Scripts aren’t set in stone in Jerry Bruckheimer films and that allowed the cast of National Treasure: Book of Secrets a lot of freedom to play around on the set. “That’s the benefit of doing a sequel that I’ve found. Most of the characters were in the first one besides, obviously not Helen [Mirren] and Ed [Harris] and the President, but most of the main characters were in the first one and we know our characters very well so I know how Riley would react to pretty much every situation,” explained Bartha. “It’s also a testament to Jerry and Jon [Turteltaub] in that, even with a script that’s always in flux, they are not going to release a movie until they feel comfortable that it’s a good movie. So if it doesn’t work, we’re not gonna put it in the movie.”
“When we first got the script in the beginning of the process, all the actors sat around with the filmmakers and they asked us, ‘Is there anything that you think should be in the script that’s not in there? Is there anything that’s in the script that you think doesn’t fit?’ They sat down with each one of us individually and we told them, and they incorporated most of the things that we came up with.”
Bartha’s main concern was that he didn’t want it to be boring. “A lot of times, the sequels they make, obviously they’re making a sequel to make money. Everyone knows that. The first one made a lot of money. People really loved the first one. It’s not like people come up to me and say, ‘Yeah, that movie was good.’ They say it’s their favorite movie or it’s their kids’ favorite movie, so there’s a responsibility to make it more interesting and to keep the spirit of the original movie.”
“When I first got the script for the second one, Riley was pretty much the same thing as the first one. They played on the stereotype of the sidekick, of just throwing out zingers, and I thought it was kind of boring. There was nothing interesting in there for me to do, so I wanted to see what happened to Riley between the first movie and the second movie. How did the money affect him? What has he been doing? And, with a book that he wrote, how can that book affect the storyline? So, we came up with the idea of him writing this book and no one takes him seriously because no one takes this guy seriously because he is that sidekick guy that you’ve seen in movies. No one ever takes these characters seriously. They’re there to serve a purpose. But, what if they just stop for a second to read his book, it would actually help them solve the mystery? So, that was the big thing that I pushed for to get into the movie.”
Bartha’s a good-looking guy yet his character can’t land a date. According to the actor, it’s an example of art imitating life. “I’m single. I cannot get a date and the girls I meet turn out to be awful. My girlfriends turn out to be just bad seeds so obviously, it’s realistic in some sense.”
Bartha claims to love doing his own stunts. In fact, he loves stunt work so much he joked that he even did Nicolas Cage’s stunts in the movie. “I did Helen Mirren’s stunts sometimes too with fake giant breasts…beautiful. I didn’t look as good as her but I pulled it off,” said Bartha, laughing. On a more serious note, Bartha did have one scary experience while working on the second National Treasure. “There was one time when I really felt like my life was in danger when my stunt guy just wasn’t there and I like to do my own stunts. I’m just like Tom Cruise. I get mistaken for him all the time. I’m just taller [laughing]. So, Nic’s stunt driver was driving and he’s this brilliant driver. We’re in London going through the streets and he’s doing all these very dangerous turns through all these tiny, little narrow alleyways. And, at the end of this alleyway, I don’t know if you realize it, but there’s a giant tree that was right there and he had to slam on the brakes. He turned the car so that the passenger, me, was going to hit the tree. We literally ended an inch away from the tree and I wet myself.”
After doing two films with Nicolas Cage, Bartha’s a huge fan of Cage, both as an actor and as a person. “I can talk about Nic for hours,” admitted Bartha. “Unfortunately, people come up to me all the time and they don’t ask me about myself. They ask me about Nic Cage and they want to know what he’s really like and is he really weird and intense. And, he’s not. He’s eccentric, but he is hilarious. He’s one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met and I love the man. He’s one of my favorite actors.”
Bartha continued with his praise of Cage. “He’s got an original view of life and that is what, I think, anyone looks for in an artist. I think that’s what a great artist is, is they have a singular vision of what life is all about and the way that he looks and survives in this world is funny and it’s interesting. But I love the way that he treats other people and the way that he lives out his life.”
