Despite being in the middle of a long, exhausting round of interviews, Zach Braff put as much energy as possible (though some answers were accompanied by yawns) into talking about the making of “Garden State:”
INTERVIEW WITH ZACH BRAFF:
Just how autobiographical is this?
Pieces of it are almost verbatim things that happened to me. Other pieces are made up. It’s just sort of an amalgamation of anecdotes and things I experienced in suburbia.
Have any of the people who were involved in the actual events you borrowed from seen the movie?
None of them have seen it yet, but they know [about it]. I told them the pieces of themselves and the stories that I used so I think they are going to get a big kick out of it when they see it.
No one will be offended?
There’s nothing offending about any of the characters. The worst thing that the guy does is be a grave robber and that’s not real. That’s made up, and none of the characters are based on any one particular person. They are sort of a big stew.
Is your relationship with your own father anything like the one in the film?
No. I have a great relationship with my dad. There are universal themes of sons and fathers and I think there are things that are there, but it’s by no means my dad.
Has your dad seen the movie?
He loves it. He’s seen it like a dozen times. He cried. His son’s dream was coming true. We were at Sundance and there were 1,500 people watching it and it was pretty extraordinary.
I know you’ve said you got all the actors you originally wanted to sign on. Did you write the film with specific actors in mind?
You know, when you’re writing you’re sort of daydreaming like, “Wouldn’t it be cool if like a Natalie Portman played this character?” But you don’t necessarily imagine that it’s ever going to happen.
When you’re writing, do you write with a specific look in mind? Is Natalie Portman the ‘look’ you started out with?
I don’t know. I don’t really think I had a specific look in mind. I just like her as an actress.
And what about Peter Sarsgaard?
I’ve just always been a big fan of his. I think he’s one of the great actors my age there is out there.
There’s such easy banter between the three of you in the movie. Did you do anything special to develop that before filming started?
We all went on a road trip up to Harvard. Actually Peter and I went on a road trip up to Harvard to hang out with Natalie. She was in school so she couldn’t really leave, so we spent a weekend up there just sort of bonding. We didn’t have much time to rehearse or anything.
What kind of bonding stuff did you do?
Just went out. We just went out and partied up at Harvard. As much partying up as you can do at Harvard (laughing).
Did you find out anything about the two of them you then incorporated into their characters in movie?
No. They really just brought their characters to life with their own doing. I mean, the scene where Natalie tap dances at the fireplace was sort of something we made up because she was always doing a dance like that around the set. I said, “We’ve got to find a place to put that in the movie.”
Natalie's character likes to do things she's thinks have never been done before. Is that characteristic modeled after a friend of yours?
That’s me. That’s me, I used to do that all the time when I was a kid. I would make up this elaborate thing that I was positive that no one else had ever done before, and I could feel original just for a second.
What happens to these characters when the film ends?
That’s up for interpretation. That’s part of the fun, isn’t it?
What do you believe the characters would do?
I’d like them for him to quit acting and for them to get a cool apartment in the West Village of Manhattan. But I don’t know if that’s what happens.
Will you go back and revisit these characters?
I don’t know. I don’t think so. I think that this was their story.
PAGE 2: Zach Braff on Directing, Animals, and Noah's Ark
