As a writer/director, you’ve made controversial films about relationships. Do women ever give you a hard time about that?
No. There have been a couple of female critics who have attacked me on "The Brothers McMullen," for some reason, but I don’t know why. I stopped reading reviews after "She’s The One." But nobody ever comes up to me on the street and says anything like that.
When you are attached to a film only in an acting capacity, are you comfortable pointing out parts of scripts where you think something is missing or wrong?
I wasn’t comfortable in the beginning. But the longer I’m in the business, you see a lot of times these screenplays have been rewritten 5 times and you’re not really offending an author. It’s a studio that keeps banging out money having a writer rewrite portions. I’ve learned that you actually do have some freedom and you’re not necessarily stepping on somebody’s toes if you come in and say, "Hey, this thing isn’t working for me but I’m still interested in making this film."
However, a case like "Confidence," Doug [Jung] is a first-time screenwriter, and the reason we got this great ensemble cast is you picked up this script and you could not put it down – it was great dialog. I only had one note when I read it, which was there was one scene in the film between Andy [Garcia’s] character and mine where we lied to the audience. In a con movie, you can lie to all the other characters in the film but at no point can you lie to the audience. There was a scene where you saw Andy Garcia bust me and I give him the money. In flashback, you see him reject the money and bust me, but then later on I tell the audience that that’s actually not what happened. I said, "You can’t show the audience something in flashback that happened and then tell them later it didn’t happen." I can lie to Dustin but if you show them in flashback, the audience assumes it actually happened and therefore, it’s a lie. That was the only note I had. And I can’t even take credit for that note; my brother said it when he read it.
It’s such a tight script.
The great thing about Jamie [Foley] is he loves actors, loves what they do, and has a lot of respect for them. He gives them a lot of room to play with their scenes. I know Andy’s character was really reshaped when he came on board as far as the character’s shades, if you will. The other thing about Jamie is he has such confidence in himself that he allowed Doug to be on the set the whole time. A lot of times directors get freaked out about that. And Doug was ego-less enough to know, "Hey, I have to sit down and do something with this scene." He’d sit down with Dustin and Jamie, and Dustin and Doug would come up with new stuff and then we’d shoot.
And on a more personal note, do you have a wedding coming up?
Don’t believe everything you read in the NY Post - even though I read it religiously and picked it up this morning - cause they have a great sports section. I even read 'Page Six' before the sports, but you can’t believe what you read. We are together, we’re very happy, but we are not getting married anytime soon.
How much impact has your girlfriend, Christy Turlington, had on your fashion and style?
My brother kind of mocks us on this. He says, "Eddie, Christy is really stylish and classy and you should be adapting to her style." Instead I’ve got her in sneakers and raggedy T-shirts so I’m kind of bringing her down with me.
NEXT PAGE: Interview with "Confidence" Star, Rachel Weisz