Actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matthew Goode on Making The Lookout

If all you know about actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Mathew Goode is that the first starred in Third Rock from the Son and the second tromped around Europe with Mandy Moore in Chasing Liberty then you’ve been missing out on some pretty darn good motion pictures. Gordon-Levitt’s last two were the eerie and uncomforting Mysterious Skin and the fantastically entertaining noir Brick, while Goode’s turned in stupendous performances in both Woody Allen’s Match Point and the energetic coming out romantic comedy Imagine Me & You.

Both actors found themselves in Seattle to talk about their latest adventure, the wonderful crime thriller The Lookout from acclaimed writer and first-time director Scott Frank. Sitting at the luxurious Fairmont Olympic in the duo’s hotel room I couldn’t help but notice how smooth and confident the pair were, their collective excitement about the movie even rubbing off on me a little during our prolonged chat.

“I was inspired as hell,” commented Gordon-Levitt in regards to his immediate reaction following his first reading of Frank’s script. “It’s not often you come across any good writing, it’s [something] that seems to have been subverted in Hollywood in the past couple of decades but Scott still has the knack and remembers the old days when a good story with good words were what would make a movie count.”

Goode is quick to agree to the quality of the filmmaker’s work. “I was in Los Angeles and I just finished doing rounds of press for the Woody Allen film,” he explains. “I was in the bath reading the script and it is very rare that I sit in the bath and read to the end of a [screenplay.] But that’s what happened. It was just so fucking good and the characters were so three-dimensional and dialogue was so crisp, economical and elegant. I just loved it.”

“But, I never thought I’d get the chance to really audition for it let alone be in it,” the actor continues enthusiastically. “I mean, I had eight auditions in the end and throughout I never thought they would go with an Englishman. But we were quite lucky in the fact that they had the money [for the film] down and the producers had said to Scott that he didn’t need a star and that he could pick the people that he wanted.  And it is because of that trust we are sitting here right now.”

“And that is uncommon,” interjects Gordon-Levitt. “In today’s movie business, in general, there is a very exacting system based on a hierarchy of whom the executive suits judge as bankable.”

“Foreign presales,” adds a snidely sarcastic Goode. “Comments like, ‘We would love to cast him, but he’s just not very big in Japan.’ Stuff like that.”

“Exactly,” answers his co-star. “For that not to happen on this film is really remarkable.”

All of which makes sense when you look at the film’s eclectic cast of veteran character actors and virtually unknown rising young talent. Walking onto the set, realizing a studio was giving a freshman director such free reign to craft his picture and looking into the eyes of people like Jeff Daniels and Carla Gugino had to be invigorating for both of the young men.

“It’s a pleasure when it becomes about the art and the craft and not some celebrity fashion show,” admits Gordon-Levitt.

“It certainly is exciting,” agrees Goode. “Everyone has to eat, and we’ve all done jobs where it is slightly depressing when you know you’re working on something because you have to pay the rent the rather than because you’re playing a particular character that you love. I mean, I’ve been quite lucky and I’ve loved all of the characters I have done in all of the films I have done, but on this one the script was just so good and it just doesn’t get much better than that.”

Yet, just because Scott Frank is a terrific writer whose body of work, Dead Again, Out of Sight, Get Shorty and Minority Report are all his scripts, speaks for itself doesn’t mean he’s a guaranteed winner behind the camera. “I think the man is born to make movies,” says Gordon-Levitt without hesitations. “It’s real obvious as soon as you talk to him. It’s just how his mind works, in visual cinematic stories. Can’t blame him for taking his time to finally get around to it but I bet he’s got a few lifetimes of good movies in him.”

“Everybody was so into working on that set, and that is really rare, and I think that was largely due to [Scott]. Everyone wanted to do a good job for him because when a director cares so much about what he or she are doing it’s contagious. It’s not always the case. Some directors are just doing a job, just going through the motions. But in this case it was obviously his love and his compassion, and everybody caught it, and everybody was there to play for real.”

“He’s so fucking smart,” adds the sexy Brit costar. “What’s great, is that sometimes you can really clash heads because you think you know the character a fuck-sight better than they do, but with Scott he wrote it and that was a huge help. From day one I was very, very comfortable.”

“We’d have movie nights where we would watch Powell and Pressburger, films like Black Narcissus, and so I learned a lot making this one. He’s just such a fan of film. He’s seen everything. [Scott’s] a walking bible of film, and that also is a big help. It makes you think that whatever he wants to do you’re going to let him do. It’s just that kind of confidence he generates.”

But just because Scott wrote great characters for the two men to play, the actors still have to find a way to bring them both to life. No easy task under any circumstances, but considering the mental handicaps faced by central character Chris Pratt, a high school wunderkind who’s life is changed forever after an accident, Gordon-Levitt found himself under more pressure to rise to the occasion than ever before.

“It was really hard,” admits the actor sheepishly. “It was a struggle, partially because for Chris life is a struggle. Everything for him is difficult. It’s hard for him to wake up in the morning. It’s hard to complete a sentence. It’s hard to drive where he needs to go. It’s not that he can’t do these things, he can, it’s just hard for him to do them.”

“So, that’s what I was aiming at. And, I don’t really know how it was I did it but once we were in the middle of doing [the film] those things became a lot easier. Maybe partially because, for Chris it is hard to wake up in the morning and for me I could show that because maybe I didn’t sleep enough, things like that. I was sad, and in pain a lot. So, yes, it was really difficult, but that’s what makes me happy more than anything, working on good movies, and that probably should be difficult.”

Listening to this, one has to wonder if the two men believe you have to live as your characters in order to bring them to life. “It’s not that I was playing Chris when I went home at night,” explains Gordon-Levitt. “In fact, when I went home at night I would kind of do the opposite. My mind instinctually wants to do certain things that I couldn’t during the day. When I got home I would try to scratch those itches by reading the news or call up someone and have a conversation unlike one Chris could have.”

“But I think we both have quite different processes there,” interrupts Goode. “In fact, I’m not even quite sure I know what my process is. I think we feel unqualified to talk about acting because I think it is quite dangerous to talk about it as a science. It’s not like A plus B equals C.”

“Right,” agrees Gordon-Levitt. “And every day is different.”

“Exactly,” continues the other actor. “It’s about your preparation, your homework, because fifty percent of your performance comes from the other people in the scene with you. It’s also about going to the set for the first time. It’s about the little mistakes that happen, little thoughts that occur. It’s not method acting, certainly my thing isn’t, but when I’m doing a scene it’s sort of a dreamlike state where you are the character. And then, the moment [the director] says cut, the dreamlike state ends.”

With this in mind, there had to be a little method to Goode’s madness in bringing such a manipulative prig like potential bank robber Gary to life. He’s the one who isn’t afraid to tell Chris the truth, the one willing to lay it on the line by giving him insight into the life he once held before his accident and the one he is now stuck with. But, does that mean Gary cares, or is this honesty just a façade in order for him to get the money he lusts thirstily for?

“This is the thing,” answers the actor excitedly. “There wasn’t a huge amount of back-story for Gary at all, so I made up my own back-story. For example, take the girls coming into the bar. When I spoke to Scott about it, he said that they just happened to be there. But, I was like, they were planted, Gary put them there, they were part of his design.”

“But what’s great about Gary is exactly what you say. He’s the only one telling Chris the truth. So, even though he’s a bit of a cunt, if you’ll pardon my French, if he could get the money it would kind of be like redemption for what has happened in his past. Even though he’d probably kill all his friends and probably sit on an island, he’d still in his mind be kind of fine. And he has a friendship, in a way, with [Chris] because they work on a sort of truth factor where the rest of the people in the gang he doesn’t. They are actually the ones who are expendable.”

Our conversation about The Lookout continued, and for a moment I was starting to think the publicist had forgotten all about us. Most notably, we started to discuss one of the major moments in the picture, a relationship between Chris and another character that, for whatever reason, comes to an end with an almost bewildering suddenness. It is a turn of events that didn’t work for me, and what was interesting was listening to the two actors discuss why they thought I, and more than a few others, felt that way and what might have been done to remedy the situation during filming.

“I was thinking about this the other day,” recollects Goode. “There is a scene where [the character] stumbles upon some guns and I was saying to Scott that I just wanted to elbow them in the face. He thought it was great and told me we should do it, so we did a couple of takes thinking that we had it, but we didn't, and I was thinking if [they] had a black eye as [they] were leaving in the cab it would still play like, 'Fuck! What the hell happened to [them]?' Because, [their] leaving really does create a big question mark and that fucks [their] character over just a little bit."

"But I think there is some honesty in Chris and [the character’s] relationship there,” claims Gordon-Levitt. “I think he falls for [them,] and they honestly fall for him, too. But, then, all of the relationships in the film are, like you said, not quite one hundred percent honest. But this one I think is as pure and as honest as any of them.”

This minor argument aside, there is a lot the three of us find we agree upon about the film, not the least of which is how entertaining it is. But, just as the conversation seems to be getting great, the publicist finally walks back into the room to give us our five-minute warning. Yet that doesn’t stop me from wondering out loud if, based on the pair’s recent track record, they’re both trying to put the frivolous behind them and are now concerned with looking for work that challenges them on multiple levels.

“Most English actors have a tremendous respect for your Pacino’s and your DeNiro’s because it is a different thing than our stagecraft,” claims Goode. “There is a huge mutual respect across the pond for theater and for film. But there is not much of a [film] industry in England at the moment, there is some good stuff being made of course, and I wanted to play an American character, wanted to do something out of my comfort zone. I didn’t want to become pigeonholed; I didn’t want to become the next blah-blah-blah.”

“So, when this script came along I thought there was no bloody way they would ever let me touch it. And, that’s a huge testament to Scott Frank’s integrity that he didn’t bring a huge star in to do the roll and I know there were loads who were up for it. But, in a sense, what you’ve done something good you don’t want to go back. I haven’t worked since The Lookout because nothing good has come my way, and I’ve been able to just sit back and pay the rent and wait which is great.”

“Look, neither of us,” he quickly gestures from himself to his costar, “are in the luxury where we can just say, ‘I'll sign on.’ We have to audition. But I kind of believe you should audition for any job anyway, it’s good for the fucking soul. It would freak me out if I turned up on a set and I hadn’t earned [being] there. That’s sort of my process. That fear is fucking healthy and good for you, that you’ve put yourself out on the line and went for it. But then I’m talking bullshit and probably should shut up.”

“No, he’s right,” agrees Gordon-Levitt. “For me, I just wanted to be in good things. There is some chance involved, and the scripts I ended up liking where the filmmaker also wanted to put me in the movie were the ones I did. It’s really that simple. I never made the decision to make contrasting career choices; I really just wanted to do good work.”

“And I would love to return to comedy, but good comedy writing is even rarer than good other kinds of writing. It’s really infrequent to find.”

The publicist pops their head in the doorway again, but Goode gives them a stern look which can’t help but make me smile just a wee little bit. It’s almost like he’s fighting to give us more time to talk, and considering how much I'm enjoying this interview I’m not about give him reason to do anything otherwise.

Lighting up a cigarette, the actor rolls into a thought seemingly ignoring our time constraints. “It’s not like picking a genre,” he says, stubbing out his smoke after one puff as if suddenly deciding he really didn’t want it. “There was a great interview feature on Charlie Rose, who is a fantastic interviewer who actually shuts up and lets them talk which is a lesson to other interviewers out there, by the way.” Goode flashes me a quick smile as he says this, running right back into his thought before I can comment.

“What he was saying is that, as an actor, our job is to read these lines, have them go in, and then your job is to make them flesh. And when I picked up Scott’s thing something just clicked inside, and it sounds really wanky but it’s true! It just clicks inside of you and you’re like flustered and you’re interested and your blood rate goes up and you’re like, ‘I fucking love this and I must go meet someone about it right now!’ It is just three-dimensional and great. It’s just about sheer quality of writing. That’s the simplest way of putting it.”

“I think as soon as you try crafting a career,” ponders Gordon-Levitt, “based on people’s perceptions you you’re sunk. You’re pandering. You’re not getting it done.”

“When you’re an actor you are an actor,” adds Goode. “We were talking about this the other day and comedy and other genres are no different as how you should be playing it. If there is a joke there, than it is about technique and it is about timing, and if the writer has done a good job than it is funny. And if they haven’t, than it is not funny. If it is a drama, then if the writing is good there might be some suspense there. If it is not then you want to walk out of the fucking cinema. And, you don’t play it any differently because there is a joke. The best comedies generally have a very touching side to them as well.”

“And good suspense movies are funny,” breaks in the other actor with a smile. “Even Mysterious Skin has some pretty funny stuff in it, and Brick is certainly about the snappy precision I learned on Third Rock from the Sun. I don’t see as big a difference between the genres as [some] do.”

“One of the guys I hung out with who had suffered a traumatic brain injury while making the movie, his name was Dan, and he was a really sarcastic guy. He made jokes all of the time, and about various things, but especially about himself and his circumstances. Made jokes all the time, and it surprised me at first, but it was also really illuminating as to how to play Chris and as to how to approach this movie.”

“The movie is an enjoyable one and a funny one,” Gordon-Levitt continues, pausing to take a drink of water. “All the great suspense movies, all the great heist movies, I think you always laugh. I laugh at Coen Brother movies. I laugh at Humphrey Bogart movies. And those are great, highly suspenseful movies. You have to have humor. I think it makes the suspense that much better when you do.”