Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, and Sean Penn play the lead roles in what is being labeled by many critics as one of the best movies of 2003. In this interview, Tim Robbins talks about working on a movie with other actors who direct and working for Clint Eastwood.
Was it the script or working with director Clint Eastwood that attracted you to “Mystic River?”
A combination of both. But after working with him, it wouldn't matter. At this point, [it] wouldn't matter the script.
Would you say this is a character you haven’t played before?
Yeah, I would say so. I can't think of something [I’ve played] like this.
What did you see in the role that you responded to?
[It has] so many layers, you know. The complexity of [him], he's got not only got one secret [but] he's got two secrets. He's got many secrets, but two major secrets.
One that everyone else knows, and the other he hides throughout the movie. He's damaged goods; he's carrying the weight of his experience around with
him. There's just so much stuff to play.
As a father, was it tough playing someone who was the victim of pedophiles?
There's no worse crime than that. How despicable is that [to] take advantage of a child's trust? It's the kind of crime that revisits that person time and time again. I kind of try to separate my own children from my characters. I mean, I don't think about them when I'm working. I try not to use them [to work up an emotion].
What was the atmosphere like in between takes?
It was pretty focused on the set. There was not a lot of clowning or loud behavior at any time. If you were still working on a scene, there were only maybe one or two people that would break that kind of tension. No one ever did anything inappropriate.
Kevin Bacon didn’t break out his guitar?
Oh no, no. But that said, if you're doing something really heavy and you're going to be doing it for a couple hours, it's really important to be able to [let] it go and laugh briefly. It's terrible to be there for that long. But because [Eastwood's] so efficient, it's not like other instances I've been through where you're having to cook up the emotion for 10 hours straight, and wind up doing the scene 60 times – heavy-duty emotional scenes. [With Clint], you wind up doing it maybe six times. What a relief that is because you know every time that camera is on, you're going to be there. You give it completely because part of you is really happy you don't have to do it 60 times.
Is it weird having three directors – Sean Penn, Eastwood, and yourself – working together?
And Kevin [Bacon], too. I've directed actors [who] have directed and it's actually great because they understand all the other stuff that goes on behind the scenes, and the kind of stuff you have to deal with. [They understand] how important it is to be on
time and how important it is to be really ready to go when the cameras are
rolling. There's so much waste on a film set and you really don't
understand that until you direct.
