Talking to William Hurt ended up being near to what I expected. I totally counted on him being a total intellectual willing to talk about anything especially the dynamics of acting. But what I didnt realize was how nice, cool and friendly of a guy he would be. He shook everyones hands after entering and before leaving the room. But I suppose its easy to be gracious when promoting a brilliant piece of work like A History of Violence. I wont give away what his role is in the flick but he plays it masterfully.
Check out the official site for A History of Violence
Daniel Robert Epstein: Are you being surprised by the reaction to this movie?
William Hurt: Ive been delighted by Cannes and Toronto but I keep saying I dont know how good were going to be received in America because thats where its most challenging. Im certainly challenged the most which of course is delightful for me as an artist, but scary too. You get people who say I dont know if I love or I hate it and you say Well thats good I guess, just dont love or hate me.
DRE: Over the years many actors have told me when they first discovered Cronenbergs work. For instance, Holly Hunter saw Dead Ringers and said, I have to work with that guy.
WH: Same here. Im sorry he thinks I turned Dead Ringers down. He said that in an interview and it wasnt that. I did have another commitment to some Off-Broadway work. I was devastated to have to say no. It is one of the most amazing performances in film and thats because of David Cronenberg. David Cronenberg knows what we actors do as artists.
DRE: For a second I didnt even recognize you in History of Violence and even though youre not in the film very long, its such a powerful performance, what did it take for you to get into that character?
WH: It reads that way. The movie leads to it so you know thats on your shoulders. The thing is David is also aware of everything and its not like youre going somewhere the director is not. Your thought is, God is he going to let me get away with this? He offered it so he knows I have it in me but not a lot of people do. He lets you take these huge choices with the physical appearance and then you start to actually do it and he could say no. All he has to do is raise a finger and say, lets go talk about this but he just let me go.
Look at what Maria [Bello] did. Thats a scalding portrayal of a person whos meeting a side of themselves they never wanted to meet. She comes in as a different person in every scene. That person is just having one layer of skin taken off after another after another, after another. Viggo as well. I dont know if anybody could do what Viggo did in this film. Hes not being coy with the camera and calling that modesty of character.
DRE: In a way, youre the comic relief.
WH: Theres a lot of relief in that scene. Theres a lot of watershed in that scene. I spoke to David early on and said, I do have the afterburners if you want me to turn them on and he said to go ahead. But normally I wouldnt use those kinds of muscles. I very much prefer the balance in a scene to standing out and so you have to make a decision. People who have expertise or the luck to have rehearsal time with cameras have it over people who dont. They can come in and guts it out. They like to shoot from the hip, I dont. I dont believe thats where the great risks are. Great risks come in long term, tremendously assiduous, very courageous study. Heroes to me are guys that sit in libraries. They absorb knowledge and then the risks they take are calculated on the basis of the courage it took to become replete with knowledge. A lot of people are taking those risks on the basis of something so unconsidered that its completely capricious. Thats one of the reasons why actors are not respected anymore as actors.
DRE: When did you discover that?
WH: I was 14. It was the moment I learned acting is not acting out. After that light went on, I spent the rest of my life trying to figure out how to make other people realize it.
DRE: But I think youve had certain benchmarks in your career that have helped you get to this place.
WH: I want that. I want to prove a point. That point is, actors are artists, not narcissists necessarily. But youre combating a huge social phenomenon, the masses of people, going to the moving image which titillates some synapses in the brain.
DRE: Is what youre talking about the kind of thing people would interpret as difficult?
WH: No, youre always looking for a way to get more. Not to be offensive, not to be capricious, not to be arbitrary, not to be neurotic, not to be an actor outer, youre just trying to get in and youre given so little time to get in gently, but its always hard. I need six weeks of rehearsal and women need nine months and it took me 15 years to figure that out. I know I didnt want it to be true because I wanted to go where everyone else was going, lets not cut the corners, lets cut down the building. But sometimes you cut down a building and theres lots of people in that building, lots of babies and the bathtubs filled with baby blood. So its not right. In other words the growth of an artist, the maturation just gets cut off. Theyre famous for what they were famous for when they were found to be famous. Were going to lock them into that position and were not going to let them become anything else or develop a maturity or any other thought. Thats the bauble that attracts the attention, so were going to keep them there and were going to keep everybody who watches them for that there too. Stasis, inertia.
The thing is, I dont believe in most of whats done. The amount of financial and imaginative energy thats put into mediocrity is just amazing which I find to be fundamentally offensive as a human being.
DRE: Thats why this movie is so successful because its an ensemble.
WH: The key for me was the fact that I arrived way early and David had no problem with that. Also even though it was at the end of the production Viggo still had all this time for me in the evening. We could talk about ideas, we could talk about scenes and the structure of scenes. My character wants nothing more than for him to say, I will be with you again. Its better late than never, its a huge question and when he doesnt answer correctly thats his death warrant. With the other men in the scene, its all strategic. Hes performing for those guys and we worked hard at trying to insinuate that as much as we could in the scene too.
DRE: You seem to work less now you did in the 80s.
WH: It just seems like that because I do a lot of independent films that dont get to the mainstream. I get people that come up to me that say, Gee, I just saw this movie on video, why didnt it get distribution in the country?
DRE: Will you only do bigger Hollywood studio if its somebody with vision like M. Night Shyamalan or Cronenberg?
WH: Yeah, you can pipe into that. I just want the good work.
DRE: Did you ever think of producing your own movies?
WH: Yeah, Id love to. But the problem is I dont think theyre going to go with me because I demand paid rehearsal. I demand minimal for paid rehearsal and not always six weeks either. Also Id have a pool of gross after breakeven for the crew because theyre the ones that make the movies.
DRE: Do you want to direct?
WH: I have a film I want to direct. Gena Rowlands was going to do it with me a long time ago. Its about an older woman whos running a ranch in the west the old fashioned way. Modernity is growing up around her but shes really maintaining. This itinerant guy comes in, he used to be a rodeo cowboy and now he just is a fence man there on her south border. She starts to die and he stays with her while shes dying. Its very funny with a lot of character. Ive set it up enough but no one believes I can play a cowboy.
DRE: Thats the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. Who would think that you cant play something?
WH: Ive had a conversation with two people I wont name them, in Los Angeles and they told me that Im upper crust, lost establishment, guy from the northeast with the ideas.
DRE: Whats coming up next?
WH: Im working on a De Niro film right now called The Good Shepherd and Im also working on a film directed by Chad Lowe called Beautiful Ohio. Its in the New York area which I like a lot.
DRE: Are you living In New York?
WH: Im living here while I do these films. Technically speaking I live in eastern Oregon. Im way in the desert. My mom was born and bred out there and she was pretty gutsy as a girl. So I needed help from my mom raising my kids. I live five miles from the nearest person.
DRE: Are you on the Internet?
WH: Yeah Im friendly. I use it for information I love the bloggers but its hard to find the right ones. I listen to XM radio because I can get so many overseas news stations. Also CSPAN is really the great treasure of the media as far as getting information.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official site for A History of Violence
Daniel Robert Epstein: Are you being surprised by the reaction to this movie?
William Hurt: Ive been delighted by Cannes and Toronto but I keep saying I dont know how good were going to be received in America because thats where its most challenging. Im certainly challenged the most which of course is delightful for me as an artist, but scary too. You get people who say I dont know if I love or I hate it and you say Well thats good I guess, just dont love or hate me.
DRE: Over the years many actors have told me when they first discovered Cronenbergs work. For instance, Holly Hunter saw Dead Ringers and said, I have to work with that guy.
WH: Same here. Im sorry he thinks I turned Dead Ringers down. He said that in an interview and it wasnt that. I did have another commitment to some Off-Broadway work. I was devastated to have to say no. It is one of the most amazing performances in film and thats because of David Cronenberg. David Cronenberg knows what we actors do as artists.
DRE: For a second I didnt even recognize you in History of Violence and even though youre not in the film very long, its such a powerful performance, what did it take for you to get into that character?
WH: It reads that way. The movie leads to it so you know thats on your shoulders. The thing is David is also aware of everything and its not like youre going somewhere the director is not. Your thought is, God is he going to let me get away with this? He offered it so he knows I have it in me but not a lot of people do. He lets you take these huge choices with the physical appearance and then you start to actually do it and he could say no. All he has to do is raise a finger and say, lets go talk about this but he just let me go.
Look at what Maria [Bello] did. Thats a scalding portrayal of a person whos meeting a side of themselves they never wanted to meet. She comes in as a different person in every scene. That person is just having one layer of skin taken off after another after another, after another. Viggo as well. I dont know if anybody could do what Viggo did in this film. Hes not being coy with the camera and calling that modesty of character.
DRE: In a way, youre the comic relief.
WH: Theres a lot of relief in that scene. Theres a lot of watershed in that scene. I spoke to David early on and said, I do have the afterburners if you want me to turn them on and he said to go ahead. But normally I wouldnt use those kinds of muscles. I very much prefer the balance in a scene to standing out and so you have to make a decision. People who have expertise or the luck to have rehearsal time with cameras have it over people who dont. They can come in and guts it out. They like to shoot from the hip, I dont. I dont believe thats where the great risks are. Great risks come in long term, tremendously assiduous, very courageous study. Heroes to me are guys that sit in libraries. They absorb knowledge and then the risks they take are calculated on the basis of the courage it took to become replete with knowledge. A lot of people are taking those risks on the basis of something so unconsidered that its completely capricious. Thats one of the reasons why actors are not respected anymore as actors.
DRE: When did you discover that?
WH: I was 14. It was the moment I learned acting is not acting out. After that light went on, I spent the rest of my life trying to figure out how to make other people realize it.
DRE: But I think youve had certain benchmarks in your career that have helped you get to this place.
WH: I want that. I want to prove a point. That point is, actors are artists, not narcissists necessarily. But youre combating a huge social phenomenon, the masses of people, going to the moving image which titillates some synapses in the brain.
DRE: Is what youre talking about the kind of thing people would interpret as difficult?
WH: No, youre always looking for a way to get more. Not to be offensive, not to be capricious, not to be arbitrary, not to be neurotic, not to be an actor outer, youre just trying to get in and youre given so little time to get in gently, but its always hard. I need six weeks of rehearsal and women need nine months and it took me 15 years to figure that out. I know I didnt want it to be true because I wanted to go where everyone else was going, lets not cut the corners, lets cut down the building. But sometimes you cut down a building and theres lots of people in that building, lots of babies and the bathtubs filled with baby blood. So its not right. In other words the growth of an artist, the maturation just gets cut off. Theyre famous for what they were famous for when they were found to be famous. Were going to lock them into that position and were not going to let them become anything else or develop a maturity or any other thought. Thats the bauble that attracts the attention, so were going to keep them there and were going to keep everybody who watches them for that there too. Stasis, inertia.
The thing is, I dont believe in most of whats done. The amount of financial and imaginative energy thats put into mediocrity is just amazing which I find to be fundamentally offensive as a human being.
DRE: Thats why this movie is so successful because its an ensemble.
WH: The key for me was the fact that I arrived way early and David had no problem with that. Also even though it was at the end of the production Viggo still had all this time for me in the evening. We could talk about ideas, we could talk about scenes and the structure of scenes. My character wants nothing more than for him to say, I will be with you again. Its better late than never, its a huge question and when he doesnt answer correctly thats his death warrant. With the other men in the scene, its all strategic. Hes performing for those guys and we worked hard at trying to insinuate that as much as we could in the scene too.
DRE: You seem to work less now you did in the 80s.
WH: It just seems like that because I do a lot of independent films that dont get to the mainstream. I get people that come up to me that say, Gee, I just saw this movie on video, why didnt it get distribution in the country?
DRE: Will you only do bigger Hollywood studio if its somebody with vision like M. Night Shyamalan or Cronenberg?
WH: Yeah, you can pipe into that. I just want the good work.
DRE: Did you ever think of producing your own movies?
WH: Yeah, Id love to. But the problem is I dont think theyre going to go with me because I demand paid rehearsal. I demand minimal for paid rehearsal and not always six weeks either. Also Id have a pool of gross after breakeven for the crew because theyre the ones that make the movies.
DRE: Do you want to direct?
WH: I have a film I want to direct. Gena Rowlands was going to do it with me a long time ago. Its about an older woman whos running a ranch in the west the old fashioned way. Modernity is growing up around her but shes really maintaining. This itinerant guy comes in, he used to be a rodeo cowboy and now he just is a fence man there on her south border. She starts to die and he stays with her while shes dying. Its very funny with a lot of character. Ive set it up enough but no one believes I can play a cowboy.
DRE: Thats the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. Who would think that you cant play something?
WH: Ive had a conversation with two people I wont name them, in Los Angeles and they told me that Im upper crust, lost establishment, guy from the northeast with the ideas.
DRE: Whats coming up next?
WH: Im working on a De Niro film right now called The Good Shepherd and Im also working on a film directed by Chad Lowe called Beautiful Ohio. Its in the New York area which I like a lot.
DRE: Are you living In New York?
WH: Im living here while I do these films. Technically speaking I live in eastern Oregon. Im way in the desert. My mom was born and bred out there and she was pretty gutsy as a girl. So I needed help from my mom raising my kids. I live five miles from the nearest person.
DRE: Are you on the Internet?
WH: Yeah Im friendly. I use it for information I love the bloggers but its hard to find the right ones. I listen to XM radio because I can get so many overseas news stations. Also CSPAN is really the great treasure of the media as far as getting information.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 7 of 7 COMMENTS
soyjuice:
for some reason I sew when this guys movies come on. I dont know what it is
shema:
Great actor. Loved him in Michael.