[IMG:L]They don’t have Oscar categories for acting in short films, so the stars of them must be content with just participating in the winning film. Actor Ben Newmark surely was appreciative that the film he starred in, West Bank Story, won this year’s Academy Award for Best Short Film. Though the statue went to director Ari Sandel, it has already done wonders for Newmark.
After the win, Newmark was selected to be a juror on the Bermuda International Film Festival short film committee. He also landed a role in Marvel Comic’s Iron Man. That made him a popular guy among fanboy journalists. With a week and a half in Bermuda to hang out with short films, Newmark took an evening to share with Hollywood.com his Oscar experiences, work at the festival and the scoop on Iron Man.
Hollywood.com: What was it like on Oscar night with West Bank Story?
Ben Newmark: I didn’t go to the show. I had a chance to maybe sit up in the rafters with my mom somewhere in the way, way back and the response to that for me was okay, I could do that and then I’d be all alone in the back of the room, not by Ari with my mom and it would be fantastic but if we won, which I was hoping we did, who would we scream with? Who would we stand up and [hug], you know what I mean? Where would the celebration be? No one else around us would really care. So I just decided, there was a huge West Bank Story party on the beach in Malibu where his dad catered a huge event. I was with everyone that was involved with the film. There was 100 people there and then after that I went to the Vanity Fair party and I spent the night at the Vanity Fair party.
HW: How did you get in to that party?
BN: Basically, I walked up, I met Ari and he gave me the award and said, “Look, this is yours just as much as it is mine, go do some press with it.” I walked up to the front there and the guy said, “Excuse me.” He stopped me with his arm and he said, “Excuse me, sir. I’m going to need to see your credentials.” And I raised up the Oscar and said, “This is my credential right here.” And he goes, “Absolutely, right this way sir” and he let me in. It was really funny. You could literally go anywhere that night. But Vanity Fair was the only place you would want to go.
HW: Who did you see there?
BN: Really everybody from Forest Whitaker to Willem Dafoe to Oprah to Peter O’Toole. Peter O’Toole was dancing with Anjelica Huston. They made a huge scene. Vince Vaughn. It was literally all the people who I look into in the industry. And typically when you go to these parties in Hollywood sometimes, you’ll see somebody like that and everyone will be looking at them but in this particular room, everybody was on that level so it’s just like, “Oh, there’s Ryan Gosling. That’s cool. Who’s he talking to? Oh, Maggie Gyllenhaal.” Everybody.
HW: Who did you talk to that you’d really wanted to?
BN: You know what? I’ve always wanted to meet, believe it or not, on Oscar night where I could have met [anyone], I always wanted to meet Vince Vaughn. Swingers is my bible and I love Vince‘s work and I love Jon Favreau‘s work and Ron Livingston so I met him, he gave my mom a big hug and it was really, really cool to meet him. But also, Sacha Baron Cohen I met.
HW: How did that lead to this job?
BN: Basically, right after we won, I guess they were looking for people to judge short films. It just kind of fit perfectly because all I’ve been doing for the past year and a half is traveling with West Bank Story and seeing short films that it was playing with. So it was perfect, of course, come here, Bermuda, meet good people, see good films and relax a little bit too.
HW: What are you looking for in a short?
BN: Short films are tricky because you have to obviously tell a story, in my eyes hopefully with a message, but have a very strong beginning, middle, end. You don’t have an hour and a half to have little side stories and this, that and whatever. Especially with comedies, I’m looking for in particular, and Ari did a great job at this with West Bank Story, the ending has to be funny. It’s got to be something where people are going to laugh, remember the film, appreciate it. There just has to be, because it’s short, there just has to be something that’s going to remind people and make people laugh.
HW: When and how did you get Iron Man?
BN: It was one of those things where I got the audition and I didn’t know much about Iron Man. I didn’t know much about actually who was even attached to it. This was just after we won the award. You have to imagine my confidence level was very abnormally high that week, so I just walked in the audition and I was just like, “I’m perfect for this role” and just did a good job and then boom, it was like two days later, “You got the role.” That was really it. I’ve always wanted to work with Jon Favreau. This is an unbelievably huge movie for me to be part of and it’s a small role but not for me. For me it’s a huge role and a huge film, and something I’m definitely looking forward to being part of, so that’s kind of how it all happened. It was one of those things where I had three auditions that day and this was the last one and I just walked in and I was just like…
HW: Who’s your character, is he from the comic?
BN: I don’t think so, no. What’s funny is they’re keeping it very low key, I think. Kind of like what they did with Spider-Man. They didn’t give me the script beforehand. They didn’t even give me the audition sides beforehand. I kind of went in, they gave it to me and I had to give it right back to them after the audition. So I actually don’t know much about the character other than it’s a nice sized role for me in the film. I’ll obviously know more about it in a couple of weeks.
HW: Was Favreau improvisational in the audition?
BN: No, Jon Favreau wasn’t in the audition room when I auditioned. Probably another reason why I did well. I just went in for the casting directors and they put me on tape for all the producers and for that, so I never had to. That would be cool. I love directors that give freedom with that.
HW: So was someone reading Robert Downey Jr.‘s lines to you?
BN: Yeah, it was how this typically works. You just walk in and the casting director and possibly they have assistants there or whatever. Sometimes they hire a reader to come in and read with you and that’s what I did and they put me on tape and typically then they take the tape around to the producers.
HW: Was there any sense that it could entail special effects?
BN: From what I know about the role, there could be some special effects or some simulator stuff going on but I don’t know. And I’m being honest. I don’t know enough about it. I literally got the role a couple days before I came here and I haven’t seen the script so I just don’t know even. And I don’t know if there’s other scenes to this role. I just don’t know enough about it.
