The Mechanic's Ben Foster on Gun Porn, Producing and Pedophile-Baiting

One of my favorite scenes of yours is, for lack of a better turn of phrase, is the pedophile-baiting scene -

[Erupts into laughter]

... in which your character goes undercover to target a big, beefy assassin. You hide your intentions not only from him, but from the audience. So much happens with you in that scene without dialogue -- and of course, it all ends in a bloody mess. Describe the internal experience of shooting that scene.

I don't think we were actually sure about how bloody it was going to be. But it was important. Simon and I talked a lot about what it would mean to kill someone -- what it would take. It's not just a crazy person who's pulling a trigger, but even then there are going to be years of life experiences bringing you to this moment. Understanding where my character Steve was at this point in his life was very important to Simon, and I really appreciated his interest in that. And I'm fortunate I'm not a hit man in real life. I get the opportunity to, even within the genre, be given room to maybe show a few flickers of the human being that would pull a trigger or fill-in-the-blank.

Your career of late has seemed to sway toward the indie side of filmmaking. Are you making a conscious choice to stick with smaller films these days as opposed to major studio releases?

It's all interesting. If the right studio film comes along with a role I feel I can contribute to or ask interesting questions with, or questions I'm interested in asking, absolutely. I'm not a movie snob. I love all films, I love all kinds of films. The roles that have inspired me and got me excited and the filmmakers I've wanted to work with and been fortunate enough to work with were working on just smaller budgets. Right now I'm doing a film [Contraband] with [Mark] Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale for Universal. And then I'll be doing a little movie in London with another beautiful cast. I've been really lucky lately, and we're all lucky. For any of us to have a job right now is incredible.

In Rampart, you're reuniting with Oren Moverman, your director on The Messenger. That film seemed like a pretty unique filmmaking experience in itself. What brought you two back together?

Yes, so much so that Oren and I started a production company, and I moved to New York to work with him. We're developing several projects right now, and this was the first one that went. I was able to work as a producer as well as an actor -- a small acting role. That's really thrilling, to contribute to a film from the early stages and follow it until its completion. And Woody does work in this film that's gonna knock people out.

It will be nice to see you all working together again.

I'm very excited about this picture.

What kinds of projects are you considering to make with Oren?

We've got a humble little stack of things that we're playing with, but we really just finished Rampart four weeks ago, so we're editing. We'll just be in the editing room for the next four months; I'll be going back and forth between that and New Orleans for Contraband, and we'll wrap that up by spring. Then I'll head to London to shoot 360 for a few weeks, and then we'll see what feels best. But we're looking to get a project going again, hopefully, in the fall. It's good to be busy!

You're also reuniting with your _ Alpha Dog_ director, Nick Cassavetes. What is it that brings you back to work with the same people again? And is that bond a rare thing to find?

Ah, he's the best. Well, making movies is a collaboration and I've been doing this 18 years and spending time with people that you care about and you're challenged by and you love -- nothing's better than that.

[Top photo: Getty Images]

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