Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a little one on one chat I had with John C. Reilly directly after the big Fantastic Fest showing of CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRE’S ASSISTANT. When I say “directly after” I’m not exaggerating. The film showed, the Q&A happened and I walked right out to the hotel, up the stairs and into the conference room. Reilly somehow beat me to the hotel which is a feat considering he was on the stage when I left. I guess that's somehow appropriate considering the movie I was to talk to him about. We start the conversation talking about the massive, fully stocked conference room they gave us to do the chat and then cover a variety of subjects from vampires to changes in the business of making movies. My favorite stuff in the interview comes towards the end when he’s talking about his preference on film vs. digital, but it’s all good! Enjoy!
John C. Reilly: It’s a pretty quick turnaround from seeing the movie to doing the interview or did you see it earlier?
Quint: No, I just saw it tonight…
John C. Reilly: We get a nice large state room here…
Quint: Yeah, just for us. (Laughs) I always demand a giant table.
John C. Reilly: Yeah, with lots of mints.
Quint: Yeah, I’ve got really bad breath. It’s funny that you mentioned SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE at the Q&A, because every time Willem Dafoe was on screen with you, I just kept thinking about him playing Max Shreck in that movie.
John C. Reilly: Yeah, he was so good in that.
Quint: I’m completely not familiar with the books, so I assume his character is a much bigger player in the next installment.
John C. Reilly: There are twelve books, so a lot of these characters just come and go at different parts, but he definitely is one of the characters that has an impact on the story later on.
Quint: One thing I really liked about the is just how many great actors they were able to get. It’s cast so well.
John C. Reilly: The movie is kind of old-fashioned in that way, you know? Ken Watanabe and Salma [Hayek].
Quint: And it can’t be too bad of a gig for you to be dating Selma, beard or no beard.
John C. Reilly: Getting to kiss Salma was pretty cool… Very soft lips.
Quint: And she’s tiny. She’s a very tiny woman.
John C. Reilly: And standing next to me, she looks really extra small. She was very nice though, a very down to earth person. People who are that beautiful sometimes can be a handful and she was so easy and fun, very bubbly.
Quint: There are so many characters in the cirque and so many people in the cast that I would imagine that would help to keep it fresh while you were shooting, with different chemistries that you would be working on and reacting against.
John C. Reilly: Yeah, it kept it interesting and also you really had to stay on your toes, because with most movies you get to know the central cast and get a rhythm going and you get to know each other and it becomes easier and easier, but with this one, every two weeks or so there was a knew person and it’s like “Okay, how’s it going to go with this person? What’s their vibe going to be? How do they like to work?” The movie is very entertaining for that reason, because of all of the variety in it.
Quint: Even though it tonally doesn’t feel at all like it. It reminded me a bit of a Bond movie in that way in that you constantly, with every reel, you are introduced to a new character or there was a character in the background at the beginning and is now coming forward and playing a bigger role. I really like that and especially with the people they cast. I don’t know if this is going anywhere, but that’s just an observation on my end.
John C. Reilly: I wasn’t thinking of a Bond movie when we made it, but you make a good point.
Quint: I mean it doesn’t feel like one structurally or tonally, but it just had that same use of characters.
John C. Reilly: In a way the 12 books of one continuous road movie, so in some ways this feels like the prelude to the rest of the adventure, but I think there’s some really satisfying cathartic moments in it as well. What I really like about the books and the movie, as opposed to the original DRACULA movie where it’s like the vampire is this… I didn’t see TWILIGHT, so I can’t compare it to that movie, but the original or typical vampire movie where they are these supernatural beings… They seemed to be something other than human… I like that in the books Darren Shan grounds the vampires in this way. They are people and they are people that are of their time, whenever they became vampires, so Crepsley very much is a guy from the 1800’s, the way he speaks an the way he dresses and he has just aged really slowly. I think that was much more interesting than “bwahaha” with this black caped type of person who can turn into a bat and I don’t know, as much as I love those old monster movies, I like that he… The way he pulls off the more fantastical aspects of the movie is by putting in a lot of realistic detail. Like “This is what it would be like if your nails were that strong and if you could jump that high or if you needed to sleep during the day, what would your life be like…”
Quint: They put limitations on the powers, which I really liked. “Flitting,” is that what it’s called?
John C. Reilly: Yeah.
Quint: I love that you have to stop and take a breath as if you were running a long distance.
John C. Reilly: Exactly.
Quint: I like there being a limitation on the powers, so its not just unnatural, like if you were running from point A to point B, that would affect you, so just because you are a vampire it’s essentially super running or whatever…
John C. Reilly: You are moving so fast that you can’t get enough oxygen to your lungs. I agree. I think that’s a detail that the author could have just skipped over, like “Now they flit” where it’s almost like The Flash or something, but the fact that he adds this human detail, like “How would a human body be able to survive and do that special thing?” I think it makes a more realistic movie.
Quint: It’s touches like that that separate it from what you were talking about, where it gives it that human touch where you do realize that these are maybe undead beings, but they are people.
John C. Reilly: Even the whole thing of the way he splits the vampire world in half, where half of them believe in just sucking people dry and leaving them dead, essentially murdering, even though they have the capacity to not do that and the other half who believe in a more moral way to…
Quint: It’s a little hippie-ish.
John C. Reilly: You could say “hippie-ish” or you could say “smarter” in terms of survival, you know?
Quint: I was thinking of the cirque as having a commune aspect to it.
John C. Reilly: Well, I’m the only vampire who took refuge in that, the rest of them are just out stalking around. That was another interesting choice with the character that he decides… essentially he’s tired of the war-like life of a vampire and getting involved with all of the drama of the clash of the two sides of the vampire world and decides to be a vaudevillian, essentially becoming a clown. It’s a simple entertainer’s life with a nice little relationship on the side.
Quint: In that one scene it speaks volumes about your character, just who he is and how he’s choosing to use his powers.
John C. Reilly: I like that as he goes through the movie, he starts out as being somewhat clownish and a little soft and then as he gets drawn back into that world, you realize “Oh man, this guy was once a more intense warrior-type person.” That was a good thing to go through.
Quint: And something else, there’s been a big absence in cinema of having the family movies that push the edges a little bit. When I was growing up I had stuff like SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, WATCHER IN THE WOODS, and even BLACK CAULDRON… that seemed to be a genre, almost like family horror, that I haven’t seen and that’s one of the aspects I really liked about the movie specifically, like it’s not in every family movie that you see the mentor character break the neck of a teenager and push him off of a rooftop, you know?
John C. Reilly: (laughs) Yeah, there’s a creepy vibe like “Drink this now, do you feel it?” It’s got a vaguely drug like thing happening. I like that, that there’s a mentor character in it who… Mentors will let you do things your parents won’t let you do, you know? They will let you make mistakes and hurt yourself and be like “I told you it was dangerous” whereas your parents just can’t let you do that. It’s in their blood, like “I can’t let my child get hurt.” I think that the movie is appealing to younger adolescent people especially because of that and you know talking about the state of where horror movies and scary movies in general are, it’s gotten so intense at this point. Those SAW movies and that stuff… Kids are kids and younger people are younger and I don’t know that SAW is appropriate for a ten year old, it’s just so intense with torture and dismemberment and all of that. It’s great for a thrill when you’ve kind of seen it all, but I have kids and in general I think that as much as they talk about how much money kids movies make and all of that, there are very few options for people that are not ready for a super gory intense experience, you know?
Quint: There’s not even that middle ground of still dangerous movies, like the R rated stuff that… Growing up there was always PREDATOR and ALIENS and this stuff, where they still weren’t what the SAW movies and what horror ended up going to. You would seek out the FRIDAY THE 13ths later when you were over at your friend’s house and it was something naughty to do or something forbidden, but yeah there just really isn’t that kind of middle area, something that’s intense but not demented.
John C. Reilly: I think kids and people 10 years old to 17 crave stories that allow them to experience and explore darker aspects of things and more existential kind of questions without making it such a fucking white knuckle, like, traumatic experience.
Quint: Not everything has to be THE EXORCIST.
John C. Reilly: Yeah, like I made this animated movie that came out earlier called 9 and it’s the same thing where you deal with some pretty heavy issues. It’s not a kid’s movie. You have this post-apocalyptic world and you allow darker things to happen, because it’s rag dolls and machines and all, but you can ponder some of the darker questions that you start to ask as you become aware of the world and I think this movie does the same thing. It has a lot of interesting things to say about friendship and loyalty between the two guys and then also… There’s a scene in this movie where I say, “Watch out for Mr. Tiny, because he doesn’t just kill you, he then brings you back. When I die, I want to die. Life might be meaningless, but death I still have hope for.” That’s a pretty heavy thing to say in a movie that’s meant for younger people, you know? Life might be meaningless? You just don’t hear that very much.
Quint: But it is coming from a very realistic place though, like you mentioned at the Q&A, once you have been through it all and have two or three loves of your life come and go, you have seen everything there is to see… When everybody brings up the idea of vampire in the first place, that to me is where the curse lies. It’s almost a “careful what you wish for” scenario, like I get the feeling that Josh (Hutcherson)’s character, if he went… Again, I don’t know the books, but if for whatever reason he got what we wanted at the beginning of this book, 200 years later he would have been a different person; he wouldn’t have wanted it so much.
John C. Reilly: Yeah. The books are called “A Living Nightmare” CIRCQUE DU FREAK: A LIVING NIGHTMARE is the overall title of the books and that is one of the things he looks into. It’s almost like this perverse thing that happens and Crepsley knows it’s not allowed to blood a child and just gets this sick thought in his head, maybe he’s lonely or whatever it is, “So, you want to do it?” It’s almost like it has parallels to other darker things in life, like the old junkie talking to a new kid, “It’s fun and it’s horrible, do you want some?”
Quint: They touch on that in the movie with Salma saying that you are just lonely and you really just needed somebody to hang out with. It seems to be a big part of the mythos of the vampire; it’s a lonely existence. So what are you working on now? Do you have anything coming up?
John C. Reilly: I think I’m going to be doing this movie (Cedar Rapids) with Ed Helms next.
Quint: That’s cool. I really like his stuff. I’m a big DAILY SHOW fan.
John C. Reilly: Yeah, he was in WALK HARD and STEP BROTHERS. I don’t know if he ended up in the final cut of STEP BROTHERS, but I’ve known him for a while and it’s a script that he and a friend of his friend developed that might be going this fall, it’s still early. Then I have a movie by the Duplass brothers that’s coming out. They are probably going to premiere it at Sundance, which is still untitled, but it stars my and Jonah Hill and Marisa Tomei.
Quint: That’s cool, I like all of those people. Marisa has been kicking ass lately… BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD and THE WRESTLER, she’s just been incredible.
John C. Reilly: Certainly been pleasing her male fans in those two movies. I did another movie with Kevin Kline and Paul Dano, called THE EXTRA MAN, that’s based on this funny novel by a guy named Jonathon Ames about guys who escort rich old ladies to the opera in New York and that whole weird underworld which exists believe it or not.
Quint: That’s awesome. It sounds like you have a lot of good stuff coming up.
John C. Reilly: Yeah. The last year has been kind of slow. It’s been a strange year with the economy tanking and almost a strike happening forever with the actors union…
Quint: Yeah, it’s odd, because the recession has killed or damn near killed independent filmmaking, it’s like all of these hedge funds have been drying up and all of the money has been going away…
John C. Reilly: And the independent divisions of the studios are folding, yeah.
Quint: It’s a pretty tough time. What do you think about the future of the industry? Do you think that’s rebounding now that we’re supposedly on our way out?
John C. Reilly: The truth is, the box office was the biggest ever with this summer. Their movies made more money than ever, so I think it was a little bit of brinkmanship on the part of the studios as these contracts were being renegotiated and we are moving into the digital age and stuff is moving to the internet and they saw it as an opportunity to reset the agreements, but people still love movies, you know? For every one of these new devices, you still have to have something on it. I don’t think movies are going anywhere. They may now be digitally projected in theaters, that’s something that’s starting to make more sense now that they are able to do higher quality films, although this was film.
Quint: Have you shot a lot with digital?
John C. Reilly: Yeah, the Duplass movie was on the Red Camera and PRAIRIE HOME (COMPANION) was digital, THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY was digital, WALK HARD was digital.
Quint: That surprised me, because I can’t really see that in that movie.
John C. Reilly: Yeah, I think once you do a transfer to a film print… PRAIRIE HOME, I could barely tell, too, but it’s a different way of working, I have to say that from an insider’s point of view, like it’s different. When they are rolling film, it’s like everything stops, because “We have only got so much of this thing and for these next twelve minutes we are going to be shooting as long as we can. Everyone be quite” and with digital, its memory is like 120 minutes or something, so they just start rolling. It just doesn’t have the sense of occasion when they say “Action.” With digital, the director will talk while they are rolling, because they…
Quint: They’re not burning film.
John C. Reilly: Yeah, just bytes on a hard drive.
Quint: Is that a positive or a negative or both?
John C. Reilly: It’s both. For me, I perceive it as a negative, because I think it’s a good thing… There’s so much technical stuff that happens on movies, when they turn it on to the actors and those precious moments go by when the film is actually moving through the camera, that’s a good thing and really concentrates everyone’s focus and digital tends to be a little more… It’s like that line in BOOGIE NIGHTS when Ricky Jay says, “It’s video, we just keep shooting and shooting, it doesn’t matter. You don’t just stop.” That kind of sums it up.
Quint: I visited Altman on the set of THE COMPANY and I saw the way he shot…
John C. Reilly: That must have been a nice set visit. There are a lot of beautiful women in that movie…
Quint: It wasn’t bad! But it was fascinating watching him use digital technology, because it was the first time I think I have seen anybody shoot this way. I don’t know if he shot like this when he was on film cameras, but I think he had like three or four digital cameras that were all… There was one with the regular blocking, then he had like two or three that were always looking for moments.
John C. Reilly: Roving. That’s what it was like on PRAIRIE HOME, same thing. I have a feeling… I don’t know what he was like when he was shooting film, but I have a feeling it was similar, because that seems to be his… You can see from the performances a lot of the times the actors can’t quite tell, like “What camera is on? Which one is pointing at me? Oh well, I’ll just be the character.”
Quint: Thank you so much for taking the time, man. I really appreciate it.
John C. Reilly: My pleasure. I hope you enjoyed the movie.
After the recorder was turned off, Reilly told me he really did like this film and hoped that I’d give it a fair shake. And I do enjoy it. It’s not 100% up my alley, but I appreciate them making a darker family film and look forward to seeing what the next few end up looking like, especially if that means more Vampire Willem Dafoe!
Hope you guys enjoyed the chat. The flick’s out this weekend!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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