Buscemi on getting it wrong
Since the late eighties, Steve Buscemi has been one of the most instantly recognisable faces of the American indie scene. His roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs and Ghost World along with his many collaborations with the Coen Brothers in classics such as Fargo and The Big Lebowski have cornered him a niche in the market playing oddball characters. Now stepping up to the mic at the NFT to deliver one of the festival’s eagerly awaited screentalks, Film Felix asks whether or not he can captivate without his characters.
Buscemi has made it surprisingly big in cinema considering that he is known best for supporting roles. He intersperses appearances in independent productions with a couple of big money deals in the likes of Con Air and Armageddon to “ensure the smaller films get paid for” as he puts it, and you’d be hard pushed to ever call him a sell out.
With Interview included in the official London festival selection though, it is his role as director and lead actor that bring him to our glorious city, and whilst not his first stab at directing, the attention the film has already garnered would seem to suggest that this is something he may want to consider again in the future. Yet, depite being selected for a screentalk, Buscemi doesn’t seem to have that much to say for himself.
His anecdootes tend to fall way short of the strangeness you expect from his character. For example, when asked about his collaborations with the Coens he lays the foundations for a great story only for the punchline to be “I read the script fastest and so I got the job” in a nutshell.
He seems to show a certain amount of impatience throughout as well. The talk was not given in the form of a lecture but an on-stage interview, resembling a press conferencewith a live studio audience, especially when they open up the floor to questions. In this environment, his impatience is easily understood however.
When invited to talk about your work, anyone with a sense of integrity might expect to discuss the artistic merits on which they are judged, not “How do you feel about being voted sexiest man alive by US magazine?” or “How would I deliver my script into the hands of someone of such stature as yourself?”. Brown nosing and selfishness rarely make for a crowd pleaser. In this sense it is hard to get a true view of an actor trying to express a more personal voice as a director.
On topics of suitability however, Buscemi is a man full of praise for anyone he deems worthy of it. He isn’t shy about telling of the talent of the Coen brothers as writers and directors but at the same time he avoids gushing uncontrollably. When asked about his influences in moviemaking style, he is similarly quick to point to the influence of the grandfather of American indie cinema, John Cassavettes and the new style that he brought to film at the time.
“The thing I like about Cassavettes is that I saw a retrospective of his works after he’d died and what struck me about them was that it was okay to get it wrong. As a writer I was always told you have to have your beginning, middle and end before you start writing and that was something that had always got me: I would have a beginning but I could never define where the middle would bulk out. What I saw from Cassavettes is that you don’t have to always know where you’re going and in so many of his films you don’t know where you’re going to go next so it’s alright to be uncertain of that and for me that was just such a blessed relief that I really admired him.”
This is a feature not glaringly obvious in Interview, although the constantly meandering dynamics of the principal characters’ relationship does invest a certain amount of fun into his narrative stylings. However, even when asked about his message in Interview, about the media and its portrayal of celebrity these days, he dismisses it as unimportant to the film. “I don’t think Interview is essentially about celebrity and the culture surrounding it. The way I see it is as a film about two people from completely different worlds who find that beneath the surface they have a lot more in common than is obvious”. So, no scathing comment there then, at least not consciously. He’s also quick to shoot down the other standard suggestion of credible subject matter: “I certainly don’t feel I need a turn to politics to justify myself”.
Perhaps this is what may lead to Buscemi’s failure as a director over time. To retain credibility, you have to have something to say. Judging from this particular interview, that looks like it might be a problem.
Let’s just hope that he finds a clearer voice amongst some better questions soon.
