Emile Hirsch
by Erin Broadley for SuicideGirls (http://suicidegirls.com/)
Kurt Vonnegut once said, “I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” A seductive statement, especially for an actor…
The last time audiences saw actor Emile Hirsch, he’d abandoned all his material possessions and went by the name “Alexander Supertramp.” He was stubborn, deathly emaciated, living alone on an broken down bus, in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, seeking life’s truths. His portrayal of real-life adventurer Christopher McCandless in Sean Penn’s Into the Wild scored the young actor a hell of a lot of attention, and more so, Oscar buzz.
For his current role, Hirsch decided to forgo a life of reckless abandon and instead, transformed himself into a character that, while still an adrenaline junkie, remains loyal to his loved ones. He plays the title role in Speed Racer, the first writing and directing collaboration from the Wachowski brothers since The Matrix trilogy, based off the hugely successful, 1960s Japanese anime series.
Despite the obvious differences between Into the Wild and Speed Racer, their one commonality is Hirsch’s attraction to outsider roles, particularly the outsider with a heart of gold. “There’s just something about the good-hearted guy fighting the system that I just love,” Hirsch told SuicideGirls during our recent roundtable interview. Read on for more about the film, geeking-out hardcore with the Wachowskis, and Hirsch's thoughts on having an action figure that resembles Dennis Quaid...
Question: Was [the movie] even better than you imagined… even better than you hoped for?
Emile Hirsch: I love the movie. I think that what the brothers did with it is just so wild and imaginative, you know? You read the script and it’s so descriptive but you have no idea what that actually is going to be until you really see it. The way they made the colors pop and all the things they did with the focus and integrating the photographs into it, it was really kind of quite beautiful, I thought.
Q: Were you loving the green screen experience? John [Goodman] compared it to working in really low budget, New York theater where there’s no sets or props.
EH: That’s pretty funny. No, he’s right. Yeah, it’s like no sets or props or anything. It’s like you’re doing Waiting for Godot…
Q: Was it disorienting?
EH: Kind of, yeah. You’re like, “What are your memories of it?” Just kind of this green wall, you’re talking to it, and thinking about it. What was really weird was doing the car scenes because we did it on this hydraulic [simulator] called a gimbal. And, um, all of my anger in the film when I’m driving is so authentic because they were slamming me around in this simulator for hours. It’s hot and there’s lights on you and you can’t move because you’re strapped in. You get, literally, frustrated to the point where you want to rip the thing apart, just like, “Ehhhhh!” Literally, like, I had a drawing of me, beet red, breaking it. I’m serious. So all the scenes where I’m like, “Arrghh,” that’s just me.
Q: Some method acting for you [laughs]
EH: Yeah. Seriously, imagine if it was comfortable and I was happy, like, “Hey guys! Now get out of my way…”
Q: From a technical standpoint, the difference between doing something like Into the Wild where you’re going to the locations as much as possible where the things happened, or like Milk, where it’s a period thing and you’re wearing the outfits and sort of surrounded by that world… What are the acting differences for you?
EH: Those movies take place in real life so they’re super naturalistic. That’s just a whole different style as an acting thing. This was way more comic-booky, stylish… I mean, there’s a little bit of naturalism but it’s way stylized. All the lines are really crisp and specific… you don’t have any of the background [information], plus you’re making a film that takes place in a universe or a time or you don’t even know what it is. I mean, it’s Speed Racer world, you know?
Q: Does that make it harder?
EH: You’ve got to just trust the directors. That was the biggest thing. I’d be like, “Are you guys sure? And they’d be like, “Just trust us.” They didn’t actually say that but…
Q: [Laughs]
EH: But that was what they were implying, uh, by their silence.
Q: [Laughs]
EH: And I think it worked. What’s cool about the characters and the acting styles in the movie, there’s a lot of different tones to certain characters. Racer X and Speed are pretty serious a lot of the time, but then Spritle and Chim Chim are outrageous… Chim Chim’s dangling on the steering wheel, flying around, and hitting guys on the head with monkey wrenches.
Q: A lot of the characters you play are outsider types and Speed himself is like an outsider with a heart of gold. What do you think keeps that type of role attractive or keeps the story of the underdog timeless for you?
EH: I mean, there’s just something about the good-hearted guy fighting the system that I just love. And that’s kind of how Speed is. He’s a really focused guy with a heart of gold and the corporations are trying to crush him and use him for his skills to make them more money. And if he doesn’t want to play ball, they just want to destroy him.
Q: Did you watch the cartoon at all?
EH: Yeah, I watched it as a kid. I was a big fan of the show. I watched it on cartoon network. Then I also watched all 52 episodes in preparation for the part.
Q: Wow.
EH: Biggest waste of time… [laughs] no, no, no. All 52 episodes, I can’t take that time back.
Q: [Laughs]
EH: It’s just the perfect Saturday morning cartoon show when you’re a kid. The movie takes it to this level though that is a lot more accessible for adults than the show was. For me, I was a lot more engaged by the movie than the show.
Q: You talk about Speed as somebody that the corporations want to use to make money and to sell their products, as an actor in Hollywood that might be something a little bit familiar. When you’re approaching a big movie like this, does it make a difference for you that these are the Wachowskis that are going to bring a very unique spin to a blockbuster?
EH: Yes. That was the main thing that made me go crazy about this movie. I viewed these guys as more hardcore artists than most of the people making smaller art films. These guys are very, very talented. They take their work very seriously. The genre and the type of films that they make, just by their very nature, require insane budgets. I remember when I saw The Matrix when I was 13 in the theaters and I was so blown away by it. It was one of the most memorable experiences I ever had in the theater. That kind of stuff you never forget; it stays with you. Then you hear you get a chance to work with them and you’re like, “Ooh, ooh, ooh…”
Q: Somebody has described them as experimental filmmakers masquerading as big budget blockbuster directors. Do you think that’s fair?
EH: Totally accurate. A lot of the stuff in speed racer has never been done before. From it having a multi-tone to making a retro, cool family movie to having this photo realism with a lot of the CG backgrounds and infinite focus, the way they worked with these digital cameras, even the color experimentation… it’s definitely one of the most colorful movies ever made. Hands down.
Q: You talk about being a fan of The Matrix. Did you ever geek out with them over the films?
EH: Oh yeah, yeah. I’m a hardcore fan. I would always come up and ask questions like, “So Smith…”
Q: [Laughs]
EH: I’m a hardcore geek. I’ve seen those movies an unhealthy amount of times.
Q: Did you go out to a real track and do any real [driving]?
EH: I didn’t actually drive any racecars but me and my buddy Frankie went to a NASCAR simulator at the Universal Citywalk, which was fun. We beat a bunch of tourists.
Q: [Laughs]
EH: [Laughs and whistles] Hollywood-2, Idaho-0.
Q: What’s it like having your own action figure?
EH: I look like Dennis Quaid in my action figure.
Q: [Laughs]
EH: Circa 1995, which, is kinda an upgrade for me.
Q: Did you get bruises or anything [in the gimbal]? Knocked around in the cockpit a little?
EH: Oh, yeah. Matthew Fox got it worse though. I don’t know why, I don’t think he paid off the gimbal guy like I did.
Q: What would you be most looking forward to about Berlin, going back [for a sequel]?
EH: Hefeweizen.
Q: About [your next film] Milk, what is it like to go from Sean Penn as your director, to Sean as your costar?
EH: It was crazy… really weird for me and him. Because we had such different roles on Into the Wild… honestly I started to think of him as not even an actor. He started out as an actor when I first met him but then… It was like, “Oh he’s Sean, he’s a director guy.” But we got along really well and we just had a fun time. It was all good. Except for this one time, [laughs] no.
Q: [Laughs] Did you like doing martial arts? Or was it all just bruises and crap?
EH: The training was fun. Chad and Dave, the stunt coordinators, are such badasses and me and Kick, who plays Sparky, we’d be like, “How many Hollywood actors asses do you think you could kick at once? Like 20? 30?” And Chad would be like, “No, probably more than 30.” He’d be like dead serious, “No, more than 30.” And then Dave would be like, “Yeah, like 40.”
Q: Do you have any chimp tales?
EH: Chimpanzees don’t have tails.
Q: [Laughs] Was the chimp cooperative?
EH: Except for this one day, yeah.
Q: What happened the one day?
EH: It bit someone. He asked for it though.
Q: Who’d he bite?
EH: [Smiles] That’s classified.
Speed Racer opens in theaters today May 9. For more information go to the official site here.
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