"Two for the Money" Cast Interviews
By Andrea Simpson, Special to Hollywood.com
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Friday, October 07, 2005
Rene Russo stars in Two For The Money |
Welcome to the cutthroat world of high stakes, high-roller sports gambling, a $200 billion industry.
Fortunes are won on Sunday and lost on Monday in Two for the Money-- a dicey drama set in the adrenaline-filled world of wheeler-dealer gamblers where riches are made and destroyed with the flip of a coin. With millions of dollars on the line, reckless players, like Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey and Rene Russo, engage in a "who's conning who" game where the bets are high and the losses are even higher.
Based on a true story, Two for the Money marks the return of Pacino in the not-too-surprising role as the quintessential power player Walter Abrams, a recovering addict (in every sense of the word)-turned-betting advisor with a lust for money and power. He does anything he can to get it--even if it means not trusting the people who love him most.
It was the Pacino-packed motivating force on set that neither Matthew nor Rene had ever experienced before. But Rene wouldn't let his intimidating Godfather-like presence get to her-- well, not completely.
"I was really intimidated. I was intimidated until I looked across the table and said, 'Oohh, I know you,'" said Rene, laughing. "Then the acting kicks in and you go, 'Okay, look, I can do this because I've lived where you've lived your whole life and I know where you live so I can play you, I can play with you. I can play with you because I see you.' And we have sort of a similar fire, so he doesn't intimidate me in that way because I grew up really angry, you know, so I can sort of get in your face. I mean, I can sort of say, 'Okay, it's Al, but I gotta get over that part now and just play the part with you."
Matthew's experience with the legendary Pacino was, let's say, a little more laid back, a little more 'hanging ten.'
"It's like dancing, man. It's like dancing with a great partner. It's fun, it's free, it's unexpected all the time. He's gets on waves and he rides them all the way. Sometimes they end up going, landing in the perfect spot, sometimes they don't. But he rides them every time, and that's one of the things I learned and loved to watch him from the outside and also working with him," said Matthew. "You give him something and you catch a wave; you don't know where it's going, but while you're doing it you're not trying to stay ahead of it you're on it, you're riding right there at the top just before you surf it. And if you hit it and you land, you kind of have that feeling afterwards like, 'Okay, I don't know what that was, but it worked.'"
Not a true sports fan herself, even though she loves the Boston Red Sox, Rene could still hold her own with all the testosterone on the New York City set.
"I'm kinda used to working with the boys. So I'm used to that. These boys are great boys."
But the token phrase "boys will be boys" was apparently not true on this 43-day shoot. "Everybody was really focused on the work," said Rene. "Al had like pages and pages of dialogue to do and scenes back to back that were just like overwhelming so he was like just running lines all day long, all day long. And [Matthew] was so into his character because he had to be in these really dark places; it wasn't time to just have a good time, really. It was a very serious set in a way."
Entering into this "dark world" is Brandon Lang, played by McConaughey, a self-assured but washed up former college football player who is also sort of a sports gambling phenomenon. He knows how to consistently pick the big football winners. This talent catches the eye of Walter, who takes him out of his small-time world of $10 an hour and 900-services in Las Vegas and into the big-time 'Sin City' of New York. In this world of addicts, Brandon doesn't quite know what he's getting himself into.
"Brandon's not addicted to anything. He's in a world with addicted people. But addicted enough where he's going to do whatever to keep winning, and that's a healthy thing. He was not addicted to something that he was losing life from. That's just kind of who he was. He was a winner," Matthew said.
Personally, Matthew knows a thing or two about pushing the limits.
"I know I can [have an addicted personality], and that just probably comes from me liking to… if I'm doing something, I do like to take it to the limit just to test it," said Matthew, laughing. "I've got a high ceiling; I've got a wide threshold whether it's left, right, up or down, ceiling, basement, I've got a wide threshold for seeing what those boundaries are for myself."
Back in cinema reality, soon Brandon is enjoying his status as Walter's golden boy and protégé. Walter evolves into Brandon's surrogate father with Brandon growing even more comfortable with Walter's wife Toni, played by Russo. Brandon is now morphing into John Anthony, a pseudonym superstar sports advisor with everything money can and cannot buy--women, cars and worship.
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