DC Film Society: Adam's Rib September 1, 2007

Twenty Minutes with Ben Foster

In 1999 I caught Liberty Heights, a sweet coming of age film from Barry Levinson. Co-starring with Joe Mantegna and Adrien Brody was Ben Foster, a complete unknown. Foster was a fresh-faced kid who acquitted himself well. I thought he might have a future in shy, sensitive roles, maybe as a leading man in romantic comedies.

Foster did have a promising future, but far different from what I’d anticipated. Foster has specialized in dark, mysterious, edgy roles. He’s probably best known for his turn as Russell, the talented but creepy art student in HBO’s “Six Feet Under.” Foster has played villains in Hostage and Alpha Dog. His one notable exception of late was Angel in X Men 3: The Last Stand.

Foster’s latest is 3:10 to Yuma, director James Mangold’s (Walk the Line) remake of the 1957 Western. Russell Crowe stars as Ben Wade, a legendary outlaw captured after a robbery. Christian Bale plays Dan Evans, a down-on-his-luck farmer who agrees to bring Wade to a train to the court in Yuma. During the treacherous journey Evans must stay a step ahead of not only Wade but Wade’s gang, which is determined to get their leader back. Peter Fonda portrays a grizzled bounty hunter who has long been on Wade’s trail.

Foster is Charlie Prince, Wade’s ruthless right-hand man who leads the charge to free Wade from the law. Foster glowers with menace as a man who would just as soon kill you as talk to you. He more than holds his own with his accomplished co-stars.

A few weeks ago Foster sat down for a discussion about his new film and his career.

Question: Do you have one question you keep hearing every time?
Ben Foster: “What was it like to work with Russell and did he throw a phone at me?” (Laughs)
Adam Spector: OK, I’ll cross that one off. (Laughs)
BF: Russell was actually incredible to work with. I mean, startlingly so... I did not know how to ride a horse. After reading the script a few times you begin to realize you are going to be on a horse (for) most of the film. So I had to learn... I don’t know if you guys know this, but he (Crowe) has a ranch in Australia. He has a sh-tload of cattle. He’s a horseman for sure, so he would always take me out riding.

Q: After Alpha Dog and Hostage you had three roles where you were cast in a pretty similar role but you played them all pretty differently. He’s (Prince) much more quiet than Mazursky or Krupcheck (Foster’s Alpha Dog and Hostage roles). Was this intentionally different from the previous roles or was it more how you saw this character?
BF: I mean it’s just how I am... You just go on your first instinct, your first impression when you read a script. I forget who said this, it’s a metaphor that makes sense to me. The first time you read a script you have a very light outline of a photograph and you read it a hundred times and ideally it becomes clearer and clearer. But you have to honor that first impression and that first impression was these are men of very few words. Their actions speak louder than their words. And it was finding his (Charlie Princes’s) physicality and what his heart was after. It’s really like getting out of the way so his voice can show up. So if you construct performances they just feel like a piece of poorly made furniture. The drug is making enough room inside for him to show up rather than going the other way and trying to make him.

Q: I want to know if you’re afraid of getting typecast, after the last three movies.
BF: I love those movies, but for me it’s about the script, if it’s got meat on the bone. If there’s a romantic comedy that’s well written, and isn’t just about getting kicked in the balls and falling in swimming pools, it would be something fun to pursue. But I’m not worried about it. I don’t feel that I’ve been the same guy. You know it doesn’t matter what job you have or what actor. If a film is a massive success everybody’s going to refer to that.

AS: One of the things that struck me about Charlie is that he’s devoted to Ben so much that it's beyond just loyalty. It almost seems that Ben is a father figure. At one point Charlie could have had the gang all to himself. Instead he goes back for Ben. Why do you think Charlie cares about Ben as much as he does?
BF: I guess what’s most important is to know that it’s real. I guess I get a bit uncomfortable talking about backstory that doesn’t show up. The same thing with DVD commentary. I love DVD commentary but it leaves a nasty taste in my mouth because it’s not in the film.

AS: Let me switch gears then. In the press notes [producer] Cathy Konrad credits you for bringing a vulnerability to Charlie that wasn’t necessarily on the page. Is that something you were going for or is that something that came out as you were doing it?
BF: If you’re willing to risk your life and everything for one person, one has to have a big space inside, regardless of your actions. So, yeah if we look at the matter that you brought up about father-son figure and I won’t even necessarily say that that’s what Charlie and Ben have... Whatever need there is, there’s a union that’s important.

Q: I read that when you played in Alpha Dog, [director] Nick Cassavetes told you that your character was like a fast car that doesn’t handle well. So if you could sum up Charlie Prince in a similar kind of way...
BF: When I met with Jim, he’d been going through archival photographs for a long time. I was in New Zealand at the time. So I went through any book that I could get, which was surprising how many books on the American West there are in New Zealand. I just was going through as many photographs as possible, just trying to get a feel for it. All of the photographs that I looked at of outlaws, they were really flashy dressers. Fops and dandies ... there was a rock and roll aspect to it which made sense--they were desert pirates. There’s got to be great joy or pleasure in the performance of taking someone’s life. Because every action you have in life, that we live, is with death in mind. Who we’re going to marry, who we’re going to date. If you’re going to stay at this job. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life doing this.” Everything has to do with mortality. So if mortality is in fact that close to everything that you do every day, and you’re somehow skating by it, it has to feel very empowering. If you’re pursuing that life there has to be a great sense of freedom. So if I was to describe Charlie, the three influences that made sense to me was he’s a glam rock mountain cat matador.

AS: Did Mangold give you much direction for the character? It seems like you put a lot of your own work into it. Did he let you figure it out for yourself?
BF: We were pretty much on the same page. I’m sure it’s like writing an article. You can do certain things, you can pursue a direction and then you can bring it to your editor. And they’re like “Look, we want to do this angle. You’re totally wrong.” He (Mangold) was very encouraging to pursue this frequency. It just felt right. It wasn’t something where you read a script and go “Well, that’s who he is.” It’s looking at the rock and roll aspect of it, which took me to glam, which has kind of a feminine graceful quality that also has a sense of royalty which makes sense for the name Prince, Charlie Prince. He’s the prince beneath the king. And at least in terms of how we learn as children, or as young people how we develop our characters, we look at our environment and we imitate. We imitate sounds and actions and that’s how we become. So if he’s a predator, what are the predators? You have tarantulas, you have rattlesnakes. He seemed like a cat. So I watched a lot of cat documentaries. You study how they move and try to find that internal predator, I suppose. In the script he (Charlie) has two Scofields. When I got my hands on these massive guns, just these massive pieces of metal, he’s like a samurai or a matador. These felt almost to me like swords. Images work for me, pictures. I always have a binder and I take from paintings, photographs. I draw. It’s all kind of a conjuring . These are the rituals that you do to make enough room for these guys to show up. There’s a gravity to images and music so rather than intellectualizing you go “Cats are interesting.” I don’t want to overthink it, but it feels right. And if you’ve listened to these whispers, as psychotic as they may seem at first (laughs) ideally that shows up and you can get out of the way and he can experience through you. Mediumistic channeling, that’s the drug ... when you’re not thinking at all.

Q: How did you get the part? Did they offer it to you? Did you have to audition?
BF: I auditioned. I was in New Zealand. I was back for a day, I was jet lagged, just gotten off a plane, was out of my mind, starving, and I just wanted to go home... I had to get on a plane the next day to New Zealand. And they said “You have to go in today.” I said no. “No, I don’t care. I don’t want to audition. I don’t want to be another person right now. I want to go home, eat barbecue, and sleep, period.” And they said “You have to” and hung up on me. I was an hour late to the meeting, stuck in traffic, just miserable LA traffic. So I got to the meeting, I couldn’t find parking. I was in the worst fucking mood. Just a feral human being. I shouldn’t have been around people. So what I brought into the room, that’s who came in. (Laughs)

Q: Really set you up for the character well.
BF: It worked out ... and the next day I got a phone call before getting on the plane back to New Zealand saying “OK once you’re done in New Zealand you’re going to get on a plane and go to New Mexico.” So it was really about working backwards, finding that exhausted, hungry and horny mindset and, I suppose, decorating or exploring more specific avenues with the other things we talked about.

AS: You mentioned when we started how much Russell Crowe helped you. Both Crowe and Christian Bale, besides being known as movie stars are known for being intense, driven actors. Was that your experience? If so, how did that impact you and the rest of the cast?
BF: I don’t know about the rest of the cast. They seemed to all get along. Christian is lovely. He’s just a lovely guy, a quiet family man. Very focused, very dedicated to what he does. It shows up on screen. He’s one of the finest we have. And Russell has an enormous presence. He’s one of the great actors we have. And that doesn’t just come from being intense. It comes from a great sensitivity and insight and intuition. He’s extraordinary to work with. It makes sense. I mean I understand, man, if somebody’s talking a lot of sh-t on set or making a bunch of noise talking about stupid stuff. I don’t want to hear that. You want a quiet set. You want an environment which allows these people to exist, because they’re not you... It’s not Russell Crowe as a sociopath, it’s Ben Wade. When you have a lot of racket on set, it’s very difficult to allow an authentic exchange to take place. But he (Crowe) was nothing but fantastic with the crew. He doesn’t care who you are or what you do. If you’re dedicated to what you do and you work hard at it, and you’ve got a good attitude, great.

AS: You and Fonda discussed yesterday [at the audience Q&A, see below] how cold and brutal it was during the filming. You said that the elements helped you get into the story. How did that work out? How did those conditions help play into what you did on the set?
BF: Well, pain is a great motivator. It heightens your senses. You become very present... we’re not on a sound stage. We’re not dealing with foam mountains or fake cactus. We’re in it. This is the territory. It’s such a severe landscape. The weather was so fierce that you’re either gonna complain about it or you’re going to absorb it and become part of it. And you have to ask yourself when you’re on the horse and the wind’s blowing... “I’m cold and I want to go back to my room.” Well, that’s not what these guys are doing and you have to honor the people that you’re playing. It’s not about your comfort, it’s about honoring the character. If you’re putting your ego into it then that little gap is what’s gonna make or break a performance. It may be good and well crafted, but it’s not going to sing, it’s not going to wail. And I think the wailing, when it’s beyond logic... just as an audience member, when it’s beyond logic and it hits you and you experience that person as your own. You have to destroy your ego. So weather is quite welcome.

Q: What do you have coming up?
BF: I have a small, cameo thing in 30 Days of Night, which is a vampire flick, which is fun. The director, David Slade, did Hard Candy and I just love him. He’s wonderful, interesting, and bizarre. But I should be going to Belfast, Ireland pretty soon to shoot a film about the IRA called 50 Dead Men Walking. So that should be interesting. Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to do anything more. (Laughs)

Adam Spector
September 1, 2007