Paul Fischer's Movie Blog

MATTHEW LILLARD ON THE DESCENDANTS, CAREER AND LIFE AS HE SEES IT.

Matthew Lillard and Judy Greer as husband and wife in The Descendants.

It would be fair to say that Matthew Lillard has come a long way since bursting onto the Hollywood scene in the likes of Scream and offcourse the family hit Scooby Do. The now 40-year old Michigan native plays a character integral to the journey of George Clooney’s Matt King in The Descendants. Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, Clooney Clooney plays Hawaiian lawyer Matt King whose wife is in hospital, having suffered a severe head injury after a motorboat crash. As a result, King is forced to come to terms with his family life, which involves two daughters that he hasn’t connected with much and a marriage that has fallen even further into neglect. On top of that, King is involved in a massive property deal that will make millions for him and his cousins if he accepts one of many bids to transform the family plot from a rural idyll into a commercial holiday resort. His lfe takes an unexpected and obsessive turn, when he discovers that his comatose wife had an affair with real estate broker Brian Speer [Lillard]. For the actor, the part may be small, yet looms large as he becomes the catalyst for Matt King’s journey. As we chat in a Beverly Hills hotel room, the actor says, “For me, the challenge was there is such a build up to the character. They talk about him throughout the whole movie and he becomes this kind of central them in the movie by this guy who’s on this journey. Then you have this big confrontation.: For Lillard, playing a character who appears in a few scenes towards the end of the movie, “is about being prepared. You can only do what you can do and with the people involved with, you want to be in your best game. So as an actor you want to walk in and be as prepared as possible and available for whatever happens on that day. You can’t think about doing too much in a moment. As a young actor I tried to do as much as I could with whatever little time that I had, because I wanted to be special. I wanted every moment to shine. Then I realized as I’d gotten older I realized it’s the LESS we do sometimes that’s the more powerful.”

On his character in The Descendants, Lillard disagrees that he is one of the least sympathetic characters in the movie. “I actually feel bad for Brian. I think he’s a good guy who’s done a bad thing.” And rather than not judge him, as many actors tend to do, Lillard takes the opposite approach “by judging him on his positive attributes. Even Captain hook has a good reason for why HE’S right and everyone else is wrong. So you have to be your own advocate for the character you play. He’s just a guy who fell into a situation and made a bad choice.”

The Descendants come at a time in Lillard’s own journey where he has evolved as a young movie star to an actor, director and even teacher. Lillard was born in Lansing, Michigan, but grew up in Tustin, California. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, California, with fellow actor Paul Rudd, and later, the theater school Circle in the Square in New York City.

While still in high school, he was co-host of a short-lived TV show titled SK8 TV. After high school, he was hired as an extra for Ghoulies 3: Ghoulies Go to College (1991).

But his big break came in 1996, when Lillard was cast in the horror slasher, Scream as Billy Loomis’s friend Stu Macher. Lillard was then cast as Shaggy Rogers in the 2002 live-action Scooby Doo film, a role he later reprised in the 2004 sequel Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. It has been quite the journey for the actor trying to work in a difficulty, ever changing industry. “It’s a difficult time in our industry”, Lillard says. “We’ve gone from 10 studios making 10 movies a year to maybe three studios making maybe three big tentpole movies that unless you’re number one and two actors, you’re only going to make scale 10, which is like $1500 before taxes, agents, managers and lawyers. So you’re clearing $500 a week and you have to raise kids. But like so many industries in this country, we’ve been decimated and it’s a really interesting time right now.”

So what does he do then to stand out from the pack? “I’m always going to stand out from the pack”, Lillard confesses. “I’m not like everybody else, inherently by who I am.” Yet Lillard is diversifying. “I’m teaching, I’ve directed my first movie and I’m back on the stage. You just have to reinvigorate and continually work on your craft.” At 41, Lillard has perspective on his career.  “I now have a different sense of awareness. I think when I started out I wanted to be really famous and wanted to be huge. I’ve kind of given up on that and so it’s not my dream any more. I just want to be around, to act and do stuff I’m proud of.” That includes his directorial debut, Fat Kid Rules the World starring Billy Campbell. And Lillard teaches acting to many young hopefuls at the Vancouver Film School. Asked if Lillard gives his young students the kind of advice he wishes he would have received as a young actor, Lillard pauses. “When I teach about career or business, I teach about longevity, about the last year where I haven’t worked. I teach about getting through that and how do you get through that ebb and flow. And in my work, as an actor, you teach best what you love least, so I try to teach simplicity and connection. And I teach what I do well, which is bringing energy to a part.” For Matthew Lillard, it seems his own journey is just beginning as audiences see him in a new light sharing the screen with George Clooney in The Descendants.

THE DESCENDANTS IS SCREENING IN LIMITED RELEASE IN NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES, WITH FURTHER CITIES OPENING SOON.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Rie Rasmussen On HUMAN ZOO,

By Paul Fischer in Los Angeles.

The gorgeous and uncompromising Rie Rasmussen was born in Denmark in 1978 to an artist mother and an Economist father. She was raised in the Danish country in an extended family with nine brothers and sisters. She moved to New York at the age of 15 to paint and has continued to travel ever since. She lived in Huntington Beach California where she briefly attended film school as a director in 1998. While writing in Paris she was cast in Brian De Palmas “Femme Fatale”. After her role in Brian De Palma’s film she was picked by director Tom Ford as the exclusive worldwide face of Gucci. At the age of 24 she directed her first short film, “Thinning the Herd” which she also wrote and acted in. “Thinning the Herd” nominated for a Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival 2004. She opened Taormina film festival with her second short film ‘Il Vestito’ which she also wrote and appeared in. Shot on location in Palermo, Sicily as a black and white homage to Italian Neo-realism. In 2005 she was cast as the lead in Luc Besson’s “Angel-A” a French speaking black and white fairytale set in Paris. “Human Zoo” her first feature which she wrote, directed and produced was officially selected at last years Berlin Film Festival and was the opening night Panorama presentation. The film opened in the New Beverly cinema in Los Angeles before making the rounds around the country. The non-linear film casts the director as young Serbian-Albanian Adria Shalam an illegal immigrant traumatized by her past. Every now and then Adria recalls her life in Kosovo, when she was saved from rape by a deserter called Srdjan Vasiljevic in 1999. They move to Belgrade where Srdjan becomes a gangster, dealing weapons and becoming an assassin. Adria learns how to shoot and helps Srdjan with his work at first, becoming his mistress later. The film switches back and forth between Marseilles and Kosovo.

The former supermodel talked to PAUL FISCHER in this exclusive chat about her life and work, as only the outspoken filmmaker can.

Paul Fischer: Where did the desire to become a filmmaker come from, given your background?

R.R:  My life is a living testament to filmmaking. I was born in Denmark and it was quite the opposite of your lovely country. It was dark, rainy not much of a promise of anything and escape. Then there are Hollywood movies and that is where you go. Also I had a weekend father who had me every other weekend. So you get a bunch of videotapes, get some  burgers and that was how I learned all about the movies and directors such as Sergio Leone, Kurosawa, Scorsese, Woody Allen you know, everything. So that’s what I did: I escaped from the dreariness of Denmark and discovered cinema at a very young age.

P.F: So what is realistic for you to become a filmmaker as you’re growing up given walked you’re going through as a child?

R.R: That reality came about when I went to California. I’m also a graphic illustrator and I wanted to be a Disney animator when I was younger. And at15 I came to America, New York city, and I had a vague concept that films more like one fluid piece of art. I followed a surfer boy to California and what kind of stuck in that community was kind of making hi eight videos and that kind of shit. By the time I was 18 I was at the Hollywood film Institute. And learned hands on 35mm cameras Learned how to load film I’m from that point I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I could do my own storyboards and by then I was fucking around writing my own stuff. I already have this very eclectic traveling background ready but then I decided LA stories we’re not the stories but I was going to tell. I was going to tell International stories and so I ended up in Paris like Henry Miller living little crazy painting hot girls late at night and doing a bit more than just painting the girls if you know what I mean. But hey I’m an artist in Paris so what can I say? Then I was cast in Brian de Palma’s film, Femme Fatale, which was really massive. There was nothing cooler than Brian de Palma. Then the head of Gucci was the one who hired me to be the face of Gucci. That was crazy to be honest with you. Tom Ford wanted to make movies and subsequently has now and that’s what we connected on and that’s how happened. I was only in it for two years and then I worked with all creative geniuses and it did some pretty cool art. Two years after I’m making my first short film in 35 mm and 8 months later it’s opening at the Cannes film Festival.

P.F: Did you use all those modeling and fashion experiences impact your writers or goals as a filmmaker?

R.R:  No I didn’t yet. Human Zoo is very autobiographical meaning my first year in America like a young girl at 15 launched into this different kind of mentality culture and society. And you know there was this alpha male dominated violence skateboarding community that I made it into so there was this whole parallel as to how I told Human Zoo. I mean this is a girl fighting for her own femininity at the same time learning the game. This was all very autobiographical and straight up what happened in my life. I haven’t integrated the fashion stuff into my writing as yet because it has to be a story for itself because of there is a fantastical element to it that had no roots in a story that is about the human zoo of life , the invisible borders that surround nationalities and cultures that are being discriminated against , of this ovarian lottery that we either win or lose. This is a story about raising a girl or raising a planet of people that accept each other. And because of fashion has no relevance in political schemes in the world it just didn’t fit in there at all.

P.F: Why the idea of exploring the Bosnian period of history with its brutality?

R.R:  it was after Sarajevo and after Bosnia we have Kosovo. There is an amazing immigration conclave in Serbia that’s been there since the 70s and following Tito the communist leader at the time the Serbians took over. It was terrifyingm which is why Bill Clinton obviously came in. So, there was this pocket of ethnic cleansing and discrimination that was going on. Everything was weeded out and this was a massive political event even in American history And it was really awesome place to take this young girl out of and to put this sociopathic monster in there who’s not really a monster but who just fits in when there is anarchy in the social structure. I just loved the alpha male pointing out the humanity in the rest of us. That’s what I’m trying to tell the entire world like why are we separating from each other; it’s just so terrifying with Visa bloody borders around us.

P.F: Did you always intend to act in the movie?

R.R:   No I felt maybe I can play a small part and that will be interesting and we went back and forth a zillion times but in the end it was just easier for me to do it. First it cost less when you have the director the writer and the actress as one person under the other guy Sean the American actor was a good friend and we’ve been creative partners for years. For me it was a very economical decision and an easy one.

P.F: There are some very graphic sex scenes in this movie. Was very important for you cannot make the sex scenes as realistic as possible?

R.R:  Yes it was important because I always wanted to go and see a really good sex scene. God I was so tired of them cutting to the open mouth cut to the hair on the shoulder someone goes down but out of frame. No, no he is going down on her. This is what’s happening, this is sex and of this is how it should be and I want to see sex scenes that are better than real life. We got it all in one take and though it was a m*therf*cker of a scene to shoot it ultimately looked awesome.

P.F: And what’s next for you?

R.R: I have a script that I’ve just been attached to that one of my best friends called Nicolas Constantine wrote. It’s his first script and I can’t even believe how good it is. I’m actually really jealous of him. But now I get to direct it so I’m happy. Basically its a story about are we born evil or do we learn evil? Is it societal or is it genetic? It’s based on Philip Carlo’s book The Night Stalker about serial killer Richard Ramirez.  And once I read the script I just couldn’t believe this f*cking story. This script is really fantastic.

P.F: I take it you won’t be in it?

R.R: No I will not be that I am not Hispanic.

THE HUMAN ZOO IS CURRENTLY SCREENING AT THE NEW BEVERLY CINEMA IN LOS ANGELES.

RIE RASMUSSEN star/director The Human Zoo