Журнал Andy Warhol's Interview Россия Interview № 6 | Page 193

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the second, the revered “Alpha Dog” by Nick
Cassavetes and Stephen Sommers’s thriller “Odd
Thomas,” that will come out this fall. Especially for
“Interview” Anton talked to his co-star Willem Da-
foe about his Russian past and acting future.
DAFOE: How is it going over there? The weath-
er is total crap here in Pittsburgh.
YELCHIN: California is warm, as usual.
DAFOE: It’s always sunny in California. Did
you know it messes people up? The moment the sun
dissapears, their mood goes to shit.
YELCHIN: I guess you are right.
DAFOE: Come on. I am just giving you shit.
Back to business. We just finished a movie together,
“Odd Thomas” and while I do feel that I know who
you are from working with you, I have no idea about
how you grew up. Your parents left Russia when you
were just a baby, right?
YELCHIN: We moved to the States when I was
six months old, so I don’t remember Russia much.
I went back there many years later to do this movie
“You and I.” I liked it. I think everyone who leaves
their homeland at an early age has a kind of split
personality. I speak Russian, but my life is so Amer-
ican. I guess all immigrants feel this way.
DAFOE: American habits, Russian blood. Do
you remember that time you came over to my house?
My friend just brought over some caviar. I got ex-
cited: “I have a real Russian coming over and there
is caviar.” So I went and got some vodka as well.
Turns out you don’t drink and are allergic to caviar.
YELCHIN: Yeah, one time my parents made me
try it and I got really sick. I do like Russian food
though: pickles, smoked fish, chicken soup.
DAFOE: Did you know you want to be in mov-
ies early on?
YELCHIN: Yeah, when I was nine.
DAFOE: Horrible! Whose idea was it?
YELCHIN: Mine, I guess. My parents expected
me to go into sports. I tried figure-skating, then did
a bit of soccer, then basketball. However, me and
sports don’t go together. I’ll never forget how I tried
out for my school’s basketball team and didn’t make
it. I got really depressed, can you imagine? I was six.
Then a family friend suggested I try an acting
group. It’s really fun for kids, he said. I turned out to
be so cool, that I forgot about basketball.
DAFOE: Do you remember your first audition?
YELCHIN: Of course. It was for a Chuck E.
Cheese’s commercial. I did an Arnold Schwar-
zenegger impression for auditions. I stared straight
at the camera and said “I’ll be back.” Imagine, you
come there and everyone goes like “What is your
talent? Show us what you can do,”—and you give
them Arnie. That’s how I got my first advertis-
ing part.
DAFOE: Do you still have family back in Russia?
YELCHIN: Yeah, my mom’s cousins and second
cousins. We try to keep in touch. I talk to one of
them like once a month.
DAFOE: Have you met them?
YELCHIN: Sure. When I was filming in Russia.
My parents came too, so they could take care of my
grandparents graves.
DAFOE: Are you familiar with Russian film and
literature?
YELCHIN: When I was ten, my parents made
me watch Tarkovsky films. I really liked “Ivan’s
childhood.” Later on I got really into the history of
Russian Suprematism, read all those books on Mal-
evich. I even decided to try myself at art. Got some
spray paint and tagged a few walls in my neighbour-
hood.
DAFOE: You did what?
YELCHIN: Tagged, I mean graffiti. Some
truckdriver saw me and chased me all the way back
to my house. He wanted me to wash away my art.
(Laughs.)
DAFOE: What did you paint?
YELCHIN: It was three Russian letters: IPO.
Means absolutely nothing.
DAFOE: How old were you?
YELCHIN: 16.
DAFOE: That explains everything. Did you
come across Meyerhold in acting school?
YELCHIN: I don’t have any formal acting train-
ing actually. I went to Santa Monica College for
a while. I was planning to go to film school in
Southern California, but then I started getting act-
ing jobs.
DAFOE: Damn all jobs that stand in the way of
a real education!
YELCHIN: Exactly. Now I have to read theory
in my little breaks on the set. When I was little, An-
thony Hopkins gave me three books by Stanislavs-
ky and said: “This is not for kids. Grow up a bit
and then read them.” I opened the first one the day
I turned 18.
DAFOE: How did your acting methods change
since the time you first started?
YELCHIN: At first, I was simply memorizing
lines and tried to put them through me to get some
emotions out of them. Now that I’ve seen hundreds
of movies and theater plays, I’ve amassed a whole
library of examples to follow.
DAFOE: Do you look up to any of the great
actors?
YELCHIN: Robert De Niro in the “Taxi Driver”
comes to mind. Best movie of all time! Then Italian
Neorealism and Robert Bresson of course.
DAFOE: You once said that you were putting
together a movie yourself? Tell me about it.
YELCHIN: It’s half-documentary, half-acting.
I hope to get it together real soon. You can’t imag-
ine how disorganized I am. It’s not that I am lazy,
I just can’t keep my mind on one thing. I always
find lots of stuff to do and try to do it all at the same
time. Even now, I am talking to you and walking
around the house. I just knocked the dog over.
(To the dog.) Sorry, pup. My mom’s puppies are run-
ning around.
DAFOE: So what’s with the movie?
YELCHIN: I need to finish cutting it, then add
sound and send it on the festival circuit. I just got an
electronic Magnus organ on eBay. It’s pretty awe-
some, though it only cost 40 bucks. It’s really weird
but cool at the same time...
DAFOE: And you plan to write the soundtrack
on that thing?
YELCHIN: Why not? I’ll do a mix on the turn-
tables, then will add some organ and harmonica for
a more ambient sound.
DAFOE: I heard you were in a punk band. Do
you still jam?
YELCHIN: No, that band is history. I really did
not want to become a punk! (Laughs.) I guess I just
like making music for fun.
DAFOE: Do you watch your own movies?
I know actors who physically can’t make themselves
do it. What about you?
YELCHIN: Let me think. I can watch my own
films but I prefer not to think much about them.
They give me too many weird thoughs, they start
messing with my head.
DAFOE: Like what?
YELCHIN: You know, you look at yourself and
think: “I could have done this differently.” It’s really
hard to distinguish between what’s really good
and what’s not. I find that kind of thinking dest-
ructive.
DAFOE: Tell me about it! Such a pain. What’s
your typical day like, when you are not busy
shooting?
YELCHIN: Well, today is Mother’s day, so
I took my mom to the House of Blues for some Gos-
pel music and shrimp Jambalaya.
DAFOE: So you had a theme day.
YELCHIN: Kind of. But usually me and my
friends would make a zine. It’s a photozine and
I took most of the pictures. We will print it with our
own money. Nothing major, just a beautiful DIY
publication. I won’t tell you what it is about though.
It’s a secret.
DAFOE: Gene Hackman gave me a piece of
advice once: ‘‘Never do a movie with a first-time
director.” I’ve done it many times though and so
did you.
YELCHIN: I don’t mind working with begin-
ners at all. In my case, it’s about the script and the
character. If you think about it, many people did
their best work when they were young. It’s easier
for young people to get things done. One holds
a camera, another one writes the soundtrack, the
third one attempts to act. The main thing is they
think along the same lines and trust each other.
This way they actually have a chance to do some-
thing groundbreaking. So I think it is really im-
portant for young people to need to create com-
munties where like minded individuals can share
and grow together and create interesting things
together.
DAFOE: Agree. So what do you think about the
movie industry these days? What is happening with
for the last 10 years?
YELCHIN: It’s pretty obvious, I think. The
films I did ten years ago, easily got $15 million bud-
gets, now they would barely scrape $3 million. As
a result, there is a new wave of independent films
with microscopic budgets. Given two days and
a red-cam you can shoot a movie in your house. All
you need is a great script and a bunch of actors who
are open to new things. I’d like to believe that this
will lead to a surge of new creativity.
DAFOE: That’s all fine and dandy, but who are
you going to show these films to? I mean some kids
will download it on their laptops and watch it at
home, but you need to create a lot of buzz for a real
breakthrough. I doubt that will happen. There is no
discourse.
YELCHIN: Possibly, but the big screen doesn’t
guarantee that either. You know how many times
I saw people in the cinema glued to their mobile
phones? It’s the sign of a new era. We process infor-
mation in bits and pieces and there is nothing you
can do about it. I just hope that people who can get
together in a small cinema and spend an uninter-
rupted hour and a half watching a movie still exist.
There have to be commited people. That’s going
back to our conversation about young directors:
maybe they’ll make a debut film on sheer enthusi-
asm and then, who knows, a studio might notice it
and give them money for the next one.
DAFOE: I wouldn’t be so sure about that.
I think it is much more convenient for big studios to
hire directors they know they can control. It’s not
always the case, but it’s a common practice. Basi-
cally, there is not much support for young directors
these days. It’s a global issue.
YELCHIN: What can I say to that? I’m just
a young kid myself and I really hope that kids my
age who are trying to create something will be no-
ticed by big studios in five years time. Of course
sometimes you start thinking: “What is this fucking
attitude? This project didn’t get picked up. That got
killed. Why do they not take us seriously,” and you
get discouraged.
DAFOE: What annoys you the most about Hol-
lywood?
YELCHIN: Nothing much. I live in the valley,
which is totally different. It’s much more pulp.
DAFOE: Okey. So I won’t take your time any-
more. The interview is over.
YELCHIN: That’s it? Well, call me back then.
DAFOE: In 10 minutes.