Guy Pearce Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

if I'm doing an accent that's unusual I have to find a voice that really works that I can latch on to and then I can sort of develop it from there it's tricky with the royal family because they all do sound sort of terribly tear there like that and your fingers that really how they talk like that all the time The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the desert well the script was sent to me I read it I absolutely loved it I had not long been out of a couple of TV shows so it wasn't that I was looking specifically for things that were different but the idea of something that was quite different was very appealing to me I then went in and had a meeting with Stefan Elliot our director it wasn't really an audition and he said how would you feel about doing this would you be uncomfortable I don't know it's big Ruby great and then I was offered at I desert holiday let's pack the drag away you take the luncheon to you I'll take the ecstasy there are two characters I suppose the character of Adam he's so sort of over the top and so kind of pushy and obnoxious and irreverent that all the energy in a way goes into into that character and then the energy that's in the other character and Felicia the performing drag queen is all about the dance moves and the choreography [Music] I was dance captain on the film so I was in charge of rehearsals with Stephan and Hugo and they did not learn their steps as well as they were supposed to him I'm not really a dancer so you know everything everything I did I had to learn we did a lot of research we went to a lot of drag shows we got introduced to lots of drag queens and one of the things that Stephan wanted to do was in the last day of rehearsal we were going to do our camera tests and makeup and wardrobe tests and the plan was that at the end of that day we were all gonna go out that night in Sydney to some clubs in full drag and just sort of cast us out into into the world for public which we did and that really was a you know eye opening experience for everybody we didn't perform we just got drunk very clever cheers girls and congratulations Mitzi darling you did it one lap of the Broken Hill main drag in drag the whole thing was a funny story was about turning up in these towns like Broken Hill and Kings Canyon and various towns across Australia where certain towns folk were prepped that a film was coming but they didn't really know what it was and they wanted to get a lot of reactions from locals so quite often the locals were told okay our main characters are gonna sort of come walking down the street and you guys are gonna watch and they would sort of put the cameras on them and you'd see these people just seeing these drag queens for the first time country towns that had not seen anything like this before this is in 93 as well we've got to remember so there's some pretty great honest reactions by by some locals what are you all looking at the village people asked me to go on tour with them in drag it was a work opportunity that came up after that film I didn't take them up on it funnily enough of course I was really then came to just keep doing what I wanted to do which was to play a lot of different roles LA Confidential one of the first films I did after Priscilla was Ella confidential and everyone kept saying I was it cuz Curtis saw Priscilla and Curtis never saw Priscilla he never wanted to say Priscilla east until the you know even till the day he passed away he still never saw Priscilla which I was kind of thankful for because he may not have cast me as it actually had he seen Felicia a jolly good fellow yeah a Stensland the party's upstairs concern you the great thing about that film I mean obviously the script was really wonderful but there was a book that James Earl Ray had written as we all know called LA Confidential that covers an eight-year period so there's a whole slew of story narrative that doesn't exist in the film for me to sort of wade through tons and tons of backstory about the character and then also what sort of happens afterwards and I spent a number of weeks in LA preparing and we were driven around by a couple of cops and taken to some pretty bad areas and told lots of stories of being a cop in LA and you just slowly sort of immerse yourself in all that this should be it the character that I played in that film was a new kind of cop I guess 404 Ed's father had been a well renowned detective and Ed sort of wanted to follow in his footsteps but he came from a more highly educated background and was on some level therefore treated as a bit of an outcast in the police force so in a way he was different to the other cops I realize difficult give you a career arrest leave her alone a naked guy with a gun you expect anyone to believe that get the I was always really pleased to be working with Russell he's so brilliant and has such a dynamic energy on screen and he's a Kiwi band I'm English but we both grew up in Australia so there's a sort of a connection there he was far more advanced in his career than I was but I felt that he you know was very helpful to me and the scenes with Kym as well we're really touching because she was so lovely but the whole thing was a really wonderful experience because Curtis particularly our director had such a great ability to sort of communicate in them differently to each active in relation to how that particular actor needed to sort of communicate so it really was like going to film school for me that film he taught me so much about film acting memento it's a film that obviously comes up with me a lot and comes back all the time and film students talk about it a lot and a lot of people say to me it really was the first film of its kind funnily enough people say to me other Confidential was the last film of its kind and memento was the first film of its kind so I feel really honored to be part of those two films but Chris Noland clearly is a genius and his ability to write that story and make the film that was in his head as it is I'm it's the only film I've ever really done I think we're the finished film is exactly as the script was I thought you split for good Wow things change so I see my name is Teddy I guess I've told you about my condition only every time I see it it was just an incredible honor to be working with somebody who was so clever and the great thing about Chris was you know his ability that really proficient with the technical side of filmmaking as well as the emotional journey of each character and being able to sort of communicate with us so that was also a real lesson in filmmaking working with him there were 25 or 26 tattoos we didn't see all of them all the time so it was only a few times that you actually saw them all applying these tattoos we sort of had transfers essentially but it took a good hour or so to get them all on Sammy Junkers I guess I tell people about Sammy to help them understand Sammy's story helps me understand my own situation Sammy wrote himself a Henderson months from notes we shot the whole film in 26 days and all that black and white stuff was scheduled to be the last two days of the shoot and I was rehearsing those scenes on my own in my motel room every weekend when we were having breaks in between filming and I kept saying to Erin Ryder our producer I said we're not gonna get all that in just two days it's just it's a lot of stuff I'm doing cuz I'm folding notes and tattooing and on the phone and there's just tons of stuff I had to do writing on Polaroids etc and then in the last week or close to the last week Erin said we've got a third day I was amazing with little brain damage wonderful credibility you know the truth about my condition officer you don't know anything thankfully when Chris my agent sent me the letter and the script he at the bottom of it in brackets he said by the way this all goes backwards so at least was sort of prepared prepared for that but the thing was even though it on some level it felt like gobbledygook as I was reading it because I got the sense that things are just all over the place what I really got and what was really clear was the emotional journey of the character and that as an actor that's the only thing I'm really not interested in but that's what I need to latch on to in order to do my job the other stuff sort of began to make sense more as I then worked with Chris Nolan and rehearsed with him and then funnily enough once it all made sense to me I then had to sort of put it all away and let it all go and and then just treat every scene as if it was a its own little thing because I wasn't ready to remember what had happened before or and clearly had no clue what was coming afterwards but of course it also made me really question my own memory I think back to experiences in my life where I look at something like a look at photo and base a memory around that and go I actually don't really know if that memory is really true is it so it really made me question my own memory thanks Chris Nolan The Hurt Locker yeah it was a quick experience wasn't it I was sort of reluctant to take that on at first and Katherine asked me to do it and I read it and went wow and I had a feel the things going on it's a time in my career to start doing cameos you know I got to that point and she really talked me into it because she really said no we really want people to believe that you're gonna be the person we're gonna follow through this film and of course if we kill you in the first five minutes then that'll be great for the movie I said okay as long as it's great for the movie then that's great everything looks okay when I get down there I'm just gonna set up that bomb suit that I what was so heavy and we were in Jordan of course and it was 9 million degrees so it was really hot in there I remember having a blood squib inside the helmet which is obviously meant to go off as the explosion goes off and I'm running towards camera and they're setting at all and sort of was standing there in the searing heat and was so taken ages and they're running wire and it's this long sort of laborious process not complaining and then it went off by accident in my face so of course we had to take it all off and when startled okay and then of course the second time in there putting a lot I'm like is this gonna go what's gonna happen didn't go off the second time but it went off obviously on camera when it was meant to so and then I sprained my ankle so I was only filming for like three days and as I finished filming they then wanted to get on my dialogue so I put the helmet on we stuck a microphone in the helmet and I ran down the train track that I was sort of running on and I went over on my ankle and then oh you all right well we got the dialer that's great that's a wrap on guy everyone fantastic guy thanks very much and I'm on the ground going oh my god on a plane and went to Toronto and started traitor and by that point my ankle was like this I was Hurt Locker yeah it really hurt a lot the King's Speech : and I got in very well we've been friends for a while and he's just the most delightful human being is so wonderfully articulate and eloquent and his lovely funny stories so I just love being around him which was great because the dynamic between us is is tough and it's delicate and it's quite sort of entangled in lots of you know family history so it was a complex relationship too get right I think and obviously I'm not carrying the film like he is by any means but but it was important that that relationship was right I've been terribly busy doing what King King it's a precarious business these days where's the Russians are with cousin bill hell you're being dreary I always have to start with the voice I feel like I have to find the voice and then I'm off and running a little bit if I'm doing an accent that's unusual I have to find a voice that really works that I can latch on to and then I can sort of develop it from there so to play a real person if you've got an audio recording or something it's absolutely priceless I played Houdini I played Andy Warhol that played Edward the eighth I've played other people who are real but aren't in the public eye so we don't really know them per se of course when you play and he Warhol you've got tons of stuff to view when you're playing Houdini there's really only audio recordings and the sort of slow black-and-white or sort of super speed it up like I might stuff with him I can't really tell so you works cut out for you a little bit more but obviously with King Edward his speech his abdication speech is there online you can hear it so it's fascinating it's really fascinating if ever I delve into someone who's existed before Mildred Pierce well I'm about to work with the lovely Kate Winslet again pretty much exactly ten years on from doing that wonderful show with Todd Haynes that was just a delightful experience my agent called me and said Todd Haynes and Kate Winslet they're doing Mildred Pierce for HBO I said just say yes just say yes they said well they'll send you the scripts I'm like yeah yeah sure just say yes it's gonna be great you don't do this very often mrs. Peirce no I should say I don't I'm honored he made an exception mrs. Peirce I mean it was fantastic on a number of reasons the script was great Kate was great Todd was fantastic HBO were really wonderful but I was in a great apartment in New York I only worked three days a week so it was in summer well leading up to summer so everything about it was really a dream job you know I went to work and had sex with Kate Winslet alot kind of complain about that I still don't know what you do Monty oh I don't know truth I guess my character was pretty well realized and developed in the script there was no doubt about it he was quite the charmer you know he was a CAD but he didn't come across as a con man per se and there was something sort of gently broken about him and it all felt really clear on the page if I can get what I need just from the script then I sort of don't want to go too far outside of that obviously they had made Mildred Pierce as a film back in 1930 something another I don't know I had a look at that but then it it it just it wasn't helpful so I let it go quite quickly I read the book as well if there are historical characters of course yes I'm wanting to listen to recordings and look at photos and don't never but it's also about finding your own truth in it I think whatever that means so you're not mimicking too much Prometheus it's very cool being part of the alien world it's also even more cool to get to play Peter Weyland I mean the guy who kind of created a lot it wasn't so cool having to wear five hours of old-age prosthetic makeup hello friends my name is Peter Whelan I am your employer you've reached your destination I am long dead I would get up at two o'clock in the morning I would be driven to work and I would start makeup at three o'clock in the morning and I'd be ready by 8:00 and I could film with me till 2:00 in the afternoon and then I was done and I only did about 15 or 17 days or something on that the tricky thing about their character was I had to wear this sort of metal exoskeleton thing as well which meant I couldn't really sit down properly I said just do this and go let me know when you're ready okay I'll just wait here oh no no I don't want a drink I'm fine thanks there was one day where I whinny and did all the makeup got to my room when they came in one head said we're just running a bit behind already this morning we'll get to you shortly we'll let you know okay well an hour went by and another hour went by and they kept popping their head in and saying we're sure we're gonna get to you you know and about one o'clock they went so it's up to you you could probably take all this off or we might get to you what do you think and I'm but this point I'm atrophied frozen to the spot and I don't think I filmed that day what was more difficult was the hour that it took to get the makeup off fade the reason why I really cast me was because he wanted to see a younger Peter Weyland as well there's a scene where Michael Fassbender puts on the special goggles where he gets to talk to Peter Weyland who's sort of cryogenically sort of having a big rest and then through the goggles we enter the world that Peter Weyland is dreaming that he's in whilst being cryogenically frozen or asleep and that world it was going to be young Peter Weyland on a fabulous lot yacht with all these lovely lovely ladies in the Caribbean or something like that Michael Fassbender would appear and we'd have this conversation and Ridley couldn't find a yacht that he liked and then they wanted to build a yacht and they couldn't afford that or whatever happened and they said we'll eventually get to that scene don't worry and in the end they went well we probably don't need it it's just fine to have Michael with these goggles on and hearing him talk and you just understand that he's talking to Peter Whelan I could have just cast a hundred year old guy instead of me but I'm very happy to have played Peter Weyland and I would do anything for Ridley so that's okay also just working in 3d with 3d cameras what was funny though it was Ridley coming up to sort of because he would have to wear his 3d glasses at video village watching play back and then he would come up to you and give you a direction with this crazy 3d glasses on and then you remember that he should throw them down bloody things I am entering with any of the sort of villains that you play you get to the heart of where it started why wires are caring you know what the initial intentions were and if someone's got a chip on their shoulder and then it just sort of develops and develops and develops where somebody just needs to get revenge or needs to feel like they have a place in the world that's great stuff to play because are they a villain or are they just kind of out of kilter and they then just get carried away with themselves Aldrich Killian I'm a big fan you've worked my all the chileans a young man who's quite a science nerd but somebody has really rejected from society and through the brilliance of his innovation and invention is able to create something that enables him to kind of morph into the most perfect version of himself and comes back a kind of a better mess-up supposedly a better man you know pepper the Greek so we go from one extreme to another which was really quite fascinating and obviously people have seen the film and they know how it turns out it's not that I actively went I'm gonna do my fight scenes in Birkenstocks but I just if my feet are not on camera then I want to be comfortable okay and I remember Robert say to me a human burger sucks I said yes they said I've never done the same with anybody in burgers us a little and a fight scene and I said well it's hot in here and I you know the boots are uncomfortable and stuff so so yeah thanks to Birkenstock for my comfy acting shoes then my acting shoes how dare you suggest they're anything less robert broke his ankle in the middle of that film because he had to do a stunt where to jump from one platform down to another platform and be on a cable and they wanted to rehearse and he said no I don't need to rehearse it and he jumped in the guy holding the cable wasn't quite sort of ready or something and he landed hard and he broke his ankle so the film sort of shut down for like five or six weeks that's actually the second film that I've worked on where the lead actors broken their ankle Adam Sandler broke his ankle on bedtime stories but on the weekend he was playing basketball with his nieces and nephews and broke his ankle so I don't know if it's me the innocent I've done lots of television when I was in my teens and in my 20s I did two television shows in Australia that were both went for four years her long-running TV shows I learned a lot and really great to work on but not the quality really of the shows that are being made these days but I still a you know I'm an old-fashioned guy I still prefer making films just because of one-off thing and it's there up on the big screen and to be able to encapsulate a story in an hour and a half or two hours feels like a greater feat to me in a way than having the luxury of spreading it out over five or eight episodes but that's fine too that's the beauty of it is being able to do that but something like the innocence you know that was fascinating for all sorts of reasons we shot in Norway we were up in the fjords and just the most extraordinary landscape around us dr. Halvorsen was somebody who I think also possibly like Aldrich Killian started off with good intentions and then things got a little sort of out of hand he's somebody who has discovered this really rare genetic condition that only exists in these Nordic women when they are faced with a really emotional extreme kind of situation they as a sort of a defense mechanism they morph into the person that they're with and the doctor that I play it is somebody who discovered this and and really wanted to get to the bottom of it but of course he'd been ostracized from the British medical community in England some years before so he felt the pressure from the outside and I think he was somebody who you felt was really sort of coming apart at the seams really interesting odd kind of story yeah and an odd character that I got to play bloodshot my agent had the scripts and said I thought you might like this and I read it and I really did enjoy it and I had a great chat with Dave Wilson who directs the film and Dave like other directors that I've spoken about like Chris Nolan in a way is able to really straddle the technical side of things and the emotional side of things particularly in the visual effects world and Dave's sort of history with visual effects is pretty impressive but his ability to communicate with us about what the journey of each character was perfect lovely lovely guy and I just like the story I thought it was fascinating and this technology which is seemingly impossible but on some level like great science-fiction I suppose feels close enough that you kind of go oh maybe it could be real actually that's kind of inspiring and scary at the same time at rst we'd rebuild the most important assets in the US military soldiers like yourself dr. Emil Harding runs this organization called rst rising spirit technologies and he is basically taking wounded soldiers injured soldiers or perhaps even dead soldiers and improving them fixing what's not right so if someone's lost two pair of legs through an explosion or someone's lost their sight or someone's lost their ability to breathe the breathing apparatus that he then creates for that person or the new ocular vision technology that's implanted into the one particular character or the new legs that somebody else receives means that then they're almost Bionic that they then have additional abilities beyond what a normal pair of legs or eyes might initially give you and of course Vin Diesel plays ray garrison a soldier who has died who has now been brought back to life and through this technology that's basically running through his entire body he is now essentially a superhuman being do you remember anything VIN like Robert Downey or Adam Sandler or any of these kind of guys super famous who have an entire sort of industry around them I just always find that fascinating because I just sneak in to work and do my thing and then sit in the trailer or whatever think pop and I set them to do it all on my own and there's those guys always have a real kind of entourage he's a really warm-hearted funny guy and he's very aware of the Vin Diesel sort of franchise I get so we had a bit of a laugh about that at times initiated sequence I always hope whenever I start reading a script that I'm gonna read something I'm not read before and if I feel that then that's always really engaging I always just want to be surprised I suppose even if I'm playing a character that might be similar to something that I've done before there just needs to feel like there's a new way in for me I guess

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Id: 2tKQSp2sJ-g

Length: 23min 7sec (1387 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 19 2020