Close-Up: Michael Pitt
Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 29-May-08 @ 01:27 PM
Nirvana fans might recognize MICHAEL PITT as the decidedly Kurt Cobain-like lead from Gus Van Sant's 2005 quasi-biopic Last Days; others may know him from his role as real-life teenage acidhead/murderer Donny Semenec in Larry Clark's brutal 2001 drama, Bully. What you might not know is that Pitt also fronts Pagoda, a four-piece Brooklyn rock band who released a self-titled album on Sonic Youth ringleader Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace! label last year-or that he's starring in next month's Funny Games, the story of two politely sadistic home invaders (Pitt and newcomer Brady Corbet) who torture a family of rich vacationers played by Tim Roth and Naomi Watts. A truly distressing examination of fear and violence set almost entirely in one room, the movie is director Michael Haneke's English-language remake of his own decade-old German original, a film as unforgettable for its white-knuckle tension as for its blatant disregard of the invisible "fourth wall" between actors and audience. INTERVIEW: J. Bennett PHOTO: Jayme Thornton Had you seen the original version of Funny Games before you read the script for the remake? During the audition process, they sent it over to me, so I watched it. It's a heavy movie. No shit. Did you have any misgivings about playing a child murderer? I try not to think in that way. If the character is good and the role is good, I do it. How do you prepare for a role like that? I just tried to look as wholesome and clean as I could, you know? That was most of my preparation-that and rehearsing, I guess. My whole take on the character was to play him as pleasant and matter-of-fact as possible. I made sure he was always having fun. I figured if I played him really wholesome and positive, the contrast would be really creepy. I think I kind of had the easiest part, though. Naomi Watts' and Tim Roth's characters are pretty much in a constant state of duress... Yeah, they really had the hard roles. Like I said, I felt like I had the easiest one because I show the least amount of emotion. But sometimes that's difficult, too. Is acting something you do to support your music career? Yeah, I mean... Whatever I do, I try to do well. My music is a huge passion of mine. I do it every day, and I feel pure when I'm doing it. Although, I do respect film as a medium and as an art form, because when it's done right, it's extremely powerful. But my music is my music. It's not me acting like someone else-it's coming from me. Is it difficult to keep the two worlds separate? They're two different brains. When I work on a film, I focus on the film because if I don't, I'll probably suck. But the majority of the time, I'm focusing on everything that has to do with the band. A lot of the crossover is just scheduling. That's when I get the most frustrated, because it's not like the majority of the other actors I work with play in a band that they're loyal to, and the guys in the band don't really have this whole other serious career going at the same time. It's kind of like boxing with one arm sometimes. You seem to be pretty picky about the roles you choose. Is there a particular kind of role you find yourself drawn to? Conversely, are there certain roles you dismiss out of hand? Yeah, I dismiss about 80 percent of the scripts sent to me. [Laughs.] Because I'm nuts. But I just try to pick what's interesting. With movies like Bully and Last Days and now Funny Games, people feel like I can only do dark characters or dark topics, but I'm constantly trying to change people's perceptions. I just like doing things that are interesting or maybe haven't been done before. But most of all, I like to work with true artists-that's really the goal for me, whether the movie is good or bad. And [director] Michael Haneke is definitely a true artist. I read another interview you did in which you hinted that you haven't gotten along with many of your directors... I don't know where you read that. I think so many actors, when they do interviews, they just completely bullshit you the whole time, like, "Everything's great; everyone on the movie was great; the world is great." What I've said in interviews is that with a lot of the directors I've worked with-especially the ones I've liked-we didn't always agree on everything. And that happened with Michael, too. We didn't always agree on everything in the beginning. As soon as he saw that I was just not yes-ing him to death, I think he respected it. The interview I read that in was on Ukula.com, and Thurston Moore was interviewing you. Well, it's really hard to keep it serious when Thurston is around. In that same interview, you said that being an actor is like being a whore. Were you kidding when you said that? [Laughs.] Uh... Yes. No. Maybe. [There's] a Native American thing where every time someone takes a picture of you, they take a part of your soul. I think there's an element of truth to that. That's why I'm choosy, and that's why I try to work with true artists: You get that feeling less. But yeah, it's a strange profession. I feel like most actors wouldn't even kid about being whores. [Laughs.] That's because they are whores. ALT CHEAT SHEET >> After 15 episodes as Henry Parker on the WB's DAWSON'S CREEK, Michael Pitt hit the big screen as John Coleridge in Gus Van Sant's millennial Sean Connery vehicle FINDING FORRESTER, followed by a turn as Tommy Gnosis in 2001's rock opera HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH. Later that year, he played a teenage acidhead (and real-life convicted murderer) in Larry Clark's BULLY before re-teaming with Van Sant as the Kurt Cobain-like Blake in 2005's LAST DAYS. Next month, he'll play clean-cut sociopath Paul in FUNNY GAMES. ALT THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE "I listen to pretty obscure shit," Michael Pitt says of his musical taste. "I don't even know where a lot of it comes from. I've been listening to a lot of sitar players and tabla players, a lot of Arabic music and old-school Mexican classical guitar music." Which isn't to say that the actor's personal playlist is completely filled with names you can't pronounce; he's also a fan of Black Sabbath, the Stooges and PJ Harvey. "I also really liked Mark Lanegan's latest album," Pitt says. "He's got a great voice." Pitt's first concert was a Sonic Youth show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City when he was 15 years old. "I didn't really have a lot of money back then," he says, laughing. "I think it was about $5 at the door." Ironically enough, 10 years later, the full-length debut from Pitt's band Pagoda would be released on Sonic Youth mastermind Thurston Moore's label Ecstatic Peace!. "The music industry is so fucked up right now, I'm not even sure we'll go the label route for our next one," Pitt offers. "But if we do, Thurston's got it, of course. We love him and really respect him, but fuck it-maybe we'll just give it away and go on tour." ALT |
