Expect to see a few new sides of Thomas Haden Church as the title character of Don McKay, a wildly genre-hopping indie featuring the actor as a Boston janitor summoned home after 25 years by his high-school sweetheart Sonny (Elisabeth Shue). Terminally ill and under the care of a brusque, officious nurse (Melissa Leo), Sonny wants to spent the rest of her short life with Don -- who wouldn't mind that himself if not for the mounting levels of suspicion and secrets towering around them. Rookie writer-director Jake Goldberger cites Blood Simple as a seminal influence, but the film draws its primary energy from Church's strapping, coiled reticence -- not to mention the star's leadership behind the scenes, where he labored for four years in the afterglow of his Oscar-nominated Sideways role to help bring Don McKay to fruition.
Church recently spoke with Movieline about building McKay from scratch, wearing his producer hat, the backlash to last year's loathed All About Steve, and what it was like going to work with Marlon Brando and Charlie Sheen (at the same time!)
You've mentioned how surprised you were that a young guy like Jake Goldberger could write so perceptively about the emotional experience of a 40-something male. What specific parts of that experience called out to you?
It was the emotional isolation of a janitor [to whom] something terrible happened 25 years earlier -- something so terrible that it disconnected him from the world. He has this very stoic existence as an employee in his apartment. And you probably didn't even notice it, but... Did you see the movie?
Yes.
He maintains a fish tank in his apartment, but there are no fish in it. He maintains the coral and the aerator. He's just a really emotionally disconnected guy. And going through the script, there were just very specific moments with Don -- not so much in the action, but his whole demeanor. I was just fascinated that Jake -- at 25 or 26 -- wrote it with such authenticity. And then he couldn't have been sweeter or more ingenuous and collaborative than when we started talking on the phone.
Don's an interesting guy who, despite an almost comical self-consciousness, you can tell is dealing with some severe demons. How did you approach those coexisting traits?
We just decided along the way, in our conversations along the four years between attachment and getting to shoot the picture, that anything that came up in conversation about nuance and just the fabric of who he is -- no matter how subtle -- it was worthy of discussion. And maybe even infusing into a scene or into a moment. I'll give you an example: Early on, I told Jake, "I don't ever want him to use bad language." And Jake was like, "What? Wow, that's really interesting. Why?" And I said, "Because he works around children all the time. And eventually it's just going to be a part of himself that he doesn't ever express." And we had lengthy conversations about it, because especially as things went on and became more desperate and unhinged, Don might start to betray himself in certain ways. And I said, "I just don't think it would be that way." I really felt like at the marrow of who he was, he was very, very respectful of everyone. No matter what their character was, no matter how absurd or how threatening it may be. [SPOILER ALERT] Even after I killed the doctor, I continue to refer to him as Dr. Price. I don't ever refer to him as "a**hole" or ''motherf*cker" or even by his first name. I continue to refer to him as Dr. Price. Even after I've stabbed him in the jugular. [END SPOILERS]
Very specific things like that were very important to me. And whether or not the audience picks up on that doesn't really matter. It's just that the engine that we built -- Jake and I and everybody else -- that we have to take a ride in? that machine has to be very specifically, emotionally sound to be considered reliable.
A lot of actors will sign on to things as an executive producer, but everyone has a different idea of what that means. What did it mean to you?
We just started collaborating early on, and I became so involved in how the script evolved: Vetting who wanted to finance the movie. Vetting various actors and actresses who wanted to be involved. Every decision that had significant impact on the movie, Jake would approach me with. And then when [producer] Jim Young became involved, it was always conference calls. And ultimately -- this was maybe six months or a year before we got the movie made -- they just said, "Would you consider being a producer?" Quite honestly I was a little reluctant, because I didn't want to be distracted by the business side with all my intentions on the creative side. But they said, "We're never going to bother you with the particulate matter of getting the movie made. We're just going to come to you with the bigger issues where it would be nice to have your opinion." I was like, "OK!"
Actually, they'd asked me to come on as a producer, but my role was more as an executive producer: You're a little more removed than an actual producer. I saw a lot of rough cuts, and I've give notes and that sort of thing. And I was always invited to dailies when we were shooting. I've directed a movie, and I've been through that/ I didn't want to have too heavy a hand in that. Once we got the got the movie in the can, I wanted Jake to cut together the movie he felt the strongest about. But I definitely gave notes on a lot of different versions of the movie.
It's quite an ensemble. How involved were you in the casting?
Very. Very. I mean, through those three or four years, actresses came in and out who were interested in playing Sonny, and for whatever reason, they wanted changes with the script. They wanted to be a producer so they would have more control. They wanted to be a producing partner. They had financiers that they wanted to bring in. For whatever reason, people came in and out. But ultimately, when Jim [Young] came on board and he brought the access to financing that he did, then it was like, "Who can we find that will address everybody's needs?" We had talked about Elisabeth a few years prior to that, and it wasn't the right thing at that time. But when it came back up and she was interested, I was like, "Absolutely." She was so perfect in terms of intelligence and vulnerability. She had to age-reasonable, but also attractive. Someone immediately overwhelming romantically. But we really needed her to be age appropriate. They needed to have gone to high school together; they were high-school sweethearts. Actresses would come up, and they were 10 years younger or -- as flattering as it was at times -- 15 years younger. And I said, "No. It's not the right thing."
So M. Emmet Walsh was attached before that, and Keith David and James Rebhorn, and then we got Pruitt Taylor Vince. But the crowning jewel was to get Melissa Leo, who was getting a lot of momentum off of Frozen River. Melissa read it, wanted to do it, she was available, and then it was like, "Bam!" We had the actors.
I know this is kind of random, but did you write your bio in the press notes?
Part of it. You can probably get the part that I wrote. I think it's the last paragraph. [ED: Of Church's writing-directing effort Rolling Kansas, it's written: "Acclaimed by no one, it now comfortably resides on Comedy Central."]
You also cite the "straight-to-cable Free Money, opposite the brilliant and bizarre Marlon Brando." Any stories?
Oh, God. I could take up a whole evening of your time. So I did this movie called Free Money; I think Starz bought it. It was released overseas. In fact, I have photograph. A buddy of mine shot a picture -- this was '99, I think -- of a theater marquee in Milan. It's all in Italian, of course, except for our names, which were Marlon Brando, Charlie Sheen and Thomas Haden Church. And then Free Money in Italian. But I have many stories about him, because we shot together for 10 weeks in Quebec. And I really thought about him a lot when he passed away; he was such an avuncular presence at that point in my career.
Doing that movie with Charlie and I, every now and then he would want to have these sort of impromptu little kind of script meetings. You would be summoned to his trailer at lunchtime. This happened a few times. He would be lying down resting his eyes. And you would come in, say hi to his assistant, and she would leave. And Marlon would just want you to sit down next to him. He would hold your hand. He would physically want to have contact with you. But he would never open his eyes, never move. He would just be lying on the couch. In fact, the chair would already be there. And he would want you to sit down, and he would hold your hand, and he would just want to talk about whatever it was we were shooting. He would just want to know how I was feeling, and how he was feeling. It was just a very, very personal connection with Charlie and myself. Unfortunately the movie never -- I thought -- came to its deserved fruition, which was some sort of critical notice for his performance. I thought he was very good in the movie. It's a very unusual movie. It was made by French Canadian filmmakers, but Mira Sorvino is in it, Donald Sutherland is in it, David Arquette is in it. Martin Sheen has a tiny cameo at the end of the movie. It's a very unusual little movie, but it just didn't get a theatrical release in the States. But that happens.
In retrospect, what's your impression of the rough response to All About Steve -- particularly considering Sandra Bullock's dual Razzie/Oscar win?
Oh, Sandy had such an amazing year. Unfortunately, it's taken a downturn here in the last month or so. She's a friend of mine, and she goes into everything with such dedication and such a vital spirit. She's really unsinkable. And she goes after these movies -- The Proposal, Steve, Blind Side... She really had no idea what was going to happen with The Blind Side. When we were promoting All About Steve, she kept referring to it as her "little movie" -- this little movie they did. And I said, "What is the deal with that movie?" And she said, "Oh, you know, it's about race, it's about football, and I don't know if it's ever going to find an audience. Most of the people in it, nobody knows who they really are. It's a very small story." And lo and behold, the movie does $240 million domestic and she wins the Academy Award.
I adore Sandy. She's true to herself. And Steve just fell in between. Critics largely hated it. It did OK at the box office; like $35 million? We made it for quite a bit less than that. It was just a little movie, and her performance... I thought that she was kind of unfairly attacked for her performance, because I thought it was fearless. Ultimately Sandy is an actor, and she takes chances She took a chance on Blind Side! You know? Putting on some weight, and that hair and that accent, and being such a straightforward Christian conservative zealot who takes a chance on this kid? Let's face it: Critics could have gone after her for that movie, but they chose to embrace it. And deservedly so. Sandy was terrific in it. I voted for her.