 1: there's no getting away from but you know, to sit
Speaker 1: inside that week or ten days as he slowly goes
Speaker 1: into this rabbit hole and takes so many different paths,
Speaker 1: and to sit there, you know, we want to bring
Speaker 1: an intimacy to that so that you could actually see
Speaker 1: that there is not some great, big, powerful machinations. That's
Speaker 1: not something it's it's it's personal responsibility. At the end
Speaker 1: of the day, I think for anything and everyone, it
Speaker 1: is personal responsibility. And to to understand that choice, you
Speaker 1: have to be very close to Ted, you know. You know,
Speaker 1: and that was the about Love Kennedy. So you're always
Speaker 1: at a distance to Kennedy, you know, that's the Kennedy's
Speaker 1: and you're never going to totally know anybody to be
Speaker 1: walked a mile in their shoe, you know, And we
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of give it a sense of that
Speaker 1: of walking a mile intense shoes, so that you could
Speaker 1: understand that how this happens and why it happens. You know,
Speaker 1: it's very easy to dimiss, dismiss something very simple like
Speaker 1: at the beginning and say, you know when he says
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be president, and go, oh my god,
Speaker 1: what a cheap, you know, bullshit line, and it is,
Speaker 1: there's no denying that. But you also through this whole story,
Speaker 1: and I think the world we live in now you
Speaker 1: understand the magnitude of what that means, not just to you,
Speaker 1: but to so many people, family, friends, history, past, the
Speaker 1: world at large, even um. And so you know that
Speaker 1: that moral journey is the heart of the fraility of
Speaker 1: the human soul and spirit. I mean, there's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with wanting to live. We want to live, yeah, And
Speaker 1: there's there's so I mean, there's so much complexity and
Speaker 1: to mention even beneath that, because it's not just a
Speaker 1: guy who did something horrible and tries to cover it up.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a reason he's trying to deal with
Speaker 1: it in that way. It's because of what ways on him.
Speaker 1: It's because of the external forces and of time. Literally,
Speaker 1: you know, you swim around and that in that pool,
Speaker 1: you try and find her in the ocean, you can't.
Speaker 1: Time passes, and you're exhausted your backs because you broke
Speaker 1: your back from the plane crash. You're lying on the
Speaker 1: grass all of a sudden, half an hour ago. And
Speaker 1: then the mind kicks in, you know, And then and
Speaker 1: then of course it's natural to go to whatever place.
Speaker 1: I mean, these are things that when I was trying
Speaker 1: to get ready for this role, I wanted to explore
Speaker 1: that there's something you can see the exploration on screen,
Speaker 1: so that you the audience, can explore it as well.
Speaker 1: As time passes, your mind starts to think about it,
Speaker 1: about the reality, you know. I mean, I always think,
Speaker 1: no matter what happens, and I went down this road
Speaker 1: with people and talking to them, no matter what happens,
Speaker 1: you cannot justify And he says it in a speech,
Speaker 1: and then you cannot justify the fact that he did
Speaker 1: not report this immediately. I mean that is particularly when
Speaker 1: you realize she asphyxiated or there's a very good chance
Speaker 1: that she did with lack of there before the water
Speaker 1: draw under. Um, it's unforgivable, he says it. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: whether he's stuck by it, though, but that you can't
Speaker 1: get around, you know. I remember I was arguing. I
Speaker 1: was trying to just I'd argue it out with with friends.
Speaker 1: There was an old dramas of like trying to justify
Speaker 1: my things. You know, they were both in the car,
Speaker 1: they're both drunk, you know, somebody you know, why should
Speaker 1: I give you know? Um? And you know, and one
Speaker 1: of my very good friends sister and said, well, what
Speaker 1: if it was his mother, would you have done the
Speaker 1: same thing? I think, yeah, I mean it always comes
Speaker 1: to that. You know, he should have gone straight to
Speaker 1: Dyke house, got on the phone and got the diver
Speaker 1: around there. But once you go past that and through that,
Speaker 1: you can see how, you know, the mind will work it.
Speaker 1: You know, Ted does so many wrong things. He picks
Speaker 1: up the phone in the in the in the police
Speaker 1: room and calls the mother because that is the right
Speaker 1: thing to do. And you see that Ted is conscious,
Speaker 1: so we you know he was conscious through these decisions.
Speaker 1: He switches off at certain points, you know, the kite flying,
Speaker 1: he just wants to fly his kite and wear his brother,
Speaker 1: you know, his dead brother's jumpers, um, and just go
Speaker 1: back to those you know, wonderful days in Hyannas where
Speaker 1: they were a family and a group. You know, I mean,
Speaker 1: there is a lot of complexity this when you go
Speaker 1: down there's the historical side of the Kennedy's you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's you know, man is about to land
Speaker 1: on the moon, which Jack said in place, you know,
Speaker 1: seventies something or eighty year old Joe sr. He's preparing
Speaker 1: for a great weekend to watch, you know, the achievements
Speaker 1: of his much loved son who was shot dead. You know,
Speaker 1: he lost three kids, lost three boys to service of
Speaker 1: his country, you know, and so on that on that day,
Speaker 1: we'd expect this this whold man to have some joy
Speaker 1: and some memories. Every had a stroke. He's you know,
Speaker 1: he gets a phone call that he's youngest son's driven
Speaker 1: from bridge and killed a woman. It's, you know, it's
Speaker 1: a lot, there's a lot going on. Bruce Bruce amazing film.
Speaker 1: You and Bruce was a scary dude, but in a
Speaker 1: wonderful dude. It's it's like it's it's easy to sum
Speaker 1: that up and go stern overriding father, but that's not
Speaker 1: the point. You know that, you know, if you know
Speaker 1: joking and I hope that this film encourages people to
Speaker 1: learn more with this if you know he was he was.
Speaker 1: He was a big achiever, good and bad. But there
Speaker 1: are a family of big achievers. Greatness is not just
Speaker 1: you know, I'll never love you, it's it's some it's
Speaker 1: this family expected greatness. He expected greatness on whether it's
Speaker 1: manners or education, or learning or achievement or going to
Speaker 1: work in service of your country. He was accustomed to
Speaker 1: no less. He was accustomed to no less. And you
Speaker 1: great great wealth comes great responsibility, you know, And and
Speaker 1: I do believe that. You know that family did you
Speaker 1: know believe that you know they might have abused it
Speaker 1: news and you know there's not to argue, but but
Speaker 1: you know, and that was the weight on Ted as
Speaker 1: well of all of his brothers. And you can watch
Speaker 1: all of their journeys, even you know, Jack from crippled boy,
Speaker 1: sick boy to President of the United States, from you know,
Speaker 1: Bobby from you know, right wing hatchetman for Senator McCarthy,
Speaker 1: you know, to the great burning liberal of our times.
Speaker 1: You know that that spired a lot of the you know,
Speaker 1: the President Obama, President Clinton, a lot of people. You know,
Speaker 1: he was a family of great journeys you know, and
Speaker 1: and and even you know, you could even say, you
Speaker 1: know Joe Senior himself to begin with, you know, from
Speaker 1: you know, Boston boy to ambassador for England to billionaire
Speaker 1: to Behemoth to re you doing the movie industry to
Speaker 1: a lot of things. You know, was there any involvement
Speaker 1: from the family, And I don't think you'd expect that,
Speaker 1: of course, but I didn't know. I like you for
Speaker 1: your performance if you wanted to. I met Ted very
Speaker 1: quickly years ago at a boat race. But it's like,
Speaker 1: there's so much to watch out there. There's so much
Speaker 1: to listen to. And not just Ted, but you know
Speaker 1: his brothers. I mean the speeches and the rhetoric and
Speaker 1: what they wrote and the things that they did as well.
Speaker 1: There's so much to watch that you can learn what
Speaker 1: it's like to be the younger brother, you know. I
Speaker 1: mean I read all of their books to go to
Speaker 1: put it in an order, read about you know, the
Speaker 1: father first, the patriarch, and then and then Jack and
Speaker 1: then Bobby, and you go, you feel the weight, O,
Speaker 1: my god, these men around me, this family, you know,
Speaker 1: and here here I am and I've just driven off
Speaker 1: a bridge. Um. But you know, with the with regards.
Speaker 1: I met, you know, on Everest, I met Sarah and Jan,
Speaker 1: you know, Sarah the unborn daughter at the time, and
Speaker 1: Jan the wife, and I really enjoyed that and and
Speaker 1: that really helped. But for this as an actor, I
Speaker 1: don't think this would have helped. You didn't need any
Speaker 1: you didn't I didn't need any personal connection to people.
Speaker 1: I mean, we knew they have children, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'd read a lot, you know, I know that that
Speaker 1: Teddy's you know, Senator Kennedy's children still alive and have
Speaker 1: been through a lot, a lot as a family post
Speaker 1: way post this, you know, and you can say they've
Speaker 1: got nothing to deserve it, but you know, this is
Speaker 1: not a hatchet job on ted You know, you can
Speaker 1: go and look at what he did after this, you know,
Speaker 1: and there's it's a lot of it is unarguably some
Speaker 1: of the some of the greatest senatorial achievement in this
Speaker 1: country's history. I mean, we now understand how difficult it
Speaker 1: is to pass legislation, and what a great responsibility and
Speaker 1: privilege that is to be and anitor, and how at
Speaker 1: the moment the current bunch on both sides can't pass
Speaker 1: anything of any great worth or lasting capacity, and Ted did,
Speaker 1: what about you know, how do you go about avoiding
Speaker 1: uh an impersonation? Like how do you find the essence
Speaker 1: of someone when you're playing a real person? And particularly
Speaker 1: it was important that was I mean, that was super
Speaker 1: important not to mimic this, you know, not to be
Speaker 1: you know it was. And I guess that started. I
Speaker 1: guess let's started with my look. Even you know you
Speaker 1: said you had Gary on here. We were never going
Speaker 1: to do prosthetics and following, so it was always going
Speaker 1: to be Angie Bremen, who worked with my hair and
Speaker 1: other films. Let's do a wig and let's just give
Speaker 1: that that classic line. And then we said, you know,
Speaker 1: with John always, let's do some teeth, you know, because
Speaker 1: my teeth are very small and crooked in my mouth,
Speaker 1: whereas Ted's are a bit bigger than mine. You know,
Speaker 1: he's got the Kennedy smile. And and so we went
Speaker 1: down that that took months to get them right, I
Speaker 1: mean months, just the thinness so that I can still
Speaker 1: speak without a lisp, you know, dease and tease problems
Speaker 1: for a long time. Into eventually was able to thin
Speaker 1: it down to the point where my tongue would get
Speaker 1: in there. You bleeding issues because you put it in
Speaker 1: for two hours, but if you put it in fourteen
Speaker 1: or six hours, you know you need a little rub.
Speaker 1: So there was those things, but then that was enough.
Speaker 1: You know, we thought about context. No, you know, it
Speaker 1: was still I always wanted the thing of it had
Speaker 1: to be intimate. You had to feel like, I know Ted,
Speaker 1: but I still don't know Ted. You know, he's just
Speaker 1: he's still Ted Kennedy. But if you you either accept
Speaker 1: me very early on or you don't. And I never
Speaker 1: want to have that. Oh my god, is that he
Speaker 1: looks so exactly like him. He's you know, he said
Speaker 1: you had it's it's an emotional journey there, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's a big emotional journey. And for that,
Speaker 1: the audience has got to just go in and forget
Speaker 1: about it. If you go there's you know, there's Jason
Speaker 1: or whatever, and he's got the thing that he looks
Speaker 1: exactly like him, you know, I think it takes you
Speaker 1: out of being with him and understand trying to be
Speaker 1: with him enough to go, you know, what what you
Speaker 1: did is eving wrong, or what you did is I
Speaker 1: can it's wrong, And I can understand it, and I
Speaker 1: can person not like a real person, just not like
Speaker 1: I can see this actor is pulling us off just
Speaker 1: to look like that was it. And then you know,
Speaker 1: Monica and the accent. You know, the action was very important.
Speaker 1: But you know, once again you find it within your
Speaker 1: eternal intent is pretty close to mine in terms of
Speaker 1: a tone. There are certain things that to take up
Speaker 1: a little bit. But but I mean, you know, with
Speaker 1: Tim Monic, we would for months on that to get
Speaker 1: that right. And then um, because the other thing the
Speaker 1: world when you go to chaper Quick, it's just it's
Speaker 1: just a small little dot on a small little island
Speaker 1: at the farest point of America, you know, and out
Speaker 1: there is the Atlantic and you can you see how
Speaker 1: this little bridge and it's still unchanged. And you go
Speaker 1: from there when you watch a map of Google, but
Speaker 1: you go way back and you get to the seat
Speaker 1: of power and Washington. It was always but then this
Speaker 1: little you know, with a little fairy and a small
Speaker 1: little house which is not that special, and the and
Speaker 1: the bridge is not that wide, and the you know,
Speaker 1: and the carriage is actually a lot stronger than people realize.
Speaker 1: But it's it wasn't some big grand thing. It was
Speaker 1: a very more event which got buried in the public
Speaker 1: theme or got away with it. But then it's ripple
Speaker 1: just I think, keeps going today. We started out on
Speaker 1: Non Martha's viney. They want to shoot, they were, they
Speaker 1: get kind of permission to shoot there for like two
Speaker 1: days at the end of summer. I'm sure a lot
Speaker 1: of the bridge stuff, you know, in the driving in
Speaker 1: and around and that there and then and then we
Speaker 1: shot up in Beverley, which is northern north of Boston.
Speaker 1: And then we did the water stuff in the tank
Speaker 1: at Rosa Rito where they did Titanic like November and
Speaker 1: freezing cold if you get four am. Yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 1: it gives an intimacy, you know to it, I think,
Speaker 1: and and that can help you take away that. Yes,
Speaker 1: the presidency in the White House and history, but little
Speaker 1: things start. It's small, little kind of like un you know,
Speaker 1: unremarkable places. The guy gets up, you know, finished, gives
Speaker 1: interviewed about his brother, go to the moon, gets a plane,
Speaker 1: goes sailing, goes to a party to catch up with
Speaker 1: some people that he probably haven't seen for a year
Speaker 1: that were there when his brother got his head blown
Speaker 1: off in front of everybody goes for a drive, drives
Speaker 1: for a bridge, comes to coming up for air. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean what happened? Yeah, did you cause any any
Speaker 1: like a bit of a stir local stir at all,
Speaker 1: because you know, oh my gods, there should through I
Speaker 1: guess when we see enacting. Essentially there's a huge event
Speaker 1: in our pretty pretty cool about it and still a
Speaker 1: lot of you know that there's a few people that
Speaker 1: love their conspiracy, but the island itself, I think he's
Speaker 1: been living there with it for years. And you know,
Speaker 1: there was there was actually one when we're filming me
Speaker 1: coming back from the ferry from making the phone call
Speaker 1: to you know, to my assistant where he goes over
Speaker 1: the chap of Cuick to make the the phone calleries
Speaker 1: won't be watched. There was a woman that came up
Speaker 1: and she was cheap Arena's daughter and she saw my
Speaker 1: guard you know, yeah, you know, the people would come
Speaker 1: down and watching a bit from the ferry, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't too out of control and she was she was
Speaker 1: Chief Arena his daughter. Wow, that's interesting. I'm a junk
Speaker 1: around the director this. I loved his film The Painted Veil.
Speaker 1: The number of years back in my favorite movies that year. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's also done movies like Stone and Tracks. You know,
Speaker 1: he's he always kind of he's a solid, great filmmaker
Speaker 1: that sort of lurks below the radar for people. I
Speaker 1: kind of feel like totally. And he was perfect, I
Speaker 1: thought for this kind of material. So just talk about
Speaker 1: working with him. He was perfect for this kind of material,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean I remember because I was. It
Speaker 1: was set up with another director and other people, and
Speaker 1: then you know, they wanted to make it at a
Speaker 1: certain budget, and you know, and then when Mark Tiardi said, okay,
Speaker 1: we'll do it with Jason, you know, my agency and
Speaker 1: my manager would put that together with me in the lead,
Speaker 1: so that we had to find a director. And Robert
Speaker 1: Stein was always loved John Carr, and I've known John
Speaker 1: for a while, you know, and I was like, by
Speaker 1: the same thing I hadn't like. I went back and
Speaker 1: I watched the Painted Veil again. I watched Tracks, you
Speaker 1: know what, John, and then John and I just spoke
Speaker 1: and he was just passionate about it. I mean, he
Speaker 1: was from up there. He knew this, and I knew
Speaker 1: this guy was going to deliver a film. It might
Speaker 1: even be my idea of what I loved are the
Speaker 1: writers or whatever, you know. And John, but he's one
Speaker 1: of those rare directors that that will make their own movie.
Speaker 1: I'm going to deliver you a film. And I know
Speaker 1: it's like Peter Weir does that. You know, you always
Speaker 1: know you're getting a great film with Peter, and I
Speaker 1: think with John you're getting the same thing. You I mean, look,
Speaker 1: any script, as any film is as good as its
Speaker 1: script to begin with. But John was he was tough.
Speaker 1: I mean he because him and I were all you know,
Speaker 1: it was always about it was always about that line
Speaker 1: with Ted, you know, about how much to show to
Speaker 1: not show, how much guilt, remorse, frustration, anger. I mean
Speaker 1: Ted as you know he has. I mean, he has
Speaker 1: a different relationship to to grief, to pressure, to post
Speaker 1: ability than anybody because of the life he's led and
Speaker 1: the choices he's made and the people he's had around
Speaker 1: him and the things that he's seen, you know, and
Speaker 1: also his options. You know, they're different. So it was
Speaker 1: John and I were always wrestling, and you know, like
Speaker 1: the first the easiest seeing was the one of the
Speaker 1: phone calls, one of the early ones the phone we
Speaker 1: shot that when I called my dad and he says, Alibi,
Speaker 1: you know, for you know, for some reason, I got
Speaker 1: the exactly right for John. Bang. That was great. I
Speaker 1: think that's it. Let's just do one more safety. We
Speaker 1: do one with safety, and then moved on the day
Speaker 1: in the police office. You know, when he goes back,
Speaker 1: Ted goes back and makes three phone calls. Was one
Speaker 1: of the hardest days I've ever had shooting anywhere, if
Speaker 1: not the hardest the coast. And John was just brutal.
Speaker 1: He just kept making me do it. I don't have this, Jason,
Speaker 1: I don't have that, Jason, you need to go again,
Speaker 1: and he just kept pushing me and shoving me and
Speaker 1: really demanding when I was out of my mind, and
Speaker 1: I was, I was out of because there's three very
Speaker 1: different photos phone calls, and I guess, you know, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day said you know what, I
Speaker 1: don't have it, So we'll go to bed. We're gonna
Speaker 1: come back and do it again tomorrow. And that was
Speaker 1: a big call on so many levels. I've had enough
Speaker 1: at that point. I mean, just like dude, I don't
Speaker 1: want to do anymore. I'm I'm out of my mind here.
Speaker 1: And second of all, you know, you know, we're a
Speaker 1: tired budget here. So everyone's like, but John, he don
Speaker 1: he was right, and you come, I think it was
Speaker 1: getting that perverted, you know, that's the right word. Steward
Speaker 1: state of Ted's mind as he's got good and bad,
Speaker 1: right and wrong and half and full and you know,
Speaker 1: trying to through those three calls it there's so much
Speaker 1: going He rings and he knows the right thing to
Speaker 1: do is to call his mother. Bang the mother he does,
Speaker 1: and he tells her and and even goes through the
Speaker 1: Kennessey served the family with grace and in order. He's
Speaker 1: just a woman bawling on the phone. Is collapse and
Speaker 1: it's just it's just mind exploding as he's you know,
Speaker 1: because he's he set out whole morning having conscions, just
Speaker 1: going you know what, I'm just gonna I don't enjoy.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try, you know, because it doesn't care. But
Speaker 1: it's just deep in the recesses of like this can't
Speaker 1: have happened. You know, it sounds fascinating for it was
Speaker 1: John was and John was great and really you know,
Speaker 1: really making me walk a line of keeping it, as
Speaker 1: you said at the moment, totally keeping it really never
Speaker 1: falling into like let's just show remorse or guilt, or
Speaker 1: let's show conniving or whatever. John was also let's just
Speaker 1: explore it and live it. I mean he totally demanded
Speaker 1: staying in, you know, in the reality and just living it.
Speaker 1: He even like to walk across the street anything it was.
Speaker 1: It was if it ever went too much or an
Speaker 1: obvious thing, like like he's an easy note, you know,
Speaker 1: like hide somebody comes. You know, he was never bang.
Speaker 1: Just this is it, man, Let's just do it. And
Speaker 1: at the end it cumulatively adds up and accumulatively I
Speaker 1: think makes his ending real. I mean, what he's put
Speaker 1: it on. At the end there you know that le's him.
Speaker 1: I think it takes this intense journey about one man
Speaker 1: and his family, his community, his area, his democratic machine,
Speaker 1: and then leaves you with we the people, and even
Speaker 1: actually to two thousand and eight. And it can't help me,
Speaker 1: You can't help it. Feel something different. When you go
Speaker 1: back and listen to Ted's eulogy at Bobby's funeral, you
Speaker 1: can watch that live. You know that the video of it,
Speaker 1: Bobby getting shot and all that. You realize where Ted
Speaker 1: is and what you know as he's watching it at
Speaker 1: the same time, and then you listen to his eulogy
Speaker 1: and it changes your feeling. You can't you. I mean,
Speaker 1: you listen to all the eulogies that Ted's funeral, all
Speaker 1: the big politicians, and if you've just gone through this,
Speaker 1: you go, well, you know, it changes your idea of
Speaker 1: certain things, it affects it. And and that's what I
Speaker 1: think is interesting in we the people. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a fascinating family. It is, it's a fascinating country, it's
Speaker 1: a fascinating time. And this was a fascinating time. You know,
Speaker 1: just two thousand and eighteen is crazy, and too seven
Speaker 1: name was crazy, So it was six and sixty nine
Speaker 1: coguably crazier. Let's actually talk about I mean, I wanted
Speaker 1: to branch out a little bit, uh, to talk about
Speaker 1: First Man. You're in Damien the First Man. You're playing
Speaker 1: Astro not Ed Higgins and what Edwar Higgins? What sorry
Speaker 1: Edward Higgins White? Uh, you know, talk about that crazy time.
Speaker 1: So working with Damien, you know, Damien is an amazing director.
Speaker 1: Obviously when the Oscar, I've heard a lot of interesting
Speaker 1: things about this movie. Putting it on a much bigger canvas,
Speaker 1: doing the Imax stuff and whatnot. Some of the things
Speaker 1: I've heard about the score sound really fascinating. But I
Speaker 1: just wanted to talk about your experience working on this
Speaker 1: movie with this guy, um beginning to end. He's just
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, he's he's uh, he's he's like
Speaker 1: he's like that juxtaposition of like a beheemouth in terms
Speaker 1: of his understanding of film and his love of film
Speaker 1: and story and he's a baby and well, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: he's a he's a beautiful young man who has you know,
Speaker 1: foun in love with Olivia and you know, and that's
Speaker 1: I despise him for being so talented. He knows that
Speaker 1: on his commitment like it is, it's it's his commitment
Speaker 1: at times. And I've seen there with different directors and
Speaker 1: and you know, I would watch the Monitor with Damian,
Speaker 1: not out of fear of what I've done, but i'd
Speaker 1: watch his other stuff with other people, with a big
Speaker 1: couple of big group scenes. His eye for what he's
Speaker 1: after is you know, that's it's unique. It's really unique.
Speaker 1: And that's what I think every director has different you
Speaker 1: know and different you know, whatever is whatver. But I
Speaker 1: was really interested in his eye because you can see it.
Speaker 1: You can see it on camera. It's like, oh wow ah,
Speaker 1: and you would you watch some stuff in playback and
Speaker 1: just go, I mean there's a couple of hours, you know,
Speaker 1: the asteroids going up in the thing where you go,
Speaker 1: I'm excited for this. I'm here. I mean that that's me.
Speaker 1: I'm excited. I'm actually really excited. This is quite special. Um.
Speaker 1: So he's like all these young dudes now, like, you know,
Speaker 1: you've got to be interesting. What they're up to, what
Speaker 1: they're seeing, how they're seeing that, what how they're interacting
Speaker 1: with with movies or content or videos and phones or whatever.
Speaker 1: And and he's got a lot going on. Do I
Speaker 1: mean he can sum up. I guess that's his writing
Speaker 1: background as well, his ability to distill the story, his
Speaker 1: ability to to to really understand what he's showing in
Speaker 1: a scene. You know, he sent me a document for me.
Speaker 1: Doesn't know me saying this, but he sent me a
Speaker 1: document before we started shooting about here's the film joson
Speaker 1: you know, with pictures, music, ideas with you know what
Speaker 1: he's after in the scene on here, we're really seeing
Speaker 1: Neil's mark play with this toy here. He's just got
Speaker 1: a very clear picture of what he's saying. Here, we're
Speaker 1: wide for this, look at this, look at that for
Speaker 1: a reference if you want um. And it was really helpful,
Speaker 1: but it was also quite I don't know, man, he goes,
Speaker 1: He guys did sleep dreaming of dreaming of the movie.
Speaker 1: He really does. I can't wait to see that. Did
Speaker 1: you Are you finished with that's editing now? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it will be. It's also one of the
Speaker 1: great stories. Absolutely is one of the world affirming stories.
Speaker 1: You know that was the weird thing with chapter quick.
Speaker 1: We're always the moon was always there. It is one
Speaker 1: of the world affirming stories, putting a man on the moon,
Speaker 1: regardless of regardless of anything that it started from or
Speaker 1: you know, missiles in Russia and American competition at that point,
Speaker 1: the end result of that is still extraordinary. He said
Speaker 1: something great to me, He said he wanted him. I
Speaker 1: was like, what are you looking to get at with
Speaker 1: with what you know the theme of this movie, what
Speaker 1: this is going to be saying This was back before
Speaker 1: he started, obviously, and he said he wanted to get
Speaker 1: at what it was like when we dreamed big and
Speaker 1: you know, we don't have that pulse anymore. No, we
Speaker 1: don't have that pulse anymore. And it's weird. I mean
Speaker 1: you can say that even even to take it back
Speaker 1: to Ted and Chapo Quick at that time, you know,
Speaker 1: we don't have wealthy people whose children going to service.
Speaker 1: I know, there's a lot of cynicism around the Kennedys
Speaker 1: and saying that one of this, that the other. But no,
Speaker 1: three of his children there, his boys died giving service
Speaker 1: to their country. And they all served militarily apart from
Speaker 1: you know, actually part from Jack and apart from Bobby
Speaker 1: and Ted because there was no war at the time.
Speaker 1: But um, you know they did that. That was the
Speaker 1: notion we had been given this and we want to
Speaker 1: go back in, you know, and give back to the country.
Speaker 1: That doesn't happen anymore. On all kinds of levels. Everything
Speaker 1: has been monetorized and capitalized. And when we shot first Man,
Speaker 1: we met you know, Jean and a few of the
Speaker 1: dudes who were there at the time, you know, and
Speaker 1: they said, the most extraordinary thing in retrospect is how
Speaker 1: young we were, how the nation entrusted this youth. We
Speaker 1: were all under thirty or you know, around that age,
Speaker 1: and here we were, we were putting a man on
Speaker 1: the moon. We were running the highest, best technology, and
Speaker 1: we did it as a group, you know. And and
Speaker 1: I think that's why it's still looked upon it Massa
Speaker 1: as the golden time of achievement and giving and working
Speaker 1: for something, you know, something for the country, for the
Speaker 1: better for the world. You know, it's part of it.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see that. That's later in the
Speaker 1: year though. For now, this movie is called Chap Aquittic.
Speaker 1: It opens April six, I believe years it's right, Okay,
Speaker 1: good April six, go check it out. Jason Clark, thanks
Speaker 1: for coming on my show man. Really appreciate it. Good
Speaker 1: to see you. Get Away from Where movie. The first
Speaker 1: time we were Musli and Frank that's where. That's where
Speaker 1: I like. It's such a laid back place. You know,
Speaker 1: no one no one thinks they're gonna like go to
Speaker 1: Musso and Frank for an interview. No, but you can
Speaker 1: have some quietness and get some you know, get some
Speaker 1: get some you know, a little space there. And she
Speaker 1: learned of a chat. Yeah totally. But thanks again. It
Speaker 1: goes see Chap of Quittic everything. Cheers