Everybody’s favourite actor takes a more serious tack in Grace is Gone, which was showing at the London Film Festival this week. He plays a widower who is unable to tell his two daughters that their soldier mother has been killed in Iraq. The Weinsteins may be onboard for awards season, but when IGN spoke to him, Oscars were the last thing on his mind…
Q: So how are you today?
I have a little bit of a cold, but that’s OK.
Q: There seem to be quite a few movies out now dealing with the ongoing War on Terror – In the Valley of Elah, Lions for Lambs, Battle for Haditha, Redacted…
I haven’t seen any of those. Those seem to be about the people who are in power, wheeling and dealing, the mechanics. This is more about the victims of the war and the people who are making the sacrifices. The Bush administration banned photos of the dead coming home so I thought it would be nice to tell the story behind one of the coffins.
Q: Do you feel movies can help influence the public’s reaction to the current situation?
Not make up people’s minds, but maybe inspire people. I think, yeah, films play a big role.
Q: At the same time you presumably want to avoid preaching?
Right. My leanings are much more personally progressive but I think [the film] is on the side of anything that’s humanistic, you know? In the States you get people who are pretend-people Right and pretend-people Left and they yell at each other and that’s basically all you have. And this seemed to kind of transcend that. My character, Stanley, is actually very conservative but the film doesn’t comment on it. It just tries to understand his point of view and then talk about the sacrifice. So I thought it was kind of elegant that way.
Q: You’re also the co-producer here. Is that as enjoyable as acting?
Yeah, I like that. It’s more about telling stories and trying to help structure the best chance for you to do something good. I consider myself a filmmaker and the best part of it is getting people together on the same team.
Q: The Weinsteins are creating a lot of awards buzz around Grace is Gone. Are you interested in an Oscar?
If you want to give me one, I’ll take it…
Q: The way you’re acting here right now, it’s like ‘I don’t care’…
Yeah. It’s not a goal.
Q: So you don’t take it seriously?
No, I like making films, I take what I do seriously. But I don’t take hype seriously.
Q: And is it true you said you’ve only made ten good movies?
No, that was a German journalist, I think it got lost in translation a little bit. I said, ‘Yeah, 10 or 15 are good and some are OK and some are really bad’. But he said 10. And he also said all the rest suck and I didn’t say that. I wasn’t that Draconian about it.
Q: It’s unusual to have that degree of honesty from an actor in the business…
Really? Yeah, I mean, you can look at [the movies], it’s not that hard to figure out. And it’s difficult to make something really good. It’s not like you can just roll out of bed and make a really good film.
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The published article can be read on IGN – ‘LFF Diary #14’