Nick Stahl
Interview By: Dan Deevy
A bit jetlagged from his trip across the fly-overs, Nick Stahl joins us a little tired, but ever ready to heap praise on the creative team behind his latest film, Sleepwalking.
At the top of his list of the praiseworthy is his gorgeous co-star and producer, Charlize Theron. In fact, it was her involvement that initially persuaded the young actor to join the cast on this lowest of low budget films shot entirely on location in the coldest of cold Regina, Canada where temperatures dipped as low as minus 57 degrees on some days.
'Initially she [Charlize Theron] was the reason," he says. "I mean, she called and wanted me to do it, so I met with her and read the script and thought it was a good story and a good character and then on top of it they got such a great cast, so it seemed like a real no brainer for me.'
As amazing creative opportunities go, this had to be up there for Nick, but it wasn't all fun and games. He was definitely in for a grueling shoot in less than ideal conditions. 'I have never been in cold like that,' he explains. 'It was amazing. It was like 50 below. There were days when you weren't as layered as you wanted to be, you know' It was tough conditions, but it seemed to fall in line with the independent film world; a really packed in, big ambitious schedule, so we filmed it in 30 days. It was really challenging.'
For those of us who have seen Nick in some of his tougher, more kick ass roles like John Connor in Terminator 3 or Bobby Kent the tormented, aggressive Floridian in Larry Clark's Bully, it's somewhat surprising for us to see him as this meek doormat type of guy, but ironically, the guy not looking for a fight might be closer to who he actually is as a person.
'Well, I'm kind of a passive guy in some ways,' he admits. 'I think the character was really there on the page in a lot of ways too. I spent a lot of time with Charlize talking about what their life was like on the farm with their dad and what they went through when they left and ya know, what brought them to that point. And to me it just really made sense why James was the way he was. I liked the idea of them dealing with the abuse from their past in such different ways as adults. She became a really impulsive, aggressive person much more extroverted and James really kind of retreated from people and was willing to settle for somewhat lesser of a life in a way. I liked the idea of creating complexity for the character; I never saw him as simple minded, I just saw him as beaten down.'
Aside from the sibling relationship that he gets to explore with Charlize, Stahl also had the somewhat rare on screen opportunity to play the part of the not-really-qualified-to-be-a-care-giver uncle to AnnaSophia Robb's young Tara. The opportunity to play something other than the typical boy meets girl scenario is always a welcome change for any actor, in this instance it was an added bonus that he was getting to play opposite such a great young actor.
'We became friends immediately she's a really fun kid,' he says. 'She's so talented and so professional yet she just loves being a kid at the same time. I feel like I related a lot to Anna because of the fact that I was like 10 in my first movie and so I naturally felt a certain protectiveness with her. But she probably didn't need it because she really is much more put together than I was at her age, more confident I would say. And she has a real healthy sense of separating her work from her life. And for me there was more pressure when I was that age to grow up fast to be an adult. That's what I thought I wanted. But it was a real joy to work with her.'
There's one scene in the film that definitely stands out where the previously icy cold exterior seems to almost magically become warm and cozy. In reality it's because we can't see that this moment that appears to be taking place outside, is actually an indoor pool area. But to the initial viewer it might not seem so. As confusing as it may be, it contains one of Nick's favorite moments in the entire film.
'I really liked the moment where she left the skates behind,' he explains. 'Because I always saw it as her growing up a little bit and sort of leaving her past behind and that's a huge theme in this movie; taking responsibility for your life as an adult and the challenges that that poses. For James and Joleen, and I find this to be true with so many people, they can't shake the abuse they went through and it stays with them. For me, personally, I'm affected deeply by things that happened to me when I was a kid. I have vivid memories of when I was two and three years old, so that really interested me in the story. I think it's pretty fascinating how traumatic events can impact you so much.'
The movie is definitely a heavy subject matter that does end with a hopeful outlook, but that doesn't mean the cast didn't know how to lighten things up a bit when they weren't working, right'
'There wasn't much to do at all when we weren't filming,' he confesses. 'There was a casino and there was a mall and those were like the two centers of town and so we went to the casino and played craps a lot on weekends. We kind of struggled to entertain ourselves on downtime, but fact is there wasn't a lot of downtime it was a lot of work in a short amount of time.'
When all is said and done Nick is obviously very happy with the films outcome, but would he go through the guerilla nature of this type of filming experience again'
'Yeah, sure,' he smiles. 'That's a lot of what I've done in my career is these smaller movies. In some ways I think it's where I feel most comfortable. I think you can find bigger movies that take risks but for the most part it's the smaller movies that really take chances and try to actually say something. I think it's forgotten sometimes that film can be used to affect people, to question things, to attempt to make a statement and to really say something. I mean, it's such a powerful medium that so many people see and I think it's forgotten ya know' I love movies just for entertainment sake and I think that has its value as well, but I personally enjoy being in movies that take some risks.'
So what is up next for our daring risk-taker' 'I don't have anything right now that I'm filming,' he says. 'But I do have a movie called Quid Pro Quo that's coming out in April so I'm doing some work for the release for that, but that's about it.'
Quid Pro Quo is a film where Nick plays a semi-paralyzed radio reporter who is sent out to investigate a story that leads him into an odd subculture and on a journey of disturbing self-realization. Sounds like it's right up our boy's alley! Hopefully he'll be swinging by again to give us the insights on that filming experience too!
DanDeevy@TheCinemaSource.com
