AVC: But for you, the rehearsal process doesn't make things stale?
LL: No, absolutely not.
AVC: Is that because you have a stronger theater background?
LL: Probably. And there are people who are afraid they won't be able to re-create it. They bottle it up and then they let it go, and I have the opposite viewpoint. However, when I work with someone like Clint Eastwood or [director] Ray Lawrence, who did Jindabyne, it's one take, and that's it. So that's working in a very different way. You can learn a lot. Any situation, if you open yourself up to it, no matter how difficult or tedious or uncomfortable or anxiety-producing it may be, you just let it go and say "What can I learn here? How can this situation make me better? What do I need to do so that situation will help the movie?"
AVC: You say Ray Lawrence and Clint Eastwood are one-take guys. Could you be equally comfortable doing the David Fincher, 100-take school as well?
LL: Yes, I think so. You get on board with how a director works, and that's what you do.
AVC: If it's an emotional scene, does it become difficult to access that emotion again and again and again?
LL: Not if you continue working. It does if you stop working. And sometimes, of course, you get to a point where you're just exhausted. People don't usually cry all day long—unless you're in crisis or you're grieving, that doesn't happen. So when you're working, you can get really tired.
AVC: Do you have techniques for getting into a character's headspace?
LL: Do you have five hours? [Laughs.] Yeah, sure. And it's not instant pudding. It doesn't just happen. I hope it looks like it just happens, but it's layers and layers of different kinds of work. There's the text work, there's basic research you can do about the time and the place and the situations that you're dealing with. The environments. All that stuff.
AVC: But when you're on the spot, do you need to be left alone? Are you temperamental in a certain way when you're actually shooting?
LL: When I'm actually shooting, I can be temperamental occasionally if things are more difficult than they need to be. I'm noise-sensitive. It's always better for me if things are quiet, so I can concentrate. Most actors will get irritable if they're tired, and they're vulnerable, and things are more difficult than they need to be.
AVC: If they're not directed properly?
LL: Yes. The best directors that I've worked with, they create an environment in which you can do your work. That's really what they do. And they're sort of like an invisible hand that somehow guides you through. Clint Eastwood is amazing, though. You only do one take, but he so knows what's going on. And a really good director will make you feel that you've come to every decision on your own. I've worked with directors, particularly in theater, where I've seen them watch a scene, and I've watched them watch an actor, and I've seen them clock in their brain that they need to be told something. They need their actors to get to a certain place, and they won't tell them—they'll let them get there on their own. They will somehow guide them. They won't give them the answer; they'll guide them there, and the person doesn't even know it. That's a wonderful thing for a director to do for someone. But it takes great restraint for many people, and it takes great faith in what an actor is capable of.
AVC: Does it take time, too? You've worked with first-time filmmakers. Does it take time for them to figure out what they're doing?
LL: Oh, of course it does. Particularly writer-directors. They have a very hard time, because they've been so close to the material for so long, and they have it in their brain exactly what they want, and they think they have to be very efficient. So they skip steps as far as something coming to life, giving something a little time or a little air. And they also have to let go of the balloon, you know? They have to let it go, and it's hard. Understandably hard. So you have to get to a point where a director will trust you, and be like, "I have your story's best interests at heart. Any decisions I'm doing are based on my experience as an actor on what works and what doesn't, and I promise you that I'm building to where you want it to go, but you have to let me get there. You have to let me craft this part of it." And that's just about experience.
AVC: You work very frequently and in a lot of different roles, presumably up and down the pay scale. What's your philosophy in terms of how you navigate your career?
LL: I don't navigate it. I would love to tell you that I was that powerful, but very few actors are that powerful, and I don't think it's anything that can really be navigated anyway.
AVC: Well, you can select what you want to do.
LL: Yeah, basically I select the best stuff that comes my way, or stuff where I feel I'll be able to contribute and help make it come alive, and also things that will teach me something in the process. So I tend to think about that, and hopefully a good career is the result of those things. A good career isn't generated, at least in my mind. A good career is the result of good work piling up. And then someone can go, "Oh, that was a nice career." [Laughs.] I see a career as a result of things, not as the beginning.
AVC: What's the most rewarding part of the process for you? What is it that you like about acting?
LL: I think the connection. The connection to the people, to the material, and the creative process.
AVC: Does it matter to you how it's received?
LL: You know, it's really nice if it does well, and if you like it. And it's certainly vitally important to producers who put in all their money. You always want them to make their money back, and then some. But for me, it's really the process of all of it. I love being a student. I get to be a student for the rest of my life, and fortunately, I have a good disposition for this. I'm always curious, but I'm learning things I never thought I'd learn. I get to travel to places I never thought I'd go. I made a movie in Argentina! I went to Budapest! It's fantastic that way.
AVC: You're only part of a movie—have you ever been surprised by how differently a movie has turned out than you might have envisioned?
LL: You usually have a general sense of what it's going to be. If you think it's going to be bad, it's going to be bad—but you don't know how bad it'll be. When you think something has a chance to be good, it'll be good—but you don't know how good it will be. Like, "Oh, this is not gonna work," but you don't know on the scale of bad where it's going to fall, whether it's just "Ah, this didn't work" or atrocious. And it could be anywhere on that scale. Or a movie that you think is gonna be good, but it could be like "Oh, that's a good movie," or a movie that's really spectacular. You just don't know.
AVC: Have you ever finished a movie thinking "This is going to be great," and then you were disappointed by it—or the reverse?
LL: Oh, sure.
AVC: Were you surprised by how good something was?
LL: I think it's delighted more than surprised when something works out well. And if a movie turns out really well, a lot of times it has absolutely nothing to do with me. It has to do with it being beautifully produced, and editing is unbelievably important, and they've chosen the right music, and they've paced it the right way. All of that stuff.
AVC: Are there any actresses you model yourself after?
LL: No. I mean, certainly there are many, many actresses whom I admire and love to learn from, whom I love to watch and see what they do. That's fantastic. But I think everyone's journey through this crazy, weird, wild, wonderful area of work is really their own. And if you're going for something that isn't yours, you're wasting time. You could be focused on your own work instead of thinking about somebody else.
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