www.nytimes.com
Even the horses were afraid of Steve Carell. When he walked the Pennsylvania estate where he filmed “Foxcatcher,” shrouded by the prosthetics and makeup he wore to play John E. du Pont, the troubled scion and convicted murderer, he could tell the animals were keeping their distance.
“I was hoping that would happen naturally,” Mr. Carell said, smiling with satisfaction as he recalled the experience recently. “And it did. I creeped them out. They did not like being around me.”
What Mr. Carell did not expect during his time on “Foxcatcher,” the director Bennett Miller’s methodical and atmospheric account of how Mr. du Pont’s fervent support of an Olympic wrestler, Mark Schultz, degenerated into something far more sinister, was that this same camouflage he used during its creation would also affect how his human co-stars and collaborators were approaching him.
Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, who play Stephen and Jane Hawking, who met when both were students at Cambridge, in “The Theory of Everything.”‘Theory of Everything’ Stars Talk of Playing the HawkingsOCT. 30, 2014
Holiday Movie Release ScheduleOCT. 30, 2014
Left, James Stewart and the Bailey brood in a scene from Quvenzhané Wallis, Wes Bentley and Others on Holiday TraditionsOCT. 30, 2014
Timothy SpallBreakthroughs in ‘Mr. Turner,’ ‘Actress,’ ‘The Way He Looks’OCT. 30, 2014
Hiro Hamada and Baymax in a scene from Designing a College Campus in ‘Big Hero Six’OCT. 30, 2014
Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, the British mathematician and code breaker, in “The Imitation Game,” directed by Morten Tyldum.‘The Imitation Game’ Dramatizes the Story of Alan TuringOCT. 30, 2014
J. C. Chandor, writer and director of “A Most Violent Year.”J. C. Chandor’s ‘A Most Violent Year’ Tests the American DreamOCT. 30, 2014
A scene from New Discs: Film Noir Gems and Altman and Miyazaki MoviesOCT. 30, 2014
The Ones I Used to KnowOCT. 30, 2014
Reese WitherspoonReese Witherspoon Goes Against Type in ‘Wild’OCT. 29, 2014
“Or not approaching me,” Mr. Carell said more seriously. “Truly keeping me at a distance. Kind of inadvertently, I felt a little ostracized.”
Photo
Steve Carell with Channing Tatum in “Foxcatcher.” Credit Scott Garfield/Sony Pictures Classics
Audiences accustomed to seeing Mr. Carell, 52, playing goofy, good-natured guys in films like “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and on sitcoms like “The Office” may similarly find that the sight of him as the du Pont character is enough to send chills down their spines.
In “Foxcatcher,” which also stars Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo, and which Sony Pictures Classics will release on Nov. 14, Mr. Carell’s mild visage is all but obliterated by a beaky nose, narrow eyes, age-spotted skin and thinning hair.
While many actors yearn for immersive roles, it is the rare performer who might wish to lose himself in John du Pont, a descendant of the industrialist E. I. du Pont, who in 1996 shot and killed Dave Schultz (played by Mr. Ruffalo), Mark’s older brother and a fellow wrestler who was training at his Foxcatcher Farm estate. (In 1997, John E. du Pont was found guilty of murder but mentally ill, and he died in prison in 2010.)
In person, Mr. Carell is more of a gentle soul than an antic quipster; he takes his work seriously but is hardly careerist, and was surprised when Mr. Miller approached him.
“It wasn’t anything I was lobbying for,” said the actor, who was somewhat incognito wearing eyeglasses and a light beard on a recent visit to New York. “I wasn’t looking for dark, moody, dangerous characters to play.”
Nor, Mr. Carell said, is he another comic performer consumed by the need to prove himself as a legitimate thespian. “I don’t care if people take me seriously,” he said. “But I’m glad to be given the opportunity to try different things.”
Mr. Miller, the director of “Capote” and “Moneyball,” said that, from a certain angle, the story of Mark Schultz and John E. du Pont need not be presented as a foreboding thriller.
“It’s just one of those weird stories where people were in worlds where they did not belong,” said Mr. Miller, who directed “Foxcatcher” from a screenplay by Dan Futterman and E. Max Frye. “If it didn’t end tragically, that could be the setup for a great absurdist comedy.”
Continue reading the main story
While Mr. Tatum, the chiseled star of “Magic Mike” and the “21 Jump Street” movies, quickly became attached to play Mark Schultz, Mr. Miller spent several years after “Capote” seeking financing for “Foxcatcher.” This allowed him ample time to consider his ideal du Pont.
“By the time Steve’s name cropped up, I was pretty well versed on what I did not want,” Mr. Miller said. “I didn’t want an obvious idea in there. I didn’t want anybody who was known for playing dangerous, psychopathic characters.”
“You don’t want a character who you, upon meeting, say, ‘Oh, he’s going to kill someone,’ ” Mr. Miller added. “There’s so much more to him.”
When he met with Mr. Carell over lunch to discuss the role, Mr. Miller said he saw a convincing level of care and commitment in the actor. “I thought, the only thing between him breaking out of what we might expect from him, and him doing something extraordinary, is the opportunity,” Mr. Miller said.
Jon Stewart, who employed Mr. Carell as a correspondent on “The Daily Show” and who has seen “Foxcatcher,” described him as “the Daniel Day-Lewis of comedic improvisers,” praising him for the lengths he would go in the service of a character.
“We did a bit once where I think he was supposed to eat Crisco,” Mr. Stewart recalled, “and any time we do something like that there’s always a substitution. ‘You know what looks like Crisco? Vanilla pudding. Put that in there.’ And he’s like, ‘I will eat Crisco.’ ”
Mr. Carell, who grew up in the suburbs near Boston and played sports like ice hockey, soccer and lacrosse, said he could understand the world of “Foxcatcher,” up to a point.
“I had a very normal upbringing,” he said. “In my consciousness, there aren’t any huge scars.”
But to du Pont, Mr. Carell said: “Winning was everything. Second place was for losers. It was all about the pursuit of not only excellence but superiority.”
Mr. Carell studied media coverage and archival footage of the real John E. du Pont, trying to master his slumped posture and halting speech patterns, and even read his writings on ornithology, looking for clues to his uneasy relationship with Mark Schultz.
“Beyond loneliness, it was two kindred spirits,” he said. “They both needed something from one another, and they were both desperate for it. It transcended athletics.”
Depicting the deterioration of the bonds between their alter egos, Mr. Carell and Mr. Tatum said, required that they maintain a certain emotional distance from each other during the filming of “Foxcatcher” in late 2012.
“We didn’t put on our Method hats and get all weird and actor-y,” Mr. Carell said. “But we both felt that it was best to keep apart from one another and to not really engage personally.”
Mr. Tatum agreed that du Point and his intense, internalized Mark Schultz “are not easy people to drop into.”
“You can’t be telling jokes off-camera, and then when they yell, ‘Rolling,’ you drop back into them,” he said. “It’s more of a meditative constant.”
Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story
“Steve and I joke that we really didn’t meet until Cannes,” Mr. Tatum said. “We’re just so much lighter, because we’re not having to hold these people up. It is so much fun to hang out with the guy. He’s so sweet and giving.”
Mr. Carell said the off-putting makeup he wore as du Pont (designed by Bill Corso) helped him connect with his character’s alienation, but he could not immediately locate where du Pont’s inner rage came from.
The father of two children (with his wife and former “Daily Show” co-star, Nancy Carell), he said his reputation as a soft-spoken family man probably means he has an even temperament. “Or I’m saving it up for one big blowout,” he said with a laugh.
He did identify within himself a certain professional restlessness, a feeling that has followed him from the main stage of Second City, the Chicago comedy theater, to “The Daily Show” and beyond.
“I tend to jump ship at a certain point, no matter how well things are going,” Mr. Carell said. “Especially if they’re going well. And it’s not that I’m uncomfortable with it, but I sometimes feel that it’s time to move on, before I start repeating myself.”
Even after seven seasons on “The Office” as the endearingly oblivious Michael Scott, Mr. Carell said he felt that familiar desire stirring within him. “Loved it, best job ever,” he said. “But at certain points, you just want to jump out into the abyss and see where you land.”
“It doesn’t always work out,” he added. “But making that leap is an exciting and liberating thing to do.”
Mr. Miller praised Mr. Carell as an actor “who has achieved incredible success, and as wide a variety of roles as he’s played, they’re still within a band. They all live within a certain frequency.”
With his tongue somewhat in cheek, Mr. Carell said he could see certain underlying similarities between the dangerously self-deluded du Pont and his cherished “Office” character.
“Michael Scott had an enormous emotional blind spot,” he said. “I think, similarly, he ultimately just wanted to be loved.”
(No such comparisons, however, could be made to Brick Tamland, the dimwitted weatherman he has played in the “Anchorman” movies. “He generally doesn’t understand what’s going on,” Mr. Carell said. “No pain can be felt, because he’s at least 10 or 15 seconds behind any conversation.”)
Now that he has played a role like du Pont, which once might have been considered out of his reach, Mr. Carell said he has a better appreciation of the acting opportunities awaiting him.
“You can tell people you’re capable of doing something, but that doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “If you go out and take some chances, then you might be offered other things that are even greater chances.”
But he has no plans to abandon his cinematic roster of dopey dads and villains with hearts of gold. And when his “Foxcatcher” experience is over, Mr. Carell will put his quietly intimidating du Pont persona back in its box, never to be used to gain him a better table at a restaurant or extract him from unwanted conversations.
“Usually, it’s the other way around,” Mr. Carell said. “People are trying to get out of conversations with me.”
No comments:
Post a Comment