Interview: Guy Pearce On Traitor

By Kellvin Chavez on August 25, 2008

Guy Pearce has had a magnificent run of films where he’s managed to play a wide variety of roles, never really sticking to just one genre. Many people forget his amazing work dressed as a woman in "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," or his chilling part in "Ravenous," that had people looking at steak differently.

Pearce is probably best known for his work in Christopher Nolan's "Memento," as Leonard, the man with short term memory loss, and Lt. Edmund Jennings in the critically acclaimed "L.A. Confidential."

I had the chance to talk to Guy Pearce this weekend and talk about his new film, "Traitor."  The film has a very real unsettling feeling because of the sensitive subject it deals with in regards to the possibilities of another attack on the U.S. Guy talks candidly about his role, working with Don Cheadle and his Australian accent amongst other things.

Is there such a thing as an ideal Guy Pearce role?

Pearce: No, there isn't.

Is that buy design?

Pearce: No. I just don't think there is. I mean, that almost feels like it'd be too limiting in a way, I think, and I can't even imagine what that might be. What's ideal for me is being able to sort of to constantly venture into different walks of life and different situations and emotional kinds of turmoil necessarily, it's not always about turmoil, but just emotional states. That's what I find fascinating, I think, really and I sort of try not to think about what the ideal thing would be. I just really stay open because that's how I respond to things, by being open to them. Choosing stuff is a really an intuitive thing, I suppose. I feel like I have to really feel it because if I don't then I'm acting as sort of like standing up there faking it or something.

What was it about this character then that you wanted to do it?

Pearce: This was actually probably more geared towards the entire film rather than just my character. I'm winding up a number of things when I take on a film, the world that you're into and the character and then obviously your director and trying to figure out – not trying to figure it out, but just understanding how you're going to work together and getting a sense that if there's any disparity between what the director is talking about and how you read the script. So this was very much about the whole world, I think, the story of it. Clearly the script was well written and the character was quite well realized, my character, in that you've got somebody who might be seen as a bit of cliché in films these days and yet there's some qualities about him [that are interesting]. I think the film on the whole looks at the idea of just taking a minute to sort of understand what's going on over on the other side of the fence particularly in this day and age when we're all supposed to fear what's going on. There was sort of a nice subtle way in which we get to see that there's a connection between Clayton, the character I play and Don's [Cheadle] character in that they're both men of faith.  It's just there and it's in their blood and there's sort of no real difference between us on some level .

Jeffrey Nachmanoff talked about how you went about learning the southern accent and said I should ask you about it, that you listened to tapes or something?

Pearce: Yeah, well Tim Monarch who I have work with has a great catalogue of interviews with people from all around the world and whenever he goes to work on a film with his regular actors or whatever actors he works with he'll interview locals and consequently he has hundreds and hundreds of interviews of people dating back for the last thirty years or something from all over the world. So I can call him up and say, 'Okay, well educated, Tennessee, blah, blah, blah.' He'll say, 'Right –' and he'll flip through his catalogue and pull out the right ones and will send me six CD's or whatever. I listen to them and sort of find the one that I feel I can relate to the most and send a copy of the script to Tim and he'll write it out phonetically and I'll just start getting used to the rhythm of the accent and the melody of it and so on and then I start having a few conversations with Tim. I never have Tim on set with me. I like to try and have it down before I go to work and then if I screw anything up we can always patch it up later in the studio or I'll refer to Tim. I'll call Tim semi-regularly throughout the shoot and say, 'I've got this thing coming up next week and there's this word I keep getting stuck on. I'm not really sure if the emphasis is on the U or the other –' and I'll talk it through with him.

Do you ever get worried because you're so Australian in your regular voice?

Pearce: I do. There's always a bit of worry about any job that you take on, that you want to be convincing in all the aspects that you need to be convincing in, I suppose. If I'm too worried about something when I read things I won't take them on, if I don't feel like I'm able to pull it off. Sometimes you sort of take things, and I think there's more of a subconscious response. I might read something and think, 'Wow. I have no idea how I'm going to do that, but I'll say yes to this.' Then you just know that you have the work ahead of you to then try to perfect to whatever extent you need to.

This is more a story about Don Cheadle's character.

Pearce: Yeah. It's not really a journey for my character in a way. It's very much Don's story and I just wanted to be a part of that, I think. It wasn't a huge journey or change or learning.

You don't even have that many scenes together.

Pearce: Yeah, that's a funny thing. We're only in three scenes together really and I partly wanted to do the film because he was in it even though we didn't really get to work together that much though. We saw each other in the foyer of the hotel and I would say, 'How's your movie going?' He'd go, 'Okay. How's your movie going?' 'Yeah, pretty good.' It's like we were working on two separate things, but I think the feeling that the characters, you get a sense that we're involved in each other's lives in a way, from my characters point of view. After he's escaped from the prison at the beginning I'm sure the last person he's thinking about is Roy Clayton.

The film walks the line of being an entertaining thriller and deals with the very real threat of terrorism. Can you talk about that?

Pearce: I don't know what to say unless you have a specific question other than what you've said, but I think it does that. I think Jeffrey has done a good job of tapping into a subject that I think is probably pretty frightening for a lot of people, particularly here in New York.

Isn't there the risk of exploiting the issue to make it feel more like a movie?

Pearce: Sure, absolutely. I think that really Jeffrey has done a pretty good job of taking something that is, not just the subject matter, that's supposedly removed far from our everyday lives, but the idea of even trying to understand that subject matter and sort of fitting it into what we know as conventional filmmaking in a way that's entertaining and accessible. I'm sure that Jeffrey mentioned to you that he was interested in films from the '70's like 'Three Days of the Condor' and stuff that deal with real situations but place them in an arena that's entertaining and accessible. You're still able though to walk away from it in the end and really think about the subject matter. I think with a subject like this, if you go too far one way you're going to make a really unusual art film that no one is going to go see or accept and if you go too far the other way then really you don't make the film because it's going to treat the subject with a really flippant sort of attitude. That flippant attitude in some films is great because it's a particular kind of film, but not a subject like this. I think it was important to him to go, 'Look, if we're going to get anyone to watch this film, if we're going to get people to start thinking differently we have to offer up something that's palatable –' I suppose. Someone said to me the other day that there are a few things that are a bit cliché and I said, 'Well, that's okay, isn't it?' Cliché things, there are a lot of things in our lives that are kind of cliché. Not everything in the film is a big cliché, but some things are. Clichés exist because they're true. I used to hate the idea of any kind of clichés, but now I can kind of see their use in a way, their value.

Other than Don Cheadle why did you want to do the film? You mentioned the story of it.

Pearce: I think that, yeah, that it deals with this subject matter but looks at it from a point of view that a sort of standard Hollywood studio wouldn't allow itself to do. I think if a standard would've done this they would've had to soften it up a bit and I would've been the leading role instead of Don. So there was just a very smart and unusual perspective taken, I think, and it seemed fairly clear to me straightaway when I read it that it had a really credible sense of reality about it. It's an emotional story. I think Don and Saïd [Taghmaoui], their connection in the film is such an unfortunate kind of situation because the reality is that we think we shouldn't be friends with certain people in the world because they do their thing and we do our thing, but the reality is that we're all just sort of emotional people and if you stripped away all that stuff we could all connect. I just thought it was smart.

Have you made a conscious shift away from studio films to more independent type work?

Pearce: Not necessarily. The studio system is a tricky system to deal with. That arena is, there's definitely a particular frequency that it operates on that I kind of find a little bit tricky. I think when people are really worried about their $100 million it makes people behave in a particular way rather than thinking, 'We've got $3.50. We've really got to be creative to make this work.' That feels like it makes more sense for a workplace that I want to be in. It did then. I can probably deal with it better now.

Why now?

Pearce: Just because I'm older. I can sort of deal with other people's shit a bit better now than I could've back then. I would take on other people's worry and anxiety a lot more then than I do now. Generally, I'm not in this to sort of promote a career. Not that I'm trying to be a big old movie star really. I'm aware that you have to a little bit of that in order to keep working, but I'm a little bit uncomfortable with that generally so I'm certainly not going to take jobs so that my name will get bigger. It's not about that. It's just about what sort of work that I believe in and generally that's in independent films. People are prepared to take more risks. There are great studio films as well, but I'm not the person that they're offering them to. They're offering them to Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt because they're on that list and I'm on this list. So if I got offered really good studio films I'd probably do them.

Do you have anything else coming up next?

Pearce: Not that I'm shooting. I'm going to try and take a break now. I've got some films in the can that haven't come out yet.

Has the Houdini film come out?

Pearce: Yes. Harvey [Weinstein] managed to release that without letting anyone know. They did a really good of slipping that out there secretly. I knew two days after it came out that it had come out.

Are you planning on working again with Chris Nolan?

Pearce: We don't have any plans, but I would if the opportunity came up.

Who do you play in John Hillcoat's 'The Road'?

Pearce: I play the veteran, the father of the family at the end who essentially finds the boy when he's then on his own.

You talked about what list you're on in this industry. You've worked with big stars who are always in magazines and being hounded. What's been your experience in watching them deal with that?

Pearce: Look, I'm just glad it's not me. It's a nice reminder of the world that I don't want, in a way.

Have you had that experience before?

Pearce: Well, sort of. Years ago I was on a TV show that was pretty popular in the UK and it wasn't just me though. There was like twenty of us on the show, but there were a couple of other actors on the show that were hugely popular. So I felt like I didn't quite get the attention that they got which was good. But what I did get of it was sort of too much. I'm just not into it. I don't need it.

Do you ever want to make a movie so that people will get a particular message or something?

Pearce: I'm aware that there's always an audience watching it. I'm aware that I want to affect them in a particular kind of way, but I don't think that you can really suppose or predict what they're going to get out of it essentially because every person is going to get something different. If I show anger in front of you as opposed to someone else you're both going to respond to it I suppose, but all I need to do is make you believe that I'm angry and then whatever you do with that is totally up to you. So I'm aware that there is a connection and a response, but I don't necessarily go into something hoping that you're going to take away something specific. Well, I suppose on some level, particularly when you do the press for something and everyone is then talking about the film and not actually sort of in it anymore, I'm not in that headspace anymore, that's when I start go, 'Alright, okay. People might be opening up to this idea or that.' But not so much before I go into it. I'm quite selfish about it, honestly.

Has there been one film you've done that changed the way you thought or affected you in a significant way more than the others?

Pearce: They've all kind done that. There have been films that have resonated more with me, I think, because perhaps they succeeded on a level. Every film means something to me on some level. I think 'The Proposition' is probably the film that I feel has had the most powerful effect and I wouldn't really even be able to explain what that affect is, but that world felt very realistic to me. I think that John [Hillcoat], the director, did a really incredible job in the making of that film. To watch that film, I just think it's an extraordinary piece of work. Not my work, but the work of the film. That's the film that really stands out for me as probably the most unique in a way. I mean, 'Memento' is probably a unique piece of work and 'L.A. Confidential' is a great film and that feels very personal because it was my first American film and I feel like it was really like an acting class for me, that film, because Curtis [Hanson] was really the first person to teach me stuff while I working or that I was aware of. So that's very personal as well. So they're all very different. Then there are other films that you do that kind of don't work and you think it's a shame because it could've been something better and that doesn't sort of sit emotionally with you anymore, but you're just aware that you've worked on it and occasionally you imagine how it could've been [laughs] had it been at it's best.

Is there any you wish you could scrub off, that you shouldn't have done in the first place?

Pearce: No. I think some are harder to think about than others because of that kind of thought but in the end I can't allow myself to really regret things because I've obviously learned from them and experience what I've experienced and that's obviously led onto other things. So you accept them.

You were such a beautiful woman in 'The Adventures of Priscilla'.

Pearce: Thank you. That's the first time I've ever been told that I had good legs, as a woman. 'Priscilla' is right up there. It really resonates on quite a personal level, for a number of reasons too. I think it was an extraordinary opportunity, having been on this TV show at home and on Australia and getting to do that. As the years go by I have people constantly tell me that 'Priscilla' is their favorite film and so knowing that it's had that kind of affect feels really wonderful, having been a part of that.

Do Australian projects mean more to you?

Pearce: It does. That's not to say that American jobs or English jobs don't, but just because it is your world anyway and you feel like you can be far more subtle and nuanced really in Australian films because your understanding of what it is you're doing just feels richer because it's not like you've arrived somewhere and you're quickly doing research and you're trying to make sure you're tapping into something appropriately. There's a level of confidence that you have about working at home, I think, that doesn't necessarily exist in other places just because of the nature of the fact that you've been brought up there.

Do you have an ambitions to play a character that's a musician?

Pearce: Well, if something comes along then sure. I play a lot of music at home and that's a big part of my life really.

Do you play instruments and sing?

Pearce: Yeah. I sing. I play a few instruments, not very well, but every ten years, I've realized, I'm in a film where I sang. In '88 I did my first film called 'Heaven Tonight' and I played a young rock singer. In '98 I did 'A Slipping-Down Life', playing Drumstrings Casey. Then in 2008 I do a musical number in the Adam Sandler film.

Do you own any Andy Warhol paintings?

Pearce: I do actually, yeah. It's a pen and ink. It's a drawing from 1960. It's an advertising piece of a woman's dress, this hot pink Japanese ink. It's incredible. It's quite small.

Was it a gift from the film?

Pearce: No. It cost more than I got paid for that film.

What do you get asked about the most from people?

Pearce: Why Russell Crowe's career has taken off in that way and mine hasn't and am I disappointed by that.

But from people on the street?

Pearce: Well, it kind of depends on what country. Like in England it's always about 'Neighbors'. Here it's sort of 'Memento' I think.

How did the Adam Sandler movie turn out?

Pearce: I haven't seen it yet.

How did that role come about?

Pearce: Well, [Adam] Shankman directed it and I met him before he did it and he just asked me to do it. Sandler said, 'I don't know that Guy would want to do this. Would he?' It just seemed like a fun kind of appropriate thing to do at the time after all the heavy things I'd done after last year. So I'll be very curious to see it. It'll probably be the most over the top thing I've ever done. It's pretty funny.

Source:Latino Review

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