David O. Russell has given plenty of interviews in his day, but in this one with NPR’s All Things Considered (which aired on December 11) he gives a terrific explanation of how he directs his actors in a free-wheeling 360-degree environment with multiple cameras to keep things fluid and alive. He talks about his last three films as part of a trilogy that shows characters in specific local neighborhoods who strive to put something together.
“American Hustle” over the past couple weeks has jumped to head of the class as an Oscar contender. Highlights from the interview are below, as well as the New York Times’ video feature Anatomy of a Scene on “Hustle.”
Russell on Christian Bale’s sex appeal, even when he’s overweight:
I knew that Christian was going to be very excited about
that — playing somebody that looked nothing like anybody he’d ever played
before, and whose whole energy in his soul — you know, it’s not just about the
outside. I mean that’s what makes someone a great actor, is it’s all from the
inside.
And that’s why I think many women have said to me that they
find Christian Bale very appealing or sexy in this role, which some people
would say is ironic given that he doesn’t look like a classic leading man. He
still looks really attractive, but he’s got a big comb-over and he’s 50 pounds
heavier, and he looks like a very regular person. And those people can be very
charismatic, and that’s what the Amy Adams character says about him.
On that ‘70s hair — it’s “not just hair”:
That’s what I love about filmmaking — creating characters
— that’s what I love about working with actors, is it’s a collaboration. I
feel that I’m auditioning for my actors…
The hair in the movie is not just hair. … When Irving
[Bale’s character] is preparing at the beginning of the picture, that goes to
that whole notion of, “Who is anybody when they wake up and are about to
walk out the door?” That’s what that comb-over is to him. And that’s also
an actor preparing.
It’s my mother getting ready to go out. It’s my father
getting ready to go out. I mean, every morning I could hear my father shaving.
My father was a salesman … and he was putting himself on, who he had become
and who he was becoming.
On his directing style:
Part of it is just, it’s the only way I know how to do
things. I make a shot list; I have compositions that I want to see. But there’s
a fluidity to the camera that I want, and an aliveness to it with the actors.
I don’t want people thinking or doing what De Niro once
called “bedroom perfect.” You know, you can do something in your
hotel room that morning in the mirror, and it was “bedroom perfect,”
but that may not be alive when you’re in a room with a bunch of people.
So we have a Steadicam, because it’s a small apparatus that
can move fluidly through the space. And we light for 360 degrees, which means
it’s through natural soft sources, through the windows. And once we start
shooting, I don’t want to stop and have interruptions. I want it to flow so people
almost forget that they’re acting.
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
