One thing that can be said about actor Emile Hirsch, whose career began at the age of 12, is that as heâs grown older, heâs been a lot more selective about the roles he plays. Despite appearing in a number of teen comedies, playing a big screen version of Speed Racer and giving a memorable turn in Sean Pennâs Into the Wild, Hirsch certainly has been trying to transition into more adult roles while getting away from the double-edged sword of still looking younger than his actual age.
Having premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, Twice Born pairs Hirsch with the gorgeous Oscar-winning actress Penelope Cruz, who in turn reunites with her Donât Move director, Sergio Castellitto, once again adapting a bestselling novel by his wife Margaret Mazzantini. Cruz plays Gemma, a woman who 20 years earlier spent time in pre-war Sarajevo where she meets Diego, an energetic and spontaneous American photographer and the two of them fall into a torrid but short romance. Decades later, Gemma returns to now-ravaged Sarajevo with her teenage son to find out what happened to Diego to learn a shocking secret.
In a year in which Hirsch has already appeared with Paul Rudd in David Gordon Greenâs Prince Avalanche and later this month can be seen in Peter Bergâs military drama Lone Survivor opposite Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch and Ben Foster, a smaller Italian-made film like Twice Born
might get lost in the shuffle of year-end releases, so ComingSoon.net got on the phone with Hirsch last week to talk about working with Castellitto and Cruz.
ComingSoon.net: This was a lovely film and a bit of a hidden gem. I know that it was at Toronto last year but I never really heard much about it while there and I was surprised since itâs pretty decent. What was your introduction to Sergio Castellito and the script? Did you know his previous movie, âDonât Moveâ?
Emile Hirsch: My agent sent me the script and sent me a copy of âDonât Moveâ and I had the opportunity to go to Italy to actually meet Sergioâit was actually a trip to Romeâand heâs just a great guy. Heâs a very famous actor in Italy, Sergio Castellitto, and heâs greatly respected. Immediately, when I met him, we connected as actors and that actor camaraderie so the idea of working for him as an actor under his direction was just for me a no-brainer. Heâs just a very spirited energetic vivacious personality that I was lucky to get to work with. His dynamic is really interesting because his wife is Margaret Mazzantini, the novelist, who wrote âTwice Bornâ â sheâs a huge novelist in Italy, massive, massive. Together, they adapt the scripts and then they make the movies based on her books. âDonât Moveâ was also a movie that Margaret had written a novel to and Sergio directed it with PenĂŠlope Cruz.
CS: I remember seeing that movie and remember first, how beautiful PenĂŠlope looked under Sergioâs camera but also that he brought out such a great performance from her, and itâs the same here. I never knew they were married so I guess that makes sense heâd adapt two of her books. Was she generally on set while making the movie as well?
Hirsch: Oh, yeah. They were almost like a team on set Âcause Margaret had incredible taste and a sense of style and story. She would kind of be huddled down by the monitors, almost like a creative producer in a way, and Sergio would be giving all of us direction, then heâd confer with Margaret and theyâd talk things over. Theyâre very sophisticated, the way they worked. They were always two sets of eyes, and theyâre very passionate and intelligent people. Sheâs a very brilliant woman, Margaret. As a writer, sheâs just exceptionally talented, a real poet.
CS: Did you go back and read the book by any chance?
Hirsch: Yeah I read the book. It was very poetic with a lot of great character description and really good descriptions of war.
CS: I was surprised that the movie actually had a few fun moments between you and Penelopeâit was lighter than âDonât Move,â which was pretty darkâbut then it also gets pretty dark and terrifying. So was Sergio able to shoot in a way that you werenât jumping between extremes every day?
Hirsch: I think that was something that we just dealt with on the day, just finding the scenes wherever it was. I guess sometimes there is a stark contrast between one dayâs work and the next dayâs, but itâs almost like Sergio is a character in the movie, living it out with you. His whole body is consumed with that classic European screaming, red-faced, passionate punching the walls kind of director. Itâs like screaming, âThe passion, I want passion!â
CS: Thereâs something about Italian filmmakers, because they have this eye for capturing beauty and Iâm always amazed by Italian cinema so I was curious whether working with an Italian director was very different than anything else youâve done before.
Hirsch: I love Italians and Italy to begin with, so the chance to get to work with someone like Sergio, who has worked with so many great Italian directors â I mean, he knows so many of them and heâs worked with so many of these guys. I felt like he had a lot of interesting ideas and a sense of style and a sense of play and a sense of pace. One of the things that I really appreciated and noticed, especially when we were making âTwice Born,â is the relaxed and timely way that we shot the film. We shot for 73 days, and for the kind of movie we made, thatâs a really relaxed pace, a really European sense of no-need-to-rush, shooting all day on a smaller scene and being okay with that. Sergio has that power in Italy.
CS: Youâve done a lot of smaller indie movies over the years and I wondered how that experienced compared to that. Was this more like a studio movie where you didnât have to rush through things?
Hirsch: Yeah, yeah, it felt a lot more like a studio movie. It felt like we had all the time in the world, and Sergio could shoot whatever he wanted and it felt like he had a lot of power behind the money. Also, with Penelope, it sort of felt like we were going to get whatever we wanted on that set, which is a great feeling, and a very rare one. I donât know who financed the movie and how that works but it felt like whoever did, there were deep pockets that were helping us out. Thatâs what it seemed like to me, because we shot for so long, so many days, and Iâm pretty sure itâs the biggest budget Italian movie, maybe ever. They spent a lot of money on the movie.
CS: Working with Penelope and doing love scenes with her, what was that like? Had you been in a movie with her before?
Hirsch: No, never before. Working with Penelope was wonderful. Sheâs a really nice lady, great actress and a great mother. She cared about everyone on set and cared about the work and is a great team player and has a great sense of humor. A lot of my fondest memories of working with Penelope was us just having a good time and cracking each other up.
CS: Youâre having a great year between this and âPrince Avalancheâ and âLone Survivorâ which Iâve already seen, all of which Iâve loved. Itâs interesting to me that youâre playing more grown-up roles lately. Iâve been watching you in movies since âGirl Next Doorâ and âDangerous Lives of Altar Boys,â and you forget that was 10 years ago. Have you been looking more for adult roles to get away from that and is it hard because you still look young?
Hirsch: You know, Iâm 28 years old, I have a son now. Itâs just that I want to play different roles, I guess, I donât know. (laughs)
CS: It must be a double-edged sword, because looking young can get you a wider range of roles but if you want to grow up, you need to make people believe youâre older now.
Hirsch: Ed, I feel like Diego is still a child. I feel like even though Iâm with Penelope in the movie, heâs so far from a grown-up. This particular character is like a lost little boy type. Heâs immature, heâs impulsive, heâs idealistic and naĂŻve. I feel like he is a boy, heâs like a little puppy dog or something.
CS: I know youâre going to be playing John Belushi soon. Have you started studying and preparing for that? Itâs a pretty major public figure from entertainment so will there be a lot of weight put on to get ready? Or make-up?
Hirsch: Iâm sure it will be a combination of a lot of different things in terms of the physicality, but it will look right, whatever it is. People donât need to worry about that. Iâve been going all through early SNLs episode by episode right now.
CS: Have you started learning his âBlues Brothersâ moves or is that down the road?
Hirsch: Yeah I love âThe Blues Brothers,â I love that film. (starts singing) âEverybody Needs Somebody to LoveâÂ
I love that song!
Twice Born opens in select cities and On Demand on December 6, and you can also see Hirsch in Peter Bergâs Lone Survivor opening in select cities on Christmas Day and nationwide on January 10.
