In this interview, Marc Blucas provides a preview of what to expect from "The Alamo," directed by John Lee Hancock.
Can you describe your role in "The Alamo?"
I played a character named James Bonham who was a messenger. He was the last guy to get in before the actual attack happened. He snuck out during the siege, which lasted 13 days, in an effort to get help. Everyone said no but he still came back. People define 'hero' and 'courage' in different ways but when you come back, knowing you're going to die because it's 150 to 4,000, that's pretty heroic.
After working on an all-girl movie ("Prey for Rock and Roll"), was it tough to transition to "The Alamo?"
It’s an easy transition when you're working with this caliber of people because everybody is professional, everybody is passionate about what they are doing. Even though ["The Alamo"] was a big studio event movie, the people involved did not treat it that way. The filmmaker, John Lee Hancock, is a Texan. He was the right guy to make this movie because at the end of the day, the movie is "Titanic." We know the boat’s going down; we don’t win. So you better keep us engaged the entire time. If you've seen "the Rookie," he understands the emotional line of the story so you become so invested in these guys.
Since the last movie version of the story was made, the historians have filled in a lot of the question marks. This movie is historically accurate. They were sticklers for making this historically perfect. Race, sex, location aside, it was an easy transition to make. In both projects you had people that were there that wanted to be there.
Can you talk about the set?
Obviously our set was pre-destruction. It was historically to scale. It was the biggest set ever built in the United States. It was on 53 acres of a 2000-acre ranch. No telephone poles, you didn’t see a car, all you saw were Long Head Steer, 3,000 extras, and soldiers. You [didn't get any] cell phone reception. You felt like you were in 1835, you couldn’t help it.
I got to do one of those 'actor spoils' moments. Sometimes we have access to things that you just don’t get access to, and I asked one of the historians if we could drive the route my messenger took. We went to a fort in Goliad, which was 215 miles away, and through the course of the day we rode 400 and some miles in an air-conditioned car. I was exhausted. This guy did this on a horse and it took him less than 2 weeks. It was pretty phenomenal.
At the fort in Goliad, they opened up - it’s a historical marker now - they opened up the gates and let me ride my horse through it. Someone said, "Oh, you get to ride your horse through a couple of gates. Big deal." This was at the end of the movie, and it was weird because a handful of actors chose to go see the Alamo and take the tour and go see the big statues out front beforehand but most of us, Billy Bob [Thornton], Patrick Wilson, and myself - we all decided to see it afterwards because then those names had faces. It resonated so much more. I got to do my whole journey after I kind of played it. I didn’t think any of that experience was going to inform my character. That wasn’t going to inform my performance any, but it was going to be a much more meaningful personal moment for Marc, after the fact.
Did you already know how to ride a horse?
No, I had no idea. During rehearsals, every weekend, every day off, I went and rode for hours. I had no clue, but I had the most demanding ride in the movie because that scene that was shot when he sneaks back in was in broad daylight. It was 11:00 in the morning and he rides through 4,000 Mexicans and gets in. What a selfish, cool moment to be able to get on a horse and have eight Mexican guys on horses chasing you - stunt guys chasing you - with lances and people shooting at you. Then you see Billy Bob up there playing Davy Crockett and they see me coming and they start laying the 1836 version of cover fire and shooting guys...
Were you just hanging on to that saddle then?
(Laughing) Like you have no idea. Like a version of 'white knuckle.' What speaks volumes about that cast was that sequence took about three days to shoot, and I was really the only actor involved for all the riding stuff, every actor came to the set to watch, to support me on that. That’s just how that cast got along. You don’t get many days off, we had no covered sets, it’s an all outdoor movie, and we were shooting through rain and hail. We’re chewing on ice to try and not let our breath show up on camera, we're speaking with southern accents, and our tongue gets numb and we start slurring our words (laughing). We are doing everything we can. It really became a true band of guys who fraternalized and bonded together, and supported each other. It was a demanding, challenging shoot and your days off, you take advantage of. But those guys came and showed up to support me.
