After two years on television as Joey's nephew, Paulo Costanzo is back on the big screen, but in a little film. Everything's Gone Green is a Canadian indie playing the arthouse circuit in the States. Costanzo plays a slacker who goes to work for a lottery magazine interviewing winners. There, he gets embroiled in a mafia scam to bilk the winners out of their money while his family become marijuana farmers. He romances a set dresser who turns Vancouver into the American desert all on his quest to find himself at 29.
What are you doing these days?
“I'm in Hollywood, I'm looking for a new place, looking for a new project at this exact moment. Have a couple things in the can which I can't talk about but other than that, I'm just kind of enjoying life.”
How long ago did you shoot this?
“We shot Everything's Gone Green about two years ago.”
Still doing Joey at the time?
“Yeah, that was on my hiatus.”
Was this role a way to break out of the overachieving genius typecast?
“Well, I never actually meant to do it but yeah, I think it had that effect. I just liked the role.”
Do you have a disposition to pot-related projects?
“No, believe it or not. I've only done two that involved weed, you silly.”
You’re also playing a 29-year-old, so is that a big jump from playing college characters?
“That's true, yeah. I think I was ready for it. It's something that I've wanted to do and I think I was ready to do it, especially after doing Joey which was such a kind of stereotype and very young, it was good. It was good for me.”
What hooked you about the script?
“Well, I read the script, I was looking at a lot of different projects at the time and I read that script and I was like, ‘Man, there's no money and it's small and I don't know.’ It wasn't logical for me to do it but in the middle of the night the next night, I woke up in the middle of the night and I was like, ‘F**k, I can't…’ And I got up and in the middle of the night I read this script again. It just spoke to me. I don't know, the character just felt right. I didn't feel like I had to do a lot of work to get there. I feel like it was just already in me to do it. It was kind of a perfect fit, even though it didn't make any financial sense, I have to go up and do it because it just felt right. It was just a gut reaction which happens rarely in scripts in my opinion, in my experience.”
Was this a real tough indie shoot?
“Oh yeah, we shot it in 19 days which was insanity. Like it was insane. And we had no money to add on extra days at the end of it either so we knew that we had to just get everything done that was on the shot list every day. And I mean, it was the most strenuous, longest days of a shoot I've ever had in my life. At the end of the day though, what I found was that when you have no money, it forces you to get creative. It forces you to up your game and to really come to bat swinging. You don't have time to fiddle and perfect and take an extra day for a scene if it's not working. You have to nail it. Like the first couple takes you gotta nail it. You've got to nail it fast, so we got into a rhythm and it turned out to be one of the more redeeming experiences of my career just because I found I was more on the ball because I had to be.”
Are you suggesting you may have gotten comfortable in some roles?
“I wouldn’t say that. It's a different pace on the set when you're doing a big huge budget movie. Sometimes the directors can get caught up in something and they can go back and do it eight different ways and if you don't get it right, you can test it in front of an audience and then go back and reshoot stuff. This movie, none of that was an option so we had to…it's almost like typing on a typewriter. You can type on a computer and you can edit it, you can go back and do all these things. Granted, most of the time that's the best thing, but every once in a while if you type something first draft on a typewriter, there's just something magical about it.”
That's a good analogy because I do that with my computer.
“You ever type on a typewriter?”
Probably not since I was a kid.
“I collect antique typewriters.”
That's an interesting hobby. What got you interested in that?
“I was at a flea market and this old woman was like, ‘You are going to buy this and become a writer,’ and I was like, ‘Whatever.’ Then half an hour later I did and then I did. It was weird. She had magic.”
Are you writing on the side while acting?
“Yeah. Screenplays, short films, some poetry.”
Did you write any of the poetry in the movie?
“No. That poetry was much better than mine.”
Were you in a position to help get the financing for the film?
“Not at all. I came on board last second. I came on board with five days left before we shot.”
I noticed four examples of green: Money, pot, environment and envy. Did I miss any?
“No, you actually came up with more than I had. Good work.”
What were you thinking?
“Well, green, the surroundings, the golf course, the money, the weed but the envy is a good one. I didn't really read much more into it. I'm sure it has many, many meanings. And it's timely. It's timely. My friend was telling me that in the fashion world, for some reason everything has kind of gone green recently. Everyone's talking about green. Green is the new color, green, green.”
I don't know if you researched it, but don't you think the Lotto has safeguards against scams like that?
“I hope so.”
Did you research it?
“Nothing. I learned how to kayak.”
How'd that go?
“Fun. It's very zen. It's just you and the water. It's actually really, really nice.”
Do you do a lot of outdoor sports?
“I hadn't before that movie. That movie kind of got me on a kick. I do many more outdoor things now. I actually went kayaking in Portland four days ago.”
Page 2: Paulo Costanzo on Shooting in Canada and the End of Joey
