2011 October - Uinterview.com (Margin Call)
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Transcript:
Q: What’s it like working such a great ensemble cast, including Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, and Stanley Tucci?
A: Literally, about four days before we started shooting, I got a call and they said, "Look, Kevin Spacey’s involved. Stanley Tucci’s involved. Paul Bettany’s involved, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgely…” and I was actually in Exeter in England at the time, and I jumped on a plane and flew to New York.
Q: Margin Call is about the financial crisis. How did you deal with the subject matter that had such immediate relevance?
A: I pretty much have my head in the sand when it comes to the financial world, so I had a very steep learning curve. I still really don’t know anything about finances. I did spend a bit of time with some people that had worked on Wall Street and were around during that time and I just sat and chatted with them, getting more of an understanding of the different personalities that exist in the world and how cut-throat the business is and how, in some instances, where there is chaos, certain people thrive. Some people actually increase their position within a firm through chaos, through upheaval. That’s when they sit back and target people and I kind of based my character a lot on that notion, that idea of sitting back with a bow and an arrow and shooting people. Also, I felt like the character was somewhat removed socially. There was an absence of social grace with the character. That was interesting to play, because he was a very unemotional character and I’m actually a very emotional person. So, it was nice to play someone that didn’t give a hoot about what anyone thought of them in any given moment.
Q: In your latest movie, Margin Call, you work with people such as Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons. Do you feel with your strong background in TV, you approached the role any differently?
A: I worked with Kevin Spacey on a film called L.A. Confidential in the late 90s, and that was my first film in America and I still use a lot of stuff I learned from Kevin then, so I’m just a student. I’ll always be a student, that’s just my nature. So, whenever I have an opportunity to be involved with actors of that pedigree, I’m like a sponge. They don’t know I’m a sponge, because I’ll just sit there like I’m doing my job, but I watch them all like a hawk. Paul Bettany is a phenomenal actor as well and I think what’s interesting in this film is to see someone like Penn Badgely who we know from a TV show called Gossip Girl [that] you may know of. He did such a wonderful job on the film. So, to see that everyone has developed the confidence within that company, and I think you can attribute it largely to the fact that guys like Kevin, Jeremy, Demi… were all very accepting of the ensemble.
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