The story of The Adjustment Bureau is difficult to summarize without getting into its abstract implications about fate. Did it sound confusing when you first heard about the project?
No, [director/writer] George Nolfi sent me the script, and first he actually said he wanted to ask me a favor. He said, "I'm going to direct this movie, and I've not directed before. I want to see what it's like to do a couple more dialogue-heavy scenes." It was a more of an intention of his to direct than it was a setup. So we did these scenes, and so I kind of snuck up on it. The simple reality with which this lofty reality was executed was what made it interesting to me. They're a bunch of guys, like bureaucrats, in suits. There's a bureaucracy up wherever they are, just like there is down here -- red tape and a lot of frustration. These guys aren't all-powerful and they are fallible. For lack of a better word, it made it more human -- these non-human characters. So that was what drew me to it, that sort of simple tone with which it was written.
Was it ever confusing to film?
It wasn't confusing to film, I don't think, but like a lot of films you have an intention when you start and then think, "Maybe this won't be as clear as it is to me, having read this thing 50 times." It's clear to George that he knows the story, but you make adjustments during filming: You shoot something else, add a tail to the end of a scene, you make adjustments to certain scenes. Adjustments happen all the time. Then they re-shot the ending a couple of times because it wasn't what they wanted when they shot it. So it was really more of an issue of establishing tone, filming. No one was really sure. Is it better light? Is it better heavy? We would do a bunch of different takes with different intentions.
[Some Spoilers]
In one of those discarded endings, your character's boss is revealed, and it's a woman. Would that ending have shed a different light on your character?
It was the same for my character; he's got this red-letter case thinking this is going to move him up a peg on the food chain, and it just doesn't go the way he wants it to go. Then it moved up the line and to some degree, Terence Stamp was that impressive as Thompson -- I mean, who are you going to get to play God atop Terence Stamp? -- he's a very powerful presence. Maybe that was a contributing factor to them trying to reorganize the end.
[End spoilers]
How weary are you of roles that are party defined by jaunty, old-fashioned suits?
Pretty weary! That's a red flag at this point. I just got offered a job, a politician, in a really well-written project, but that's the first thing I think: It's as much a blessing as it is a curse. You don't want to be pigeonholed as one thing or another. But those are high-class problems to have. It's good to have a job where people even care to compare the fact that you're wearing a suit in one thing and a suit in another thing. But that is the fact, so yeah, I try to mix it up.
Do you think you're perceived as a 'throwback' actor? Are you anachronistic in any real way?
Oh, people project onto you all kinds of stuff. You put something out there and it happens all the time, especially in the media. They cook up something the author and the actors had no intention of getting across. That's what it is! People project their own lives and live vicariously through your characters one way or another. It's really out of my hands.
Do you have dreams of utterly weird roles that are out of step with what you usually get?
I just did a role in a movie called Return where I play an Oxycontin addict, a snorter who lives in the woods in a house he built himself! [Laughs.] I kept referring to him as the Unabomber, but he's not the Unabomber. He's very different from the stuff I've done lately. I mean, it just happens to be the stuff where I'm wearing a suit and tie that gets attention. It isn't me! I hope I can do other things, and I hope I get the chance.
I notice you play characters whose arrogance and pettiness lead to their undoing. Do you ever wonder why it's fun to watch you endure tragic downfalls?
[Laughs.] Maybe it's schadenfreude. I don't know. It's certainly more interesting to play a character who unravels. You try to find characters who change, who start in one place and end in another, and that isn't to do either. Television is a good arena for that. I know people that try to stay away from TV because it is ongoing, and you are playing the same character over a period of time, and it scares actors. And I don't want to play the same character all the time! But this schedule was short enough and so well-written that you think, "I'm so glad to have this opportunity." I've still had the year to do other things. I guess if you do one thing in this business, that's the way people see you. Anyone will tell you, if you have any success playing a cop, people send you cop parts. That's what this business does. You do have to make an effort to be conscious about that.
On screen in The Adjustment Bureau, you interact quite a bit with Matt Damon, though often you're just chasing him. You hardly communicate at all with Emily Blunt. Was this at all like a voice-acting role where you don't meet your castmates until the actual premiere?
I saw a lot of Matt, and I didn't see very much of Emily. Emily's someone who's easy to hang around with. She's delightful in every way. I've seen her a few times since, but no, we didn't see each other much. Of course I chased Matt around for days and weeks while he rode around in a cab flipping me the bird and I ran around in badly chosen street shoes. Still suffering from that, I think. I got some horrible -- I got something horrible from that.
That was filmed kind of awhile ago now!
I know, I know. That's why cops wear rubber-soled shoes.
You've directed episodes of Mad Men. Is directing features on your mind?
It is. That's the plan. I directed two episodes of Mad Men last year, and I have a film I want to make. So hopefully that will happen.
Any hints you can share about the subject matter?
You know, it's sort of an -- you know? I can't really talk about it because the deal isn't finished. But I am writing and I want to direct, and not act.
How does the distribution of directors work per episode on Mad Men? Do you direct episodes that concern things you're interested in, or is it more of a random assignment?
In my case, I take what I'm given, and gladly. They gave me the opportunity, and I just threw my hat in and said, "Can I follow one of the directors around?" I knew that was how it worked. You trail someone around and you get to see what the actual getting through the day is like. It's very difficult. The time challenge involved is very difficult, getting all that material done in the way its expected to be done. They gave me a shot, and then through scheduling someone fell out, so I took another one. So you take what you're given. Jon Hamm's going to do the first one this year and it's really the only one he can do. He's been talking about wanting to do it, and they've been encouraging him to do it. It's the only he can really do because he's in every scene, and it takes eight days of prep before you shoot the episode. For those of us who are acting in the episode, that's a time conflict. Basically, they go through the schedule of the season after arcing and sort of "broad-stroking" the whole season. They'll say, "Here's one where Slattery's not that heavily involved." They're extremely accommodating in allowing me to do this; I will forever be indebted.
It's interesting that you've directed Jon Hamm, and now he'll direct you. There aren't many shows where multiple actors take turns at the helm.
The thing is, it really spreads you very thin, directing and being in the show. There was one point at which I was trying to remember my lines and deliver a joke properly, and I kept screwing it up. I was making mental notes on other people's performances because we were in a wide shot. There were about five people in the scene, we were all in it, people were coming in, smoking, drinking -- it was the second day and my brain was about to explode. And Hamm looked at me said, "Really? Directing? You're glad you decided to direct?" He'll know what it's like. You have to stop and watch the takes, and you hardly have enough time to begin with, leaving the set and watching a monitor for playback. You have to do it, but it makes each scene twice as long. It's really the time part [that's difficult]. The crew is all great, the producers are great, and the actors obviously know what they're doing. What am I going to tell Jon Hamm about playing Don Draper? You really just want some variety, some options for when you get in the editing room, so you encourage the actors in a hopefully organic way to try something different than what they've just done. In my case, that's all it's come down to. "That's great, we've got that, now let's try A, B, and D."
You were a riot on 30 Rock. Would you like to try more comic stuff?
Yeah, I would. I end up sort of doing a lot of comic stuff on shows that are not comedies. I would, I would! I would love to do an actual out-and-out comedy. I want to work with those Apatow people. I thought Bridesmaids was amazing; just spoke to Jon Hamm, and the way those guys work, and you try new material and you keep shooting. I would like to try that. That looks like fun to me.
There's that reel of Bridesmaids outtakes where Jon Hamm and Kristen Wiig seem to improvise a bunch of lines during a sex scene. That method of filming speaks to you?
Yeah, the "Try this! Say that!" I've heard Lizzy Moss talk about Get Him to the Greek, and it just sounds really creative and exciting. A bad take is every bit as good as a good take.
The Adjustment Bureau will hit DVD and Blu-ray on June 21.
[Photo: Getty Images]