Peter Sarsgaard: 'No Comic Book Villains for Me'

What's even trickier about a British accent is that those can be traced down to the very block you grew up on. And British people know--

They know their shit, yeah. I just didn't sweat it that much. [Laughs] I remember the dialect coach said, "Well, a lot of the British actors in this don't have the correct dialect for what their character would have." There's not that level of specificity in this movie.

So how does an American like you come to topline this cast that's like a who's who of British acting talent?

I, actually, was offered the part first.

Before Carey was cast?

Yeah, I read different girls for her part in a different incarnation of the movie. That director wasn't able to do the movie, and then we got a new director and I met with Lone in Toronto. I'd already seen Carey read, and I just said, "Look, I was kind of involved in casting in some peripheral way before." Like, I wasn't making decisions but I was being a part of it and reading. And I said, "I'd rather not be. It interferes with what my duties are." Even if I were to produce a movie as an actor, I just try to steer clear of anything I shouldn't have my [hands on].

But isn't it inevitable that when you do these chemistry reads, there are going to be certain actors you favor and hope to act with?

Yeah. I just don't think it's right. [Laughs]

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Your character is a smooth guy who's hiding a few secrets. I was reading, though, that David had his edges sanded down somewhat in the adaptation.

Lone says that about the movie, but I don't know, totally. They lived with the movie in the editing process and took things out and watched it happen. It was so long between the making of the movie and when I eventually watched it. I didn't go to Sundance because I was doing a play, and I waited to watch the movie -- I wanted to wait until [the Toronto Film Festival], but they made me watch it before.

Even after that huge reception at Sundance, you weren't curious to see it?

No. [Laughs] Well, I was, I just wanted to watch it in front of people, not in a room alone or with executives or something like that. I've been told that, though, that there was a more complicated version of the character that could have been in the movie, but I think this is about as complicated as you would want that character. It's important that we see all these things about him, but it's nice that it's a little bit at a distance, I think. It was very important to Nick that David not boldfacedly lie. He was guilty by omission rather than just fabricating something.

How much do you think David's affection for Jenny has to do with an element of flattery? That her reaction to his life validates his desire to live large?

I don't know, that's her impression of me. When I watch the movie, I see two people who have a similar need, and that's to rise above the ordinary. He obviously lives in a situation that's very similar to his, but doesn't act that way. I even think that his accent in the movie is contrived in a certain way, and I would think about that when I was trying to do the accent: "Well, all I have to do is this accent as well as I can, which is what he's doing, and he may have another accent but I don't have to play it." The car and all that stuff...he wants to live that life, and not only live the life or a rich man but a cultured man. He doesn't want to live in that ordinary, gray, predictable world, and that's what [Jenny] wants! They want to be poets together.

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Comments

  • Brandon says:

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