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Quick with a smile and a self-deprecating laugh, Patrick Stettner is not the dour cynic his films--the 14-minute Flux (starring Allison Janney) and his feature debut, the wicked The Business of Strangers--lead one to expect. Film Freak Central sat down to talk with the polite and effusive Mr. Stettner, who is utterly passionate about and eager to discuss independent cinema, among many other topics. -Walter Chaw
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Film Freak Central: How did you know about Allison Janney in 1995/'96 before her relative stardom, and how did you get her to be in your student short?
Patrick Stettner: Allison is a really well-known theatre actress and I'd seen her and I'd loved her, and she was doing little films at the time so I thought I'd try to see if she'd do Flux. She said "yes" and suddenly, voila!, there was my student film. She's such an accomplished comedienne and dramatic actress and it's so much fun to see both she and Stockard on the same show ["The West Wing"] every week.
Is this how you were introduced to Stockard Channing?
No, Stockard was a little more complicated--I had to send the script for Business to her manager and then her agent. When she finally read the script she was drawn to the Julie character and the dialogue, and I think, possibly, that the character reminded her of some film executives in Hollywood. There was also a really honest desire be a part of what we were doing if we were honest about doing it.
She was really interested in meeting me so I flew out to Arizona and we sat and talked. I was a little nervous, I mean, she's really intelligent--she has a Harvard education and this really piercing intensity--laser questions--but it was good. I think she really wanted to know where I was coming from in terms of the "whys." She really saw that I wanted to honour the characters, and that I wasn't looking down on or mocking Julie, which I very easily could have been.
Did you have Ms. Channing in mind when you were writing the screenplay?
I tried not to, I tried not to--I was thinking of a vaguely American Catherine Deneuve, y'know, someone along those lines. I knew I needed a formidable actress and I can't think of a strong nor better actress than Stockard. It became a trick because once I had Stockard I had to be very careful of who I got for the younger character because she's so strong, I remember during my casting sessions for Paula thinking, "Stockard's gonna' pick her teeth with this kid." I had to find a young actress who really felt like she wasn't doing this sleepy, affected Gen-X thing.
How did Julia Stiles come to be involved?
At the time, Stockard was represented by ICM and they pitched all these people to me to star opposite her. I was like, "No...no...no..." And then when they said Julia, I thought, The girl from 10 Thing I Hate About You? Okay let me see her film. So I saw it and had them said send me more stuff like "The '60s" and this weird film she did when she was 16 called Wicked. It was really interesting to see the range of her choices. I felt like I could work with this person so I met her and she seemed so intelligent--she was eighteen at the time going on forty. She really understood the script and what I was trying to do.
I really admire Julia, it's great to see that she's gone back to Columbia, my alma mater, to study and she's back there and not doing the whole LA thing. I respect that she wants to do good film. She could easily have done comedy and I know after 10 Things that she was offered the moon and some more to do some of those and she said no. She wants to do real work and I really appreciate her.
She's been in three Shakespeare films, it does show that she's a little more serious minded perhaps than some of her peers.
Yeah, but if she does another one I'm gonna puke! [laughs]
How much input did Ms. Channing and Ms. Stiles have in the shooting script and what was the rehearsal process like?
It's always funny at Q&As when people ask if you had a lot of rehearsal time and Stockard and Julia were always like "Yeah! Yeah!" and I'm like, "Wait a minute [laughs] we had about five days." We did have time on set, too, but both of them are game-day actors. I trusted both of them to be faithful to the characters, with 24 days, I had to, and they were fantastic. The irony of the tight shooting schedule is that I think it attracted both of the actresses to the project in a way--it's good for the actors, bad for the director.
Because we didn't have a lot of time, rehearsal was more concerned with beats what those scenes were about and how they played. Sometimes it's really hard to judge with some actors to the extent that you don't want to tell them too much and you can't give them too much a sense of the film, you have hold their hand and be very moment oriented. But especially with Stockard, I found that I could talk about genre and style, I could see that she understood that when I was doing these weird architectural push ins that she got it. And she could change her performance. To be unconscious and to do that is really tricky because sometimes someone will try to react to a camera theme and end up giving the audience some bad French film. Not Stockard, she could understand and interpret on her feet, which is really interesting to watch.
It was interesting as well because we spent a lot of time on the power dynamic between the two in terms of words and looks, and also in the physical placing of Stockard a little higher in a frame, or in another scene maybe having Julia stand up in front of her--there're just different games you can play that are really interesting as you begin to find your performances and your film.
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Stiles, Weller and Channing
"I remember during my casting sessions for Paula thinking, "Stockard's gonna' pick her teeth with this kid.""
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Did you do a lot of takes or are you more of a first take director?
I don't think anything was first take. I feel like you need to work that first nervousness out in the first take--I don't call "cut" until later even if I see something I don't like. I really need actors to finish their thoughts if I don't like something, move it out of their system. I like to find the end of the scene, I think, and also I think that repetitions are really good because sometimes in doing something a lot you start to lose yourself to the character. You sort of lose the words in a way so that the meaning no longer inhibits what you're trying to do as an actor, as a character.
How faithful was the final product to your original screenplay?
That's another funny thing, I have the impression that we changed things, and they have the impression that we were sticking to the script. We didn't do a lot of improvisation because the film was very carefully sculpted in terms of the one-upsmanship and the idea of a shifting power dynamic. We all wanted to keep those moments and those digs--Business is very measured and it has this building effect where Stockard would take the upper hand and then Julia would take the upper hand. It's a game, and they respected the rules of that game. Part of those rules were that it had to be a slow build and a gradual payoff.
What was surprising, though, was that we weren't playing for laughs. People laugh at my films and at the first screenings I'm always surprised. I don't write comedy, I don't write funny lines--I think the funny parts in my films, hopefully, come from a kind of observational humour or a nervous laughter. That last scene of Business especially--I know if an audience is really with it there'll be a lot of uncomfortable giggling.
Did Ms. Channing's experience as a stage actress help during the rehearsal process?
Oh sure, but It was a little nerve-wracking. I remember during rehearsal she was like "John Guare" this and "Mike Nichols" that and I'm like, "Um... Okay, Stockard." I gotta say I ended up being less nervous than I thought I was gonna be and that's because I knew the characters, I knew what I wanted, I had faith in the film in that respect.
How did you develop that intimacy with your screenplay and characters? Was there a long gestation period?
It wasn't that the script had been in the works for a long time, mainly, because the script was developed at the Sundance Lab, I had been asked a lot of questions about it at every stage so I had to know my characters and motivations inside and out. I had also written extensive back story for all of my characters because I knew that there wasn't much back-story given during the film and that means that you have to know your character even more. I had written out their lives so I knew what the scenes were about and I knew what the characters were about so I felt confident in that way.
Did you share that back-story with your cast?
No. I'm a blabbermouth--I can really talk a lot, but I'm very conscious of actors having secrets, even from directors. I think that's important. Some directors like to get into this kind of mind meld with the actors but I was content mainly just to encourage them to foment their own back-stories and to keep their character's secrets. If somebody knows you too well, if it's all too transparent, then I think it actually begins to affect your performance. There's a danger that you get puppets--you tell them everything and they rely on you for everything. I didn't think that would happen with the people that I got, but there was a lot of "Well, you figure that out" and "What would lead up to that?" and having them supply that was really the right way to go for me. CONTINUED...
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