Peter Sarsgaard has been known for some time for his often blunt portrayals characters in films like Shattered Glass. Garden State, Kinsey, Jarhead, The Skeleton Key, and Flightplan. However, his latest role may prove to be both his charming and his most blunt, as English businessman David, who romances a teenage girl in the British drama An Education.
The film premiered to critical acclaim at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. We first asked the 38 year-old Illiinois-born actor whether he had to stay in a British accent throughout the filming, even inbetween takes.
“I do that mostly, not totally,” Sarsgaard says, “There are many reasons to do that. One of which is to practice it during the day. The other is to not make life really confusing for the other people around you. There were plenty of times when Dominic [Cooper] would make fun of me for not being able to pronounce something correctly. I was fine with the accent, unless it was a phrase like, ‘You drink everything I put in front of you, every last drop and you slam your glass down and ask for more." There are too many ‘la’. Little phrases like that that were so well-written that I didn’t want to change them. But for the most part it was fine. I had a very analogous situation going on: I had this ex-rugby player driver who spoke in an entirely incorrect accent, and I would speak in that one, because it was easier going to work. He was a bit rough.”
“[Speaking in an English accent] ‘It’s much easier for me, because it’s sloppy,’” he adds, “Anything that’s really articulated is difficult for an American. And I’d get home to the place where we were staying. I’d go upstairs and my wife and daughter were there, and I certainly never spoke in an English accent or my daughter would think I was crazy. So I had this complete other life going on. And I worked on it scene by scene, and I hadn’t been doing it for that long. And I had to do the entire thing in front of Emma Thompson and people like that who have good English accents, To feel like a fraud playing this guy isn’t the worst thing that can happen.
According to Lynn Barber’s original memoir, which is the basis for the An Education film, she mentions as David’s accent being very “odd” and “posh-sounding”. However, Sarsgaard had his own idea for how he wanted to do his character’s English accent.
“I used very little of Lynn’s description when I was doing my interpretation of him,” he says, “ Because I didn’t think she would see him clearly as an objective portrayal that we were doing. So I didn’t want to play the character through the eyes of Jenny. I wanted to be the guy separately. And that part of the piece which I read basically gave me an excuse to be an American. It was liberating. I think it’s something that’s very common among the Brits. I’ve certainly heard of actors in England making entire careers in another accent than their own, playing posh all the time when they’re not. And it’s more common now, it’s more popular now to get the Sexy Beast version of things.”
“It’s like a game of pretend, as fully invested in a game of pretend,” Peter continues, “I was never doing the double thing of, ‘Oh look, I’m pretending I’m pretending.’ I just tried to do everything as well and as fully as I could. David, in my mind, is not a consciously manipulative person. I rarely think, "Oh, I’m going to put Jenny’s cello in the car so I can have sex with her." He’s not thinking like that. So it’s easy to think of it in the little increments as it comes along in the script. The script is so well-written, it really makes good acting irrelevant, in some ways. You just follow it.”
We wondered Peter’s opinion on the film’s rather risqué subplot of an older man’s romantic tryst with a teenage girl.
“It’s different having a relationship with someone than having a moment with someone, right?” he believes, “I’m seven years older than my wife. Someone said to me the other day, "You play a pedophile.’ And I said, ‘That’s interesting, because we wait until she is 17, which was legal at the time. Why do you say that?’ And she said, ‘Because if there’s more than a five-year age gap between two people, it’s pedophilia!’ That’s a very extreme opinion, obviously, but everyone has really different views on what is appropriate in the name of love or whatever they’re calling it.”
“And there are obviously times when it’s wrong,” Sarsgaard adds, “ Each culture has a different idea of what’s wrong. One of the girls who auditioned for the role who was really quite good was 16. I remember going, ‘She’s fantastic, this girl.’ She actually wasn’t quite 16. Her father is a very, very famous director. I thought, ‘She doesn’t seem 16.’ But there was something in her that made it seem like an entirely different movie.”
He also discusses how different countries have reacted to An Education.
“It’s interesting,” he says, “When you say it’s a movie about a 37-year-old man and a 16-year-old woman, people picture lurid sex scenes, that’s really where the American mind goes. The fact that the film doesn’t have much sex in it at all, and you still get people going, ‘Oh, you’re a pedophile!’ just speaks to the way sex is interpreted and dealt with in this country.”
“Where [director] Lone [Scherfig] is from in Denmark, there’s not the anxiety about it,” Peter continues, “I think they have less problems with it. I’m not sure, but if you looked at, per capita, the number of pedophiles there is probably far fewer than in some of the repressed states in this country. I think that acting like something doesn’t turn you on and acting like it doesn’t exist just makes it more powerful in your life and you will act out in a way that’s inappropriate.
Peter shared with us what makes Lone Scherfig an efficient director for the film.
“She’s not an emotional director,” Sarsgaard says, “She’s not prone to anger when it’s going badly or anxiety that’s noticeable. And she doesn’t put praise on you if it was great. She doesn’t go on to the next thing until everything is reasonable to her. Because she’s taken away the rewards-based system that most directors work off of, you don’t feel like a monkey trying to get another cookie. That makes the acting better, I think.”
Sarsgaard elaborated on this rewards-based system he says some directors use.
“I actually had a director where an actor did a take, and the director said, ‘You have one more chance to get it right or I’m firing you.’” Peter recalls, “And the guy crumbled. That’s the rewards-based system. And when someone did really well, very famously and well. There are plenty who are like that. I tell other actors so they can avoid that director.”
Peter discussed for us the relationship David and Jenny’s father, played by Alfred Molina, and how David convinces him to that he’s the perfect man for his little girl.
“He just has a need for David to be what he appears to be,” Sarsgaard says, “People tell me I’m suave in the film, and I go, ‘Really?’ I don’t think I’m that suave. I might be trying a little bit, but it’s pretty lame. I think it’s more about Jack trying to create something that’s not there. We’re all parties to creating a fantasy in this movie. I’m not the only one in this movie doing make-believe and lying sometimes. Everyone is apart of it, including Jack. Everyone let the fantasy continues. No one steps in and goes, ‘Wait a second!’”
Sarsgaard also gave us insight into the camaraderie on set.
The three of them, Dominic, Roz , and Carey knew each other. I’m the outsider, and they included me. (Whispering) ‘I’m an American and why the hell is an American playing this role?’’
We wondered how he as a father would react to when his own daughter becomes a teenager and starts dating. The thing that concerns me most about my daughter being of dating age is a 16-year-old boy driving her anywhere. I’m mainly concerned about life and death. If you’re going to be a parent that’s just going to moderate every single experience that your daughter has, they’re going to live a life that’s not prepared to deal with the world. Obviously, there are extenuating circumstances and times when you do get involved as a parent. But for me, it comes down to health and safety.
Keeping with the topic, we asked Peter what was the most rebellious thing he or somebody he knew ever did for love.
“God, don’t let Dominic answer this question!” Sarsgaard replies, “I actually once got in a car on New Year’s Eve, in upstate New York at Bard College. It was around 8:00PM. Valentine’s Day was the next day. I drove all the way down to UNC Chapel Hill through the night, arrived in the morning, showed up on this girl’s front steps, had written a short story.”
“It was likely ripped off from another writer,” he adds, “It was an obscure writer. This when I was in college, and there was a guy who played for UNC Chapel Hill who was there, a very large gentleman, and that was her new boyfriend. So then I went to a Tears for Fears concert and watched that. And I wept all the way through the concert.”
Sarsgaard discussed for us the challenge of the scene where David first meets Jenny and gets her into his car.
“To me, it was always important that she put herself in the car,” he explains, “In my mind, I see a girl at the side of the street with a cello that’s drowning in the rain. And the cello shouldn’t be in the rain. I play guitar … So I just made it my goal to get the cello off the street. And then we [Jenny and David] have this conversation, and she’s lovely and interesting. And she puts herself in the car.
Peter discussed for us his next big film coming up, which it’s called Wichita and whether or not it will be a more high-profile blockbuster film.
“It’s not called "Wichita" anymore, I don’t think,” Sarsgaard describes of it, “It is, but it’s funny, which I think is crucial. I love the script. It’s an awesome script. I’m really excited to be doing it. I have a really, really fun character. He’s a man with his own agenda.”
However, as talented as Sarsgaard has become, he still is certain that his dream role will elude him, which is country rock musician and member of bands The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons.
“When I was younger, I always wanted to play Gram Parsons,” Peter laments, “He had such a weird, crazy life. I can’t do that anymore. It’s not going to have the right ending. I’ve been to Joshua Tree. I’m not that crazy where I went to the actual site.”
“There was a great film script that I read about the guys who tried to steal his body,” he continues, “Which is probably the most interesting script related to him that I ever read. I think most actors, just like everyone else, are just trying to survive and get some work. I think every actor in Hollywood is for sale.
