Peter Sarsgaard swaggered into our interview room with the confidence that belied his young age of 33. After brilliant and complex performances in films like Boys Dont Cry, Shattered Glass and this years Garden State, Kinsey, the story of Americas first sexologist, may finally be the one that puts Sarsgaards name on everyone lips. He plays real life character, Clyde Martin, one of Kinseys male students who is hired as a research associate. Later Sarsgaards character seduces Kinsey and then Kinseys wife Clara.
Check out the official website for Kinsey
Daniel Robert Epstein: Youve had a lot of parts that many actors would kill for. Are they difficult to find?
Peter Sarsgaard: You know, I think that it's natural selection. I think that they chose you as much as you chose them, even when you have power. The great thing is that when you don't have power which I didn't and still don't in the grand Hollywood scheme of things, you get offered things that you wouldn't ordinarily do. You let people see you in the part and I always think that other people know what I can do more than I know what I can do. If I decided it would be much narrower and if you go in and audition for roles versus just getting them offered to you then you kind of get a chance to discover something that you wouldn't ordinarily think that you could do. So I think that for a long time it was a curse, but it was also something that was good. I got a chance to discover my range versus intellectualizing it.
DRE: What do you think drew Clyde Martin into Kinseys inner circle?
PS: The thing that drew me to Kinsey was just his drive. Kinsey was focused all the time like a train. You want to get on and you want to be a part of that no matter where it's going. Then I think that as Martin became a part of it he slowly discovered that he was interested in the ideas also. But I think that in that classroom scene where I'm looking at him, it's what he's saying. It's the way that everyone is reacting to it, but it's also the way that he's saying it. That's the way that people sometimes get involved with powerful leaders that are up to no good because the force of the force of someone who's got that much energy is very powerful.
DRE: Were you worried about the sexuality and nudity in the script?
PS: There was no nudity in the script when I read it. The nudity was discovered on the day because you go like, Okay, I'm taking a shower. I'm going to go to the bathroom to take a shower, and then I was like, 'I think that I'll take my clothes off here and walk into the bathroom. because I thought that it would start the flirtation. Then when you come out of the shower you go, Well, my suitcase is on the bed. So I have to walk over and get my stuff and I can either walk over and do this number, but I'm not going to do that because this is a guy that I'm about to ask to sleep with me. So I wanted there to be that awkward moment before it all went down where just two men in a motel in the middle of the nowhere and one of them has his clothes off which is a situation that could happen all the time. I've taken my clothes off in front of a friend before, but it doesn't lead to that. But I wanted the tension of that. I think that when [writer/director] Bill [Condon] wrote it, I can't imagine that he thought that I'd be clothed at that moment. I was getting out of the shower, but it didn't say in the script that he was naked or anything like that.
DRE: Did you get a chance to meet the real Clyde Martin?
PS: No. Clyde Martin didn't want anything to do with the movie. After he left Kinsey, I think that he went to John's Hopkins and kind of started a life that had nothing to do with that. I respect his privacy.
DRE: How important was the research into Clyde Martins background as compared to trusting the script?
PS: I've played so many real people and to me, if they're not in the public eye in a significant way then I don't have to worry about all of the superficial details. I can just trust that my reaction in the specific moment will somehow be connected to what his reaction was, and if it's not then oh well. I think that it's hopeless to try and be how they were. If you're playing Truman Capote obviously he has to talk a certain way because everyone knows that he talks like this. That's why I don't like playing real people a lot of the times especially ones that had such an affect as that or like Nixon. Watching Anthony Hopkins play Nixon to me was like, even though he was great, it's like you want more Anthony Hopkins in the role, do you know what I mean? You want to see the full Anthony Hopkins thing.
DRE: Do you think that the private lives of Martin and Kinsey affected their subjectivity as scientists?
PS: Sure it did. There's no perfect objectivity as a scientists. The fact that Kinsey was after, the idea that you'd be interviewing someone and you would have no reaction to what they're saying or that it wouldn't affect you in any way is a noble pursuit. But science has to admit that it's not always science in order to be more truthful.
DRE: Do you think that Kinseys data is useful now?
PS: I think that the reason that Kinsey's data is useful is that before Kinsey people were acting like these things didn't exist. Basically he just provided information that they existed. No one really read these books. People read the Reader's Digest synopsis of the books. So it's all second and third hand information. Maybe if something wins a National Book Award everyone will read it, but like a lot of the information that I personally have comes from second and third hand sources. So I think that a lot of these books that are supposed to have a profound affect on our time and are very meaningful frequently go unread and are really more just discussed from the Reader's Digest synopses. So Kinsey got people talking and I think that's his main contribution, just to have gotten people talking about stuff.
DRE: You worked with Liam Neeson before on K-19: The Widowmaker. Did that previous experience make the kissing scene easier?
PS: Yeah. Easier and harder. I spent five months with him on a submarine so it wasn't really the same thing. The thing that was good was that I still have a real reverence for him as an actor who grew up watching him. He's still very much a movie star to me even though he's a friend to me also. The combination of those two things is very good. No matter what, if I'd been cast in this movie and I'd never known him I would've had that kind of relationship. But having made friends with him on the scale that I did made it so that I could have the other side also. If I hadn't known him from that other film it would've been very hard for me to have that scene with him where I go up, and I'm not talking about the kiss scene or the nudity, but the stuff in between where I'm really talking to him. It's the stuff on that personal level and having the guts to stand up and go, What's going on with you? Sometimes you act with a movie star and the light is too bright, and you just can't get in there.
DRE: Was there ever any talk of going farther than the kiss?
PS: No, it always ended with the kiss. But Bill didn't call cut for a very long time with that kiss. [Laughs] And I mean a very long time, and at a certain point when we were kissing, I remember, you know, we're kissing, we're kissing and it occurred to I think both of us that like, At this point, something else would start happening, but I think that what he wanted to find all the colors that could possibly be in there including the certain point where we became uncomfortable kissing each other. At first it wasn't uncomfortable. At first it was like, 'Okay, we're doing this.' Then it gets uncomfortable and then you start getting in your head about it, and so I think that by letting play for a long time, and then you gradually get more comfortable and realize that it's not such a big deal. So I think that he was just trying to let it play out and get as many colors as he could.
DRE: Were you disappointed that Shattered Glass didnt get seen by more people?
PS: It was seen by more people than I thought that it would be seen by when I was making it. So I was always pleasantly surprised with the amount of attention that the movie got. I think that we made it for very little. We made it on a little soundstage in Montreal. I think certainly it has legs on video. So it's exceeded my expectations from when I made it.
DRE: What was the first film you remember seeing?
PS: The first film that had a big affect on me was 'Ten' with Dudley Moore and Bo Derek. I remember thinking that it was because I loved Dudley Moore. So I went and saw more Dudley Moore movies and obviously it wasn't that. Then I saw 'Bolero' and 'Tarzan' and I was living in Oklahoma, and my friend was one of the first people to have video in Oklahoma. He had a copy of 'Ten' and we used to watch 'Ten' all the time. That's sort of realizing through film that there's something that really interests you about this person running down the beach with the cornrows.
DRE: You were raised catholic are you still involved with the church?
PS: Catholicism scares me more than anything. I mean, to me the only horror movies that really get to me have to do with conventional religion like religion that's in our lives all the time that I see everywhere. That's the kind that gets to me personally.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official website for Kinsey
Daniel Robert Epstein: Youve had a lot of parts that many actors would kill for. Are they difficult to find?
Peter Sarsgaard: You know, I think that it's natural selection. I think that they chose you as much as you chose them, even when you have power. The great thing is that when you don't have power which I didn't and still don't in the grand Hollywood scheme of things, you get offered things that you wouldn't ordinarily do. You let people see you in the part and I always think that other people know what I can do more than I know what I can do. If I decided it would be much narrower and if you go in and audition for roles versus just getting them offered to you then you kind of get a chance to discover something that you wouldn't ordinarily think that you could do. So I think that for a long time it was a curse, but it was also something that was good. I got a chance to discover my range versus intellectualizing it.
DRE: What do you think drew Clyde Martin into Kinseys inner circle?
PS: The thing that drew me to Kinsey was just his drive. Kinsey was focused all the time like a train. You want to get on and you want to be a part of that no matter where it's going. Then I think that as Martin became a part of it he slowly discovered that he was interested in the ideas also. But I think that in that classroom scene where I'm looking at him, it's what he's saying. It's the way that everyone is reacting to it, but it's also the way that he's saying it. That's the way that people sometimes get involved with powerful leaders that are up to no good because the force of the force of someone who's got that much energy is very powerful.
DRE: Were you worried about the sexuality and nudity in the script?
PS: There was no nudity in the script when I read it. The nudity was discovered on the day because you go like, Okay, I'm taking a shower. I'm going to go to the bathroom to take a shower, and then I was like, 'I think that I'll take my clothes off here and walk into the bathroom. because I thought that it would start the flirtation. Then when you come out of the shower you go, Well, my suitcase is on the bed. So I have to walk over and get my stuff and I can either walk over and do this number, but I'm not going to do that because this is a guy that I'm about to ask to sleep with me. So I wanted there to be that awkward moment before it all went down where just two men in a motel in the middle of the nowhere and one of them has his clothes off which is a situation that could happen all the time. I've taken my clothes off in front of a friend before, but it doesn't lead to that. But I wanted the tension of that. I think that when [writer/director] Bill [Condon] wrote it, I can't imagine that he thought that I'd be clothed at that moment. I was getting out of the shower, but it didn't say in the script that he was naked or anything like that.
DRE: Did you get a chance to meet the real Clyde Martin?
PS: No. Clyde Martin didn't want anything to do with the movie. After he left Kinsey, I think that he went to John's Hopkins and kind of started a life that had nothing to do with that. I respect his privacy.
DRE: How important was the research into Clyde Martins background as compared to trusting the script?
PS: I've played so many real people and to me, if they're not in the public eye in a significant way then I don't have to worry about all of the superficial details. I can just trust that my reaction in the specific moment will somehow be connected to what his reaction was, and if it's not then oh well. I think that it's hopeless to try and be how they were. If you're playing Truman Capote obviously he has to talk a certain way because everyone knows that he talks like this. That's why I don't like playing real people a lot of the times especially ones that had such an affect as that or like Nixon. Watching Anthony Hopkins play Nixon to me was like, even though he was great, it's like you want more Anthony Hopkins in the role, do you know what I mean? You want to see the full Anthony Hopkins thing.
DRE: Do you think that the private lives of Martin and Kinsey affected their subjectivity as scientists?
PS: Sure it did. There's no perfect objectivity as a scientists. The fact that Kinsey was after, the idea that you'd be interviewing someone and you would have no reaction to what they're saying or that it wouldn't affect you in any way is a noble pursuit. But science has to admit that it's not always science in order to be more truthful.
DRE: Do you think that Kinseys data is useful now?
PS: I think that the reason that Kinsey's data is useful is that before Kinsey people were acting like these things didn't exist. Basically he just provided information that they existed. No one really read these books. People read the Reader's Digest synopsis of the books. So it's all second and third hand information. Maybe if something wins a National Book Award everyone will read it, but like a lot of the information that I personally have comes from second and third hand sources. So I think that a lot of these books that are supposed to have a profound affect on our time and are very meaningful frequently go unread and are really more just discussed from the Reader's Digest synopses. So Kinsey got people talking and I think that's his main contribution, just to have gotten people talking about stuff.
DRE: You worked with Liam Neeson before on K-19: The Widowmaker. Did that previous experience make the kissing scene easier?
PS: Yeah. Easier and harder. I spent five months with him on a submarine so it wasn't really the same thing. The thing that was good was that I still have a real reverence for him as an actor who grew up watching him. He's still very much a movie star to me even though he's a friend to me also. The combination of those two things is very good. No matter what, if I'd been cast in this movie and I'd never known him I would've had that kind of relationship. But having made friends with him on the scale that I did made it so that I could have the other side also. If I hadn't known him from that other film it would've been very hard for me to have that scene with him where I go up, and I'm not talking about the kiss scene or the nudity, but the stuff in between where I'm really talking to him. It's the stuff on that personal level and having the guts to stand up and go, What's going on with you? Sometimes you act with a movie star and the light is too bright, and you just can't get in there.
DRE: Was there ever any talk of going farther than the kiss?
PS: No, it always ended with the kiss. But Bill didn't call cut for a very long time with that kiss. [Laughs] And I mean a very long time, and at a certain point when we were kissing, I remember, you know, we're kissing, we're kissing and it occurred to I think both of us that like, At this point, something else would start happening, but I think that what he wanted to find all the colors that could possibly be in there including the certain point where we became uncomfortable kissing each other. At first it wasn't uncomfortable. At first it was like, 'Okay, we're doing this.' Then it gets uncomfortable and then you start getting in your head about it, and so I think that by letting play for a long time, and then you gradually get more comfortable and realize that it's not such a big deal. So I think that he was just trying to let it play out and get as many colors as he could.
DRE: Were you disappointed that Shattered Glass didnt get seen by more people?
PS: It was seen by more people than I thought that it would be seen by when I was making it. So I was always pleasantly surprised with the amount of attention that the movie got. I think that we made it for very little. We made it on a little soundstage in Montreal. I think certainly it has legs on video. So it's exceeded my expectations from when I made it.
DRE: What was the first film you remember seeing?
PS: The first film that had a big affect on me was 'Ten' with Dudley Moore and Bo Derek. I remember thinking that it was because I loved Dudley Moore. So I went and saw more Dudley Moore movies and obviously it wasn't that. Then I saw 'Bolero' and 'Tarzan' and I was living in Oklahoma, and my friend was one of the first people to have video in Oklahoma. He had a copy of 'Ten' and we used to watch 'Ten' all the time. That's sort of realizing through film that there's something that really interests you about this person running down the beach with the cornrows.
DRE: You were raised catholic are you still involved with the church?
PS: Catholicism scares me more than anything. I mean, to me the only horror movies that really get to me have to do with conventional religion like religion that's in our lives all the time that I see everywhere. That's the kind that gets to me personally.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 11 of 11 COMMENTS
swagger'd, ye says, missy??? aye!