You were talking about the way Rodrigo thinks and sees the world and how that applies to art. I like his films, too; he’s a real humanist filmmaker. So tell me how he thinks and how that applies to “Raymond and Ray.”
Yeah, he’s a gentle soul, an extremely observant person. And I think, for whatever reason, that only he would be able to speak about, is that there was something about this movie that felt like it was, came from some really deep well inside of him. And I was fascinated by its simplicity of it. Sometimes my favorite paintings are the really simple ones or a piece of music that are just not trying too hard. It just tries to look deeply at some particular eccentric truths that we’re all just stumbling around in this life.
We met when he was the camera operator on “Reality Bites” and “Great Expectations” when I was younger. And those were both important movies in my development. I shot them relatively close together, and there’s a unique relationship that a performer has with the camera operator because you’re always together, in cars, in closets, or running down the street. I grew to trust his eye and soul about performance.
It was fun to act for him when we were young. He’s a big guy, and he’s got a big laugh and a lot of love in him. So, I followed his career over the next 20 years and watched him get into writing and directing. And I’d have friends that would be like, “Yeah, I just acted for this director. I like him, and he says he knows you.” I’m like, “Is that Rodrigo Garcia? Wait, I know him. He’s directing now?” And so, I’ve watched him grow up like he’s watched me grow up, and I knew he would be a terrific director just because he knew cameras well and actors well. With that, you can direct a movie.
Yeah, I was going to say most camera operators or cinematographers are not necessarily known for being performance people, much less being real sensitive humanists like Rodrigo, you know?
No, not at all. And that’s what was special about him. He really cared. Most camera operators, all they care about is the light came in at the wrong time, or this shot’s out of focus, or a bird flew through the background in a distracting way and [laughs], not all, but, you know. Instead, he was constantly keyed in on the performance. So I really loved acting for him.
This film made me meditate on mortality and family a lot. You know, I have both my parents still, but probably not for long; they’re up there. My question is, can you act that kind of thing? Do you think about that kind of thing emotionally, thematically, and intellectually, or are you more in the present, here and now?
Well, one surprising thing about turning 50 is that we’re all continually developing, right? You don’t ever finish growing up. Each stage of life presents new problems, and you find yourself with new ones. The problems you have at 50 are different than the problems you have at 35 or 18. And you’re never prepared for them because they’re just new.
So, issues of mortality, the generation above you, feeling the immediacy of their mortality, is not just your parents but all your mentors. I remember I was close with my grandfather, and when he passed, right before one of the last conversations we had, he was talking about, like, “I used to be really handsome.”
And he was a real ladies’ man. And he was disappointed that nobody at his funeral remembers what a good dresser he was, how good he was at baseball. He said, “nobody’s going to remember what a good baseball player I was. No one at my funeral.” And I realize it’s fascinating how you lose your mentors—he was one of the last of his high school class to pass—and you know, he’s like, “I just wish there’d be more pretty women at my funeral.” [laughs].
Tell me what it was like working with Ewan. You guys seem to fit like a glove here; it feels very effortless and natural. Even if they have issues and beef at times, the familiarity you two have with each other as brothers feels very authentic.
I hate to say this because you want to brag about how much hard work something is, but it was easy. Ewan’s relationship with what it is we do is very similar to my professional attitude. I don’t know what the right language is for it, but we look at the job very much the same way. And it just made it, so fun to go to set every day. Just because I knew when he didn’t like a scene, I didn’t like a scene when he didn’t like a take. I didn’t like it when he thought something was wrong or fake. I agreed. And we were simpatico in the way that we like to explore a scene. And he’s extremely generous. He’s one of the types of actors that really wants the other actors in his movie to thrive.
You can meet and work with some big-time players who are great at what they do but really aren’t interested in helping you be good [laughs]. He’s more like an athlete that way. He wants the whole team to excel and sees himself as a function of those team dynamics. And so it was easy when you have somebody looking after you like that. So, it was actively fun. And he was coming off of ‘Obi-Wan,’ and I was coming off my big Marvel thing, he’d done that big limited series “Halston,” and I’d done “Good Lord Bird.” We were both coming off these really heavy jobs that were a lot of work, and this felt like a break. He knew Rodrigo really well, and I knew Rodrigo, and there’s also certain trust you have with one another— even though we hadn’t worked together before. We’ve seen each other for a couple of decades at various events and hung out here, we had a bunch of shared friends, and so there was a certain foundation of trust.
I might even say your careers mirror each other a little bit in that you both had these big early extreme, formative experiences with filmmakers you’re both on the record with adoring—Peter Weir for “Dead Poet’s Society” and Danny Boyle for “Trainspotting”— and then maybe some experiences that maybe don’t match up afterward and you have to reorient your expectations. Not everybody gets something that special right out of the gate, you know?
Yeah, it also sets an extremely high bar that’s hard to maintain. We all love the idea that life works in this kind of escalating way where you work harder and you get better and better and better and better, but life doesn’t work like that. It’s much more of a morass, so you have to kind of scrap your way through. But it’s true, we both had a great start, and we’re both still here [laughs], so there’s this certain similar trajectory.
“Raymond and Ray” is available today on Apple TV+.
