Speaker 1: You're listening to playback a Variety podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Variety Awards Editor Chris Tapley. If a little movie called
Speaker 1: The Florida Project has been off your radar, I'd like
Speaker 1: to put it there now. Premiering at the can Film
Speaker 1: Festival in May, it tells the story of a precocious
Speaker 1: six year old girl and her misadventures in and around
Speaker 1: the Central Florida motel she and her mother call home.
Speaker 1: My guest today stars as Bobby, the kind hearted manager
Speaker 1: of the property, and it's one of his best roles
Speaker 1: in a long and illustrious career that has brought him
Speaker 1: two Oscar nominations. But I don't want to speak for
Speaker 1: him on that. His name is a Willem Defoe and
Speaker 1: he's right here, so let's ask him. First of all, William,
Speaker 1: thanks for doing the show. Would you say this is
Speaker 1: one of your best roles? Not for me to say,
Speaker 1: but certainly enjoyed it and it's a beautiful movie, and uh,
Speaker 1: the role surprised me. Not for you to say. If
Speaker 1: it's not for you to say, who's who's for me
Speaker 1: to say. Other people, let's see it. Maybe that's if
Speaker 1: it's one of your best performances, but certainly when you
Speaker 1: read the role, you had to have. You know, when
Speaker 1: I read the role, I looked at the whole project,
Speaker 1: and I guess, uh, I was surprised what Bobby became
Speaker 1: in the doing of it. You know, sometimes sometimes you
Speaker 1: don't know until you do it what a role becomes.
Speaker 1: And those are sometimes the best experiences because you're not
Speaker 1: reaching or controlling too much. You're letting things happen. And
Speaker 1: Sean Sean Baker, the director, made a situation where he
Speaker 1: invites things to happen. He was working from a small script,
Speaker 1: but there was a degree of improvisation and also capturing
Speaker 1: things that were happening happening in the making of it
Speaker 1: that really connected it in a in a way that
Speaker 1: you could never have in a screenplay. Yeah, well, then
Speaker 1: if it's not necessarily there on the page from the beginning,
Speaker 1: your trust in him is a big part of the equation.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't imagine it is. And that's you know, that's
Speaker 1: key relationship between actors and directors. Trust, you know, because
Speaker 1: if you don't, if you don't give over and take
Speaker 1: the lead, nothing's ever going to happen except for what
Speaker 1: you know is going to happen. You're limited to what
Speaker 1: you know and what you can control, and usually the
Speaker 1: best movies come out from it, come from a place
Speaker 1: where you can imagine them. Yeah. Sure, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: Sean a little bit, but just in terms of this role,
Speaker 1: it's it's an interesting, uh part, because you're kind of
Speaker 1: the central node. I mean you you are sort of
Speaker 1: the recognizable uh star, the recognizable face amid these unknowns
Speaker 1: and some non actors. Even so, uh, I think that
Speaker 1: must have been a unique thing for you. Um, yes,
Speaker 1: well no, because I'm making enough I'm making enough films,
Speaker 1: let's say overseas where you know, you're working with actors
Speaker 1: from you know, a country that doesn't have the same
Speaker 1: kind of distribution that American films have. So I may
Speaker 1: be the best known actor in that group. So that's
Speaker 1: not unusual. But it is true that it's a situation where, um,
Speaker 1: the company is made up of people that have been
Speaker 1: cast from the street, people have been casted from Instagram. Uh.
Speaker 1: There's some professional actors, there's some new professional actors, there's
Speaker 1: some kids, and then you know there's also me and
Speaker 1: I've been around for a little while. Um, but it's
Speaker 1: always the same on some level that even even in
Speaker 1: an industry movie, even in a studio film, sometimes you're
Speaker 1: working with people from very different backgrounds and very different trainings.
Speaker 1: I'm always struck that it in in in the profession
Speaker 1: of acting, particularly for Americans. Uh, there isn't a uniformity
Speaker 1: of training or a uniform methodology. And I don't think
Speaker 1: that's necessarily a bad thing at all. In fact, I
Speaker 1: think mixing it up helps because, Um, then with each
Speaker 1: project you really have to to find what your processes
Speaker 1: and you also have to find out how to fit
Speaker 1: in with everybody and make the world so it doesn't
Speaker 1: become about you. It becomes about the thing that you're making,
Speaker 1: and that frees you. Yeah, well let's talk about that. Uh,
Speaker 1: that environment with these other actors, this atmosphere, I mean,
Speaker 1: was it uh trying? Was it electric? Was it? Did
Speaker 1: it take you back to your roots at all? Like
Speaker 1: had a little bit, you know, it's like a family,
Speaker 1: you know, and all film sets are like that a
Speaker 1: little bit. But these were people that this wasn't same old,
Speaker 1: same old. There was a cynical one in the lot
Speaker 1: because it was a new, exciting experience for them. And
Speaker 1: then also it was conditioned by the fact that we
Speaker 1: were shooting in a real place. So as extras, Uh,
Speaker 1: you're having people that are really living this life, this
Speaker 1: life that the story that we're telling is about. So
Speaker 1: they helped root the story as well in a reality.
Speaker 1: Um and for me playing the character, it was kind
Speaker 1: of wild because we're working in functioning motel. It's still functioning.
Speaker 1: I mean sometimes we had to stop a scene because
Speaker 1: someone was checking into the motel. Inter just take the
Speaker 1: whole building. We took the whole building over, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know for certain, but in terms of you didn't
Speaker 1: like shut it down like people. It was still functioning.
Speaker 1: It was still functioning, and it would be literally like, oh,
Speaker 1: we gotta shoot that scene, so the real manager would
Speaker 1: have to leave the room. I'd slide in there and
Speaker 1: we'd play the scene. Did you ever just try to like, hey,
Speaker 1: let me bone up, let me let me check these
Speaker 1: these guys out. Well, that's what I was doing. Uh,
Speaker 1: talk about that too, like preparing for the role. Did
Speaker 1: you go down there and and hang out with guys
Speaker 1: that have managed hotels and stuff like this. That's exactly
Speaker 1: what they did because it was the natural thing. You know,
Speaker 1: your preparation is always different, but almost always you've gotta
Speaker 1: do the thing that makes you feel like you own it,
Speaker 1: you know, gives you kind of the confidence and the
Speaker 1: authority to do the pretending and say I am this guy.
Speaker 1: So the first thing you want to do is find
Speaker 1: out really who these people are in the story and
Speaker 1: find some models or you know, find the reality of it.
Speaker 1: So I see these guys, I I talked to some
Speaker 1: of these guys, and you know, I check out how
Speaker 1: they're dressed. You know, whether they got a wedding ring on,
Speaker 1: whether they're wearing any jewelry. You know, what their sunglasses
Speaker 1: are like, what their style is, how do they carry themselves,
Speaker 1: how they talk about themselves, how they talk about them
Speaker 1: their past. That all feeds into your imagination and gives
Speaker 1: you so to make you form a picture. So you
Speaker 1: take in that information and then you mix it a
Speaker 1: little bit with you some of how you're feeling, and
Speaker 1: the character is sort of born out of that. But
Speaker 1: I think the real takeaway that was consistent with the
Speaker 1: people that I talked to that was interesting to me
Speaker 1: was these are pretty funky motels, but these guys try
Speaker 1: really hard to make it nice and they're really they're
Speaker 1: really committed to their work. And it's sort of a
Speaker 1: beautiful expression of a working class guy working in a
Speaker 1: challenging situation that feels a responsible responsibility for other people,
Speaker 1: a pride in what he does, and he tries to
Speaker 1: make things better that impulse, that's a very human impulse
Speaker 1: to help, which often gets smothered in a lot of
Speaker 1: other things. And as I say it, maybe it sounds
Speaker 1: a little too sweet, but there's a tough side to
Speaker 1: that too. Absolutely, it sounds like a skeleton key frankly
Speaker 1: to figuring out who this guy might be. But it's
Speaker 1: it was interesting for that so really surprisingly, uh, the
Speaker 1: script was beautiful, but I couldn't tell who Bobby was
Speaker 1: just from the script. And Bobby was really kind of
Speaker 1: born out of these encounters and the script and improvisation
Speaker 1: and from dealing with the other characters. Because the cool
Speaker 1: thing is, he had to wear so many hats, you know,
Speaker 1: he had to be a father, he had to be
Speaker 1: a brother, he had to be a cop, he had
Speaker 1: to be a bill collector, he had to be a plumber,
Speaker 1: he had to be a comforter, he had to be
Speaker 1: a protector. All those things, and that kind of sounds
Speaker 1: like a too much, Like what kind of character could
Speaker 1: encompass all those but without a big dramatic scene of
Speaker 1: some big transformation. The incredible thing was, you know he
Speaker 1: really does all those things. Yeah, and that's kind of
Speaker 1: stuff he probably learned on the job too. It's not
Speaker 1: like a skills that you come to the job with.
Speaker 1: It's it's from doing the job. And and and the
Speaker 1: other cool thing is he's he's not extraordinary. He's probably
Speaker 1: not great pump plumber. He's probably done keep books very well.
Speaker 1: And he's certainly no uh genius at you know, psychology
Speaker 1: dealing ex exactly. Just but he's big hearted and I
Speaker 1: think that's that's in the end, what what kind of
Speaker 1: makes him interesting? Yeah? Yeah, talking about shooting on location there,
Speaker 1: I'm always curious how landscape effects performance, and this one
Speaker 1: in particular, because first of all, what time of year
Speaker 1: did you shoot? It was summer, so it was sweltering.
Speaker 1: It was you know, in the afternoon, these clouds rolling,
Speaker 1: you get these dramatic thunderstorms, lightning crazy. Then you know, uh,
Speaker 1: it was hot. The physical condition shooting in the real
Speaker 1: place conditions everything. It informs everything. You know, how you feel,
Speaker 1: how your clothes hang on, you, your moods, it's a
Speaker 1: big deal. Yeah, probably how you walk exactly as getting
Speaker 1: to you. And just the look of the film is
Speaker 1: so beautiful, to capturing this kind of central Florida past
Speaker 1: dull thing. And this is where I want to talk
Speaker 1: about Sean because if everybody hasn't seen Sean's other film,
Speaker 1: previous film Tangerine, they should shot on an iPhone. Looks beautiful.
Speaker 1: This film looks beautiful. Very brilliant filmmaker. And just talk
Speaker 1: to me about working with him and and how particularly
Speaker 1: anything you might have observed with him working with the children,
Speaker 1: because that's a difficult task as a director. He okay,
Speaker 1: first about the children. Uh, he rehearsed quite a bit
Speaker 1: with them. And he also he's a very kind person
Speaker 1: and has very gentle um, sweet mannered person and I
Speaker 1: think he really made these kids feel comfortable. He also
Speaker 1: his partner, Samantha Kwan, is an actress and she also
Speaker 1: worked with them more or less as an acting coach.
Speaker 1: But when I say acting coach, just teaching them how
Speaker 1: to be feel free, to pretend, and and he would
Speaker 1: structure things so they felt comfortable. Uh they weren't. This
Speaker 1: wasn't an actor's boot camp. It was really about having
Speaker 1: them learning how they could play with these characters. And
Speaker 1: he was very good at that. Uh, anytime anyone got tight,
Speaker 1: he would find a way. Uh. It wasn't just a
Speaker 1: question of cutting around them or tricking them. He would
Speaker 1: adjust things in such a way that, um, they would
Speaker 1: they would feel free and they and they wouldn't be
Speaker 1: self conscious, they wouldn't think of themselves as actors. You know.
Speaker 1: He gave them fun things to do. Little girls in Brooklyn. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's amazing and she she is uh at six years old.
Speaker 1: She said she started doing her first work at two.
Speaker 1: I mean I think she did her first work the
Speaker 1: second she came out of her womb, mother's womb. She's
Speaker 1: she's a stone called performer, you know, and she's a firecracker.
Speaker 1: She's smart, and she's she's interesting and has a good imagination.
Speaker 1: So she was very important and Sean was very lucky
Speaker 1: to find her. He found her through fairly traditional you know,
Speaker 1: through a local really talent agent because she had like representation.
Speaker 1: And at six years old, you know, she's embarking on
Speaker 1: a career. She's got it. She does. And Bria, who
Speaker 1: plays her mother, was that's that's one of the Instagram castings, right,
Speaker 1: She's was cast from Instagram. And I thought she was fantastic.
Speaker 1: The first time I saw her, I had no interaction
Speaker 1: with her until I played a scene with her, and
Speaker 1: I remember just accepting her as the character. I did
Speaker 1: have a little question, where did they find this woman?
Speaker 1: I thought, she's not an actress. But she's not not
Speaker 1: an actress either, because she was performing very well. She
Speaker 1: she inhabited this role. Her life isn't that life. She's
Speaker 1: all tatted out and all that, you know, but she's
Speaker 1: not from that world. But she had some deep understanding
Speaker 1: of it, and I thought she was really exceptional. I
Speaker 1: guess it's that authenticity that you strive for as an actor,
Speaker 1: and you just have it in spades. From yeah, you
Speaker 1: know that the outside world, it becomes specific, the outside world,
Speaker 1: the outside references, the pointing outside of the movie goes
Speaker 1: away because you're just watching what's going on, and and
Speaker 1: it's substantial because it feels a whole h and and
Speaker 1: that comes when you know you you get rid of
Speaker 1: a certain kind of careerism, a certain kind of egotism,
Speaker 1: a certain kind of consciousness of this being your life
Speaker 1: or having it be about you if you can find
Speaker 1: your ways to trick your self into submitting to a
Speaker 1: story and and you know, agreeing to leave your life
Speaker 1: and enter another one. And it does take some tricks
Speaker 1: because we're not we're not trying to do that. We're
Speaker 1: trying to buy all you know, by all accounts, you know,
Speaker 1: shore up who we are. But if you can find
Speaker 1: ways to do that, beautiful thing happens, and that's when
Speaker 1: you start making something. And I think Sean got the
Speaker 1: right people together. He cast beautifully and he had a
Speaker 1: very um He had a very sensitive but also tough
Speaker 1: and scrappy crew that was able to you know, work
Speaker 1: with any funky bumps that we had because people weren't slick. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's certainly key on this and all Zabe d P.
Speaker 1: I mean he's fantastic. I mean, if you know the
Speaker 1: two Regatdess films, he made beautiful and he's also shot
Speaker 1: some really cool music videos. He kind of does both
Speaker 1: ends of the spectrum. This is a beautiful movie, I mean,
Speaker 1: just the sun kissed nature of it all. And just
Speaker 1: did he was he the DP on Tangerine as well?
Speaker 1: Do you remember? But he I name dropped the Carloss
Speaker 1: for Goddess films because they're extraordinary silent light and also
Speaker 1: tend to brass post tender brass looks. Cinephile will a
Speaker 1: little bit, A little bit, I've always wondered that about you. Actually,
Speaker 1: I mean I like movies a lot um but you know,
Speaker 1: when I get busy, sometimes I don't have enough time
Speaker 1: to see what I want to see. But when I
Speaker 1: have time, like I I watch, I prefer films. And
Speaker 1: when I have time, I'd rather read a book, listen
Speaker 1: to music or um or watch movies. Um. I just
Speaker 1: haven't gotten into TV. And occasionally someone will say I'll
Speaker 1: check this out. I'll watch it, and I'll say, Okay,
Speaker 1: I get what's attractive, and I could do that, but
Speaker 1: it's just a choice. I sure. You know. It's like
Speaker 1: vanilla and chocolate, and they are different, they are differently.
Speaker 1: I also want to mention you're appearing in Murder on
Speaker 1: the Rain Express this year as well. I wanted to
Speaker 1: mention that because that arrives in November, and it's fascinating
Speaker 1: to me because here in Florida projects you're sounded by
Speaker 1: unknown murder, you're surrounded by some of the world I
Speaker 1: forgot about that. It's really true. You got Johnny Depp
Speaker 1: and Judy Dench and Michelle Peife for just as who's who.
Speaker 1: It looks I haven't seen the film me. I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to It looks very stylized. Kenneth Browna directed it.
Speaker 1: What was that experience? Really good? Um? You know, it's
Speaker 1: funny though when I think about it, but the problems
Speaker 1: are kind of the same because they may be movie stars,
Speaker 1: but they come from very different places. In a funny way,
Speaker 1: you know, there's no uniformity the experience, which is the
Speaker 1: good news. Um, it was great. An incredible cast. Kenneth Brandon.
Speaker 1: I have so much respect for him, particularly after working
Speaker 1: with him. He's incredible and incredible smart. Uh, he takes
Speaker 1: care of his people. He knows obviously he's an actor.
Speaker 1: He knows how to, um help actors with what they
Speaker 1: need to do. And then this incredible thing of the
Speaker 1: way the film is structured. You know, you have all
Speaker 1: these people around all the time, kind of as as
Speaker 1: the world and sometimes maybe not that much to do,
Speaker 1: not big scenes to play, and then occasionally they have
Speaker 1: their interrogation seeing or a few other things happen. But
Speaker 1: you're hanging around a lot and you're hanging around with Derek,
Speaker 1: Jacko B and Judy Dance and Johnny and you know,
Speaker 1: it's and people were really cool about that, And I
Speaker 1: think a lot had to do with their respect for
Speaker 1: Ken and his how he treats people, and also out
Speaker 1: of them had worked with Ken, and also uh a
Speaker 1: lot with theater people. And the truth is there. The
Speaker 1: people get used to you know, uh, they get a
Speaker 1: little more used to being they're supporting other actors and
Speaker 1: and then when it's time for them to step up
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, go forward and do their area,
Speaker 1: they do it, and then they go back into the
Speaker 1: chorus you know. Uh, so we're trained for that a
Speaker 1: little bit more. But it was it was really good
Speaker 1: to see actors work like that in a kind of
Speaker 1: um beautiful teamwork. Well, the material kind of dixated it.
Speaker 1: It does, it does, but you know some people would
Speaker 1: just say, Okay, yeah, I do this. You can get
Speaker 1: this later. But you know, you could you could cut
Speaker 1: up in pieces. But it was fun. It was fun
Speaker 1: cool looking forward to that, and also wanted to touch
Speaker 1: on Aquaman, not deeply, but just I'm sort of fascinated
Speaker 1: by this because in terms of the like the modern
Speaker 1: comic book movie landscape. You were there at the beginning
Speaker 1: with Spider Man fifteen years ago. Can you believe that?
Speaker 1: I can't. That's a long time ago. And now here
Speaker 1: you are in the DC machine and so you've seen
Speaker 1: I assume maybe a a evolution to wherever it might
Speaker 1: be now. And I'm just curious how those two experiences
Speaker 1: compare and contrast. It's a good question. Uh, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: I'm quite able to really express, you know, really much
Speaker 1: about it right now. You know, Spider Man was at
Speaker 1: the beginning. Uh Uh, they're very different. Because I had
Speaker 1: to talk about the two specific movies. They both have
Speaker 1: big challenges technically. Spider Man, there were a lot of
Speaker 1: mechanical effects. You know, there are a lot of c
Speaker 1: G I of course, but we were doing a lot
Speaker 1: of mechanical things, a lot of on wires and things
Speaker 1: like that. Also an Aqua Man, because it's an underwater world,
Speaker 1: there's lots of challenges. How do you create that underwater world.
Speaker 1: And to create that underwater world, it's going to be
Speaker 1: much a collaboration between post stuff and stuff that we
Speaker 1: create and mechanically give them. So we're you know, we
Speaker 1: don't walk on the ground. We float and we fly
Speaker 1: and we swim. You know, so that created real challenges.
Speaker 1: UM one link and I made it before, and someone
Speaker 1: picked it up and really ran with it because I
Speaker 1: don't read these things usually, but I saw it in
Speaker 1: the press. Um James One is and and Sam Raimi.
Speaker 1: They're both personal filmmakers. You know, they aren't they aren't
Speaker 1: industry uh you know, go to you know, they really
Speaker 1: have a strong personal stamp. And James One and they
Speaker 1: both have a good sense of play and a good
Speaker 1: sense of detail. And they come from the handmade world,
Speaker 1: and they come from the handmade world, and they come
Speaker 1: from the horror world. And you know, the beautiful thing
Speaker 1: about horror movies is, you know the film language is
Speaker 1: very rich, you know, because you can get away with
Speaker 1: it because you're there's a fantastical quality. But also you
Speaker 1: have the possibility to make a popular movie because it's
Speaker 1: in a very accessible UM form genre. So those two
Speaker 1: are linked a little bit. Uh the rules are slightly different,
Speaker 1: you know. In in Aquaman, I play like Aquaman's mentor,
Speaker 1: and I'm also advisor to the rival king basically. Uh
Speaker 1: so there's some sort of political intrigue and there's a
Speaker 1: little Obi Wan can all be in there too, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: so it's it's it's it's interesting. I just finished a
Speaker 1: couple of days ago. They're still shooting for about another month. Um.
Speaker 1: Uh good cast, uh, great, great art, direction and costumes.
Speaker 1: So we'll see, we'll see. Did you have any idea
Speaker 1: when you did Spider Man that these movies will become
Speaker 1: such a driving force in this industry? No idea. I
Speaker 1: mean even when even I mean the box office around
Speaker 1: that movie was a huge story at the time, but
Speaker 1: even still it's like compared them to now and the
Speaker 1: top twenty box office grossers domestically worldwide, even superhero movies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, you know, I think I think there are
Speaker 1: stories that you know, they translate to different cultures because
Speaker 1: they they're they they've got broad, broad storylines and their
Speaker 1: their fantasy, so they aren't so culturally bound as as
Speaker 1: you know, a family drama or a social drama or
Speaker 1: a comedy. And their visual and their muscular uh. And
Speaker 1: that's why they can play because in Indonesia, you know,
Speaker 1: they may have a film industry, but they can't make
Speaker 1: movies with those kinds of fleets. So if you want
Speaker 1: to see that kind of movie, you know, that's where
Speaker 1: it's happening. I think, um, yeah, you know, The Spider
Speaker 1: Man was very particular because it was a very most story,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of a team coming of age story,
Speaker 1: so it's very different than some of these other stories.
Speaker 1: And it was very character based. And actually, even though
Speaker 1: there were action set paces, it was very built on character.
Speaker 1: It was very hung up, hung on that Peter Parker
Speaker 1: character and the relationship between his friend, that James Franco
Speaker 1: character and his father. And yeah, I think I don't
Speaker 1: recognize that so much in the Superhero universe because now
Speaker 1: there's relationships between they're almost like corporate relationships, you know exactly. Uh,
Speaker 1: you're always working. I was looking at your keeps Me
Speaker 1: out of Trouble. I was looking at your credits into
Speaker 1: Trouble just to kind of bone up on some things,
Speaker 1: and I forget some of the things that you just
Speaker 1: kind of show up in. It's like, oh yeah, well
Speaker 1: in defos in this like current present danger, there you
Speaker 1: are you English patient. There you are American psycho. Uh
Speaker 1: you're very prolific. Uh. I think you've become frankly something
Speaker 1: of a ubiquitous presence. That's good, That's good, okay, But
Speaker 1: I just you know, do you love the work that much?
Speaker 1: Is at the end of here. I do. And also
Speaker 1: I think you know, actors need practice. You know, acting
Speaker 1: is acting, it's doing and uh I you know, I
Speaker 1: in a funny way, I'm very careful about what I
Speaker 1: do because and you may think this is being I'm
Speaker 1: being coy here, but I really mean it. I'm not
Speaker 1: the kind of actor that if my heart isn't into it,
Speaker 1: I can you know, finace it in, not just phone
Speaker 1: it in. I don't have that kind of craft. I
Speaker 1: have strong instincts and I do you know, I do
Speaker 1: have things that I can do, many things I can do,
Speaker 1: but I don't have a go to thing. And any
Speaker 1: time that I get near that, I get a little nauseous. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't like doing it. I don't feel strong, I
Speaker 1: feel dishonest, and I don't feel turned on. Then it
Speaker 1: feels like work, work in the pejord of sense. You know,
Speaker 1: it's hard work. Um. So I like to work when
Speaker 1: I'm social. I like I like adventures, I like to travel,
Speaker 1: I like to inhabit different things, and I like to
Speaker 1: feel useful and and there's something beautiful about going someplace,
Speaker 1: meeting some people, getting to know them, having an objective,
Speaker 1: having to figure it out, creating something, then letting it fly,
Speaker 1: then moving on to the next thing. Yeah. Well, uh,
Speaker 1: whenever I get overwhelmed with questions I might have more movies,
Speaker 1: I wanted to end up just making a list of movies.
Speaker 1: So what the time I have left here? I just
Speaker 1: wanted to hit a couple here first and foremost. I
Speaker 1: think Last Temptation of Christ looms very large in your portfolio.
Speaker 1: What I was left wondering is have you seen Martin
Speaker 1: Scorsese Silence from last year? I have, I have. What
Speaker 1: did you think of that? I like it? I'm I
Speaker 1: think there's a funny thing in the story itself. And
Speaker 1: this may just be me. It's like I kept on
Speaker 1: wanting to say, guys, just step on the thing, let
Speaker 1: the guys go away, and then go back to worshiping. Um.
Speaker 1: I think the last third of the movie is is
Speaker 1: better than the first two thirds. Um. That's just my opinion.
Speaker 1: And the reason I asked is just because you know,
Speaker 1: I interviewed film a schoonmaker years ago and she was
Speaker 1: talking about how the last temptation, couldn't do it in
Speaker 1: Silence that they had coming up at the time. We're
Speaker 1: kind of a religious trilogy of sorts. So it was
Speaker 1: a fascinating movie to me. I agree with much of
Speaker 1: what you said. The first third is beautiful. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: once you see where the Liam Neeson character ended up,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know the end, that last image is gorgeous.
Speaker 1: I joked with Rodrigo Prieto, I was like, did they
Speaker 1: have any fog machines left a pen when? But it
Speaker 1: was all real turned out Finding Nemo and Finding Dory
Speaker 1: huge box office. I feel like those movies, especially the
Speaker 1: first one. It was the biggest Pixar movie for years
Speaker 1: and never it was my favorite one too for years. Uh.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to know about working with the Pixar
Speaker 1: crew and then you went and fantastic. You know when
Speaker 1: I for the first when I went to do Finding Nemo, um,
Speaker 1: it was a little utopia, you know. And uh, Andrew
Speaker 1: Stanton knows stories so well. He really he was kind
Speaker 1: of in on the ground floor on Pixar, so he
Speaker 1: I just these people were all turned on. They were
Speaker 1: helping each other, They understood research and development. Uh, they
Speaker 1: took their time. Uh. They were kind of their own masters.
Speaker 1: Um uh. And to work with him was great because
Speaker 1: you would just sit you know, you're doing a voice,
Speaker 1: so basically you'd sit in a room and it was
Speaker 1: calling in response. You know, you'd lay something out, he'd
Speaker 1: suggest something, you'd try to hit it. Then he'd come
Speaker 1: back at you. You come back at him, you come back.
Speaker 1: It was like a tennis match, you know. And he's
Speaker 1: a clever guy, and he'd always set it up in
Speaker 1: a way that could inspire you to find different readings.
Speaker 1: So it was always just about playing with the text
Speaker 1: and then they'd go back and then bring you back
Speaker 1: again and find it. There was lots of refinement and
Speaker 1: a lot of um testing, but I mean not like
Speaker 1: testing with an audience, testing among themselves. A lot of experimentation,
Speaker 1: which is pretty wild when you think about these widely
Speaker 1: commercial movies being made in a spirit of experimentation, at
Speaker 1: least experimentation to find the find the story, you know.
Speaker 1: Um So that was fantastic. And I also worked with
Speaker 1: him on John Carter, which of course you know was
Speaker 1: kind of spanked um even before it opened. I might
Speaker 1: say it was one of those movies that just because
Speaker 1: of marketing or timing or something. It didn't see the
Speaker 1: light of day. But I enjoyed that too. He's a
Speaker 1: he's great with story, he's um, he's got a good
Speaker 1: film culture. I liked working with him a lot. And
Speaker 1: Finding Dory became their highest grossing movie when it came out,
Speaker 1: So hopefully they realized by now that you're the secret
Speaker 1: and greener tell him, Uh, it's funny to go from
Speaker 1: Pixar the body of evidence. That's okay. But what I'm
Speaker 1: curious about with that film, which you know, became infamous.
Speaker 1: But it was an interesting time in Madonna's career. So
Speaker 1: what was she like at that time? She was cool.
Speaker 1: I gotta be honest. I liked her a lot. I
Speaker 1: liked her work ethic. She was fun. I think it
Speaker 1: was tough the reception of the movie, which wasn't bad
Speaker 1: everywhere really um, some places it played quite well, um,
Speaker 1: but here not so well. In the UK not so well. Uh,
Speaker 1: sort of a little ridiculed. I think it had a
Speaker 1: lot to do with you know, she just reached maximum saturation.
Speaker 1: That was about the time that a sex book was
Speaker 1: coming out. She was making a really kind of racy,
Speaker 1: good racy videos and it was like I really had
Speaker 1: the sense that people are like enough enough enough for
Speaker 1: your clothes. Back on, um, there was a backlash, I thought,
Speaker 1: and what what started out as a kind of courtroom drama,
Speaker 1: kind of old fashioned really noir with with some sex,
Speaker 1: you know, and that uh you know, got misread and
Speaker 1: it was held up as you know, kind of imitation
Speaker 1: of usurance Stone one. Yeah. Yeah, and I don't think
Speaker 1: it was intended as that maybe maybe fooled. Well. They
Speaker 1: were contemporary. I mean that you were probably making that
Speaker 1: when whenever Basic Constant came out, so it's not like,
Speaker 1: you know, you're taking notes go back and make your movies.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and I like the part that I basically
Speaker 1: had the woman's partner. She had the part, which I
Speaker 1: thought was pretty brave and kinky, but totally I was
Speaker 1: doing the man's part, but I had the woman's part,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, exactly exactly. And then I
Speaker 1: wanted to close by talking about the two films you've
Speaker 1: been nominated for by the Academy, starting with Shadow of
Speaker 1: the Vampire. You know, I talked about Florida being you know,
Speaker 1: a big role for you and your career. This must
Speaker 1: have ranked right up there to just just sink your
Speaker 1: teeth and so to speak into a role like this
Speaker 1: great role, you know it was It was fun because
Speaker 1: you had this this perfect model. I could copy the
Speaker 1: original film because I was playing a character that existed, uh,
Speaker 1: A clever script, a fun script, very imaginative director. And
Speaker 1: then just from an acting point of view, I had
Speaker 1: this beautiful mask. And also I always love I always
Speaker 1: work from a place of physicality, and this was one
Speaker 1: where I could really dance it. You know, I could
Speaker 1: have other than natural gestures because he was a creature.
Speaker 1: Really even though he was a a man. Basically I
Speaker 1: could have a lot of fun with is how he
Speaker 1: carried himself and how he gestured those sorts of things.
Speaker 1: Play with the voice, you had an accent, you you
Speaker 1: weren't recognizable physically, you had a whole language. There were
Speaker 1: so many things to play with. And when you have
Speaker 1: those things and you connect with them, they really take
Speaker 1: you away in in a in a good way, take
Speaker 1: you to a place where you're kind of open to
Speaker 1: be fluid, and when you're playing a scene, you really
Speaker 1: hear things, and when you really get impulses, you can
Speaker 1: really act on them because you're not censoring anything because
Speaker 1: you're in such a place of comfort, in such a
Speaker 1: place of being kind of hyper sensitive, and yeah, you're
Speaker 1: in a good You're in a good You're where you're
Speaker 1: supposed to be. You've got nothing to do except for
Speaker 1: do and it happens. So that was that was really
Speaker 1: a fun role to do. And finally Platoon, which you know,
Speaker 1: thirty years now, thirty one years, it's crazy. Every time
Speaker 1: I talked to VIETNAMVAD and just happen to talk about
Speaker 1: Vietnam movies, this is the one they always say with
Speaker 1: the most realistic. Uh. It was a huge splash for
Speaker 1: you early in your career. So what what was that
Speaker 1: like to have such a major success early on. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, it was great fun to make, and
Speaker 1: you were working with people that were very committed. They
Speaker 1: were telling a personal story. We're shooting the Philippines with
Speaker 1: a lot of guys that it was their first movie
Speaker 1: or one of their first movies. I hadn't made so
Speaker 1: many movies. We were a bunch of kids, you know,
Speaker 1: and then we were also kids that never served. But
Speaker 1: some of us, like the older ones, grew up with
Speaker 1: World War Two movies. So there was this kind of
Speaker 1: World War Two movies, but then we had the specter
Speaker 1: of Vietnam and Korea as well. So you've got all
Speaker 1: that in your head, and now you're meeting these uh
Speaker 1: Vietnam vets who had been through it, and they we
Speaker 1: were enlisted to tell their story. So it was a
Speaker 1: huge responsibility, but it was also a huge challenge, and
Speaker 1: they helped us because they they helped root things by
Speaker 1: teaching us how to be soldiers. And often people talk
Speaker 1: about preparation and it's kind of like a bragging about
Speaker 1: you know, you know, I worked hard, so get on
Speaker 1: my assid My my performance was chetty because I did
Speaker 1: the homework. You know, that's not what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. They really taught, They really trained us,
Speaker 1: and that boot camp thing has been replicated since, but
Speaker 1: I think it was very special and it was a
Speaker 1: new thing and it transformed us and it was exciting.
Speaker 1: The bonding that we had and the kind of fantasy
Speaker 1: about those high stakes and the tragedy of that war
Speaker 1: were all um what we were playing with. So it
Speaker 1: was exciting to shoot and then really gratifying that a
Speaker 1: little movie that took almost ten years to make, a
Speaker 1: personal movie, a movie that was about Vietnam, when Vietnam
Speaker 1: movies at that time were more rambom esque than Platoon esque. Um,
Speaker 1: it was great to see it, Uh, find an audience,
Speaker 1: find some a critical uh support, and then a popular support,
Speaker 1: and particularly support among Vietnam vets, and then ultimately industry support.
Speaker 1: With the best picture of victory and all of you. So, uh,
Speaker 1: I could go on and on with you, but we
Speaker 1: better wrap it up. And speaking of Platoon, you and
Speaker 1: Johnny Johnny had a small role in that film, but
Speaker 1: back together again in Murder on the Ore Express. That's
Speaker 1: November ten. The Florida Project comes out October six, which
Speaker 1: I believe will have already happened by the time this year,
Speaker 1: so it's I think it um its open platform platform release.
Speaker 1: I think by the end of October it will be nationwide.
Speaker 1: Go see it. It's an amazing little film. Uh. Willem Dafoe,
Speaker 1: thank you for coming. Alright, a pleasure. Thanks. He gave
Speaker 1: the rest it a lot the ones we're not supposed
Speaker 1: to go in, but let's go anyway you give us.
Speaker 1: The doctor said, we have as well. We got to
Speaker 1: got a situation here. Open up. It's only the second
Speaker 1: week of the summer and there's already been a dead
Speaker 1: fish in the pool. We're trying to get it back alive.
Speaker 1: Water bloom strong at tourists found it's a mother money
Speaker 1: you want? You're just grace new job. Yeah, if you're working,
Speaker 1: who's looking after money? You're not my father. I don't
Speaker 1: want to treat me like you. Don't think everybody knows
Speaker 1: what sup really? Everybody she's about to crying. I can
Speaker 1: always tell one a daughters were about to cry. Why
Speaker 1: my mom? Y just calcome good summer, see I could
Speaker 1: young step far. Let's go come up. I'm startry. I
Speaker 1: love you too,