SCRABBLE & VASELINE
Joaquin Phoenix plays a Baseball profi in "Signs".
The reasons why he rather plays Pingpong or Basketball and what was
up to Mel Gibsonīs Vaseline - pranks he tells Elisabeth Sereda in an exclusive
interview.
Q: Signs brought in 60 Million Dollar on the weekend
premiere. Most
of the people will never be involved in a project bringing in 60 Mill.
Dollar, not to mention at one weekend. How did you react on these news?
JP: Shyamalan told me about it. To be honest I donīt really get
this sum. Being an actor you donīt think about that.
Q: You gotta play Baseball in "Signs". Are you
the typical American
who grew up with this ?
JP: No, my teenager dream was acting. I was really bad in sports.
Indeed I was really unsettled when I got this role because I had never played
Basketball before.I had to practice hard. I trained in my hotelroom with my
nephew thrashing the ball against the walls. Being on the set there was no wall
of course and I stood there pretty stupid.
Q: In what way is Shyamalan different to other directors youīve
already worked with ?
JP: Heīs a big collaborateur. He wants to have an input from
everyone on the set, the actor, the sriptgirl and the camera-man.
Heīs an open book and tells everyone what heīs thinking, what his
visions are and how he imagines a particular scene to be. This makes working
easier. I also liked the script. Itīs written in a way that you never know what
really happens next.This is exciting. I donīt believe that all the spectators
agree
about what they get to see in Nightīs movies. He leaves room for
interpretation.That alone is already a point in his favour that heīs better
than many other directors.
Q:Do you believe in paranormal phenomenons ?
JP: No. But some days ago I played pingpong with Rory Culkin and he
explained his theory about aliens to me. He absolutely believes in aliens and
heīs also convinced that weīre their descendants. Iīm not surprised. You just
have to take a look at his family ( laughs )
Q: Mel Gibson is known playing stupid pranks to his
Co-stars. Did
you also become a victim ?
JP: All the time. Mel is a professional. It took me endless hours
to search for vaseline on my door handle or any other strange things in my
hotelroom.But I could never prove anything. He always showed his perfect
pokerface.
Q: Many actors complain that there is nothing more boring than a
filmset because the alterations between the "takes" take so long. How
do you
spend your time ?
JP: Actually I was never bored during the shooting time and
especially not in "Signs". We had Melīs jokes and the two kids on the
set who made usget a move on.We played Scrabble and Basketball for hours.
Q: What about all your other movies you shot before
"Signs"?
Obviously they were not all shown in the cinemas...
JP: "Quills" and "Gladiator" were very successful in
contrast
to "The Yards", "Buffalo Soldiers" and "IAAL". But
this is because of the
Hollywood-Marketing-Machine which is absolutely incomprehensible to
me. Iīll never understand why one movie is already shown in cinemas 3 months
after the shooting and many other ones arenīt even shown after 2 1/2 years.
"The Yards" is a good example.When this movie came into the cinemas
I couldnīt even remember that I ever was a part of it. I was really
surprised when fans reacted to me on that.