Variety referred to Gabriel Macht's performance in "A Love Song for Bobby Long" as "incisive and sensitive," and Movieline found it worthy of their Breakthrough Performance award. In this interview, Macht talks about that award and being a part of this intelligent, emotionally touching film:
INTERVIEW WITH GABRIEL MACHT (‘Lawson’):
Were you signed on before John Travolta?
I was the last ingredient in this big soup. Scarlett [Johansson] had the project at 15 years old. She read the script and loved it, and I think her mother got involved with it. They always had John in their minds to play Bobby Long. They, I think, were looking for Lawson up until the last minute.
I auditioned for the role and the casting director sent my tape on to Shainee Gabel, our writer and director. And the word that got back to me was she responded well to the tape, but wanted to meet me. I said, “Great.” I guess the information was that she was in New Orleans. (Laughing) Excuse me, I know I’m giving you a long-winded answer but… She was in New Orleans and she couldn’t meet me in person. So I flew out to meet her and I had lunch with her and one of the producers, Paul Miller. And she said, “Look, we really enjoyed your audition. We just didn’t see the scene in front of the fireplace. We’d like for you to go off for a couple of hours, read the monologue for us, and come back in a couple of hours and read for us.” I said, “You know what? I’m just going to get all nervous and get in my head. It’s just not the right time for me to go do that. But I’ll do it for you right here in the restaurant.” And so she was like, “Okay.” I read for her there and a week later I got a call saying they wanted me to play Lawson. So I was back in New Orleans and at the table for the read-through. That’s how I got involved. I was the last person.
How did you develop chemistry with Travolta?
It’s very easy in many ways because he’s such a generous artist. He’s one of those guys who really wants everyone to feel good and feel comfortable, and feel like they have something to say, in order to be free and spontaneous and then to be vulnerable. I had the benefit of creating my character and my relationship with Bobby Long by seeing all of his films for the last 25 years, for me. I get two hours here and I get two hours there with him. I think that that helped create a history for us. (Laughing) Now I don’t know if he got that because he probably didn’t see me in anything. I mean, that helped me with my chemistry.
That helped even though the films you watched weren’t Travolta playing the character of Bobby Long?
Right. I mean, there’s a little piece of him in every one of the characters he’s played. It’s interesting because they’re in many ways, this character, Bobby Long is a culmination of all the parts that he’s played. You can see little pieces of him in “Grease” in there, in that moment. “Oh, I see ‘Primary Colors’ there. I see this and that.” It’s like a big mix salad.
Did filming in New Orleans add anything to the portrayal of this character? Does working in the actual city where it’s set, as opposed to filming in Canada or some other city, help you as an actor?
Oh my God, I wish I shot films or television pieces in the place that we are telling the story of. It was such a benefit to us to be in that environment. To have the quality of the air, which was heavy, and enormously hot and entirely uncomfortable. But there was a real sweet, languid, sexy feel about the climate down there that became a character for us. And I think it only helped all of us that we were down in New Orleans.
How was the near-sex nude scene with Scarlett Johansson shot? Were you actually there when that was filmed?
I was there. It was a scene to articulate that there’s a female presence in the home. I’m just going to the bathroom and who do I find there but this one woman who’s so beautiful and she catches him off-guard. I think if you see the shot again, you see the door open, you see her there, and then maybe it cuts real close to her and then pulls back out and I walk out of the frame. You see her still standing there. We did shoot that together. There [were] no body doubles. It wasn’t my stand-in. It was me.
Page 2: Gabriel Macht on Playing an Alcoholic, Breaking Through, and "Archangel"
