a SIFF 2007 interview

Buscemi Talks Interview

Talented Filmmaker on van Gogh, Celebrity and Sopranos Finale

It goes without saying that the irony of sitting down and interviewing writer, director and actor Steve Buscemi about his new film Interview, which is itself about – naturally – an interview, was not lost on me when I arrived at the downtown Seattle W Hotel. Not that I was really spending all that much time thinking about it. The thought of conversing with the wildly talented filmmaker was almost too fantastical to bear, and even if we weren’t going to talk about Ghost World, Trees Lounge, Armageddon or The Sopranos we probably could have chatted about the telephone book and I’d still have been borderline euphoric.

Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller in Sony Pictures Classics' Interview

Thankfully, the film itself is so good and so monumentally entertaining the Yellow Pages never came up in our chat, the nondescript Indie Film icon more than eager to speak about the events bringing him to my city. A remake of the wonderful 2003 feature of the same name by the late Dutch director Theo van Gogh (murdered by religious extremists in November of 2004), Interview follows a beleaguered political reporter (expertly played by Buscemi) as he interviews a famous actress  named Katya (a magnetic Sienna Miller) even though he doesn’t see doing so as exactly newsworthy.

“I hadn’t seen any of his films,” states the filmmaker when I ask him if he was familiar with any of van Gogh’s works. “I knew of him, but I didn’t know his work. But, I was lucky, because I was one the first [producers Gijs van de Westelaken and Bruce Weiss] came to about [Interview] and I responded before anyone else. Interview was the one I was most interested in. I just loved the characters and relationships. Also, it was very entertaining and I was interested in playing the role.”

What Buscemi is referring to when he speaks of ‘others’ is a project called Triple Theo, producers Westelaken and Weiss approaching a trio of New York actor/directors (Steve Buscemi and John Turturro being the other two) to remake three of van Gogh’s films. Interview is the first to hit theaters, Tucci’s adaptation of Blind Date and Turturro’s take on 06 coming to theaters later this year, each of the three employing much of the same crew who worked on the originals as well as using many of the same camera techniques the Dutch filmmaker preferred himself.

But, just because each of these has been made to honor their tragically slain creator doesn’t mean Buscemi felt beholden to make the same film shot-for-shot. “We opened it up a little bit,” explains the director. “We have that opening restaurant scene which is not in the original, and then I think the loft we chose is probably bigger than Katya’s one was in the original. But you still can’t get around the fact that this is still very much a two-character piece. That hasn’t changed.”

Buscemi pauses for a moment before continuing, rubbing his eyes a little as he collects his thoughts. “I was really impressed with the original and with the way it was shot. It did not feel like a filmed play. I was excited, then, to work with Thomas Kist who shot the original and to work with the Dutch crew. I was also very interested in the way that Theo originally shot it, using three cameras, doing long takes and pretty much shooting in sequence.”

Steve Buscemi in Sony Pictures Classics' Interview

Long takes. Shooting in sequence. Writing (along with David Schecter). Directing. Buscemi didn’t exactly make things easy on himself for his fourth feature. All this considered, was it sometimes difficult for the filmmaker to keep going during many of these single takes without getting tired or losing his bearings? “No, not at all,” he responds without hesitation. “It’s not difficult. The reason Theo developed working that way is so the actors can have a chance to be in character longer and to always be on camera.”

“Sometimes it is frustrating when you’re acting and the camera is on you and then the camera turns around on the other person and you end up doing your best work off-camera. By using multiple cameras and long takes, you’re just always on camera. After a while, you just sort of forget about it even [if] there are three people and a sound person following you around.”

“Sure it’s a little awkward at first,” continues Buscemi lightly chuckling. “When we were first shooting in the loft Sienna and I felt that especially. But, I thought, it was okay that we were feeling awkward because the characters are, too. Then the more we got used to the crew I think the characters [were] also getting more used to one another and starting to feel comfortable. So, it worked out that way, then, shooting it in sequence.”

It goes without saying Interview is a major departure from the moviemaker’s previous efforts. Trees Lounge, Animal Factory and Lonesome Jim can be called many things, but uplifting certainly wouldn’t be one of them. This film is just the opposite, it’s a lighthearted look at two disparate individuals bonding over a single night’s conversation intellectually toying with one another and borders on being an out-and-out joy.

“That’s why I liked it,” states Buscemi unequivocally. “It did feel like a departure from what I had done before. Granted, this is only my fourth film, but I’ve not played this kind of character before and it was really interesting. Not only that, but just the way it was shot visually and the tone of the material, and it was a challenge to make this essentially two-character piece visually interesting.”

“And it does get claustrophobic at times, as which it should. But, what I loved about the original is watching these two characters in their own world separate from everything else. And, for the few hours they are with each other they really do connect and they really go at it, almost as if they are a couple that is breaking up.”

Does that mean Interview is just a more intimate and aggressive version of My Dinner with Andre only now with two members of the opposite sex? “I certainly thought of that film,” admits Buscemi, “but I didn’t re-watch it or anything. I just thought the nature of this was so different; the relationships were just so different. However, it was nice knowing that there was that film, which was a very compelling two-character piece, out there. Films like [showed] me it could definitely be done.”

Considering that it was a two character piece, casting the right actress had to be weighing pretty heavily upon the filmmaker’s mind as he started to put everything together. One wonders, was Miller always Buscemi’s first choice to play the all-important part of Katya? “She was the first person we offered it to,” he states bluntly. “We had a pretty short list of people we were thinking of and I didn’t know her work, but when I checked it out, Alfie and Layer Cake, as well as her interview for the Layer Cake DVD, I just thought she would be wonderful.”

“When we offered it to her, we didn’t even have the script ready, but I just wanted to see if she was available and interested. And she signed on right away without ever reading the script.”

Sienna Miller in Sony Pictures Classics' Interview

Pretty amazing for an actress suddenly in as much demand as Miller (she was just in Factory Girl and also appears in August’s wondrous fantasy adventure Stardust), but not near as amazing as the chemistry between the two as they verbally tango around one another in the film. “We rehearsed for two weeks,” says Buscemi, “and that was an important aspect and also something Theo did as well. When you do a piece like this where it is just the two characters I think it is important that the actors do feel comfortable with each other. It’s in that rehearsal process where you can really explore and experiment and discover.”

“We had a really tight script,” he continues, “but I encouraged her if there was something she thought she could add to it to not hesitate. Because we are on camera all of the time if somebody did have an improvisation or if a mistake did happen you’re capturing both actors so it was important to just keep going. There was a little improv within that structure but, really, we mostly stuck to the script.”

Watching the movie I was reminded of the current media age in which we live, a world where the Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan’s of the world seemingly get more journalistic attention than the war in Iraq or the state of American health care, a point not lost on the filmmaker. “I don’t know why this is the case,” says Buscemi,” but it certainly does seem to be the case, that’s true. Maybe it is because there are just so many more news outlets available now what with cable and the internet. There is just more competition, so maybe they just go for the easiest thing to just pull [viewers] in. That’s one theory,”

“Granted, the other theory is that there are just so many more horrible things happening in the world today and news like [Paris et al] is just a distraction and people, I think, tend to have a little fatigue. Personally I have celebrity fatigue,” Buscemi says with a hearty laugh. “But I think it does depend. The pendulum swings both ways.”

So does that mean this was a theme he was trying to comment on within the framework of the film? “I think that is part of the original,” he says emphatically, “and I was really trying to stick close to the spirit of the original. But, at its heart, I was more interested in their relationship and of what they did. [Katya’s] not representative of all the starlets of today and my character is not representative of the media. These are two very specific people and they both have their jobs to do. To me, the interesting thing was these two people in a room and how their personalities compliment each other or repel each other.”

“I think there is also this whole father-daughter thing going on. He’s lost his daughter and she’s never known her father, and I think that is something definitely underneath the narrative. And there is also that sexual tension, as well, and who knows how real that is or who is playing who. And, it is also a bit of a cat and mouse game, and I think she’s enjoying how far she can take this guy.”

Having worked with the likes of Bruckheimer, Bay, Sandler and Willis, Buscemi is no stranger to massive Hollywood productions. Yet it is stuff like this, movies like Interview and the upcoming Tom DiCillo comedy Delirious, which truly seem to bring the filmmaker joy. “Yeah,” he agrees with a smile, “for me that is what it is really about. I mean, I like doing all sorts of films, but on the bigger ones there is just more waiting around it is just more fragmented, especially shooting out of sequence. I mean, I come from the theater and this was about as close to doing a theater piece as you can get on film. But, like I said, it was important to me that [Interview] didn’t look like a filmed play.”

So, all this in mind does Buscemi see himself acting forever, or will he subtly shift to directing and leave the on-camera work behind. “I’ll keep acting until I drop,” he says with a laugh. “No, really, I like doing both [acting and directing]. I’m lucky I get to make a living from acting so, hopefully, the projects I choose to direct I don’t have to think in commercial terms. I’m not saying I wouldn’t want them to be commercial; they just don’t have to be. [Acting] affords me the opportunity to be selective with the films I want to direct.”

And what does the filmmaker want audiences to end up taking away from this, his fourth directorial effort? “It’s hard from me to say what I want an audience to take away from it because they are hopefully going to take away different things,” answers Buscemi. “When I go see a film, or I see something like the ending of The Sopranos, I take what I take from it and it is interesting to hear what other people end up taking from it. But, of course, I do hope they respond favorably and they tell their friends to go see it.”

As I get up to leave, I can’t help but ask one more question, especially because Buscemi’s response has given me an opportunity to do so. And what, exactly, did he think of the controversial ending of The Sopranos? “I loved it,” he exclaims with a broad smile. “I just loved it. I thought it was brilliant. And I really loved just how much it seemed to piss people off, too.”

Additional Links:

-  Interview review by Sara Michelle Fetters