FILM INTERVIEW: CAST OF 'EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE'
Sandra Bullock, Stephen Daldry, Max Von Sydow & Thomas Horn Talk 9/11 and Humanity
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close tells the story of a young boy that believes his father left a hidden message for him in New York City before he was killed in the Twin Towers on September 11th. That's quite an emotional load for a young boy to carry, and an incredible challenge for a young actor to tackle. Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock, Max Von Sydow, and director Stephen Daldry sat down with Buzzine's Emmanuel Itier to discuss the emotional impact of working on this film.
Max Von Sydow
Emmanuel Itier: Tell me about being involved with this movie. And what moved you to be a part of this adventure?
Max Von Sydow: I got the script and it moved me enormously. And it doesn’t happen very often. Most of the times, you might be interested in what is happening in the story and you think that, okay, why not? Okay, I’ll play this character. But very rarely it really grips you, but this one did. My wife and I read it together, actually, and we were crying. [Laughs] And I was very happy to accept it. And also, of course, for the fact that Stephen Daldry was going to direct it, because he’s made some wonderful films. And also, from my point of view, I felt that he also knows something about theater acting, so he might understand me, and I think he did. It’s been very a inspiring experience to be in this thing.
EI: How did it make you reflect on what happened on September 11th, and how do you think it changed us as a collective humanity? And did affect you – that event – and does it still affect you?
MVS: Yes, of course. I think it affects everybody who saw the images on television or heard about it. It is such a senseless act of wanting to make an impression at the cost of how many human lives. It is a lack of human intelligence and of human understanding, and unfortunately a sign of profound emotional stupidity, and it is very shocking to me. I am afraid that it will happen again. More or less, it does, unfortunately, and it is astonishing every time, and we just hope that somehow people will understand what life is worth and that you don’t have any right to take any other people’s lives away from them.
EI: How challenging was it to play him, because he’s a man who expresses himself with pure feeling – with the eyes, with the gesture, with the hand… Was it kind of a treat for an actor to have that type of challenge?
MVS: Yes, it was a treat, absolutely. [Laughs] The only difference between what I do in this part and in any other part is that I don’t speak. My way of communication is writing messages. But apart from that he is a normal person with emotions and reactions and whatever sense of intelligence and sense of humor maybe, a sense of understanding. And he’s trying to reach back to something that he has lost, and what does he get? He never sees his son. But he gets a grandson. And it’s a very moving story.
Sandra Bullock
Emmanuel Itier: How did it start, this movie? Did it start with the book? Did it start with Stephen?
Sandra Bullock: It started with Stephen. I was not in a place where I was gonna go back to work for a while, and he came to where I lived and sat down, and brought a child so we could just read through… Not this child (Thomas Horn), but a wonderful child, and it was one of those things that just organically… We talked about who she was, who she wasn’t; I liked, in the book, that she was sort of dismissed by the son – he didn’t think highly of her. I love the word “absentia,” and it’s true. When you see her, you wonder why she’s not being more of a mother that we think this child needs, and in fact, she was being the perfect mother – the best she could, given the circumstances. And I loved how complex and how dirty it was. I loved how complicated and not sugar-coated it was. I loved how innocent it was through his eyes. I loved how kind it was when he realized certain things at the end. It just was messy, and I think life is so messy that we need to see more depictions of a messy life to know that that’s okay.
EI: How do you think it changed since September 11th, and do we still carry that with us? Do you still carry it with yourself?
SB: I think we have been irreparably changed. I don’t think that there’s one person on this planet, unless it’s someone who really is removed from the media, that wasn’t affected by the events, because everyone was able to see it, unfortunately and fortunately. Everyone was able to see it. You turned on the TV and there wasn’t a moment that it wasn’t on or being repeated or being talked about, and I think it completely changed who we were as a world. Especially in the United States, I think we felt a lot more safe than we actually were. But we had this, “Someone else will take care of it. I don’t have to do anything about it.” I know selfishly I walked around not thinking at all about other people putting their lives on the line for my freedom. I think about that completely different now, in a good way. I think we all were woken up on a very deep, deep, deep level, and it’s tragic, but I also think it’s invoking some kind of hope and change…I’d like to think. Maybe I’m naïve, but it did in me.
EI: What has been your favorite scene from all the movies you have seen in your life? Is there a scene that moves you still when you see it?
SB: There are so many brilliant movies, but there’s one film that truly gets me every time – Cinema Paradiso – and it is that moment at the end where someone revisits their life, both in life and on celluloid, with all the kisses and the regrets, and the thoughts about what haven’t I done, and that’s why cinema, to me, is so emotional. Because it reminds us; it takes us to a place; it evokes emotion. Even though we go into a theater being in a great mood – you come out feeling raw and spent. But with so many great movies, that movie consistently just breaks my heart in such a beautiful way.
Stephen Daldry
Emmanuel Itier: Where do you live these days?
Stephen Daldry: I have a house in New York, and I have a house in London.
EI: Tell me about an Englishman being involved with an American movie – September 11th. Did it come with a little bit of fear because of trying to fit into the American mentality of the country? Or you brought a balance maybe to it…
SD: You’re the first person to say it, and I thought more people would be saying it. Because I’m interested. Yeah, I’m English. I was in London on 9/11. I wasn’t here. But it’s so interesting to me – the whole experience of 9/11. Catastrophic. The people in New York City, the people downtown, this extraordinary thing that they went through. But everybody around the world has their own 9/11 stories of what happened to them and what they went through as well. It’s funny – I was talking to Max Von Sydow, who is in the film, and I think he was in France when it happened. And for him, it was an incredibly impactful, terrifying day, and one of the reasons the he wanted to do the film was, “If I can be in a film about 9/11, I want to tell that story, I want to be part of it.” I think Europeans were impacted in a way that can never be as strong as what happened to the people in New York, but it was strong. And I think it’s one of those events that it’s so worldwide and so changed our whole perspective of the world, everywhere.
EI: When I was looking at the movie, it’s interesting because I could only see Billy Elliot in a way. Is that something with you that’s interesting – to show the world through the eyes of a child?
SD: Not particularly. It’s by chance really, and it really was the story about catastrophic loss within this family and the family having this terrible open wound and trying to find a way that they can come back together again felt much more important to me than anything else.
EI: How was it to work with Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock for a director?
SD: Fantastic. They were great. They’re fantastic actors, but they’re fantastic human beings, and that they would take on board the responsibility of looking after their leading actor, who is a child, and supporting, playing, encouraging, but mostly just creating an environment in which this extraordinary challenge for this young actor – creating a context in which that child could really fly, soar, and do something extraordinary – they took on that responsibility and did it brilliantly.
EI: What do you think people should take from the movie? What would you hope that they take from watching that movie?
SD: I think I would hope that people go home and tell their mothers and their fathers and their children that they love them.
EI: Do you think it’s something we don’t say to each other enough today?
SD: No. Never enough. You’re never aware of how precious life is and how precious people are, and how precious our families are. I hope it’s something people do – go home, tell your family how much you love them.
Thomas Horn
Emmanuel Itier: Tell me first about the challenge of being among Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Stephen Daldry… Was it a little intimidating at first, or inspiring?
Thomas Horn: Both of those. At the very beginning, I was a bit shocked because, since when does a first-time actor get an opportunity to work with an amazing director and amazing fellow actors? That’s highly unusual, but they really made me feel at home on the set. They were very kind and nice to me, and they helped to bring out the best in my acting that I never knew I could give. I’m not sure if my acting is any good at all, but people should make their own judgements about that.
EI: In what way did the movie move you? And as a young man, what does September 11th mean to you, and how do you see the world today?
TH: When September 11th happened, I wasn’t even four years old. I don’t remember any of the events of that day, but I’m sure that it’s still very much with us in the way we treat other countries here in the United States, international relations in our culture, in our minds, and we have some problems relating to 9/11 that we’re still definitely getting over today. But of course this movie is a piece of fiction, and though we tried to do our best to do all the research possible to avoid mis-portraying anything of 9/11, we can only say it’s a piece of fiction and shouldn’t be misrepresented to represent a real story, which it isn’t.
EI: As a young man, did it awaken in you a feeling of a little bit of anguish about this world, or on the contrary, did you feel, okay, people are working on peace now because of that?
TH: Both of those. In a way, it is a surprise about humanity and how we can be really really mean and evil to each other, but in a way, that’s the whole story. It’s about healing and people emotionally connecting – even when people thought that was impossible, and getting over their grief by emotionally connecting with each other. That’s really what the movie is about.
EI: For such an intense, emotional movie, as a first-time actor, what do you think was, for you, the biggest challenge? What was the biggest difficulty?
TH: That’s hard to say, but I’d say sometimes getting into the character and really feeling what they would feel in a given situation could really be hard. But I would go off the set to a little room for five or ten or 15, 20 minutes – a little room that Stephen built for me – the director – off the set, and I would think about how the character would react to what was going on. Now the character is very different from me. He has all kinds of fears, and fear of things, especially machinery that make noises – jackhammers, trains, things like that – but also of people. Anyone besides his father, before his father dies, is a stranger not to be trusted. But I would go into that room, and I would think about how the character would feel, and when I stopped thinking about myself but really was the character – when I felt the character in my body, then I could leave and go to the set and do my work.
EI: What are you listening to music-wise right now on your iPod?
TH: That’s a bit of a strange question because I don’t really listen to music on my iPod.
EI: Do you listen to music at all?
TH: Not much, actually. [Laughs]
EI: You prefer reading a good book…
TH: I guess so.
Paramount Pictures' 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' is out now in limited theatrical release.
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