It’s not always good to be the King. Hollywood.com sat down with star Gael Garcia Bernal, producer/writer Milo Addica and director/writer James Marsh to discuss their intense indie The King, a surreal tale about a young man searching for his identity, which leads him to a tragedy of biblical proportions.
Gael Garcia Bernal
Hollywood.com: How did you get involved with the project? Was your role written as a Latin character–and with you in mind?
Gael Garcia Bernal: They just called me. I was in the middle of doing The Motorcycle Diaries and they sent me the script which I loved. But no, it wasn’t written with me in mind, really. So it sort of redefined the movie because it automatically throws in stronger complexities. When you deal with people as they are, you don’t want to ‘white wash’ their identities.
HW: You play an American very well. Did you have a coach?
GB: Yeah, I worked with a voice coach who help me very much. It can become a burden and you can become very self conscious about it, but I wasn’t oppressive at all. It was pretty freeing… Even if you do another accent well, your natural one is always there. You are always carrying it. But in this case, I felt really open to jump around and be able to play with the language.
HW: But still, sometimes there were moments where your character had an ‘otherworldly’ quality, unlike the family he encounters.
GB: Well, definitely compared to the father and his family, who speak in a very specific Texas accent. Elvis is also from Texas, he just has a different accent. It’s surprising in Texas, the time I spent there making this film, how very non-hypocritical it is. It’s very straightforward. I like that. It’s very integrated. You go to a store and you’re speaking Spanish and English. There seems to be a relaxed sense of identity there, regardless of what f***ing flag is flying.
HW: This movie deals with the acute xenophobia in this country. What are your feelings about it?
GB: I think the level of paranoia is kind of immeasurable now because there are some absolute truths that you cannot talk back. They are being shielded or embraced by the flag or by the nation or even God. So its very difficult to start a constructive argument or discussion. I’ve heard from many people about the immigration marches. [The government] want to toughen the borders after 9/11 to protect from the terrorists coming here. But that doesn’t have anything to do with what they are talking about. They are talking about granting them rights as human beings and laborers. They don’t want to be citizens. They just want to have temporary work rights and go back to Mexico without risking their lives.
HW: From The King, it seems that the religious right are the ones who want to build this wall between Mexico and the U.S. ?
GB: Not all of them. I think the people who want to build this wall and keep these people on an illegal status, are the people who get the most benefit from it. The rich guys who own the farms, the corporations. [The King] deals with the question of territory as well. Why isn’t this kid [Elvis] allowed to be from where he was born? First of all, because his father doesn’t recognize him; his father being the only one in the equation who is from the United States. The mother is a prostitute, therefore she absolutely has no rights. And the fact she’s Mexican–even less rights. So the only way he can get an identity and acceptance, is by shedding blood for his country; and so he joins the Navy.
HW: Do you think the acts of violence your character commits in the movie are a result of him being in the armed services?
GB: It has to do with that, yeah… because of the lack of love he has received. He thinks he is in love with his [half] sister but he doesn’t know any better. Perhaps this is first time he feels close to anyone and that’s why he thinks he is in love. But maybe he is not. It’s very primal, innocent–a way to get inside the family and get close to his father. He doesn’t know any better, so he doesn’t know if he’s doing right or wrong. Oscar Wilde put it nicely, “Sometimes you kill the person you love.” Not only physically–but you destroy the love that you have.
HW: You like making ‘journey’ movies then?
GB: Yeah, it seems so, doesn’t it? I think films can portray what’s going on–not only with one person, but with what’s going on in the world. There’s always a journey to search for an identity. It’s happening with myself. It’s what happens when you’re young. It’s a question we all have.
[PAGEBREAK]Milo Addica
Hollywood.com: Was this a difficult movie to get made?
Milo Addica: Making this film was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. My job was to find the money. And unfortunately most of the mini-studios, and certainly all of the major studios, were not going to take a chance on this film. We ended up going everywhere to find a buck. And to the credit of Ed Pressman, we got a bank loan so we could make the movie at minimal cost. Everybody deferred their fee because they believed in the material. But it is very hard [to get funding]–unless you’re doing a movie that has some sort of comic teenage theme or high concept accessibility to public mass. [The King] was labeled a dark art house movie. And the problem I have with this is that while this may be true, I still say, “Well, what’s wrong with that?” Every step of the way I was questioned as to why: Why do we need this scene? Why can’t we have a happy ending? It was constant. This is the movie we wanted to make–something that would make you think, question, talk about things. And we didn’t want to be lumped into a category just for the sake of making money.
HW: You seem to like to push the envelope.
MA: I don’t want to make movies that just keep people in their seats, eating popcorn and doing nothing. I did Monster’s Ball and took a lot of flak for that. It took seven years to make that movie. [The King] took four. I did the film Birth. People didn’t like the idea of Nicole Kidman in a bathtub with a little boy. I guess I like things that are a little bit dangerous and will challenge audiences’ intellect. I think it will make people smarter. And I think in recent years, cinema has taken a nose dive, in general. There are still some great directors out there, doing the work, and I’m all with them. But I just think we need to have more willing to fight the battle.
HW: The King certainly raises a lot of questions about racism. Was that your intent when writing it?
MA: It’s interesting. I’ve been doing all these Q&A’s, especially in Europe, and one particular question I get is: “Why make the Mexican the bad guy?” I thought that was interesting. He’s American of Mexican descent, but people see him as just the Mexican. Why? I just see that our own racism–mine included–is invisible. I don’t realize it. If you’re not of a certain color, you are often perceived or aligned with where you come from, or your parents come from. It’s an indefensible condition, you can’t justify it. And part of that is ingrained in me. But the point is, [Gael’s character] Elvis is American, you know? We wrote the role undefined and Gael came in and defined it.
HW: Your films also tend to show the darker side of life. Is that where you get your inspiration?
MA: There’s definitely a dark corner of my being that I work from. I grew up in a very violent household, both my parents are dead. My father and mother loved each other passionately and hated each in equal doses. But I don’t try to be indulgent. The reason I’m afraid to answer this question is because I don’t want to be like, “Ah, Milo is that indulgent guy who attacks things that bother him personally!” I try not do that. And I did collaborate on this with [writer/director] James [Marsh], who also comes from a land of sin [smiles].
HW: How did you and Marsh come together?
MA: James had read Monster’s Ball and called me saying he was looking for someone who didn’t revert back to a Robert McKee or Syd Field [screenplay writing] book. James doesn’t work like that. He’s very intellectual, far more than I am. He went to Oxford, smart guy. So I was excited because I am totally the complete opposite… Went to University of Massachusetts for one year. I’m not an astute individual, I come from acting. I started writing out of desperation, Monster’s Ball, which just snowballed out of my hands when it got popular. So we met and had several conversations. He wanted me to watch shows like America’s Most Wanted. He was into Americana gothic. He’s British, so to him it’s a little different. Honestly, I can be fascinated with a British way of life that, to him, means nothing. But we definitely connected, a very interesting collaboration.
Hollywood.com: Milo Addica clearly connected collaborating with you–your take?
James Marsh: That fact that I found Milo was the most important aspect of The King. Finding someone to write with. I read Monster’s Ball and thought it was a great piece of writing, full of interesting ideas. Something with clarity and purpose… The catalyst for making [The King] was finding a collaborator. We tend to like the same things and that’s really the only way to write with someone, who has the same kind of judgment. We have very different personal tastes and different outlooks, but you need to agree on what you think is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’. And we always did. And we are still pretty good friends [smiles].
HW: Was there ever a concern about Gael Garcia Bernal playing an American?
JM: No, not at all. He goes in playing an American with a Mexican descent. That’s how we expressed it in the story. There are Americans who only speak Spanish but they are still Americans, especially in Texas. The borders there are very fluid. Corpus Christi, where the film is set, is half-Anglo, half-Hispanic, literally. So we tapped into that. The film is about territory as well on a greater level. And Gael’s story is sort of a mythical, legendary tale. And that worked with Gael. He’s a very exciting young actor, who really made what would be considered a really bad character on paper into something else–infusing him with a sort of sweetness and charm and grace. You get lucky sometimes that you find a person and they find you. And the fact he stayed with us through this rather checkered production history [sigh of relief].
HW: The acts of violence Bernal’s character commits, did you mean them to be a correlation to his years spent in the military?
JM: I don’t think it’s Taxi Driver or those ‘70s movies where they’ve clearly been kind of f***ed with by the military, and are acting out supplemented suppressed violent urges. I don’t think Gael’s character is like that. I mean clearly, if you’ve been in the Navy, you’ve learned how to handle weapons, discipline. But more of where he belongs: Where’s my home? Who’s my father? Who am I? Those are the bigger questions for him. On an unconscious level, he is not a very articulate character, capable of massive introspection. It’s not that kind of movie, it’s more mythical.
HW: Did your experiences in Texas bear out these sort of collisions between the secular and the religious in the script?
JM: We wrote some of the script in Corpus Christi, where Milo and I actually met… We looked out of the car window, and saw a church, together. I had to drag Milo, he didn’t want to go. He’s really a pagean kind of guy. But it was very helpful. The way I look at the film, is it has a very naturalistic background but a mythical foreground. And I hope there’s an interesting dynamic between those two things.
HW: Are you worried at all about any backlash from the themes explored?
JM: I would welcome a discussion–or more a debate–with people who take offense to this because I don’t think the film overtly mocks or satirizes peoples’ beliefs. It sort of just lays them out. I think when the film has been attacked or disliked, maybe we didn’t do our jobs correctly. Maybe they are viewing it in a ‘too much naturalistic’, cause and effect way. It isn’t that at all. It’s suppose to be more of a heighten realism tale, if you like. Perhaps liberal critics will attempt to defend the Red States’ audiences from the evils of my film. [Laughs].
Kit Bowen and Lisa Collins contributed to this story.
