| < | Prev | · | 1 | · | 2 | · | 3 | · | 4 | · | 5 | · | 2003 | > |
Eric on 'Black Hawk Down'
Top
Interview By: Bec Smith
Source: if.com.au
Provided By: Coe
February 2002
Bec Smith: So tell me about the last year, first of all, since Chopper and your AFI [Australian Film Institute Awards] win. Where have you been, what have you done?
Eric: Well, I remember this time last year, it was a really interesting time, because actually I got the 
Black Hawk Down gig in, I think it was around the very beginning of September, so I knew about it a couple of months before the AFIs came around...
Bec Smith: Ah, Sneaky thing...
Eric: We hung on to it for as long as we could, and I don't think it came out until, I don't think we said anything until December or something, so that was a weird time. It was a weird time going into the AFIs knowing what was going on but no one else knew. I always like that. Same with the Hulk, we knew two or three months before we broke it.
Bec Smith: And you like that sort of time?
Eric: I do, it's kind of like hibernation time. It's like you get to get your head around something amazing before you have to start dealing with it.
Bec Smith: You mean what it all means for you personally?
Eric: Yeah, or just getting your head around the gig, yeah, in a lot of ways, getting your head around the gig, getting your head around the logistics of what's involved for you and your family and stuff, and then when people find out, you’re actually already a fair way down the road, which I think is always a good thing. But no, it's been really busy because after the AFIs, you know, basically we went home for Christmas, packed up our lives and off we went, the end of January, and we were in Morocco from the beginning of Feb till the end of June, like five months, in an absolute shit hole.
Bec Smith: I was just going to say, because you started chatting to me about that the other day. It's funny, even just reading the beginning of that book [Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down] and talking about it was like a human wasteland, a hell on earth, and any images I've seen of Somalia have just been so... it is like a heaven and hell exist here on earth, and you can seek it out if you want, but... tell me about Morocco and shooting.
Eric: It was incredible. It was... it's so hard to work out the difference between the party line and not offending the indigenous culture. Just in terms of being respectful to a city and country that welcomed you for five months to come and shoot a blockbuster film. I feel sorry for them, because I feel that it's a really oppressed confused country, so I feel sorry for the Moroccans, so as a result of that, it's not an easy place for Westerners to spend extended periods of time, especially in Rabat. And then on top of that, we were a huge disruption for them. So...
Bec Smith: How did they cope? I mean, just the infrastructure and everything must have been a nightmare. Not your worry, I guess.
Eric: To cut a long story short, it was a long five months. You have people driving around, who don't know how to drive, and it's extremely dangerous, and it's funny for the first week, and then you start going, are my family and I going to survive this? Like, seriously, on the weekends we would stay in the hotel. I'm not exaggerating. We would stay in the hotel. We would not go anywhere.
Bec Smith: So are you talking about safety in terms of it being a dangerous city, people robbing you, or... bad drivers. I mean I've travelled a lot in the developing world, Asia mainly. I know what you mean. It's scary.
Eric: Confronting. I mean you don't feel as though if something wrong were to happen, the right thing would be done. So you feel safe whilst you're at work because you're around this big production, the minute you step away from the set, you always feel entirely vulnerable. And you know, the Moroccan system is very much about who you know, as opposed to what you may have done right or wrong, so it's a very scary place to be in terms of the law.
Bec Smith: It's interesting too that they didn't actually provide people to look after you and your family while you were there, because I would have thought on a project of that magnitude that you would get people looking after you very much so.
Eric: There was just too many of us.
Bec Smith: How many were there?
Eric: There was, I'd say close to 30 actors. Most times there was always 20 to 25 of us staying in the one hotel. Which was fun, you know, it was a great bunch of guys, it really was.
Bec Smith: Who did you get along with best?
Eric: Bill Fichtner and I are actually brothers. We actually adopted each other, you know, birth and marriage certificates to prove that we're actually brothers. He's an awesome guy, and I love the guy to death, we got along really well. Our wives have bonded, and we've got a really great friendship. Um, my other mate who went to Fort Bragg with Bill and I, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau... I mean a lot of the guys, but those two I got very close to, and another guy called Kim Coates who's a crazy Canadian. But there was a great bunch of people on the film.
Bec Smith: There were a lot of parallels with the whole production going into Morocco, and the American soldiers going into Somalia, a totally alien culture, and the only thing that they've got is each other, you know.
Eric: Yeah, it's right, and I think it really worked for us. There's a chemistry on screen from what I saw, that is totally unforced, you know, and wouldn't have been there had they assembled 30 actors in Hollywood, and whacked them in a studio, you just wouldn't have got the same chemistry. And I remember watching the film when the first helicopter gets hit, and some of us are in danger. I'm incensed. I'm absolutely incensed. I feel like something's going to happen to my mates, like, you really feel... it's that strong. I remember being really surprised afterwards how angry I was at the time when I was watching the film, I thought, 'shit, something's going to happen to my buddies', and then, 'oh, it's alright, it's the movie', but you really get sucked into us in the film. I think the strength of the film is you identify with the soldiers more so than the nations.
Bec Smith: Those guys were just caught in the middle of... I mean, what strikes me with just the little I've read is they don't have politics, as such. Did you find that, in preparing for your role and speaking with some of these guys? That they didn't necessarily have a political mind, it was more about just being part of a troupe?
Eric: They had, to me they were way more sophisticated in their political knowledge than I anticipated, but then my time was spent with the Special Forces community, not with the Rangers, because the distinction between Rangers and Delta is that your Rangers are like your basic infantry, and then your Delta are like the elite of the Special Forces community. And I was playing Delta, Billy was playing Delta and we were off doing that, and most of the cast was playing Rangers. So there was a big difference between the characters onscreen and also in what we did to prepare for that. And the people I came across in the Special Forces community were amazingly intelligent, very worldly, very politically knowledgeable.
Bec Smith: But did they feel like they were going there and doing the right thing? I just think that one of the things that you must encounter, the more that you deal with in these situations, is you actually become aware of the complexity of the situations and how there isn't any black and white. It doesn't allow for easy politics.
Eric: That's exactly right, and I feel like I've kind of lost my political virginity or my naivety, a lot of it, I really feel like I've been peacefully bludgeoned, do you know what I mean? I can no longer sit down and watch the news and go, 'Oh just stop it. Like, just this country stop picking on this country, and can everyone hold hands and just sing songs'. I can't say that anymore, and I can't tolerate hearing people say that anymore. And that's a sad thing, but it came about from being in such an extreme culture for that period of time, seeing just how different they are, and realising that when gaps are so wide, there's always going to be conflict. And I now understand the inevitability of that.
Bec Smith:You mean the gaps between the West and the developing world?
Eric: Yeah absolutely.
Bec Smith: You've got to have some kind of reaction to what's been happening for the Islamic fundamentalist movement, and the bombings and so on, I don't know, one of the writers writing for the magazine wrote something the other day and said you could almost call the war on terrorism and John Howard's line in the sand about refugees... it's the same thing, their fighting the same battle, and essentially it's like their drawing an iron curtain, an imaginary iron curtain around the developing world and you can hear them scream. I thought that was like a really good image. But it sort of says what's going on now and this film is interesting because it's at a stage when America still is innocent enough, really, to believe that it can be the world police. I mean, do you think that... I just wonder how it's going to go down, you know? Because that was at a time before now, when they realised that they can't be attacked.
Eric: Yeah, you're right. I think the film's probably, after having seen it I was relieved that it wasn't controversial. Like I think it's extremely poignant. I think if the film was made post-September 11 it would be potentially controversial. But I think because of the timing of us shooting the film and the editing of the film and so forth, I don't think the film will suffer in any negative way whatsoever as a result of September 11. I think that people will be more interested in it and have a better understanding of the armed forces and what those people go through when they're thrown into these situations. And I think that's what the film's about. I think the film's about the plight of the people who are at the front line of these kinds of missions. So it not only makes you question whether they should have been there, it not only makes you question whether anyone's got any place in sending people anywhere, I mean it's such a broad range of issues, but I think the essence of the film is about two sets of warriors fighting each other, and you understand both sides. I think Ridley was very respectful towards the Somali angle as well as our mission, which is really to be commended. I hope you have the same opinion when you see the film, but it's been approached in a very thoughtful manner, I think.
Bec Smith: He is extraordinary like that because a lot of his films are essentially action films, but within that action there is so much else going on. How was it working with him?
Eric: I would have no hesitation whatsoever laying on broken glass for him. Seriously. I mean the guy is... I mean yeah he's a great director, and a great visionary and all that stuff, but to have all that enveloped in someone who's an absolutely calm, methodical gentlemen, that's like the ribbon on the package. When I met him and realised that was the case, I was in awe. I was in awe of his temperament more so than I was of him being Ridley Scott. Seeing someone at the eye of the storm operate the way that he did was truly one of the great life lessons, and it's something I'll never forget and I'll always use as a yardstick with every director I work with from now on.
Bec Smith: And how was it different to say working with Andrew Dominik [writer/director of Chopper]? I mean it's tough to compare, very different films too. Maybe better if you could just describe for me a day on the set with Ridley and the point at which you went ‘wow, look what he's doing’.
Eric: I think it's because you really get the sense, and he said this in one of our meetings, he said, ‘I've already made the film, I've just got to go out and shoot it’. And I don't think everyone functions like that. And he really had made the film, so it was about going through the impediment of actually going out and putting people on marks and running cameras and capturing what he had in his head. And so he's extremely calm because he knows exactly what he's after. But he's then also extremely malleable given the situation because so much of what we did, and what we couldn't do, was determined by what happened on the day. And then his ability to improvise and make things up and change things and then still get exactly what he was after was incredible - and just incredibly calm. And he was working with a bunch of actors who haven't done a lot of films, myself included, and he always made you feel like what you were about to do was important, and he also expected you to be on your game. There was no time for workshopping things.
Bec Smith: Did you rehearse at all?
Eric: Not really.
Bec Smith: Different style.
Eric: We were literally... if it was a big dramatic scene, you'd turn up, you may or may not do a run through and you would shoot. And the camera department and the focus pullers were that hot that they would get it in one take, and he would sometimes move on. And you would go, 'Fuck!'
Bec Smith: Were you a bit freaked out by that, just realising you had to be so on the money every time?
Eric: You can't not.
Bec Smith: I guess with Chopper...
Eric: Yeah but we got to shoot take after take if Andrew or myself wasn't happy. I mean we never nailed it in one, and we'd just always, you know, you'd go into the shoot knowing that he was going to shoot a lot of takes so you use that. But in this case, you're going in knowing that if he's happy with take one there may not be a take two, which is a really scary thing to get your head around. It's even scarier when he moves on after a take because that's it, and you think, are you sure you don't want to do another one in case there's a scratch or...
Bec Smith: I guess there's a constant kind of insecurity of the actor as well, just having the trust that the director has got what they want. And you never watched it on the split or anything like that did you?
Eric: Some of the bigger action things he would share. It was most definitely not a no-go zone, like if you wanted to jump in the tent and have a look you could if there was time. But yeah, I think with the softer dramatic stuff I tended to just kind of trust what he was after, and he gives scalpel-like direction when he feels the need, but otherwise he really lets you go. So it is scary. It's like dangling off a tall building I guess.
Bec Smith: I guess it's kind of nice in a way; you get to do what you want to do emotionally. Does he watch it close up, is he there with you, or does he sit back watching it on the split?
Eric: Combination of both, depending on the scene. There were times when he would watch the actors, there were times when he would watch the splits. He's incredibly aware of what he's after, and will only come in and say something if it's absolutely necessary, and then it's very specific direction and you know exactly what he means. Sometimes it was a bit more general and he would say something and go 'right? right?' at the end of everything, and you would go, 'I think I know what you mean, yeah?'
Bec Smith: Did you ask any questions?
Eric: Yeah, I never felt like I couldn't ask him something or what do you mean by that or... his greatest strength and weakness is after two days you forget that he's Ridley Scott. And some people forget that in a bad way, and in some ways it's good to forget it in a good way, because then he just becomes a guy who you're working with on the film, and the upside of that is there's a great freedom that goes with that and a great approachability that goes with that, but the downside is that you can't forget that it's Ridley Scott. There's danger in forgetting it as well.
Bec Smith: What happened with some of the people who forgot it in a bad way, not naming any names?
Eric: (long pause) There were a few funny moments, and I'm not sure if the people who were at the centre of the funny moments were aware of what was going on. He doesn't suffer fools gladly, but then you know, people were pretty well behaved.
Bec Smith: Sydney Pollack was telling a story that if Woody Allen doesn't like what you're doing, you just turn up the next day and you're not on the call sheet. That's nice. How did it feel, the difference, I mean the scale of the project was just so much more massive, and did you feel like you were much more of a big machine rather than when you were on Chopper?
Eric: I felt far better supported in some ways, obviously because Chopper was a bit of a one man vehicle, in terms of how much weight was on me, and I really relished and enjoyed the surroundings of Black Hawk Down and the fact that you're not the lead and it's an ensemble piece, and Ridley's a star, so I tried to enjoy that as much as I could and did, so in that sense it was different and I enjoyed that. But, you know, at the end of the day... He shoots a lot of long lens, Ridley, so the camera was never really that close to you, so it was pretty easy to never feel like you were part of a big blockbuster. Most times...
Bec Smith: Lighting, set-ups, that kind of stuff?
Eric: Yeah, it was very subtle. It was... we had a great DOP [Slavomir Idziak], and he was a very sensitive man, and you never felt like your personal space was being intruded upon. So in terms of acting I found it very easy, because quite often you weren't aware of just how close the cameras were, and the budget dictates they can shoot with five cameras on you and so you're not going to have... if you nail it you're going to move on, you're not going to have to repeat it for cameras two, three and four, and technically they were fucking brilliant. They were unbelievable, and they would sometimes not even get a rehearsal and shoot a take and get it right and move on and I was blown away.
Bec Smith: These were people he works with regularly?
Eric: I know that a lot of people, like the 1st AD he's worked with before, Terry Needham. Terry worked on Gladiator and he's worked on a lot of Ridley's projects. So in that sense, it wasn't a huge difference when it came down to actually working. If it was you and another person having dialogue, it really wasn't much different at all. And he's very, very aware of not allowing crews too close to the cast. So he's pretty respectful of that environment.
Bec Smith: So tell me about the action. All of a sudden you've got all these roles where it's all about your body and how you look, and whether your putting on weight or getting buffed up, and when you're The Hulk...
Eric: It's fucking stupid.
Bec Smith: It's very funny. It's almost like you are getting cast because you have that ability to change, physically.
Eric: I don't really think about it too much.
Bec Smith: Does it bother you? How was it on this one? Obviously you had to be extremely fit to do all of that stuff.
Eric: Well yeah it's hard, but then you can't be too bothered because you know that it's extremely good for you, you know. So like the upside of it is that you get really healthy and there are great benefits. I'm lighter than I've ever been and I have no back problems anymore, you know I have more energy and I don't get as down as I used to. So there are all those things.
Bec Smith: Is that gym training or...?
Eric: I think a combination of... yeah, just being fitter, you know, gym, cardio, good food, changing all your lifelong habits that have taken 32 years to create, and it takes a while to break.
Bec Smith: You're becoming a machine, a human machine.
Eric: So, it's something that I'm aware of though. If someone came up to me tomorrow and said we've got a role where you have to be 115 kilos again [as Bana was required to do for Chopper], I would have to think twice about it, I really would, cause I'm sure it's not great for you to do it all the time. But I don't have a problem being in a healthy shape.
Bec Smith: I remember... who was the guy in American Psycho? Christian Bale. He was this English guy, you know. He just looked amazing, really buffed up, did all the work, and they said, 'oh so do you still look like that?' And he said, 'no I'm fucking English aren't I? I'm lily white and I'm really thin again'.
Eric: Well I haven't had to maintain it as crazily. I mean, for The Hulk I'm meant to look like a professor, so I haven't lifted a weight for, since I found out, so for two months I haven't been in the gym. I've just been doing different things.
Bec Smith: Walks in the park.
Eric: Walks in the park and stretching and running and you know. Oh look, it's not something I'm that hung up about. I don't feel like I need to drink a slab of beer a day, you know. I've kind of done that in my earlier days and I don't feel like I'm being deprived.
Bec Smith: How old are you now?
Eric: 33.
Bec Smith: It must be a nice stage of your life to be taking that huge leap, because you know where you're at, do you know what I mean? Do you feel that?
Eric: Yeah I do, I do feel like... and I feel that externally as well as internally. I feel as though for whatever reason it's a lot easier for other people to swallow as well. And I feel like I would find this a lot more difficult to swallow if I was 20 and I think other people have difficulty swallowing it with people who are 20.
Bec Smith: Being a success?
Eric: Yeah... because it's hard to say at 20 that the industry owes you anything. You know? And I don't feel like the industry owes me anything either, but I do feel more comfortable with it now than I would if it was just handed to me at age 20, you know what I mean?
Bec Smith: You know that even though you haven't necessarily done that many films, you've still done the hard yards, wherever they've been.
Eric: Yeah, exactly. And I feel lucky. I feel lucky that I have a wonderful, supportive wife [Rebecca] who knows what I do and understands the industry.
Bec Smith: Does Rebecca work, or has she worked that kind of world?
Eric: Not since we had the bub, but she used to be a publicist, yeah, so she's very aware of the industry. So, no it is, you obviously develop some personal life skills as you get older that make things a lot easier, and if nothing else, I've got a great shit meter, I have a great shit filter. It's fantastic, and I can say that. And I can spot shit from a million paces. I know how to avoid it, the AFIs this year was the first thing that I've been to since the AFIs last year. I don't feel the need to go... I've never been to a Hollywood party,
Bec Smith: Really?
Eric: No. I've been to dinner at friends' houses and I have no trouble having meetings and doing that kind of stuff. I don't buy into this 'need to be seen at parties' idea. And I remember someone telling me that if you want to make it internationally, then you have to move to LA and you have to do this scene. And that's why I can't stand hearing actors that do that and then complain about it, like, just don't do it. But it's horses for courses, you know.
Bec Smith: I know what you mean, though, it's that whole thing about, you know, they're touting you for an Academy Award for this year's support, have you heard...
Eric: Oh someone mentioned it yesterday, but trust me, it's not going to happen. I'll jump off a building if that happens. It would be so fucking ridiculous. I'd be so embarrassed.
Bec Smith: So I guess you've got a built in bullshit meter but do awards mean anything to you and all that kind of stuff?
Eric: No they don't. No they really don't. People taking your work seriously means something to me, and the benefit of Chopper was, overnight, I never had to worry about people questioning whether I could act or couldn't act. And Chopper was great for that and that alone. You know, the if Award and the AFI Award are awesome things that I'm immensely proud of, but no, they're obviously not things that you go after and you know, the awards are to me different. It's about continually choosing to do films that you're going to be really proud of, because we're really lucky to be able to make them, and I do see them as little time capsules, and you know, just don't do shit ones, knowingly. I'm going to make a shit film one day, but when I make it, I won't know it's a shit film when I walk onto the set.
Bec Smith: wonder what your gauge is for shit? Because you know, for some people it's like... what's the definition of a good film to you?
Eric: No I think a lot of people have good shit meters but they don't have... they ignore the needle bouncing off the red, right? I think we all have pretty good shit meters, you've just got to listen to 'em. I think the more scripts you read...
Bec Smith: So you work a lot off instinct?
Eric: Yeah, instinct, just don't kid yourself. If you read something and it's a pile of shit and you're being thrown a shit load of money at and you know it's not going to work, well don't get tempted, and there were plenty of projects that I could have taken that would have taken me off the marketplace for The Hulk, and I hung out and I got The Hulk, and that's great and I'm rapt, but I could name ten things that I could have taken that would have taken me out of the running.
Bec Smith: Have you seen them since and gone "I was right to stay away from that one"?
Eric: Well only a couple have come out, but there's a bunch of them that are about to be made, so I'll have to wait. You know, it's just... I think it's just important to not kid yourself, and like I say, I will make a mistake, I'm not perfect, I'm going to make a shit film one day, but it will come as a surprise to me. I couldn't stomach making a shit film where I knew it was going to be a shit film and I kidded myself.
Bec Smith: Just before I lose that thought, there's actors and they're young actors kind of going, yeah, but how else do I survive, what else am I supposed to do just to get through and keep actually doing the job?
Eric: Yeah, that's true, and their situation is different. What I'm saying is for someone who is fortunate enough to be given great opportunities like myself and some of my peers, to not kid themselves. It's different if you're starting out, it is. It's still about, no matter what position you're in, picking the best project that you possibly can, whether you're starting out or if you're at the top or the middle or wherever you may be. You just can't kid yourself.
Bec Smith: Are you going to move to LA, or are you going to stick around?
Eric: I'm going to move to Morocco.
Bec Smith: Yes, the weather's lovely and the people are delightful.
Eric: No, Melbourne and Sydney are home - Melbourne primarily, but also Sydney.
Bec Smith: I didn't know you lived in Sydney?
Eric: We don't live here, but my wife's from Sydney so we do a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. She's from Sydney originally, but no, Melbourne's home, but LA will be home for 6 months next year because of The Hulk.
Bec Smith: So you haven't done the Hollywood thing really, have you?
Eric: Yeah, got the Geiger counter going... bing bing bing bing!. But you know, there's a lot of it here too. I mean, everyone has this kind of anti-LA thing, but I think you end up with that by exposing yourself to all the shit. And for me it's like, when I go to LA, I say to my agent, I'm coming for three days. Fill my schedule so I can't breathe in three days. And I'm out of there and I come home. I don't go there and hang out for three months and take three meetings. I go, I cram and I come back. I don't leave myself... you know, home is home to me, I don't allow myself time to be available for just anything and everything. I just go and do my shit and get out of there. It's hard enough catching up with family and friends when you've been away for a while, but we'll be home for six months of next year, and hopefully I'll just head back to Melbourne.
Bec Smith: I guess it's going to be good too, I'm really pro-allowing overseas productions here because I think it provides a certain infrastructure for us to do higher budget films. You know, 6, 10, 20 million dollar films, and then that'll get people who have reached a certain status, actors included, coming back and making films here. Do you see, as an actor, could you go back and make a really low budget Australian film again, if the role were right?
Eric: Well I just did it, so I mean, I finished Black Hawk Down and came home and had two weeks off and went up to Mudgee and shot The Nugget, you know, because I wanted to make that film. I made that film because I wanted to make it for my son. I read the script and I thought this is the very definition of the type of film I want my kids to see. So it was a really easy decision for me. The money was irrelevant, the location was irrelevant. Bill Bennett was shooting it, I got to work with some really great friends on the shoot, so, you know, it was a gift. That's a gift. And I'll continue to look for things that are right, and I won't exploit them just because they're here. I can see that in the short term there'll probably be more pressure on me to establish some kind of international arm of my career, but that will only serve the purpose of further enabling me to come back and do things here as well.
Bec Smith: Eric, how do you, I guess it gets harder when you get so many scripts coming in and ... who's helping you with your career? I'm really interested in the whole thing as an actor's profile goes up and up, how they deal with all the stuff just coming at them, and how it's really managed as well, and it gets harder and harder as well, for people to get to you, or communicate with you, and it's all being done through agents and minders. I mean have you found that aspect of your life change in the last year or so?
Eric: Um, the benefit of being in my position is that you get a lot more scripts to read, but you have less time to read them. And I also, whilst I try to read as much as I humanly, possibly can, at the same time I know I'm out of circulation until July next year, at which point I want to take a slight break, so now it's like, don't give me a script unless it's being shot at the back end of next year. So don't give me a script for July, because I'm not going to go straight from The Hulk to another film, I'm not going to do it. Where's my prep time. You can't kid yourself that you can go from there to there if it's a challenging role and nail it. You can't. So it's about trying to prioritise your script reading. And you have to trust your agent.
Bec Smith: You've got an LA one?
Eric: I've got an LA one.
Bec Smith: Who's that?
Eric: John Fogelman. He runs the movie division of William Morris, and I have a lot of trust in him and I shopped around and picked who I thought was the best person over there, and I did that because I knew I had to be able to rely on him for a lot of things. And so I trust his judgment, I trust my own judgment, I trust my wife's judgment, and I trust my manager here in Australia, Lauren. You just have to assemble the best people around you, and then keep your ear to the ground. Because my agent over there is not going to hear about scripts that are here, you know, so it is hard, I don't know the answers yet, I just hope that I don't miss out on anything that I would have liked to have done through negligence.
Bec Smith: And that whole thing with profile building and your public persona and what you put out there, do you feel like you have to be more careful about how you are in public or any of that stuff...
Eric: No not really because I don't - this sounds so stupid - I don't go out a lot. You know, if I was a night clubbing party animal, I'd probably be a lot more concerned about it. But the fact is I'm not. And I hardly go to anything for that very reason, that I don't have to worry about it. So... I guess the by-product of me doing things the ways I do it is that I am cultivating a thing anyway, because the less people know the better, but at the same time... fuck what was your question again?
Bec Smith: Oh just talking about that whole thing of managing a public profile as you get bigger.
Eric: Yeah, I do think it's more of an issue if you put yourself out there a lot. So if you disappear and only talk to people when you're publicising a film, I think that's a good start. If you don't turn up to every single thing, that also helps. I just feel like, if I'm out sipping champagne five nights a week, I can't be reading scripts and I can't be tending to my family's needs. It's not possible.
Bec Smith: You know the last thing we didn't really talk about is just your process. Does it change depending on the film, depending on the role? Do you have a technique? What do you impose on your acting, if anything?
Eric: I think it's different with every role. I have a - I'm going to sound like a complete wanker - I find it very hard to explain, and I actually don't like talking about prep that much except for the stuff that's obvious, like when you go to boot camp and stuff, because I think that it's stuff people like to judge other people on. And I don't want my process to be judged. I want people to judge my films and my performance. I don't want them to go... it's like that thing of, 'Oh I heard so and so for a role climbed a mountain and screamed at the top of his voice, isn't that amazing'. Well he sounds like a fucking idiot, you know. And what I choose to do might be something equally as absurd, but then suddenly people judge that as opposed to your performance. So I think it's different for every film and it's not something I like to...
Bec Smith: Deconstruct.
Eric: Yeah. People eventually know enough.
Bec Smith: You must feel quite owned. I tell you, I'd really hate to be famous.
Eric: But you know what, you know, the other thing is, to an extent, people only know what you tell them, and I think if for no other reason, one of the reasons I feel blessed with what's happening now is, I've had enough experience dealing with people like yourself to know that I don't have to... I'm not obliged to answer every question, I'm not obliged to tell someone something because they ask me. It's no different to me asking you about your sex life or your personal stuff.
Bec Smith: Do you get a lot of that stuff, people asking stuff well and truly beyond the professional realm?
Eric: Yeah yeah, for sure.
Bec Smith: I find that distressing, that people are interested in it.
Eric: It's irrelevant.
Bec Smith: People feel like they have certain liberties, and just the cult of celebrity, you know. I just wonder how long it will last, the whole sort of royalty of it. It's very boring though.
Eric: It's very boring. I have no interest in what a celebrity has to say.
Bec Smith: Well it depends on what they're saying.
Eric: I guess I'm talking about someone coming out and talking about politics, or someone coming out and talking about whatever. I'm actually more interested in what you've got to say than what actor XYZ has to say, you know what I mean? No one should place any extra importance on what we say about anything other than what's directly related to our work. Then I understand you wanting to know, or people wanting to listen. But beyond that I couldn't really give a rat's arse what Woody Allen thinks about politics or... I'm finding that now, people think that because you worked on Black Hawk Down and spent time in the military that you have some political position on what's happening in Afghanistan. I'm sorry? How's that? You know?
| < | Prev | · | 1 | · | 2 | · | 3 | · | 4 | · | 5 | · | 2003 | > |
