00:00I have done bricklaying for loving, I could build a wall, I think I could still build a wall.
00:06I look like I have a worker's hands on the outside but they're a little softer on the inside
00:11because of my day job.
00:16It was actually, I read it many many years ago when it first came out and it was the first
00:20Dennis Johnson piece of writing I'd ever read and it just happened to be like I was getting out of
00:24college I think at the time and it came out and I just I read it and I was blown away and then
00:29I devoured everything else he had written and I just became a huge Dennis Johnson fan and then
00:35fast forward to and Joel also has a history with the book that precedes us making the film together
00:41and then fast forward to I had made Jockey and it had premiered here and and a couple of producers
00:48had the rights to the book and were trying to find a filmmaker to make the book into a movie
00:52and they saw Jockey and felt like I might be a good fit and I don't know that I would have had
00:56the courage to do it otherwise had they not asked but it was just like as soon as it the idea came
01:03across it just felt like the most exciting thing. I don't really often get to read for pleasure
01:10you know I'm a slow reader I read a lot for work and so sometimes I equate reading now with
01:17like like part of part of a job and somebody had gifted me the novella at the end of a job and I
01:26read it you know for pleasure and was so taken with it and you know I'm also a filmmaker and I
01:32I was so taken with it that I made an inquiry about the rights to the book and of course they
01:40were taken and I was like look it was you know so be it and then years later when Clint contacted me
01:48it felt like somebody had really it felt like something special was in the air I was like how
01:54did somebody know that I was so taken with this story and so I felt very lucky and then
02:02I was very nervous about reading a screenplay because I remembered that you know any any book
02:07or novella is a challenge to translate into a film. The script was so well such an accomplished
02:16version of the book in the screenplay and then you know and I watched Clint's film Jockey and
02:22and it's it's very rare often that sometimes you get a nice script and then you're not so sure about
02:28the way the or the other elements to be kind you know or you you you want to work with a great
02:36filmmaker and then you're not connected with the script but this felt like everything really lined
02:41up and I felt very privileged that they were asking me to do it and I felt that by this stage
02:46of my life I do know myself well enough of what aspects of me felt appropriate for this and I felt
02:55like it was something that I could wear quite well so it was it was cool that it happened.
03:02After Joel came on then we were like it was like okay now let's find our Gladys and and that's such
03:09a a difficult character to to try and get right and Joel and Felicity had known each other and
03:16wanted to work together for a while and um and I've been a huge fan of hers forever and and so
03:22she just like it was just one of those where she just felt so perfect for it that you're like I
03:26hope she doesn't say no because I don't know who next. His sensitivity to the way he spoke about the
03:34material the way he approached things as a writer and as a filmmaker that I had complete trust in
03:41him and it was easy for me to share that information with her and actors often like feel
03:47safe with each other you know who am I going to be working with and is it going to be a good
03:52experience and you don't have a crystal ball but you can have an instinct for the someone so I
03:57definitely um you know I was blowing Clint's trumpet to her if that's the right way of putting it of
04:06saying how much faith I had in the process and and and as a collaborator because
04:12Clint and Greg as writers uh part of their power is is not to assume complete control over something
04:22is that filmmaking is such a collaborative situation anyway and if actors have thoughts
04:28about things it's important to um listen to them but not listen to all of them
04:36because we can have some pretty terrible ideas too what okay what is your affinity not affinity
04:43for talent for like anything with working with your hands manual labor any of that like would
04:49you have any skills to offer as a real life person you'll be in a real right there tomorrow
04:54you'd be great I have done bricklaying uh for loving I could build a wall I think I could still
05:00build a wall I look like I have a worker's hands on the outside but they're a little softer on the
05:05inside because of my day job um I like doing uh films I guess where I get to learn skills and
05:16do things that are that are physical because I think that um um as much as I obsess over the
05:22interior life of characters the the physical nature of work is so important some of my favorite
05:28actors are people who who bring the the character into their whole body rather than just their voice
05:34or their eyes um but I also have a whole history in my family of men that were workers you know
05:41before my father um his father was a was a uh train driver and and before that a whole lineage
05:50of farmers which my father was going to carry on except that he got sort of railroaded at um
05:56uh at university this sort of he was on his way to to go and enroll in uh what was called sheep
06:03husbandry and his friends were like Mick we're going off to become lawyers you know and there's
06:09lots of money in it he was like um okay and my life may now be not sitting here but being the
06:17son of a farmer you know inheriting a farm or something it's it's interesting how generations
06:23and that speaks to the film as well about how life lived could be one thing or another and
06:28and how one decision like that can like ripple across generations now
06:34and you know well I feel like I'm of a generation where I got to take charge
06:38of my own future you know I didn't have to inherit something or presume to inherit something
06:44um and and there's something really nice about this film that I responded to and that you know
06:49this idea of the significance and insignificance of all of our lives we will all be forgotten
06:55unless we're you know some criminal or a politician or a famous artist of some kind
07:00that's written into history but we all contribute to the world and and we're all insignificant
07:05and will be forgotten to a degree but we did contribute something or we brought new people
07:11into the world that you know continue the human race so I I feel there's a real potency and
07:18simplicity to the film does a movie of yours stick out as when you were talking about like
07:23learning skills and stuff for for jobs that was the hardest was one uh warrior for sure
07:29learning presuming at the you know I used to have a fighting background as a kid like just
07:33doing karate but warrior came around when I was in my mid-30s and I I had this sort of um
07:40cynical point of view that I was a bit too old to to learn all these new skills and I you know we
07:46we were proven forced to prove ourselves wrong and and I really admired having to go through a
07:52really intense work experience like that and prove you know for the future also is never to doubt
07:59what what you're capable of
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