It's cold, it's rainy, and Peter Sarsgaard is the perfect stranger offering you a ride. Do you get in? That's the situation Carey Mulligan found herself in while shooting Lone Scherfig's An Education, and it wasn't just that she was channeling her character Jenny; Sarsgaard made Mulligan agree that if he couldn't charm her into the car, then she'd simply damn the stage directions and turn him down. Fortunately, like his supremely self-confident character David, the actor got exactly what he wanted.
In person, it's the reticent Sarsgaard who must be charmed, though I think I managed all right. Last Thursday, he sat down with me to discuss screen chemistry, the "golden handcuff" of a film franchise, and (prompted by two chairs slightly turned toward each other) his deeply ingrained fear of talk shows.
All right, where do you want to sit?
[Affecting a British accent] Shall we sit like gentlemen?
Or sit like we're sitting on the new Jay Leno show.
[Laughing] Exactly. Hey! I haven't seen it.
You're not missing much.
You know, I don't watch talk shows. It's plugging, that's all it is! I'd rather watch commercials.
But don't you have to appear on talk shows as part of your press obligations?
I have occasionally, but not with any regularity. I'm not made to.
Do you try to get out of it?
I used to, always. Then I realized that it was important, you know? Part of my responsibility as an actor is to sell the film. I did Conan O'Brien -- that's the only one I've done -- twice. Oh, and I did Charlie Rose once.
Do you feel like those shows are more on your wavelength?
No, it just was random. I like him, though. I like Conan.
Anyway, An Education! You're the sole American actor in the film, and you're affecting a British accent. I interviewed another actor recently who said he actually prefers acting with accents because the further away the character is from how he actually is, the more he can lose himself in the role. Is it like that for you?
Hmm. No, I feel the opposite.
You'd rather play a role that's similar to how you actually are?
It's "easier," not "rather." The more artificiality that's put on it, the more you have to reconcile as an actor -- that's work. The accent was work. Like, a Southern accent would be expressive for me because my family's Southern and I know that sense of humor. The things with accents is...like, in the South, for example, people will sometimes talk in a certain kind of Southern accent if they're telling a joke. You know what I mean? They'll be like, [affecting a Southern accent] "Well, I don't know 'cause we jus' went down there and saw two chickens!" and whatnot. That's like their "funny voice" and every culture has that, and that's what difficult about learning an accent. Accents for an individual fluctuate depending on who they're with and who they're talking to. I talk to you differently and in a different manner and tone than I talk to my daughter, you know?
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]
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.
The world was going to get a lot less gray in just a few years. He's almost a precursor to a cultural revolution in London. How different would things have been if this were set then?
Oh, I think if it had been ten years later, they probably would have had a one-off and just walked away! [Laughs] The world got wiser. It was kind of an innocent time then, that's what's beautiful about the story. All of those characters -- Alfred Molina's character, Carey's character -- seem somehow fundamentally innocent. Even my character...he's not a cad. He doesn't have it in him to be a cad.
[SPOILER ALERT]
Also, this is something that Lone always laughs at, but I really don't believe what Sally Hawkins's character says about David. I think, "All right, a young girl comes up to her front porch, and what does she choose to tell her? That she's one of many. Well, the only reason to say that to someone is to make them feel bad and let them know that they mean nothing." When you have such a strong reason to say something, the accuracy of your statements is suspect. Politics is always like that. Of course you want to see it that way -- that's why you came up with the facts to match! I just don't believe her, and I actually didn't play it thinking that there was more than one Jenny. That doesn't mean there wasn't, it just might mean that I got so into his perspective that I lost that piece of information.
So much of what I worked on with this character was constructing a reality that was not reality. It was constructing his reality, his fantasy world, and it didn't include a lot of the givens of his life. There's one scene in it where I think I felt like I was James Bond or something, wearing sunglasses and a hat and getting out of the car in a certain way. It's like this character's shiftable and mutable; there's no center there with him. He's a complicated guy.
[SPOILER END]
What are you working on next? It's been a good year for you.
Yeah, I'm going to Boston in about a week to do Wichita. It's a great script; I'm the foil to Tom Cruise's character. It's really fun and it's got action movie stuff in it, obviously, but it's funny.
I've always thought it was sort of notable that you've never appeared in a sequel, franchise, or comic book movie. You've never had to sign a contract that came with a mandatory two more movies attached.
A franchise is either great or a golden handcuff.
Have you been offered them? I can tell by your face...
Yeah, I've faced situations where I thought, "This is gonna be a lot of time for not very much reward," or "The rewards in this are purely financial." It's OK for that to be the reason to do something, but then I start to look at time, and I go, "Oh, but it's three years of my life." If I were just to do something for money, I would make sure that it didn't take an enormous amount of time out of my life. So, yeah. No comic book villains for me.