Post by cougarlady on Dec 14, 2011 17:54:39 GMT -5
Hi all..I've been been reading a number of Wes Craven interviews and learning some interesting tidbits about the filming of "Red Eye." I posted an excerpt from one interview on the Cillian's Accent thread, and as I did so, I thought, why not compile some of the more interesting excerpts from all of the various interviews in one place? By "interesting," I mean of course, any mention of Cillian 
So here it is, a compilation of snippets about Cillian from various interviews with Wes Craven. If some Q&A's sound similar, remember that they originate from various sources:
And how did you decide on Cillian for the role of Rippner?
Craven: Cillian I had seen in 28 Days Later. But my big concern with him was that he seemed kind of thin. You know, in 28 Days, there's not an ounce of fat on the guy. And he's got this huge Irish accent. And they kept saying, "This guy Cillian really wants to do the film, he really wants to work with you." And I said, "Yeah, but he sounds like he's an Irishman calling from the pub!" And so then he jumped on a plane and we went out to LAX. He has these brilliant blue eyes, and when he was talking, he'd smile and laugh, and you could see he could be very charming. But also, if he was thinking, suddenly his face would get a look...And he doesn't have the normal kind of American leading man pretty face. It's a little knobby, a little angular, a little bit like he has taken a few punches and given a few. So I felt like there's something there. And I checked his resume before the meeting. He had done Shakespeare, and Danny Boyle had selected him and hinged a whole movie on him. And I thought, "You know what? This is worth the gamble." We had to go very fast. Those were the only two people we saw for those roles.
These two have almost every scene together. Did you test the actors to gauge their chemistry?
Craven: No. I hoped. I met them both separately because they were both working on other projects. He was working in Ireland and she was working someplace in the U.S. so we just met separately. Her meeting was maybe 30 minutes, and his was a lunch. He flew over from Ireland and we had lunch at the airport then literally he waved goodbye, crossed the room and caught another airplane back. It was a gut choice, and having seen both of their films I already knew they were really good actors. I felt like they were ready to pop. These two are going to be big, I thought. Rachel is a beauty but she also runs deep and she’s got control of all the emotions and I felt like it would be a good ride with the two of them.
What about Cillian Murphy? He seems like a really interesting, well-rounded person.
Craven: The only work was making him ‘American’. He had to rework the way he spoke, and I can’t imagine what it must be like to be an actor and have to get into a character while at the same time trying to remember not to roll your R’s. I think it took him a couple of days to get it, and then he just kind of opened up. Even things like smiling; he said, ‘American guys smile a lot more. We don’t, in Europe.’ And I said, ‘I know, but you’re playing an American.’ Then he just got a lot more open with his face, in a way that was really interesting. The tricky part for him, I think, was me saying ‘That’s not American’ or ‘Here’s what you would do…’”
Was there a reason his character had to be American?
Craven: No. I guess it was just to make it more appealing to the audience and if I’m not mistaken, he wanted to play it that way too. All those guys that have thick accents want to not be ‘the guy with the accent’.
What’s up with the Jack Rippner name? Is that a play-on-words?
Craven: Yes, it’s a pseudonym — he father’s name is Joe Reisert, so it’s “J.R.” and his daughter gave him a wallet as a gift and we see it in the opening moments of the film. Her father walks by, tosses it on the bureau, and goes into the bathroom. You hear the shower running, and there’s a pause… then this gloved hand come in and — whoosh! — just takes it. And it turns up in the airplane with Cillian, as his proof that they have her father. So “J.R.” now stands for Jack Rippner. We don’t know his real name.
Was it hard for Rachel to do the fight sequence with bad guy Cillian Murphy?
Craven: I talked to Rachel and learned that she had been a championship figure skater. All through high school, so I knew she had those chops. She was so coordinated. I told her, 'Look, you're an animal. You are flowing, ready to knock this guy's head off. You have all the fear but you know how to get him physically. It's Cillian's responsibility to get out of the way. You just try to kill him.' Of course, we had the stunt people there, but we did the sequence in just a couple of takes.
Was the process of creating fear and tension with a character like Rippner different than with villains from some of your previous films?
Craven: Well, in a film like Scream, a lot of it is mime. It's obviously broad in the sense that you have a mask and it's rigid and it's not going to have nuances of expression. But we worked a lot on those films with body language, and then making that character intelligent so it makes smart choices. With Cillian, you have no restrictions about that, so you can put all of these nuances of "I want this guy to actually be in love with this woman in a way, even if he doesn't realize it." One moment, he's totally threatened by her and just wants her to do what he tells her to do, and the next minute, he's trying to convince her that he's the most honest person she'll ever meet, and the next minute, he's so furious, he's going to kill her. And it was these wonderful complexities that you put into this kind of a drama that were part of the meat of it for me, and a welcome change.
Although “Red-Eye,” being a suspense thriller, is obviously a change-of-pace from the horror films that you have become famous for, it would seem that it would be an even greater challenge for you to make than anything you have attempted in your career.
Craven: It was an intentional departure. I wanted to try to do something different than horror films. I like the complexity of both characters. With Cillian, I told him that he had to play the first part as if it was a love story but I think that the love story on his part, almost without him realizing it, continues on. He has to admire her for her courage as she stands up to him more and more even though it enrages him and when she is at her weakest, he is sometimes very tender with her. He isn’t just this two-dimensional villain. Basically, he sees himself as a sort of older brother–he tells her that she isn’t responsible and life will go on and when she tells him the story of what had happened to her two years earlier, he tells her that there was nothing she could have done and that is a very compassionate thing. He thinks of himself as this total professional and he also thinks of himself as this incredibly honest guy–he keeps telling her that he has never lied to her, even though everything he said in the first fifteen minutes was a flat-out lie. He’s always giving her advice, “Everything will be fine if you just do what I say.” And ultimately what makes him such a great villain is that he doesn’t see himself. He’s a total professional at what he does, but what causes him to underestimate this girl is that blind spot. He sees inside her well enough to control her, but only up to a point. Of course what he does is take this nice, normal person whose been victimized before in her life and build her into such a furor that she finds herself capable of some really violent things.
So here it is, a compilation of snippets about Cillian from various interviews with Wes Craven. If some Q&A's sound similar, remember that they originate from various sources:And how did you decide on Cillian for the role of Rippner?
Craven: Cillian I had seen in 28 Days Later. But my big concern with him was that he seemed kind of thin. You know, in 28 Days, there's not an ounce of fat on the guy. And he's got this huge Irish accent. And they kept saying, "This guy Cillian really wants to do the film, he really wants to work with you." And I said, "Yeah, but he sounds like he's an Irishman calling from the pub!" And so then he jumped on a plane and we went out to LAX. He has these brilliant blue eyes, and when he was talking, he'd smile and laugh, and you could see he could be very charming. But also, if he was thinking, suddenly his face would get a look...And he doesn't have the normal kind of American leading man pretty face. It's a little knobby, a little angular, a little bit like he has taken a few punches and given a few. So I felt like there's something there. And I checked his resume before the meeting. He had done Shakespeare, and Danny Boyle had selected him and hinged a whole movie on him. And I thought, "You know what? This is worth the gamble." We had to go very fast. Those were the only two people we saw for those roles.
These two have almost every scene together. Did you test the actors to gauge their chemistry?
Craven: No. I hoped. I met them both separately because they were both working on other projects. He was working in Ireland and she was working someplace in the U.S. so we just met separately. Her meeting was maybe 30 minutes, and his was a lunch. He flew over from Ireland and we had lunch at the airport then literally he waved goodbye, crossed the room and caught another airplane back. It was a gut choice, and having seen both of their films I already knew they were really good actors. I felt like they were ready to pop. These two are going to be big, I thought. Rachel is a beauty but she also runs deep and she’s got control of all the emotions and I felt like it would be a good ride with the two of them.
What about Cillian Murphy? He seems like a really interesting, well-rounded person.
Craven: The only work was making him ‘American’. He had to rework the way he spoke, and I can’t imagine what it must be like to be an actor and have to get into a character while at the same time trying to remember not to roll your R’s. I think it took him a couple of days to get it, and then he just kind of opened up. Even things like smiling; he said, ‘American guys smile a lot more. We don’t, in Europe.’ And I said, ‘I know, but you’re playing an American.’ Then he just got a lot more open with his face, in a way that was really interesting. The tricky part for him, I think, was me saying ‘That’s not American’ or ‘Here’s what you would do…’”
Was there a reason his character had to be American?
Craven: No. I guess it was just to make it more appealing to the audience and if I’m not mistaken, he wanted to play it that way too. All those guys that have thick accents want to not be ‘the guy with the accent’.
What’s up with the Jack Rippner name? Is that a play-on-words?
Craven: Yes, it’s a pseudonym — he father’s name is Joe Reisert, so it’s “J.R.” and his daughter gave him a wallet as a gift and we see it in the opening moments of the film. Her father walks by, tosses it on the bureau, and goes into the bathroom. You hear the shower running, and there’s a pause… then this gloved hand come in and — whoosh! — just takes it. And it turns up in the airplane with Cillian, as his proof that they have her father. So “J.R.” now stands for Jack Rippner. We don’t know his real name.
Was it hard for Rachel to do the fight sequence with bad guy Cillian Murphy?
Craven: I talked to Rachel and learned that she had been a championship figure skater. All through high school, so I knew she had those chops. She was so coordinated. I told her, 'Look, you're an animal. You are flowing, ready to knock this guy's head off. You have all the fear but you know how to get him physically. It's Cillian's responsibility to get out of the way. You just try to kill him.' Of course, we had the stunt people there, but we did the sequence in just a couple of takes.
Was the process of creating fear and tension with a character like Rippner different than with villains from some of your previous films?
Craven: Well, in a film like Scream, a lot of it is mime. It's obviously broad in the sense that you have a mask and it's rigid and it's not going to have nuances of expression. But we worked a lot on those films with body language, and then making that character intelligent so it makes smart choices. With Cillian, you have no restrictions about that, so you can put all of these nuances of "I want this guy to actually be in love with this woman in a way, even if he doesn't realize it." One moment, he's totally threatened by her and just wants her to do what he tells her to do, and the next minute, he's trying to convince her that he's the most honest person she'll ever meet, and the next minute, he's so furious, he's going to kill her. And it was these wonderful complexities that you put into this kind of a drama that were part of the meat of it for me, and a welcome change.
Although “Red-Eye,” being a suspense thriller, is obviously a change-of-pace from the horror films that you have become famous for, it would seem that it would be an even greater challenge for you to make than anything you have attempted in your career.
Craven: It was an intentional departure. I wanted to try to do something different than horror films. I like the complexity of both characters. With Cillian, I told him that he had to play the first part as if it was a love story but I think that the love story on his part, almost without him realizing it, continues on. He has to admire her for her courage as she stands up to him more and more even though it enrages him and when she is at her weakest, he is sometimes very tender with her. He isn’t just this two-dimensional villain. Basically, he sees himself as a sort of older brother–he tells her that she isn’t responsible and life will go on and when she tells him the story of what had happened to her two years earlier, he tells her that there was nothing she could have done and that is a very compassionate thing. He thinks of himself as this total professional and he also thinks of himself as this incredibly honest guy–he keeps telling her that he has never lied to her, even though everything he said in the first fifteen minutes was a flat-out lie. He’s always giving her advice, “Everything will be fine if you just do what I say.” And ultimately what makes him such a great villain is that he doesn’t see himself. He’s a total professional at what he does, but what causes him to underestimate this girl is that blind spot. He sees inside her well enough to control her, but only up to a point. Of course what he does is take this nice, normal person whose been victimized before in her life and build her into such a furor that she finds herself capable of some really violent things.