Giovanni Ribisi plays Halle Berry’s right-hand man (or as Oscar-winner Berry calls him – her ‘Guy Friday’) in the thriller Perfect Stranger also starring Bruce Willis. In the film investigative reporter Rowena Price (Berry) and tech-savvy Miles Haley (Ribisi) use their investigative skills to try and figure out who really killed Rowena’s childhood friend.
The Appeal of Perfect Stranger: Ribisi admits to not being totally certain why he was so drawn to the role. “I don’t know. It was just this conversation I had with James Foley,” said Ribisi. “This guy is like a character actor, but he wants to be a leading man. He wants to get the girl and he fails, and it’s just tragic. I think anybody, to a greater or lesser degree, has felt that infatuation or that obsession with somebody. And the story, generally, as a whole, isn’t good versus evil or black and white. Everybody is a human being and it’s about how far people will go to get what they want or to cover something up. I think that that’s interesting.”
Working with Halle Berry: “For me, what blew me away about her is how fearless she is. She’s so f**king committed to what she does. This is a movie where we were shying away from being parochial, and she was just so willing to try things and just go there. I do things that some people might get offended by in the movie and she was just right there with it. It’s not like acting with somebody who is just naturalistic and dead, it’s somebody who wants to go to the movies. That’s inspiring.”
His Character’s a Computer Geek…: But Ribisi isn’t. “There was a point after I did Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, I saw movies being made more in that way and I have aspirations of making movies myself one day. I went to school for it for a little while. But then, no, in this way, the computer hacker thing, that’s just on another level. I had three or four weeks to get ready for the film so it was just about concentrating on the character and all the different masks the characters have, and the relationships they have with each other.”
Getting Into Character: “The character was written as being this guy who was sort of frumpy and introverted and overweight - the classic computer geek. I wanted to go the complete opposite direction and try to make him witty and charming, and really winning over Halle’s character or just thinking that he can.”
Ribisi said he could relate to the obsessive nature of his character. “Yeah. Maybe this is really narcissistic, but if you can’t then you’re really not living life. I think it’s also about power and who she is. Who is she? She’s famous. She’s got money and a really nice apartment.”
Building a Backstory: “Sometimes you do,” replied Ribisi in response to being asked if he came up with his own backstory for this character. “That’s important because you are seated in something and when you say something you are coming from a place. Even if it’s that little extra tinge of confidence, I’ll do it for that. It’s also fun. It’s fun to imagine. Part of the whole game of it is evolving and fleshing out and consummating the character as much as you can.”
Leaving This Character Behind at the End of the Day: Ribisi says it’s sometimes difficult to walk off the set and be rid of a character. “Sometimes it’s crazy. No matter who you are or what your approach to acting is, ultimately, it’s an itinerant life. You travel around for work. At some points in my life, with a family, I’ve been gone for ten months out of a year. You are in such an intense situation. You have an agenda every day and then you come home and the slate is clean. It’s like rocking back and forth in the corner with drool for a week, a post-partum thing. I think you’ve got to have something else. I always want to have a plan when I’m done with a movie to work on my own personal things or spend time with my daughter, whatever.”
What’s Up Next?: “I have a movie that is the exact opposite of this film. It’s a romantic comedy called The Dog Problem with Don Cheadle and Scott Caan and Lynn Collins. It’s going to be coming out in May or something like that. I play the guy with the dog problem.”
