Interview: Drew Waters of “The Ultimate Life”

Posted on January 11, 2014 at 8:13 pm

The Ultimate Gift, based on the book by JIm Stovall had James Garner as a wealthy man who left his grandson twelve “gifts” to teach him that the true meaning of life is not about money but about love, compassion, and giving. Now this inspiring film has led to a prequel, the story of how the character played by Garner learned those lessons himself. Between the pressure of running a foundation started by his late grandfather, being sued by his greedy extended family, and seeing his beloved Alexia leave on an extended mission trip to Haiti, Jason Stevens’ world is unraveling. But when Jason discovers the lifelong journal his grandfather began as a Depression-era lad, Red Stevens’ writings transport Jason to a front-row seat on an incredible rags-to-riches ride. With everything he loves hanging in the balance, Jason hopes he can discover the real meaning of “The Ultimate Life.” I spoke to Drew Waters, who stars in “The Ultimate Life,” now available on DVD/Blu-Ray.

Tell me a little bit about this new film.

The Ultimate Life is a prequel/sequel to “The Ultimate Gift.” It shows how Red Stevens earned his billion dollars and what he learned. The ultimate thing is that money can’t buy everything and it isn’t the end-all. It’s love and happiness that you have around you at the end of the day that is the most important thing. And Red loses that during the search and his struggle for the almighty dollar. And at the end of it, when he finally gets it, he realizes he belongs and that he kind of pushed aside everybody who cared about him in that pursuit. And so there’s a great family redemptiveness within it.

What were the challenges in making the sequel?

Well, it happens in two different periods/ages of Red’s life. So it starts out with Austin James playing the young Red. The funny thing about it, we are both from Texas and we never met each other. So we had to make sure that we both kept Red’s character true to what James Garner played in the first movie and trying to interact and intertwine little quirks and characteristics that make you feel like you are going back in time from “The Ultimate Gift.”

The journals are really are a character in the film.

Red was a big believer in writing down his thoughts. It shows you how he learned that through “The Ultimate Life.” Writing down your thoughts helps you think things through. When you say it out loud and you write something down, it helps you think through things and come up with a solution. And it also gives a timeline in your life, which, in the movie was a great help to the character Jason to overcome his own struggles within his life and try to figure his life out and how the businesses took so much of his time away. And Red’s journals give a very documented look to his life and the struggles that he went through throughout everyday towards chasing his goal and then realizing the goal that he was chasing was the wrong one. And that was something Jason really learned at the end of the movie and allows himself to start chasing the real goals in his life.

What would you say is the age group for this movie?

It is a great family-friendly story about redemption and there is nothing inappropriate. You are never too young to start learning good morals and boundaries and balance within your life. I kind of loved Red’s life growing up. I started working when I was 12 years old and my dad was a blue collar worker. He worked hard. Some would say he was a workaholic. And I grew up, joined the military and when I came back, I became the same. I started chasing money instead of happiness. Until I had a daughter. I woke up and said, “I am doing the wrong thing here. I am chasing something that is not important to me as this” and so I changed my life and I started chasing passion and because of it, I am a better father for it, I am a better person for it. I have more joy in my life because I am happy about what I do every day.

You are one of three actors who play this role. So how do you try to make that seamless for the audience?

When I met with Michael Landon, Junior, the director, we started talking about it a little bit and I told him that I am a big fan of James Garner. I went back and watched some of his old movies and I went back and really tried to catch some of his movements and the quirks that he has and the traits within his characters. But when Austin came in to play the younger Red, he and I never met before we started shooting this movie. I was already on set two weeks when Austin came in. But he’s a Texas boy, I am a Texas boy. He rodeos, I rodeo. The only thing different about Austin is that he’s left-handed and I am right-handed.

I met him two weeks into the shooting. He came in and I started talking to him about “Hey, I am taking Red this way…” And he’d say, “I swear I was thinking of taking him that way, too.” Our characteristics already matched to who we were. All we had to do was portray it in Red’s character and it works well. I think it works really well.

What do you want families to talk about when they see this movie?

I am a big fan of these kind of movies and for this reason alone… is that it doesn’t discriminate anybody… it doesn’t matter what race, belief… anything. Anybody can sit side by side and watch this movie and not feel threatened in any way. And everybody will take a different message from it, depending on where they are at in their lives and how they are feeling. What we’d like to see is people open up the doors of communication and start having a conversation. No matter where you are at in your life or what struggles you are going within your life, the movie itself has that redemptive message. People can take from that message and build in for their own lives and open up the doors of communication and have conversations and see where they go. And to me, that’s what storytelling is about. It’s not to try to tell somebody something but to open up the imagination and the process of thought and go out and ask questions and try to learn.

You talked about how this affected you as a father. What kinds of things do you do with your children to help them understand that important message?

Well, for me, it’s passion. I grew up with respect. I grew up with a handshake being the structure of business deals. If you say something, then you need to try and fulfill that to the best of your ability. Well, you need to explain why something doesn’t work and try to figure out the ways to fix it. Everybody is so fearful of people being sued and people coming back at them and no one is really looking to move forward so much anymore. They live in fear. I think that’s a sad way to live. You can’t control it. You can’t control what life throws at you. All you can do is look at it and make a decision and a direction to go in. And that’s what I am teaching my kids. If I can give them a sense of self-worth and then a sense of security within their own life, and structure, I think they can accomplish anything.

What are you are working on next and how can people can stay touch with what you are up to?

I actually, have been working on a project that’s near and dear to my heart called “Nouvelle Vie” and in English it means “New Life” and I created it because I lost a grandfather to a broken heart and he was my best friend at the time and I could not understand how a person could give up on life when so many people around them cared about them. He didn’t see it that way. He just decided that he didn’t want to go any further. I wanted to do something. Everybody wants to leave something that they are remembered for and I knew my kids were getting older and I wanted to show them that there is always something to live for. And just remember the positive moments of life and one negative side of it.

I am not a preacher. I don’t want to make movies that come out straight and preach to somebody because I am somebody that is still learning and thinking my journey on a daily basis. And I want a movie that I can think about and learn from and visually be drawn into and then at the end of it, go off and either have some kind of closure to my own personal problems or open up the door to the opportunity of healing. And this movie does that. So we are in pre-production now. We start shooting at the end of April. We have got a great cast. I showed the script to Jim Stovall, the writer of the novels of The Ultimate Journey, Ultimate Life and Ultimate Gift. He read it aloud on an airplane and he said, “I got so many business cards from people who want to know how it ends.” He goes, “Whatever you need, you got it. I’ll write the novel if you want me to write the novel. I’d be honored to. I can relate to the character. I feel good about it”. So he’s doing the novelization of the book and we have the blessings from Ted Baehr from Movie Guide and now the process has come full circle. So we are shooting it in April and our company has three other projects that we have under development right now that we are excited about in all different levels. We have Karen Young’s best-selling novel Blood Bayou, which is a thriller. The message that is “Can you forgive somebody” Instead of judging somebody from a visual, can you dig deeper and really find out what you are?” And we are excited about it. Who knows where the future leads but right now we have a good grasp on where we want to be and the direction were we want to lead our children and their children.

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Interview: AJ Michalka of “Grace Unplugged”

Posted on October 13, 2013 at 3:59 pm

AJ Michalka stars in “Grace Unplugged,” the story of a girl who wants more out of life than singing with her church’s worship band. When she has some success as a pop singer, she has to decide whether secular success is as meaningful as a life using her gift to praise God. I spoke to AJ, best known as half of the sister duos Aly & AJ and 78Violet about playing Grace.

What made you want to play Grace?

I was inspired by the film, wanting to be part of it as an actor. It’s a beautiful family film, an inspiring coming-of-age drama about this young girl who really wants to branch out and become an adult artist and get into the music industry, going on the road and creating her own music, her own identity. She ends up really finding herself. It’s a very sweet film. I wouldn’t have done this movie if she hadn’t learned a lot as a character. I love that about her. She’s really driven. She has the willpower to do it. Sometimes she goes about things in a weird way. She doesn’t always give her parents the respect they deserve. But she’s a young girl; we can all relate to that.

What do you want people to get from the movie?

I hope this movie opens up a lot of conversation, between fathers and daughters especially. I hope they talk about compromise. So many people think they need to sell themselves short or give up a part of themselves to succeed in this industry. Even if you’re not in the industry, people, especially young women, should know you don’t have to compromise your morals or who you are as a person to achieve some career goal.

How do your acting and singing careers give you different opportunities for creative expression?

They are so different and bring different pressures and different creative energies. There’s this instant gratification that is so special with music when you’re playing a show live or creating a song from the ground up. As an actor, there’s that rush when you go to the theater and see that something you are a part of has really come together. But they do go hand in hand and help each other. I’ve noticed I am a more comfortable artist when I am on stage because I’ve learned to deal with the pressures of being an actor. I feel more comfortable, whether it’s doing an interview or being part of a photo shoot. Musically, I’ve been trained that if something goes wrong on stage, you just kind of go with it. Both of them have similar pressures about performance. And doing both made me more confident and less nervous.

You and your sister got started very young.

I started performing professionally when I was about nine. When we were 12 and 14 we got signed for recording and musical performances. We knew what we wanted to do at an early age, whether it was professional or not. It wasn’t, “Maybe we’ll get signed or book a job,” but “We want to do this, we love entertaining, maybe just for pleasure or maybe as professionals.” We knew it was something special we wanted to do. So when it took off in a bigger way, it was just the icing on top. We always tried to be very professional on the set. I was around a lot of adults who were good examples. We never wanted to be those child actors who become adults right away, like some child performers who want to grow up very fast and start acting like those little robots, but we knew we had to take it seriously as a profession. We were getting paid, we were on a set, so we took it seriously as professionals. We still stayed children, which is nice, and that is partly because our parents are so normal. And I couldn’t really do it without my sister. We really have been grounding for each other. Especially as a musician. I don’t really see myself as a solo artist. But even when I’m acting, she’s my first phone call. She really helps me get through things.

What other things do you do to stay grounded?

So many people surround themselves with people who say yes to everything just to keep their job. I like to surround myself with people who are going to be honest with me. If I’m about to do something that is not going to enhance me as a person, or if I am about to make some tricky mistake, I want someone there who will say, “Look, AJ, this is not necessarily the best decision.” And my sister will be the first one to do that.

What do you do for fun?

My sister and I are both active, really athletic. We kick-box and it is fun to be outdoors. We take the dogs to the dog park and we ride horses. We love being outside. We love to go camping in Joshua Tree. I love being around nature; I got that from my mom. We also like to invite people over for game night or a movie.

Would you like to kick box in a movie?

I would love to do an action movie. I feel like my body would be ready to kick into gear for something like that!

What was the biggest challenge in playing Grace?

Really, making sure I wasn’t playing AJ. We’re both musicians, we’re like in a lot of ways. But when I’m on stage, I’m very comfortable. I have my sister with me. I know what I’m doing. My goal was to strip away the comfortability and play a girl who has no idea what she is getting into. I wanted to be true to someone not used to playing a live show. And I wanted to be sure to bring some nuances to the character. She’s a sweet, fresh-faced Southern girl, but I wanted to make it my own.

And what is your favorite advice?

Separate yourself from the industry as soon as you come offstage. Let it go, come down from that high, and get into who I am as a person. When I’m done, it’s time to settle down and relax and snuggle up with my dog, read a book, call a friend. That’s how you can sustain being normal.

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Interview: Will Bakke of “Believe Me”

Posted on September 22, 2013 at 3:59 pm

I really enjoyed talking to Will Bakke of Riot Studios about his new film, “Believe Me.” I’ll post information about the movie’s release when it is available.

Tell me a little bit about this project.

I’d love to. Well, “Believe Me” is the story of four college seniors who start a fake Christian charity in order to make the money that they need for tuition for college. In the process of throwing this big fundraiser to tell people that they’re donating wells in Africa, they end up being asked to be the keynote speakers for a summer-long evangelical tour. And so they kind of get little into their heads and they decide to sign on and do it and just sort of study the Christian culture in order to get away with it. I think people would sort of expect some big altar call at the end but this is a very different story and we’re excited to tell it.

Where did the story came from?

Michael Allen and I have actually produced two documentaries together before we wrote this. We were in college when we made “One Nation Under God.” He and I and two buddies of ours road-tripped around the United States just asking people what they believed about God. We were both from Dallas, Texas. We kind of grew up in the Bible belt and realized that our faith, we only had it because our parents had it and because that’s what we were kind of raised to have. And we just wanted to get out of that bubble and just find out what other people believe and really challenge our own beliefs in the meantime. And as a result of that, it kind of brought us to make a second documentary called “Beware of Christians.” Michael and I and our other buddy Alex Carroll who jumped on board with us created that film really as just a way of solidifying what we believe and how that would shape our lives and what we would lack, especially in college. I think both of those films really were kind of the jump-off point for “Believe Me.” We made these two films that were probably labelled as Christian films, because we’re Christians ourselves but it was about us. And so we were excited to take a look at the industry and kind of see the ins and outs of it and we just realized how many funny things there are about Christians out there and so the idea of “Believe Me” came out of this: what if somebody really wanted to take advantage of that? What would Christianity look like to an outsider? That was kind of a starting point for the film.

What were some of the challenges of going from documentary to feature film?

There were a lot of challenges. When we made the documentary, we had a couple of notes written down on like a napkin on what we wanted to do while we were Europe or while we were touring around the United States. There was no real planning to it beforehand. With a movie like this, we spent about two years writing the script and polishing it and just working out every character arc, every story arc, every theme to the movie and two years of writing transitioning into directing for me. And there’s a lot of people involved. It was no longer just me holding the camera running around filming as much as I could and just throwing a story together at the end. We had a very precise story that we wanted to tell and it was a lot of people involved so it was a completely different experience. It was so rewarding and humbling and I was very excited. We actually just wrapped yesterday at 6:00 AM so I’m still winding down from the experience as you can imagine. At some point you start to feel like everyone is playing with paint brushes when you’re directing because it’s such a collaborative effort. And I loved it for so many reasons because I didn’t have to be thinking about what writing was like or exactly what the camera shots were going to be because I’d worked that out beforehand with my director of photography so on the day that we’re shooting, my mind was just fully into the story and fully into the characters and I had just this incredible team behind it that was making everything look ten times more amazing than I could have ever imagine. So it ended up being a surprise, just being able to really focus on just one aspect of filmmaking which is the directing side and much less the technical aspects because those were already worked out in pre-production.

Do you consider this one a Christian film and who do you think is the audience for it?

With this film specifically, Christianity is the backdrop to the story but I would never label it that. We didn’t want it to be that. We weren’t shooting for that. We believe this story is all about the idea of truth which is an universal theme which we’re very excited about because it doesn’t matter really where you’re coming from on the line of faith whether you’re for it, against it, whether you have it, whether you’re a part of a religious culture or not. Anyone can walk into this movie and get it and really understand the desire that we’re going after. It’s all about the idea that truth is relative and that what works for you works for you and what works for me is best for me. We start to see that there are a lot of different characters that are really good people that live with that mentally; they kind of get in their own way. And when those different wants and needs clash, it’s compelling as a viewer to see that. And so it’s not a Christian film. We’re pretty excited to tell people that just because we don’t want to have any kind of pre-conceived notions in people’s minds coming into it . One of the tough things about being labelled that is a lot of times people believe there is going to be some sort of agenda to the story which we don’t have. We just really want to tell a compelling story. There’s no secret motive or agenda behind it. Although, we are guaranteeing a 100% conversion rate with this movie; I hope that’s not confusing at all. We promise there is going to be conversion. We’re not positive on what religion it’s going to be on by the end of the show but we’re promising a 100% conversion-rate.

What effect do you think it has on people to try to live up to other people’s expectations?

It’s not so much I think for these guys to live up to expectations as much as I think it is based on themselves as a whole. They just committed to becoming the speakers on this major evangelical tour and as a result, they had to sort of adapt and they ultimately don’t want to go to jail for what they’re doing. I think a lot of it has to do with beliefs and why do you believe what you believe. It is because someone stood up on the stage and told you that something was true or is it because you have investigated and researched and really looked into what someone says and is claiming and for me alone, with this movie it’s just so interesting because Alex Russell, we was the star of the movie “Chronicle” last year. He plays the lead in our movie and in the film it was so interesting to shoot with him because there’s just some amazing scenes where he is preaching up on stage and all the credit to him because he’s an incredible actor but he just sold it so well that it made the rest of us kind of look back and be like, it’s really freaking me out how well he can sell this. And I know personally that Alex Russell doesn’t identify himself as a Christian. I think he’d be comfortable telling anybody that, he actually has. But you know, it’s very interesting to see just the words come out of someone’s mouth that seem so compassionate and so compelling and yet at the same time, isn’t what they believe.

That’s why they call it acting.

Exactly. So it really made me rethink what my youth leaders taught me back in the day. Like, ah, I wonder if they were really genuine in all of this. That’s just what gets serious about it when it has to do with religion and faith and putting your chips on something that could change your entire life, not knowing if it’s coming from a genuine place or not.

When you were writing this script and you were working on, as you said, the structures and the characters and all that, what were some of the resources that you relied on? Did you look at other movies? Did you look at books about script writing? What did you do?

We read plenty of books on screenwriting. I was a film student at Baylor University and took screenwriting courses. It was a great education in terms of like what it looks like to tell a good story and I think for the two years that we were diving into script; story was the most important thing to us. And like I said earlier, without having an agenda, that’s what we wanted to make for ourselves in the first place is compelling characters, compelling stories, even tell the stories of characters that don’t line up in the same world-view as us. We love the idea of college students just getting in over their heads and how they react. It’s just such a pivotal time of life in the way that’s going to shape you later so we love playing in that sort of age range.

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Interview: Alex Gibney of “We Steal Secrets: The Wikileaks Story”

Posted on May 31, 2013 at 11:13 am

I spoke to Alex Gibney, one of my favorite filmmakers, about his brilliant documentary on Wikileaks.

The most interesting character in the movie is Bradley Manning. Where is he now?

He’s in prison, finally Leavenworth, after eight months in solitary confinement and being kept in a cage in Kuwait. While he was in solitary confinement, he was stripped naked, they took his glasses, they kept the lights on, sleep deprivation, no blanket. It was abusive treatment that rose to the level of torture. It’s really a shocking episode which I think was trying to send a message in the most brutal way possible. Like the British navy used to hoist the wretch on the yardarm of the ship. “Pay attention, if you’re thinking about leaking stuff. This could happen to you.” I made a film about the poor kid, Steve Bartman, the Cubs fan, and I think he’s a scapegoat. Governments and organizations go after someone who’s weak because they can. And Manning was weak — in some ways. In some ways he was very strong. That’s what makes him such an interesting character. He’s what Phil Zimbardo calls “an everyday hero.” He’s not a Daniel Ellsberg type. He doesn’t stand up there with his hands on his lapels and proclaim. He has a lot of problems, a lot of issues, a lot of emotional turbulence in his life. But he was determined to do something. And so he is important to all of us because we are all weak, flawed individuals who can occasionally do something big.

Why would the US military give a troubled, unstable person at a very low rank access to almost unlimited highly sensitive material?

They are desperate for bodies, especially smart people. He was in a discharge unit. A guy who was in it with him says in the movie, “This is the most unlikely military man you could possibly imagine.” But he’s in there because he wants to get a college education. This is the route for poor kids who want to go to college. The army doesn’t want to let him go because he is super-smart. But he has a lot of emotional baggage. He’s gay at a time of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. He thinks he might want a sex-change operation.

The music choices in the movie were excellent.

I worked very closely with a guy named Will Bates, from a group called Fall on Your Sword. He created these wonderful themes for each of the characters in an environment where you feel the space of the internet. And all of these people live out worlds in their imagination, and there’s no place to do that better than rock and roll. So you have Midnight Oil, which is a favorite group of Julian Assange. You have Radiohead for James Ball. And for Bradley Manning — he himself says he was listening to Lady Gaga singing “Telephone” while he was downloading the documents. It’s perfect in terms of what she’s concerned about — gender identity, bullying. And then at the end, the Ink Spots, “If I Didn’t Care.” There’s a ghostly quality to that moment, like “The Shining.” It takes you into the past, like an artifact in space that seemed to be mythic in some way.

What did you have to cut out of the movie that we may see on the DVD?

I wish we could have kept more on Julian’s childhood on Magnetic Island off the coast of Queensland. It got its name when Captain Cook sailed by there and said their compasses were “fouled.” What a perfect metaphor for Julian Assange, messing with military compasses. There was a big section we had on Tunisia, and a much longer section on Iceland. That’s when the goal was at its purest and they were operating on this barren rock. It was tough to let it go. This version is a haiku — we had a three hour and thirty minute cut. There are some interesting characters on the DVD extras.

Do we have too many secrets?

Maybe we don’t have enough. You have to assume once you go online, anything you put there can be made public. Yet while you’re online you feel like it’s a private, sacred space. But you’re really broadcasting to the world. When it comes to governments and corporations, we should demand that less is secret. That’s where corruption flowers. When two Reuters journalists are killed and they won’t give the video to Reuters, what’s that about? What about when the images of Abu Gharib were made public? Their concerns were not about what happened, but that when we released the photos we gave comfort to the enemy.

The New York Times and The Guardian play a crucial role in your film in acting as a filter for processing and providing context for the documents Manning provided, and making sure that what was made public was not detrimental to the safety of our troops. What will happen to that function as traditional journalism is in collapse?

There’s a part of this film that argues for renegade organizations like Wikileaks, but there’s a part that argues very strongly for traditional journalism and the kind of decisions you have to make about what should and should not be secret and how stories should be properly contextualized. When I began this movie, I was interested in the leaking machine, the technical challenge and the technical solution, which we may have to continue to pursue as the Obama administration makes journalism more of a crime. But what Manning needed was a journalist, someone in whom he could confide and trust. That relationship turns out to be terribly important.

Instead, he had a relationship — online only — with a man who had the wrenching moral challenge of protecting Manning or telling the police what he knew.

The biggest problem for him is that he lied to Manning. He squeezed him like a lemon. He said, “Your secrets are safe with me.” Maybe he meant it at the time or maybe he had decided to keep probing so he could get more secrets. He’s a complicated character. If you’re a journalist, you have a bigger conundrum. You have to examine whether this information is in the public interest, whether people will be hurt. But Assange would say journalists are too subject to political pressure.

If everything becomes secret and leaking becomes a capital offense – which is what Bradley Manning is facing — where are we at now? You’d think the law would provide us that easy guidance, but it’s much more of a gray area. The job of a journalist is to find out stuff. The job of the government — sometimes — is to keep stuff secret. There’s a natural tension there. But now they want to make finding out stuff a crime.

Who should decide what is private?

It can’t just be corporations or government. It has to be all of us.

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Interview: Jesse Eisenberg of “Now You See Me”

Posted on May 29, 2013 at 3:59 pm

Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network,” “The Squid and the Whale,” “Rio”) stars in one of the most entertaining films of the year, “Now You See Me,” the story of a group of magicians who rob a bank. It co-stars Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Isla Fisher, Mark Ruffalo, Dave Franco, Mélanie Laurant, and Woody Harrelson. It keeps you guessing — and smiling — until the very last minute. Eisenberg sat down with a small group of journalists in Washington, D.C. to talk about the film. He has an electric intellectual energy, very quick, very smart, very witty, with much of the intensity he brings to his roles, and it was fascinating to see him engage so wholeheartedly with our questions with such boundless curiosity that he came up with questions of his own for us. He made us immediately feel like we were part of a conversation that we wished could go on all day.

“When I first read the script,” he told us, “I wanted to play my character more like David Blaine. My character is like a street magician in the script, so I thought, very casual, dress like regular clothing. But the director wanted to have a more flashy style. So the whole aesthetic for the magicians is like they’re these cool magicians of the future and they do tricks that could be done in five years. That was actually the rubric that we used — all this magic could be done in five years. It’s actually not possible now, but it will be possible, with the governing laws of the universe, these could be done.” He talked to us about trying to learn to perform some of the tricks himself. “I play a character who is one of the best slight of hand magicians in the world, so he would have been practicing for 25 years and I had just four weeks to practice before shooting and then four months while we were shooting to perfect the tricks that were going to be done at the end of the movie. So, I learned some basic slight of hand tricks, like a snap change. I could so some smaller, less complicated, less impressive tricks fairly well. There’s a scene where I’m handcuffed to the table, and there are these twin brothers named Dan and Dave Buck, and they are the best card flourishers in the world, just incredible. They can make a cascade or waterfall and the cards look like they’re tied together. It’s beautiful. So they superimposed their hands over my body in that scene. So, there are a lot of computer effects, but it’s not because the magic can’t be done; it’s because we couldn’t do them. Where I’m shuffling those cards, they superimpose their hands over my body, but it’s magic that can actually be done because they’re doing it live.” If he could do any style of magic tricks, he would do close-up magic, slight-of-hand. “It’s the most impressive thing. Also, I bite my nails, and probably if I did card tricks I would have better nails.”

Eisenberg talked about playing a cool, confident character, a contrast to some of his other roles, where he plays an insecure or nerdy role. “They sent me the script when I was appearing in a play and had a lot of stage fright performing every night. When I read the script, I thought that this character feels more comfortable on stage than anywhere else. He’s so confident. And I thought this would be a good way for me to challenge myself to play a certain kind of character that might be therapeutic in a way and make me feel confident on stage and in my personal life. And it worked — while we were filming I was feeling really good about myself and had a four month break from my own dumb neuroses. I was sleeping, I was eating — I had an avocado one day! It was a fun experience. It wasn’t difficult for me. Whenever I take on a role, I find it easy to get into the role. Once I’m there, there’s like little challenges along the way.” He does not worry about being type-cast. “Sometimes, when you’re an actor, you get thought of for certain things and that’s what you end up playing. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. If you can play one thing well, you’re a successful actor, because most actors can’t play one thing well.” But he says he is glad he is being sent a greater variety of roles now. When he was not happy with what he was being sent, he wrote a play to create his own part.

He said he thought his character in this film “had an air of superiority when he was five years old and then found himself alone in his bedroom and had a deck of cards and found he was good at it and liked doing it and isolated himself and became focused on his work and became great at what he does and is now the best in the world. And then he gets teamed up with these three other characters who also felt like they were the best. And now they’re all kind of competing with each other but they have to work together. I think he feels kind of annoyed by having to work with them.” He talked about working with the cast members who play the other magicians. The actors and their characters have very different skills and styles. “I knew Woody Harrelson, and he likes to bring his own sensibility to roles, even dramatic roles, and I like to do the same thing. But I didn’t realize how funny Isla and Dave were. Most of the time, the characters are talking to each other, but we have three big performances. We’d film them over the course of a week, sixteen hour days, very long days. It gets repetitive after a while. Because we all had a sense of humor and we had an audience that was a very patient group of New Orleans extras, we would really perform for them. A lot of our off-the-cuff remarks and our personal chemistry made it into the movie. That came just out of trying to keep each other entertained. I suppose there’s a version where the actors try to entertain each other and it’s alienating or annoying to the audience. But we had a good director who knows how to control the set and good actors who know when to stop trying to be funny and do the scene for real and push the plot forward and do the things you need to do for the story. The movie is better for it.”

He was impressed with the “visually arresting” style of director Louis Leterrier, “a great visual filmmaker,” who kept a lot of energy in the performance scenes, making them feel like live shows. He described how, in the one set in New Orleans, “in the first shot, the camera’s on a cable and it circles around us and there’s maybe a three-minute shot, which in movie terms is epic, and then goes to a close-up of Morgan Freeman.”

He said he’s getting “a little better” at feeling that he knows what he is doing. He had just finished a play , and he said that even after the 79th performance out of 80, he still agonized before each curtain. So did his co-star, Vanessa Redgrave. “She’s like the greatest actress in the world. And both of us would get there at 3 for an 8:00 show and start panicking. I thought, ‘Maybe it does get easier,’ and then I met her and she is still worried about making sure it’s right. I asked my father about this, and he said, ‘Maybe if you care about what you do, then it will always be hard because you set a high standard for yourself.’ I still feel very nervous. That said, when I was playing this character, I felt really confident. I think the personality of the character starts to infect how you feel about it. In the play I just did, the character is a very angry guy who hates himself, so I was feeling all those feelings, and Vanessa’s character was this tortured older woman, so she was maybe feeling that, too. I supposed if we were playing really happy, confident people who liked ourselves and each other, we might have had a better experience and gotten to the theater a little bit later.”

It is important, he said, to work with people who are “trying to take it seriously, treating it with respect and not just get trying to get something made or make money. That’s actually kind of a rare thing. Even a movie like this, a big-budget movie, when I first met with Louis Leterrier, I asked him what he was thinking of for the acting and he gave me all these French art films, with the most dramatic, terrifying acting I’ve ever seen, and I thought ‘This is a great opportunity, to be in a bigger movie where someone really wants to see good acting, to do your job well.'”

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