2020-04-01_Total_Film

TOTAL FILM | APRIL 2020 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS



‘ILEARNEDACTING

THERIGHTWAYON

THE FIRSTMOVIE

IEVERDID’

What’s the first thing you do when

you get to your trailer?

I show up and get a cup of tea, and

you’ve got to [get to] hair and make-up.

Then you go do your day’s work.

Any on-set superstitions?

I like to get on set early. I actually don’t

like to leave the set. When they’re

setting up lighting and stuff, and the

cameraman... I’m actually doing stuff.

I’m working my way around, and I have

to check with them. I’m going, “Let me

know if I’m in your way.” I start doing

what my character would do. I’m going

to go where my character would go,

when I get on set.

Is there anything you always take

with you on set?

No, I just get everything else out of the

way, besides what my character needs

in that scene. And then I start looking.

What for?

“What else is around here? Oh, you

know what would be interesting? Yeah,

yeah, yeah. He’s got the candies, but

he’s actually a smoker. He’s trying to

quit smoking, so he put candies in the

ashtray. Maybe he’s going to have a

smoke here now. I’ll use the ashtray, or

I’ll put the candies in it. And then in the

scene, I’ll take the candies out, and

you’ll see ashes at the bottom.” You

know, something. You look around, and

you go, “What can I use?”

Do you ever take a phone with you?

No. I don’t want to... I don’t like

checking out, once I check in. Unless it’s

music that I have, or a certain singer.

But I’d rather have my system, with the

Jambox, actually playing it, rather than

me with earphones.

What do you remember about your

first on-set experience on Dazed

:g]y<hg_nl^]?

[Pause] I can tell you, I wasn’t... I didn’t

know who I was. I had the instincts for

it. I learned acting the right way on the

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY

The Gentlemen star reveals his on-set memories. Alright, alright, alright...

BETWEEN TAKES

first movie I ever did. I had a director

who invited me back. I had an entire

cast of real actors who invited me into

scenes, who handed me lines in the

middle of scenes, who were pulling me

into scenes, just because I’d been invited

the other night. All of a sudden, they

wrote me into the script, and I ended up

working for three-and-a-half weeks. So

I learned the right way to do it.

What’s been your worst on-set

experience?

I’m not good at recall like that. I mean,

the days that are the worst are when

I’ve injured myself. You know? I blew

out my knee in Reign Of Fire. I tweaked

my back, actually, in White Boy Rick, in

the scene when I’m taking Bel [Powley]

out. I pulled something in my back. It

was getting me up for eight months

after that.

And how about the best on-set

experience?

The fun-est was probably knocking

out 27 pages of Rustin Cohle, the

monologue, in less than two days [on

True Detective]. Maybe it was one day.

To knock all that out? Because it was so

many words. To knock it all out in one

sitting, was like, “Yeah!”

When you work with young actors

• Timothée Chalamet on Bgm^klm^eeZk,
  for example - do you anticipate how
  their careers might turn out?
  I anticipated a certain confidence and an
  actual ability, a reverence for the craft.
  At the same time, really fluid and
  confident, and able to flow, able to
  improvise within the context of the
  character. But an original thinker. He
  was already thinking about his future
  and choices, and disseminating between
  what was expected of him, and what he
  was appreciative about, and what he
  actually thought he might do. He was
  just heading off to school that time. MM

ETA | 27 APRIL / THE GENTLEMEN IS OUT ON

BLU-RAY, DVD AND DIGITAL HD THIS MONTH. GET

TY,

EN

TER

TAI

NM

ENT

FI

LM

WithMichelleDockeryas

husband-and-wifedrug

barons inTheGentlemen