I think that any actor who has the opportunity to work with another actor who has decided to get behind the camera, it’s usually a pretty great experience for that person. I’ve been such a fan of Forest as an actor for a long time, just as I have Michael Keaton. And it’s the actor’s job to come to the table with a take on the role and the scene and the story. That’s what we’re supposed to do, as a filmmaker, that’s what a director is supposed to do. But it kind of takes an ego-less environment to have what you have planned - to be able to let go what I’ve worked out in my mind and for the director to say, “Hey, I’m willing to listen…” To be able to elevate something - I’m not saying this well. For Forest, for a filmmaker to be open-minded yet to have a specific vision of what he wants to execute, it’s a fine line. It’s a hard thing to do to say, “Hey, I have a vision. I know what I want to see out of this role. I know what I want to see out of this scene and with this story,” but yet be open enough to his actors and the people he hires to trust, to listen to their opinion and to be open to changing what he has in mind. That’s a difficult thing, but that’s the only way that something can be elevated. To be able to say, “Hey, I can take from my opinions and we can take what you have to say and let, from that, something different and magical happen.” That was Forest.
Did you do any Secret Service research?
We did have a Secret Service kind of a tech advisor with us on the set and it was great to kind of do what you guys do; pick their brain for a while and try to get more and more and more. But, it gets to a certain point with those guys where they’re like, “I can’t tell you that,” and they pull the classified card on you. But it’s real and you’re like, “That’s so cool. I want to be able to do that!”
What was fascinating for me was I kind of fell into the trap of the clichés. We look at those guys as the grunt work. They’re the guys with the sunglasses and the guns and they jump in front of the bullet and you don’t realize the intellectual, psychological approach. They are constantly thinking. They are always on their toes in terms of ‘is this a threat?’ They’re looking at the worse cast scenario all the time. “Is this a threat? Is someone coming through this door? If they come through here, is that the best way to go or is that just a decoy to get us to go that way?” These guys are always thinking in that capacity, and I never really looked at these guys as the brains behind the operation. You just kind of look at them as the grunt work. So, it was pretty fascinating to look at it from that side of it. I’d keep pushing these guys for more detailed information on a story and they’re like, “I can’t tell you anymore.”
Did you learn any physical tricks of the trade?
Not really. I didn’t have to. It’s not like I was handling a weapon or anything like that. That really wasn’t this movie. There were interesting things they would come up with like you’ll never see a Secret Service guy with his jacket buttoned because they need to be able to get at their gun and their radio. I thought that was interesting. [Spoiler deleted] Just little things like that that you find out. It was interesting information to get.
Did they ever tell you what might happen to them if they fell for the person they were assigned to protect?
Nothing like what happened in the movie. That’s obviously a fine line that Forest had to walk. For me, the best thing that [the Secret Service advisor] did for me, his name was Marc, I said, “Hey, in a situation like this there would be a ton more Secret Service people around.” But giving us the Hollywood license, I asked him to walk down the Santa Monica Promenade with me as if he were protecting me but I didn’t know it, the exact situation that happens in the movie. In a public situation, I don’t know that you’re guarding me. I just wanted to see where he stood in relation to other people, in front of me or behind me. How much he actually looked around without trying to tip your hat and give those things away. Those were interesting observations for me to make because Forest and I had those discussions. How much do you want to give away versus… It’s nothing we ever butt heads about. Forest and I didn’t disagree, but he didn’t want to tip his hat at all to this. But I said, “Well, I think there have to be some moments where you see him want to tell her because he’s actively deceiving her.”
If you look at the movie a second time, if you don’t see that there are times when he wants to come clean with something, then he’s not a likable guy. He’s being deceitful on purpose. I think this character wants to come clean and wants to tell the truth and then something happens that he can’t. He’s about to tell her and then goes in another direction until it gets to that moment when it’s revealed, he never got to say it.
