Every Day's Liev Schreiber on Speedos, Fatherhood and the Hollywood-Broadway Divide

In Every Day (out this week on DVD and Blu-ray from Image Entertainment), Liev Schreiber stars as Ned, a TV writer balancing the arrival of his ailing father-in-law (Brian Dennehy) into his home, an openly gay son (Ezra Miller) who's ready to start dating, a frazzled wife (Helen Hunt) on her last nerve, and the amorous attentions of a sexy co-worker (Carla Gugino). When I sat down with Schreiber in L.A. in January, he was coping with snowstorms back east that were preventing him from getting home to his longtime companion Naomi Watts and their two children. Despite the weather issues, the affable Schreiber -- who's made a name for himself in both indie and mainstream Hollywood movies alongside a thriving Broadway career -- had plenty to say.

Any movie that has that much of you in a Speedo [Gugino's character seduces him in a swimming pool] had to have been a pain in the ass to prep for.

Literally. Uh, yeah. No, I - somebody downstairs was just telling me they think that Speedos should be outlawed in films, and I really couldn't agree more.

Did it give you a little empathy for what actresses go through?

No. [Laughs] Not at all. It gave me a deep level of insecurity of what I was going through, but it's all right. It's over. Preserved on film forever.

Well, it's nice to have that kind of snapshot that you can look back at in your dotage.

For my children to see years from now.

Have you played a lot of fathers since becoming one yourself, or is this one of your first?

No, it's not my first. I've played a few fathers. I guess what jumps to mind is A Walk on the Moon in the '90s.

But that was before you were one yourself, though.

Yes.

Do you think that the real-life experience puts something in your quiver that wasn't there before?

Absolutely. I think having recently become the father of two small boys, when I got the script, that was a big part of its appeal to me, exploring those themes and getting a jump on raising an adolescent son.

Having become a parent yourself, does it change your dynamic with your own parents? Do you see things through their eyes more?

Yeah, it gives you a level of empathy for what they went through. And also the... You know, I think that we forget that our parents are human beings. They fall under the massive umbrella of "Mom" or "Dad," and they aren't allowed to be much else. And I don't know that you really understand that as profoundly as you do once you have children: that while it's an incredible experience -- and in my case, the greatest experience of my life -- there's a sadness and a loss of identity, too, that I think within a year of having my first son I identified and wanted to talk to my mom and dad about.

I was thinking about this because you've played Orson Welles [in HBO's RKO 281], but there are films in his career that he basically made as an actor so he could raise the funds to finish Macbeth or Mr. Arkadin or whatever. Or John Cassavetes starred in some movie so he could afford to make Faces. When you do a Wolverine or a Salt, is that a way for you to buy yourself eight months on stage?

No. Uh, although that is a nice side effect. I do them because I really need variety. It's very important to me that I mix it up, both as a person and as a professional. It makes the job easier, and it informs the other work. I think it's a reciprocal relationship between film and theater, and even independent films and large-budget films, that they inform each other, and to me, it's important to continue to do them all, as much as possible. I just think that that's what makes you grow as an actor.

And are you planning to direct anymore? [Schreiber directed 2005's Everything is Illuminated.]

I would love to. I've been in perpetual development on a couple of things, which I think is bad luck to talk about. The driving project of the past three years has been our two sons, so it's been difficult to write, and that's kind of a critical element of getting things off the ground. I'm hoping that as they get a little bit older, some time will open up.

It's also such a weird time for indies. You hear from filmmakers like John Waters who say, "I can't get $10 million to make a movie, and I don't know anyone who can." Even people on the super-low-budget end are finding it harder to get their money together. If you don't want to make a $100 million movie, nobody wants to make the $8 million movie.

It's true; it's a tricky economic climate for films. But you can't let that stop you. If you've got something, you've got something, and I kind of believe there's always financing for good films.

Pages: 1 2