Thank you for saying that. I just said that [in an earlier interview]. I said, "I'll tell you this about him. You can say what you'd like. There's one place in the whole script, one, where he tells a lie. He's straightforward. He says exactly what he means to everyone. When he gets in trouble, he lies to his boss. He lies to his boss when he's already deep into it. But other than that, he says exactly… He's straight up."
You know, it does not pay to say to the woman, when it's clear that she'd like you to come inside, to say, "Look, I'm married, I have a family and this is it and here's who I am and I made a mistake and I don't know what I'm doing." And to then not make a move on her. It doesn't pay. That's not the smart move. There's another move you can do. There's another move that allows you to have some other options. And then you can keep it going for a while, and not have to go back to your wife. Instead, he goes back the next freakin' day and says, "Honey, we need to talk. I can't live in a house with you this way."
He starts out doing the right thing, but everything deteriorates.
He definitely gets twisted. Again, he wouldn't be the first guy who gets spun around. If you take him out of these situations, if you take him out of this circumstance, I think he still would've been spun around, but he wouldn't have had to make choices that involved [spoiler deleted]. There wouldn't have been this situation. He still probably would've made some mistakes. He wouldn't be the first guy who ends up going gaga over someone in his heart, and then making some moves that you go, "Dude, take a breath. Relax a minute." And he's not the only one here making those kinds of mistakes. But certainly in this, I think he's desperate. I think all these people seem to be at a point where they're not going to turn back and they're unwilling, they're digging their heels in the sand. “No, I'm doing something different here.” I don't think he's got anywhere else to go once he leaves his family. He's saying, "Wait, we can make this happen. Let's do this." So yeah, he's spun around.
Did you talk to any cops before playing this character?
I've played quite a few cops. I've done my time going on ride-alongs and stuff. That was the least interesting thing. Not least interesting, I felt I had enough. Here, what was more important to me was that the script and his motivation, what he's about. He's a good man trying to do the best he can and it was much more important that we stayed in the gray area with everything. What was going on inside mattered more.
Ben Kingsley mentioned you two had long talks. Did he switch in and out of character?
No. We just had talks. He was just Sir Ben between takes. I’ve done jobs where you stay into a certain role all the time. But this one was refreshingly, there was no drama here. The drama we kept for the cameras and in between, [we’d] just relax. Relax and try to have a good time and stay focused and make sure you're doing your job. There was none of that other stuff.
Sir Ben, he's one of my favorite, favorite actors. Always has been. I always have to say at [an interview] like this, I'd have to say something nice about him. If he was a bastard, I wouldn't tell you. I'm not going to say that. But I have to say straight out, this is one of the very best people I've ever had the pleasure to work with. He is one of the most giving, and particularly for a heavy hitter, for a guy who frankly could not be that way, this is one of the most generous actors I've ever worked with.
He came in early a couple times, because he and I had been talking about scenes, and he'd come in early and say, "Ron, can you help me figure out the scene?" I wasn't in the scene. It was a scene with someone else. So I said, "Here's what I think would be good." And he's a guy who was also confident in the scene to say, "Ron, I don't think it's working here. Do you have any ideas?" No ego. Really, no ego. But clearly he knows what he's doing and he's going to do it. It was so refreshing and sometimes you meet guys who - I'm not star struck - but you meet people you respect and they turn out just to be dudes. They can do their job, but they're just people, good guys. He was great. He turned out to be Sir Ben.
PAGE 3: Freedom With His Character and Working with Vadim Perelman
ADDITIONAL “HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG” INTERVIEWS:
Sir Ben Kingsley, Writer/Director Vadim Perelman, Jennifer Connelly and Shohreh Aghdashloo
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
"House of Sand and Fog” Photo Gallery
"House of Sand and Fog” Trailer, Credits, and Movie News
