BOP Interview: Jodie Foster
By Ryan Mazie
April 25, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Casting Gibson in the lead role when his career had hopes of turning around, it was not long after the filming was complete that Mel was back to ground zero, being an infamous tabloid fixture. The Beaver stars Gibson as a chemically depressed husband and father who turns to a self-created cure by adopting a beaver hand puppet as a means to communicate. Foster pulls double-duty, acting as the neglected wife.
Foster is now finally relieved that her part of the film is done. Proud that audiences will get a chance to see her work, she admitted to being slightly scared when The Beaver made its buzzed about debut last month at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, “I know that it’s not a film for everybody. It’s a very specialized subject matter and it’s treated in a very special way,” said Foster during a roundtable interview at the Four Season Hotel in Boston. The film’s distributor, Summit Entertainment, is also handling the film in a special way, releasing The Beaver on May 6th in just a handful of cities before slowly expanding (a similar distribution tactic the studio used with last year’s lauded film The Ghost Writer, which received controversy over its director Roman Polanski).
Foster hopes that people can look past Mel’s personal problems and see the performance for itself, admitting that aspect of the movie is beyond her control. “Honestly, the wonderful thing about being a director is that you actually get to have this piece of film that says, ‘This is what I love and this is what I believe in,’” said Foster, continuing that film’s marketing and distribution is not her problem. Already receiving criticism from fans, she prefaces the buzz with “There are people who just do not like the movie and go, ‘Why isn’t it a comedy?’ And I understand that. There are other movies that fulfill that function. It’s just not this one.”
So what is the The Beaver’s function? Read on as Jodie Foster talks about her friendship with Gibson, depression, motherhood, Hollywood, and puppeteering.
The Beaver has a lot of different elements in it, from drama to comedy to absurdity. As a director how do you achieve that delicate balance?
Jodie Foster: Yeah, well, it has an odd tone to it and the tone took a long time to get right. It turns into a kind of an exaggerated drama as well. So we had to work a lot on that and reshoot some things, just to try to smooth that trajectory. It does have a weird tone, because the concept is a guy with a puppet on his hand and we’re going to assume that’s comedic. We were very careful. Every choice, I think we leaned towards the dramatic choice. We really tried to keep it a drama. Because if you want to feel those feelings in the end, you really can’t have all those comedic conventions in the beginning.
I think you always have to ask yourself the same question, or at least I do in my films. And that is “Is it true or is it not true?” Is that authentic the way it is, and if you start getting out of that place, then you have to be careful. So the nice thing about Meredith is that she’s the audience’s perspective. She’s the one person who starts off in the film being somewhat accepting, because honestly, what is the big deal about putting a puppet on your hand? She embraces that pretty quickly and as time goes on, she starts seeing the impact on him, that maybe it’s not such a good thing, questioning herself and seeing the dangerous, darker side, having to leave him. Then coming back in a naturalistic way in the end of the film, when the film has a completely different tone. The Beaver is no longer narrating and functioning as Walter’s alter ego.
Did Mel have to go to puppet school?
JF: He works the puppeteer. I kept saying to him, “Look, the guy doesn’t know how to be a puppeteer, so you don’t have to work him so hard.” But Mel likes to hold on to things like that work ethic in order to get into character. He’s very good at puppeteering and it was left hand puppeteering! Most puppeteers use their right hand, their dominant hand.
But it adds into the creepiness factor that it is so well done.
JF: I think it’s an interesting thing to keep track of what the audience is paying attention to. On purpose by using anamorphic lenses, I tried to keep Mel framed and keep focus on him at all times towards the beginning of the movie so you really have a sense that this is happening to him. This is a man who’s struggling and losing his mind, but you are seeing his face move, his expressions. You are not paying so much attention to the puppet in the beginning. You are able to do that with shifting focus, the depth of field, and keeping him in a certain frame, but as time goes on, that starts changing and they become more equal in a way. And then once the beaver takes over, which is a very short period of time actually, then you are allowed to give a little bit more visual absurdity and have those close-ups. Once we take the beaver out of the picture, it’s an entirely different, much more naturalistic feeling.
By keeping the focus on the beaver, the background with Mel was blurry, which some filmmakers don’t like doing.
JF: Well that’s right, and that was a conscious decision. There’s a lot that happens when you choose an anamorphic format and some of it doesn’t make people happy. But I love it. I think it makes it so much more prosaic. It has an awkward, well awkward is the wrong word – it has formality. You would never associate that to a movie with a puppet. It has a formal, European coldness to it in terms of the colors and how that’s used. There are a lot of choices that are very un-comedic choices.
At the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, you prefaced the film by saying “It’s not a comedy.” Why did you feel you had to say that and do you feel as if audiences walking into the film should know that, too?
JF: You think the trailer’s a little deceiving? There have been many more deceiving trailers, trust me (laughs). Yeah, I think the subject matter is deceptive. I think people expect it to be one thing and I think that’s what has been so nice about showing the movie in Europe. There ,they don’t have the same connotations and there, they are more used to a complex experience – juggling comedy and drama together. They don’t have hard and fast rules like we do. That’s what was so nice about that audience in Austin, too. There are a lot of online people there who are interested in Internet and music, because it is a three-part festival. So they weren’t as committed to (pounding fist) first act, second act, third act! “Damn it! Why isn’t there this in the first five minutes?” (laughs). You get that a lot with people who do only film and have to see 115 movies a week. And they are seeing mostly big-budget, mainstream films.
Talking about being deceptive, with regard to the much talked about title of the film itself, it is so ambiguous to what the film is about. It really runs the gamut.
JF: I think it is fantastic. I think it is fantastic how irreverent it is and the people remember it. It is almost painful for them to say that and I love that (laughs)! When I first started the movie, everybody would say to me, “You’re going to change the title right?” (laughs). We love it; Mel loves it too.
The movie deals a lot with depression. You have been candid about your own depression at times. So given that texture of your personal experience, what were the key elements that you wanted to bring out in telling this story?
JF: Obviously the main character is chemically depressed and that means he requires a lot more than just talk therapy. This is a man who is really suffering from a medical condition and he needs help that is beyond his abilities. He’s a guy who cannot stop sleeping and can’t get out of bed, has difficulty speaking. That’s serious. But what we know about everyday life is that it gets heavier and heavier as life goes on. There’s a lot of tragedy mixed in with the comedy of our life that many of us, myself included, go through a spiritual crisis where they feel alone, terribly alone. I think there is an interesting phenomenon about artists, perhaps a cliché, that we are very often obsessive ruminators. Great writers are people who just don’t type into a typewriter and it comes out fabulous! They think about it and say, “Why did this happen? Why did that happen?” They re-write it and think that it can be better like this or that. They add those details and the process of ruminating is beautiful. It’s also incredibly painful. But it is the one thing that allows you to get through the spiritual crisis and evolve through it. So it’s important to know that depression has a function. I think in a weird way, I feel lucky that I have the ability to find that in myself.
Since Little Man Tate, has anything changed for you as a director? Also, is it the same or is it harder to get something made today?
JF: Well, yeah, it’s way harder to get something made today for sure. That’s a given. Especially quirky, smaller movies. People say how the film business changed and it’s changed along with the economic trends, the global economy changed – everything when it comes to making movies. I’m really looking to the impact of the next few years of internet technology and I think it is going to change things in a really positive direction.
Did you always intend to co-star in the film?
JF: No, not at all. In fact, after Little Man Tate, I said that I am never doing this again (laughs). Mel and I were always making jokes about that, because he did The Man Without A Face and I said to him, “Don’t ever do it again, don’t ever do it again.” “He’s like, I know, I know.” And then he does Braveheart and he’s in every scene with full on make-up and extensions. So that was like a crazy, crazy thing for him.
...The reason I did it was because when I brought on Mel I needed someone sitting across from him and someone very specific for him. I was concerned about finding someone who could carry the weight of the drama and who would understand not to play into the comedy elements. As somebody who has held a film together before and tell the story from the beginning to the end, as the audience’s point of view. So I thought who is that going to be? And I felt as if Mel and I know each other so well, that there is such a real compassion between the two of us that I knew that people would believe that we were married onscreen.
Mel and you are both friends who are actors and directors, so when you work together with him, how is that relationship?
JF: It’s great. I knew this because I already worked with him on Maverick. He is the most beloved actor I ever worked with out of everybody. Maybe Chow Yun-Fat too, the two people, I love the most. It’s a lot of no-nonsense, he comes having done whatever work he has to do, he works it out before he steps on set. He’s genial and fun, he’s able to walk in and out of character very quickly, so there is none of that weird stuff. We have just the perfect working style together. I remember that on Maverick, right before the clap came in, we’d be like, (whispering) “Yeah, yeah, wait, did you take two Advil?” (laughs). Those would be our conversations and then hear “Go! Action!” and start the scene and we would end it the same way, jumping back into the conversation we just had.
He likes to work fast with two-takes, like me, we have done films that are two-take movies. I love David Fincher and I would do anything for him. I will do his 110 takes and never complain, but it’s not my way. My way is that I like the spontaneity. I like to bring everything to the table in the beginning and have everybody prepared enough to get it on camera. I know that as time goes on of course it gets less and less spontaneous as does he, but Fincher doesn’t like spontaneity so….
You said before that your children, Charles and Kit, grounded you. That they are your dose of reality in the unreality of being a movie star.
JF: And you are right. That’s why Mel has so many children (laughs). Really! That is his entire reality. He has seven kids – now he has eight. He has a lot of children. He’s very much a real person who has struggled through real things.
With your sons becoming teenagers, how has motherhood changed for you?
JF: It’s great! Everybody kept saying that when your son hits puberty it’s going to be so difficult, but it’s just fantastic. It’s a whole new relationship; it’s great. He’s taller than I am and (lowering voice) he has a deeper voice (laughs). I think it’s reenergized our relationship in a bit now that he is looking forward to being an adult and trying to figure out what that is.
There’s a part of the movie that touches on the craziness on the celebrity culture and paparazzi. As one of the few in Hollywood who manages to lead a private life and have control of that, what’s your observation on the state of Hollywood’s celebrity today?
JF: It was different when I was growing up. It was different when I was young and I didn’t have those lenses. At least people, normal people, didn’t have those lenses. There was a different philosophy about the separation between news and celebrity. News was not entertainment then. I don’t know that if I was 17 now, I would be an actor. I wouldn’t have said yes. Not if I had all the information at hand, I’m pretty sure I would have said no. I don’t think it is a life. I think that we are seeing the aftermath of that. The aftermath of a lot of empty young people. But that being said, if you are motivated and if you put your foot down and say, “I don’t want to be on a reality show,” you can take charge. It requires a lot of energy and always asking that question, “Who do I want to be? How do I want to live? What do I want to see in myself? What do I want to stand for?” Every decision that you make has to be processed through the consequences of that on your psyche. Most people that are 18, that’s not how they are gonna be. It’s like I always say, people that are in the rock business, you are talking about 17 and 18 year olds. Of course they are going to go into a hotel, take a bunch of drugs and throw things out the window. He is 17! What are you going to do? And if you didn’t have that good parent that sat you down and say (hitting table), “Think about this! Think about that!” You wouldn’t develop those skills.
In the film you do work with young actors like Jennifer Lawrence and Anton Yelchin. Do you find it your responsibility to give them advice like that, although less harshly I would imagine?
JF: They’re not looking for my advice (smiles). I’ve had great experiences with young actors, that’s the great thing about real actors like Jennifer and Anton is that you are seeing something deep. I mean Anton is a really interesting person. He knows more about weird foreign films and Tarkovsky, he reads 600-page books about economics (laughs). Who does that? He’s a very interesting, odd person. … But his interest in [acting] isn’t about waiting for someone to take his picture.
What’s the one lesson you want people to take away from The Beaver as soon as they get out of their seats?
JF: I think that what we finally got to in the graduation speech, which was the one full reshoot of the movie, because the initial one in the script had nothing to do with this one. I didn’t feel as if it worked for the movie, so I cut it out and said, “Unless we can find a speech more perfect for the film, I didn’t want it at all.”
So there wasn’t one at all. And then when we put the movie together, I realized that it was important to bring everything together and to bring Jennifer Lawrence’s character that closure. I think the graduation speech is what the film’s about. That despite the rollercoaster our lives are, the tragedy and comedy that we live inside, and the unfairness of life and the heaviness in which we go through. You don’t have to be alone. That idea sort of is a revelation for people who live the way Walter does in the film or even the way Jennifer Lawrence’s character is in the movie. Including Riley Thomas Stewart, the young son, who is separated from people – the impact that pain has on people sets them apart. There’s no pill to fix it and you probably won’t be okay just because I give you Tylenol. But you don’t have to be alone and that’s enough to save people’s lives.