Tom Jane is the king of antiheroes.
In his career, he’s played quite a few–from the troubled shark-wrangler in the campy Deep Blue Sea to the troubled baseball legend Mickey Mantle in HBO’s 61* to the mother of all comic-book antiheroes, The Punisher.
Ever the chameleon, Jane is tackling a new kind of role, playing real-life South African folk hero Andre Stander in the indie film Stander. Set in the late-1970s, the film focuses on Stander, a Johannesburg police captain caught in the violence of apartheid who wordlessly makes a decision to defy the very system he has spent a lifetime enforcing by conducting a series of audacious bank robberies. After getting caught and going to prison, he recruits two others and in a daring prison break, the “Stander Gang” continues to commit dozens of bank robberies across the country for another three years–even robbing the same bank twice in one day. Then in 1984, while on the lam in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Stander was finally caught again and killed while trying to escape.
Jane talked to us about this folk legend who “stuck it to the man,” about filming under the gun–literally–on South Africa’s mean streets, and being buck-naked on-screen.
Tell us about the myth surrounding Andre Stander. Who was this guy?
Nobody knows who Mickey Mantle is in South Africa; they could care less. But everyone knows who Andre Stander is. Andre was an outlaw, more infamous than he was famous. He was born of the system, bred of the system, completely entrenched in the beliefs of the regime, but it eventually wore him down. He broke out, said no. Completely stuck it to the man. Very few of us are willing to risk our lives and freedom for the glory of sticking it to the man. But we all reward and love the guy who’s willing to pay that price.
This was filmed entirely in South Africa. Were you in any danger down there?
Everyone’s got a gun. Our camera operator shot and killed a guy on the second day of shooting. Our grip truck driver got shot in the jaw on the way to work. It’s a country in transition, in flux. The old regime is out and they are still writing the new rules. It’s a fascinating time over there. But it’s a tough place, Johannesburg. Wanted to go to Cape Town, too, but unfortunately didn’t get a chance. I hear it’s beautiful. You know, there are more deaths by Great White sharks in Cape Town than anywhere else. Cape Town and Australia.
So glad you brought up sharks, ’cause one of my guilty pleasures is Deep Blue Sea.
[Smiling] You’re not alone.
You were, to put it bluntly, naked–a lot–in Stander. Any reservations about that?
[Laughs] Being naked on film is one of the few visually immediate things you can do. It carries an impact, a weight to it that few other things can carry. It’s true for a man or woman but more true for a man. It was a great tool. But it’s like pepper, you just want a little of it. Not a lot.
Speaking of appearances, you also have an uncanny ability to look different in every one of your movies.
Thanks, but I always thought that was my job. I guess some people have to look the same. Tom Cruise, for example. Everyone is up in arms because he has gray hair and he’s killing people [in Collateral]. Gone are the days when we talked about Serpico and Attica. Or The Godfather. Now, it’s ‘Tom Cruise has gray hair and he’s killing people!’ We don’t have time for complexities. There’s too much time spent nowadays keeping our jobs, learning how to operate our PDAs and Blackberries to put food on the table. We don’t have time or energy for the other stuff. All we have time for is Tom Cruise has gray hair.
With The Punisher and now Stander, you definitely have the antihero thing down pat.
[Those roles] certainly offer complexities that are absent from most stuff. They’re usually men of great moral fiber; they’re strong beliefs make them take equally strong actions. Antihero is part of it but not the whole definition. There’s heartbrokenness to these men. There’s something tragic and beautiful about someone who dreams big dreams and loses big. Great loss can create something very powerful.
What’s more satisfying, doing an independent or a studio film?
I’m a product of the time I’m living in. I think I would get a lot more done, perhaps be happier, if Stander were a studio film. But you are still dealing with an incredible amount of money, any way you look at it. A lot of f**kin’ money. We shot Stander for $10 million; that’s more money than most anybody will ever see. So, maybe the hotel isn’t as big, but everything else is the same, the pressures are the same. Some people want to see meteors and Spider-Man, others may want to see something that would make great dinner conversation. But it’s the same thing; we’re just feeding a machine. I love it all. I’ll watch nurses getting spanked…
OK, Tom, that’s a little more information than we needed!
[Laughs] Of course, I wouldn’t want to be in something like that. Man, if I had my way I’d make a combination of The Punisher and Stander. Studio films with the characters of Stander and the pulp of Punisher. I’d be really happy. But the opportunity for this kind of film [Stander] is in danger, as far as I’m concerned. I want to put food on the table for my baby and preserve the art form. I need to make sure someone will let me do it again, do what I’m best at, so I don’t have to go out and rob a 7-11.
Stander is currently playing in limited theaters.
