In this interview from the World Premiere of “In Good Company,” Philip Baker Hall shares a little insight into working with writer/directors and even shares a little info on the upcoming horror remake, “The Amityville Horror:”
INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP BAKER HALL:
Can you just describe your character in “In Good Company?”
Well, Dennis Quaid plays a middle-aged executive at a company and he is displaced by a younger man, something that’s pretty common right now in our society. Who also, as it turns out, happens to be dating his daughter, which he doesn’t know about initially. He sells advertising for a sports magazine. He needs to make a big sell to prove to the owners of the company that he’s still capable of running the company. So he comes to my company and tries to sell me some advertising, but I don’t buy it. Complications ensue.
So you’re the bad guy in a way?
Well, as it turns out, no. But it looks like I might be at one point.
Is it more or less difficult to work with a director who is also the writer?
You know, it’s funny. I thought about it a lot because in the theater, as opposed to film, it is more difficult. I don’t know why, but I have not had a good experience working with writer/directors in the theater. But in film, it seems to me to be an advantage.
I like working with the auteur writer/directors in films. They have a very clear vision, first of all. They don’t have to check back with anybody, and if - and I don’t want to mention names here either because a lot of names are involved – but I’ve been in a lot of films the last 10 years where the director didn’t have as much weight as the writer. So you’re working and, you know, the actor or actors may know that a certain scene doesn’t work. The director may know it, too, and it needs rewriting. But the director often doesn’t have the authority to rewrite it or to reconceive it so he has to go through a very complex [process]. In a situation like that, he often can’t even approach a writer directly. And it’s a long chain. Then the writer gets it and he has to make a decision, if he has the clout on whether to make this change, and usually they don’t. All these avenues are cut out if you’re working with a writer/director.
Was Paul Weitz approachable?
Completely. Completely approachable. He could not be more open, really.
Weitz hasn’t really directed much. How would you describe his style as a director?
No, I guess he hasn’t directed that much. But he has a way of… I mean, again, as the writer, he has a very strong picture of what he wants in his mind, of how he wants a scene to go. And he has thought out the various beats in the scene, and where the moments are in everything. But he encourages you to go whatever direction you want to go in. Then he sort of takes a few beats and begins to sort of tell you how he sees it. He was easy to work with. He really was, and I liked it.
You’ve also got Amityville Horror coming up. How do you feel about remaking films like that one?
Hey, they’re remaking everything. What are you going to do? I don’t like it but somebody has decided that we’re going to remake every movie at least five times.
I hear that this “Amityville Horror” stays closer to the book than the first movie version.
Very close. I didn’t read the book but I was told that. They seem to feel that and I guess they’re feeling very positive about it also. Well, it’s Michael Bay’s production company so there’s a lot of power there.
