Matt Damon And Heath Ledger
By: R. Burke |
Saturday August 20, 2005 |
| Brother's Damon and Ledger explain the magic behind the folklore and Director Terry Gilliam. |
| R. Burke: Did you have fun doing this?
Heath Ledger: Yeah, we did. We had heaps of fun. Every day was just different, wasn't it? Matt Damon: Yeah, I'd say a different kind of fun. It's like hard-work kinda fun. We're both capable of geeking out over filmmaking and there was a lot to kind of geek out about. Each shot was ï because Terry shoots on 14-millimeter lenses, 17-millimeter lenses, so you can see a kind of the whole world. And then he packs the frame so densely from side to side and then really deep, that you have like 15 elements working in any one shot. So, all these different departments have to get their jobs done perfectly in order for the shot to work. So, that was kind of the fun. The rewarding part was when we'd actually get a shot that was Terry Gilliam approved and we could move on to another one. That was kind of the fun part of our day. Can you talk about bonding? MD: The bondage that we went through? (laughs) Let's get Monica in here and, uh... sorry that's just my fantasy, I don't know how that slipped out. HL: We had about four weeks before we started shooting where we were collaborating on ideas for each other's characters, working on accents, horse riding, etc. I think the friendship, the bonding, kind of just happened naturally. We didn't sit down and have bonding session. It was the actual creative process. And we both came on board with the same kind of level of enthusiasm for working with Terry and wanting to do our jobs. Yeah, so we really saw eye to eye on everything. It really wasn't a stretch for us. What about using English accents? MD: Well, that was Terry's decision because the guys were German and he didn't want us marching around the forest going, "Vat are you doink?" So he wanted it to sound foreign, particularly to an American, so he just kind of went with English. And that was really hard for me. I found that with accents in this country I don't really have a problem because I can just go there and fall into it. There are just a lot of sounds that we don't have in that accent that I really had trouble hearing. And I've lived in London, I did that play over there a couple of years ago, so I've spent a lot of time there. It's just that I can't ï HL: Physically it's a hard accent for Americans to use. MD: Yeah, you have to develop certain muscles that we don't kind of use in order to do it. It was hard for me. It was really hard for me. HL: But you nailed it. There must be that time when you see that look in Terry's eyes and you know you're going into battle for real. MD: Yeah, but he doesn't surprise us. He's very good at communicating to all these different departments. So many people have to get their job right in order for his vision to come to life that he really is good at communicating specifically to each department exactly what he needs them to do. So as an actor, it's not like he comes and goes, like, "now do it standing on your head." You're included in his process. It's not some mystery to you because the more information that's shared, the better the job gets done. Everybody knows where they are on the set at all times and why they're there and what they're doing. HL: If he wants you to stand on your head, he will get down and stand on his head. MD: Yeah. What about getting the contrast right between you two as brothers? HL: We were trying to kind of contrast each other a little bit. We wanted to present different qualities as brothers, but also have similarities like the fact that we wouldn't stand with these brave faces in the face of danger, we would scream like little girls and kind of cower... MD: And run away. HL: And run away, right. MD: The first scene of the movie is the fact that he causes our sister to die because he believes in fairytales, basically. So when you catch up with them all those years later, Jake is cowed a bit because it's Will's world and it's the real world. Kind of half way through the movie it switches where suddenly they go into Jake's world where everything makes sense to Jake. I have that line where it's like, "I can't go back into that forest, it's like being inside Jake's head." So there's kind of a switch for them in the middle of the movie. You guys are leading me in your own right, but you do seem to seek out supporting roles that allow you a bit more range in your characters. HL: I think I look for that in the director I pick. At this point, who will allow us to play these characters. It was Terry that allowed us ï who dared us to be bad, who allowed us to be eccentric or bigger. We had to be big because we're competing with his sets and this beautiful world he was creating. If we weren't big, we would have just been chewed up by it. And yeah, in terms of playing characters that test us, for me, I'm sure Matt's the same, I guess we would just get bored if we were doing the same thing over and over again. MD: I have heard stories of actors, and I won't name names, and I've seen them where you go, "Hey, what are you doing?" And they go, "I'm going to do this movie." And you're like, "Why aren't you excited about that?" And it's because they're going to play the same guy that they've played every single time and it's like going to the salt mine for these guys. For us, it's like each movie's so different and again, like Heath said, I think that is because of the directors. You choose these directors and you ask if it's going to be straight forward, there's nothing straight forward about Terry. There's no way he'd ever kind of make a movie like that. So yeah, I think it's a combination of choosing those people, but also the philosophy of wanting to try things that are different, whether they succeed or not, but just because it's a different experience. It's kind of a philosophy about how to live your life. The sets look overwhelming on film, is it somehow less impressive in real life? MD: It was overwhelming. Such a rich experience every day. Probably the biggest movie I've ever been on in terms of those sound stages. There were two huge connected soundstages and the forest was all indoors. And then there was the back lot where they built Marbaaden, the village, where you could shoot 360 degrees. You could go into any of those huts, those village huts, and we shot in a lot of them. We shot in the church there too. The forest was a real forest that they burned down. What about that tower? MD: The tower was only a few stories high, probably 53- HL: There were actually three different kind ofï MD: Well yeah, there were three different tower set upsï HL: It went halfway up. MD: It went kinda halfway up, but then the whole thing going onto the spire, that's all special effects. Then there was the roof part that Heath climbs on, that was only ten feet off the ground. HL: And then indoors there was no mirror in between so there was two rooms. Everything that I had to do in front of the mirror I had to do from both sides, so I had to cover myself. So if I had my right hand up like that, I had to go to the other side. So when I ran into the mirror, I had to pretend to run into the mirror, then go over to the other side and do the same. So that was fun and challenging. Do you prefer character parts like this to playing a big star where you really carry the movie? MD: It depends on the project. If the role is interesting, I don't mind playing the lead in a movie if the character's really interesting. But to have to do ï I don't think the straight-forward, kind of boring, y'know what I mean? I can't get there. I'd rather play the smaller part. Can you talk about switching roles for the film? MD: Well yeah, we actually begged him to switch roles cause he originally cast us flip-flopped and we both felt like we'd done that. So we asked him. And he actually said for Twelve Monkeys that he switched Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt cause at the time Bruce would have been known as kind of the crazier guy. And he really liked the way it worked there because it's more challenging and more fun for everybody if they're doing stuff a little differently. What were some of the wacky things that happened on set? HL: There was a horse that died, the horse that I kind of dance with at one point. He died. MD: Natural causes. HL: That night, after that dance. Dancing with a horse was weird too, I guess. MD: I think every day, kind of coming homeï HL: It's just exhausting. MD: I think, every day after we'd wrap we'd say, "Never done that before," from licking toads to being strapped to ladders in an actual burning forest. All that stuffï HL: Torture deviceï MD: Fire retardant all over us. All this kind of weird stuff, like every day was kind of, y'know, something kind of new and bizarre would happen. So you licked the toad. MD: Yeah, yeah, I liked the toad. Tasted like chicken. What about working with Scorsese, is that just another day at the office? MD: I mean I had that feeling with Terry, but it is at the end of the day, it's another day at the office and you're still making a movie. The surroundings are pretty familiar even though the personnel are a little different. It's unbelievable working with him, though. I mean his sets are like a church. It's the quietest I've everïyou can't imagine. That's the one thing that makes it not feel like a movie set is how quiet it is. So everyone's really focused. And, y'know, everyone's really happy to be working for him, so it's a pretty reverential atmosphere. Is there another Bourne on the way? MD: Hopefully, somewhere off in the middle distance. |
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