As he was picking up his Best Supporting Actor Oscar ® for his role in Ed Wood, Martin Landau’s speech was cut off before he could thank the man he was portraying, screen icon Bela Lugosi. This created a world-wide scandal. In a career filled with accolades, Oscar ® nominations for Tucker and Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors, and a Golden Globe for his role in Space 1999, Landau is always working. Currently, he is in Belfast, Northern Ireland creating yet another indelible character in director Gil Kenan’s take on the fantasy adventure City of Ember. Landau, an alumnus of the famed Actor’s Studio in New York, is blessed with an exquisite sense of humor, which makes every interview with him a delight.
Chatting with a group of online journalists who were given the privilege of visiting the City of Ember set, Landau talked about what he looks for in projects and what drew him to City of Ember.
What do you think of the City of Ember set?
“It’s amazing. It’s quite an amazing set, extensive and tall and comfortable. I would say it’s quite remarkable. It’s actually the way I envisioned it. I did Cleopatra a few thousand years ago [during] prehistoric times when there were real dinosaurs at the La Brea Tar Pits. We had massive sets, you know, and generally you don’t get to see them.”
Can you talk a little bit about your character?
“My character? Well I’m not going to tell you too much about him. He’s got narcolepsy and when he sits down he falls asleep. When he’s up, he’s up, and he has responsibilities and only certain responsibilities. There are other things he doesn’t do and he’s totally inept at, but what he does do, he does very well. He’s really Doon’s mentor. He’s teaching him the ropes of a specific kind of thing. He’s full of surprises. He’s actually a character that I liked. I liked him a lot. You have to like the guy I play, even if he’s a heinous villain because villains that simply are villains -- this guy’s not, he’s a good villain -- but he has a limited perspective. Lots of people have.”
What was it that appealed to you about City of Ember?
“I think it’s a kind of movie that’s not made anymore. And that always interests me. It’s a terrific children’s book, and it’s not really a children’s book, it’s an adult book children’s book. It’s a movie that every kid of any age can see. It’s got all kinds of stuff in it that’s intriguing on a lot of levels. It’s a character-driven movie and yet it has action and adventure and all kinds of stuff. That’s a rarity.
There aren’t any fireballs or car chases and people climbing up the sides of buildings or sliding down the sides of buildings. …All the characters are defined, direction, developed and in a lot of those films they’re not. I mean, they’re pretty transparent and pretty simplistic, pretty one-dimensional. So what you have here is an interesting movie in that you’ve got characters that are defined in a strange environment. It’s about young people and old people, and it’s an unusual script as a result. I think it’s got some of the elements of a Harry Potter. It’s got a lot of things going for it. I think it’s what attracted Bill Murray and attracted Tim [Robbins] as well.
It’s a movie you can take your kids to and take your grandparents to, and it will be of interest to all of them. That doesn’t happen a lot. I know a lot of people who haven’t been to the movies in a long time. They usually go in December when there’s a couple of character-driven films up for Oscars, but that’s about it. And this is, again, a film that I think has an appeal on a lot of different levels.”
When you got the script, as a former theater guy did you create a history or a backstory of these characters?
“It’s hard to explain how I work on a role, but I do a lot of that in a certain way. There are actors who create an entire biography and then the character doesn’t have any of that. But I generally do think about, you know, where he comes from, why he’s there, what he does, why he does it, what his parents might be. …A lot of things, yeah, and a sound, too. You know, I’m sort of a stickler for certain things, too. I watch a lot of -- well not a lot, but some, -- there’s a lot of Chicago cops playing New York cops on television. Drives me crazy. Specifics are important, I think, and they’re not paid a lot of attention to.”
Did you have any trepidation at all about working with a director on his second film?
“No. I talked to him on the telephone [and] I liked him immediately. He’s smart, he’s bright, he’s sensitive, he’s kind, and imaginative. (Laughing) Outside of that, I can’t say a damn good thing about him!”
