Interviews

New guest appearance: The Glades

The Glades, A&E,tv showTV news.

Garret will appear in an episode of The Glades one of these weeks (not sure which one yet, so stay tuned) as Eddie Strickland, a suspect in one of their cases. The show airs Sundays at 10/9c on A&E.

And his next appearance on Burn Notice is in episode 4×10, “Hard Time,” which will air on August 12 at the earliest (if there aren’t any breaks in the schedule).

Will post definite dates for both shows when I have them.

Fox released the fall schedule last week and Raising Hope will premiere on September 21, with Sue Sylvester & the Glee kids as the lead-in.

Tuesday, Sept. 21
8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT GLEE (Season Premiere)
9:00-9:30 PM ET/PT RAISING HOPE (Series Premiere)
9:30-10:00 PM ET/PT RUNNING WILDE (Series Premiere)

And a few other updates, since I’ve been AWOL for the better part of the month:

Burning Bright will be released on DVD in region 2 on September 6. Before that, it will be shown at the 2010 FrightFest in London in August. In region 1, the film will be out on August 17.

Pretty Bird was released last month. I’d embed a clip, but the last WordPress upgrade ate my video plugin, so let’s do this the pedestrian way – to see the clip, right click here and save.

And a couple of articles I don’t think I’ve linked yet.

Examiner talked to Garret about Winter’s Bone the other week.

Josh Youngerman: Thanks so much for speaking with us at examiner.com. You play Sherrif Baskin in Winter’s Bone. What attracted you to the part and how did you get involved?

Garret Dillahunt,Winter's Bone,Debra GranikGarret Dillahunt: I love doing films based on books that I’ve read or authors that I really love. I had actually had Daniel Woodrell’s book in my little Kindle before the movie came out; it’s just my kind of thing. I had read the book before the movie came out. I am a big Cormac McCarthy fan obviously, and Ron Hansen, I thought I’d make that movie [The Assassination of Jesse James]. I thought I’d discovered that book. So it was right in keeping with that whole philosophy. I think I was doing [Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles] at the time and I didn’t have a lot of time. They called me about Sherriff Baskin and I was a little ambivalent about it because I wanted to play Teardrop but than I heard that John Hawkes was doing it and I wanted to work with him again. It was a good book, a good script, I wanted to work with John, and it fit into my schedule. Keep reading

And NWA Online had a report last month from the Little Rock Film Festival, where they screened the trailer for Arkansas Traveler. Snippet:

The script is what led Dillahunt and Bettis to work for free to make the teaser; Dillahunt says his only regret is that he’s not a big enough star to guarantee that the movie would be made.

“I would be very happy to play Wayland,” Dillahunt says, “but I don’t have to play Wayland. I could take another part, or it could work out that I might not be able to be in it at all.”

Similarly, while Bridgers plays Bones in the teaser footage, he says he might not appear in the finished film. He means to once again co-direct along with Hemschoot.

“What’s important is that the film gets made,” Dillahunt says.

And made the right way. Wide Awake producers Shane Seley and Ed Leydecker say no one involved in the film wants to take the idea to a Hollywood studio because of the inevitable compromises that would entail. The plan is to shoot the film as a guerrilla production, using a lot of authentic locations and employing serious Civil War reenactors as extras, in part, Seley says, because they can supply their own costumes and equipment.

And the footage shown at the LRFF looks great; shot on a lightweight Viper Filmstream ultra-high-def digital camera that allows shooting in low light situations (eliminating the need for expensive Hollywood-style lighting), it has a rich, detailed but somehow still antique feel.

New interview (Baryo)

Inquirer.net got around to talking to Garret and James Parks before they wrapped production in the Philippines. For the complete article, go here.

Dillahunt and fellow Hollywood actors James Parks and Chris Cooper were just as amazed when they visited the set of independent filmmaker John Sayles’ “Baryo”—a turn-of-the-century village nestled between rice fields and a rainforest—somewhere in Maribojoc, 30 minutes away from the city.

Unlike Cooper, who’s a veteran of Sayles films, Parks and Dillahunt are first-timers. But like Cooper, they were both bowled over by the set built by Filipino production designer Rodell Cruz and his team.

The shoot of “Baryo” in Bohol was facilitated by the Film Development Council of the Philippines.

“The set does so much for us as actors,” Dillahunt said. “I compare it to my experience on (the HBO Western series) ‘Deadwood’ where there was not a single reminder of the 20th century on the set. It’s the same on the set of ‘Baryo.’ Seeing the beauty of the jungle and the rice fields helps us get into character. It’s a real treat.” (…)

Before flying to Bohol, Dillahunt worked on the pilot of a TV show that hasn’t aired yet. “It’s called ‘Keep Hope Alive,’ aptly named because I did it so I could afford to do ‘Baryo,’” he said. (…)

Like Cooper, Dillahunt and Parks received voluminous research material on the Philippine-American War from Sayles. “John’s very thorough. The bio for my character is not necessarily evident in the script, but it makes him more human, more detailed. It encourages you, as an actor, to go further,” said Dillahunt. (…)

Dillahunt regards “Baryo” as “important… on a personal level” because it allows him to work with his heroes, Sayles and Cooper.

“John has assembled a good group … He attracts people who want to do things that they can be proud of. In the end, that also makes me better in my craft. I guess, my motivation’s kinda selfish, really.” [Inquirer.net]

New TV appearance: Gary Unmarried season finale

Some television news.

Garret will appear in the season 2 finale of Gary Unmarried, the CBS sitcom with Jay Mohr and Paula Marshall. He will play Goose McNair, Gary’s divorce lawyer who (I think) has been referenced throughout the series as the guy who got his degree online and went touring with David Hasselhoff during the proceedings (anyone watching?) The show airs Wednesdays at 8:30/7:30c on CBS.

In the meantime, here is another blog to watch while Baryo is in production. One fine nose portrait right here.

Also, people on Twitter will remember this picture from a few weeks back. Well, the MMA Heat episode is up (no region restrictions) and it includes an interview with the man. Link: http://www.ibnsports.com/mmaheat/

And watch out for some older clips later this week.

New interview: The Road

Paul Gaita at LA Times has a new Q & A with Garret. A part of it is below, for the rest go here.

The Road should get an expanded release in the U.S. tomorrow, so check your local listings if you haven’t had the chance to see it yet.

Is it true that villains get the best lines?

I guess they get a lot of good lines, huh? I like them — they’re complex, and I like complex characters. Sometimes the villains are the only ones that are completely drawn.

It’s funny, because I’ve actually played a ton of good guys, funny guys — I played Jesus Christ (in the short-lived and controversial series “The Book of Daniel“). But people remember the bad guys (laughs).

Your character in “The Road” is particularly unsavory. What is the challenge to playing such a role?

There have been a lot of discussions about it online — people wondering what would they do to survive. To what level would they stoop if there was no food, no vegetation, no animal life. What would you do? Would you just forage for canned goods? And when they ran out, then what? How bad would you want to feed your child?

He’s just a guy with a little bit weaker moral fiber than Viggo [Mortensen]’s character. He didn’t choose the noble route, like a lot of people in that world. And the result of him ignoring his soul is what you see on screen.

So is that what moves you from medium to medium? Because you’ve found some great projects in both television and film.

Yeah, I like to have fun — I think that’s a good way to live. I think you’re better at your job if you like it. And I’m a bit of a frustrated writer — I’m not very skilled at that, and I thought that was what I was going to be. So it doesn’t seem like such a big coincidence that a lot of stuff I’ve done has been adaptation of [books by] my favorite authors. I was planning to make Ron Hansen’s “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” for about 15 years. I thought I was the only one to know about it. I was going to play Jesse James, of course. (Dillahunt played the outlaw Ed Miller in the 2007 film version with Brad Pitt).

But you just find these stories, and I don’t care about the size of the part, you know? In the end, it’s got to be about the story. I can’t speak for every actor, but I imagine that’s what everyone wants when they sign on to do a role.

You’ve said in interviews that you are a fan of Cormac McCarthy’s work. What is the appeal for you?

The first one I read was “Blood Meridian,” like a lot of college guys. I was just blown away by that one-sentence paragraph where the Comanches come upon the scalphunters. It’s just stunning — the image of the guy wearing the blood-stained wedding veil — the way he would describe things was so evocative to me. Each line was somehow laden with emotion and history. I think my favorite of his books might be “Suttree.” If you read it, you can tell me why that guy doesn’t die (laughs). There’s something larger and thematic [in his work] than what’s going on, and that’s appealing to me.

“The Road” might be a challenging film for a lot of viewers, who could see it as having very little light in it. What do you hope that audiences take away from it?

I’m kind of sad that people might have that sort of knock on it — that it’s a bleak film. I think it’s actually more hopeful than “No Country for Old Men.” That felt like it was saying, “This is how it is, and there’s no change.” At the end of this, as it is in the book, it seems to be about the unquenchable spirit of man. [Viggo’s character] finds another home and more good guys. Maybe they have a little garden.

What’s your general response to critical praise and talk of nominations and awards?

I’m an ensemble guy, I guess — that comes from the theater. If I ever won some kind of award someday, I imagine I’d try to be very gracious, but in the end, I just want to keep working. I don’t see why that, if you just put your mind to it and keep sowing the right seeds, you can’t keep doing the things you want to do. When we won the SAG Award for “Old Men,” that was the perfect award, because it takes so many people to make a movie. Someone’s always going to argue with the individual awards. [LA Times]

The Last House on the Left Q&A – Garret, Monica Potter & Wes Craven

The Last House on the Left Region 2 Blu-rayThe Last House on the Left will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 2 on October 19. British film site Stale Popcorn posted their Q&A sessions with Garret, Monica Potter and Wes Craven. Here is a snippet:

Q: How is Krug different in this movie to the villain in the 1972 version?

A: Times have changed, and I wanted my guy to be more of a rageaholic, without the drug influence. And the father angle is explored further in this movie as well.

Q: Krug must be one of the most horrific characters you have ever played.

A: Yes, but I also felt sorry for him. I know people who are angry at what life has handed them – albeit not to that extreme – and take it out on everyone around them.

Q: And it’s even more tragic here due to the fact that he also has a kid…

A: And a good kid who, despite Krug, is kind of normal and ultimately does what is right, so it’s tragic that he doesn’t have a proper father.

Q: So, your character is multi-layered then?

A: That’s what I liked about him. His complexity made my job interesting.

Q: It seems that as an actor you like to challenge yourself with very different roles, going from one extreme to another…

A: I know, but I thought that’s what we were supposed to do as actors: one day you are the king and the next you are the beggar. I feel a sense of accomplishment if I can pull off a character that is very far from me or from the last character I played. It’s important to me.

Q: When you think of a villain that has impressed you on screen, which film comes to mind?

A: I really like Terrence Malick’s BADLANDS because that villain – a serial killer – is very interesting.

To read the whole thing, go here.