At a press conference in LA in support of Sony Pictures Classics' Whatever Works, the threesome talked about what life was like on the Woody Allen set.
Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, and Patricia Clarkson Press Conference
You were very reticent about doing the film. How did Woody Allen talk you into doing it?Larry David: "First of all, I am reticent about everything so it is not unusual for me to be reticent. But, yes, I was reticent because…I don't know? It was something unusual for me, I had never done anything like that before, playing a character, memorizing material…"
Evan Rachel Wood & Patricia Clarkson: "A lot."
Larry David: "A lot of material. And I have a lot of self-doubt and negative feelings."
Patricia Clarkson: [Laughing] "How do you really feel, Larry?"
Larry David: "And I thought that I should communicate that to him, which I did. He said, ‘No, you’ll…I’ll be fine.'"
In the monologue that's probably a couple of pages long - where you speak to the audience - did that frighten you? Did you have to memorize that?
Larry David: "That was a very daunting prospect. Yes, I did have to memorize that. I was kind of thinking when I first saw it, ‘Oh, maybe they’ll just get a teleprompter.’ [Laughing] Then I thought, ‘Yeah, Woody Allen might not use a teleprompter...’ So, I had to work on that and I memorized that. But after I memorized it, it was actually okay. I found it easier to talk into the camera than I did talking to these two, to tell you the truth."
Did you ever have a relationship with Woody where you could go up to him and say, "No, maybe not,” or did you just go with what was on the page?
Larry David: "He was very open to us, right? He was open to us changing…"
Patricia Clarkson: "Changing things, improvisation..."
Evan Rachel Wood: [Laughing] "I was too afraid to change anything."
Patricia Clarkson: "Yeah, he was pretty open."
Evan Rachel Wood: "But we really didn’t want to change it."
Larry David: "Once I tried to change it, and I remember it was a scene with you. I tried to improvise something and he just looked at me like I was insane. I thought, ‘I am never doing that again.'"
Evan Rachel Wood: "Yeah, I tried to do it once, I think, at Grant’s Tomb. And I got lost and completely didn’t know where I was, and so I didn’t do it again after that, either."
Evan, you’re a bright, young woman, so how hard or fun was it to play someone so clueless?
Evan Rachel Wood: [Laughing] "I don’t want to sound pompous saying it, but it was really hard playing dumb. And I was worried that she was either going to be really annoying or really daring, so it was a fine line there that I didn’t want to cross. But I think she’s sweet. [Laughing] I had fun, actually. It was kind of nice to not have to come to the set and cry everyday."
Larry David: "It was interesting because she played someone who was much dumber that who she is and I play someone much, much smarter. So, we were at both ends."
Did you look at the history of Woody Allen’s young leading ladies and what they might have had in common or different over the years?
Evan Rachel Wood: "No, I just wanted to make her my own. I’m very honored to be in that group of women now. I never thought that I would be starring in a Woody Allen movie, having grown up with actor parents and my mother going, ‘This is Diane Keaton. Watch, learn, live it, love it.' And now I’m one of the girls, it’s pretty cool."
Larry, how different is this character from the Larry that you play on Curb Your Enthusiasm and the real Larry?
Larry David: "Do I have to fill in the real Larry? Well, let’s see, the character on Curb is normal, I think, compared to this guy, because the character on Curb actually wants relationships and sex and things like that. I don’t know. He seems very normal compared to this guy. This guy is way out…this guy wears shorts. Never would the character on Curb wear shorts or would the person talking to you right now wear shorts. So I think that’s a very disturbing thing right there."
Patricia, most men want two women, but you had two men. How did you feel about that?
Patricia Clarkson: "Finally. Finally. [Laughing] How do I feel? I’m thinking about trying it myself. I’ve never done it, but I never say never. The night is young. Yes, it was terrific. I thought it was exciting and sexy. I had two delicious actors and men, and I was fortunate that he let my character have that."
You're from the South, so was this Southern woman you play based on someone you might have known?
Patricia Clarkson: "No, but I certainly have known women like Marietta. But she is just kind of a mix of many women I have known through my lifetime with Southern women. I’ve met women from every spectrum in the South. In my family, there is a woman of every spectrum. I have four older sisters and a mother, and we are all very different Southern women. Woody wrote such a stunning character, so I just showed up in some ways. But I brought things of my past for us to play with."
Page 2: More on Whatever Works and the Scoop on Spider-Man the Musical and True Blood
