How collaborative is the process when you're working with someone like Richard Jenkins who's been around forever and has done so much amazing work?
“I gave Richard a script so we really had a really solid foundation to work from and then we started adding bits and pieces the more we talked about it. Some of that was from conversations or through Richard's suggestions. I'm always open. I will say that Richard is first and foremost an actor, but I was really encouraging him. I was like, ‘Hey, as we get into this, anything that pops into your head, you know, share it. Let's see where it goes.’ Like, for instance, with the eyeglasses and him coming back with new glasses, that was really Richard's idea and I found a way to write it into the scene that really made sense for the character and to the movie.”
What made you go after Richard Jenkins in the first place?
“I wanted someone who wasn't a traditional leading man in the role. I didn't want a movie star. So you start to look at the next level of actors that can pull this off and really disappear into the role. Richard is on a very short list, I think, for a lot of writer/directors. I've just always responded to his work. We had a chance to sit down before I really started to write and have a conversation, prior to me even deciding for sure that I was going to write it for him. By the end of that meal I just thought, ‘Yeah ,’ you know? It's a tough character to play and Richard has like an innate sense of decency and integrity that I think makes you kind of trust and like this character, even though he's doing some things that aren't necessarily the most socially acceptable on some level. So I think that, and just his sort of unconventional looks add to an everyman quality about this character.”
He was a very interesting choice. I found myself rooting for him even though I didn't necessarily like him to begin with.
“Yeah, totally.”
Why deal with immigration issues at all? Where did that idea come from? You don't really make it a political issue in the film.
“Right. I think it's inevitable. It's part of daily life in New York City, especially if you're not from New York City or you're not from the United States. So it would almost be difficult to avoid it, I think, if I'm really trying to set this movie now and show a realistic appraisal of a young person's experience in the city having arrived here from another country. So I didn't want to treat it as, ‘Oh, this is what the movie is about,’ obviously, as you said. But it's more like, ‘Oh this happens. It happens every day and people have to deal with it.’ And you know what? Life goes on. I think those are all things that I was exploring in regard to that.”
Did your research with detainees and immigrants change the direction you went with the script?
“Possibly, but I couldn't really recall that. It definitely informed moments. It informed Walter's freak out. It informed watching someone break down on the other side of the glass. It informed seeing a mother put her baby up to the window so someone on the other side, I assume the father, could say hello. Things like that. There were a million little informative things when you walk in these places; it's just a huge learning curve.”
Did the success of Station Agent help you get things greenlit? Are people now more receptive to your ideas for films?
“Yeah, certainly with this script it did. I think people understood the type of movie I wanted to make. And I think on some level I was capable of pulling off a story, especially a subtle one with comedy and drama. I think makes you a little bit more of a known quality to financiers and therefore they're willing to take a gamble.”
You also act in other directors' movies. Being an actor, do you think it's really informed the way you handle actors approaching you as their director?
“Yeah, I really think it’s given me... I've had a chance to work with a lot of directors as an actor and it lets you realize what works, what works most. I think it's given me, if not a shorthand, certainly vocabulary with which to guide the actor and not sort of get in his way.”
You’ve got a part in The Lovely Bones directed by Peter Jackson. Who do you play?
“I actually just play the principal in the school. Principal Kadden or Caden or something like that. But I was on the movie for like a week and just really did it for the experience of working with Peter and his group.”
And did it turn out to be everything you expected it to be?
“Yeah. I mean, it was interesting. I really enjoyed watching him work and I enjoyed the work. I wasn't down there long enough to really get a sense of the whole project, but he's a smart guy and it was just fun to be a part of it.”
Did you pick up any filmmaking tips that you can apply to your own movies?
“Nothing that immediately comes to mind. But I think sometimes these things are almost like intuitive, you know? You start to do things just by being around very talented, smart people, and it informs your work.”
