Stephen Dorff

My interview with Stephen Dorff, who stars in Somewhere, is featured in this week's WE.

Stephen Dorff stars as an unhappy Hollywood celebrity in Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere.

Credit: supplied

Lost actor finds himself in ‘Somewhere’

Posted By: Andrea Warner

01/12/2011 12:00 AM

 

Stephen Dorff isn’t calling this a comeback, but he understands why almost everyone else has.
Back in the mid-’90s, the Los Angeles-raised actor was supposed to be the next big thing, on a par with Johnny Depp. But after drawing acclaim for his role in the 1994 Beatles biopic Backbeat, he never landed that breakthrough follow-up — until now. As the lead in Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere, Dorff, now 37, has earned raves for his portrayal of Johnny Marco, a hard-partying Hollywood actor numbed by depression and apathy, coasting into a downward spiral until his young daughter, Cleo (Elle Fanning), comes to live with him.

For the first time in years, Dorff is in demand.

“I’m shooting covers of magazines, I’m getting offered all these movies,” says Dorff. “You know [why] people wanna say ‘comeback.’ Well, I’ve always been here, I’ve always been making movies. I just haven’t been front-and-centre in such a special film in a long time.”

Though Dorff has worked consistently over the years, the last major role he had in a popular, mainstream feature was opposite Wesley Snipes in 1998’s Blade. Recently, he’s played key supporting parts in several high-profile films, including Public Enemies and World Trade Center. He also produced and starred in Felon, a prison movie that found an audience on DVD.
 
“The last three years I’ve been doing really good work,” Dorff says, without a hint of bragging in his voice. “I’ve been trying, you know, to get to a vulnerable place, but... I hadn’t had the part. It took Sofia to show that side she thought existed in me.”

Somewhere, Coppola’s fourth film, explores themes found in her previous work: depression, alienation, and discontent amidst a backdrop of privilege and wealth — this time in Hollywood’s infamous Chateau Marmont hotel. Where Coppola breaks new ground is in her storytelling style: She drops the camera into Johnny’s life without an explanation as to who he is or what he does. What little Coppola does offer in the way of answers over the ensuing two hours might be frustrating to some, but is ultimately refreshing in an exposition-heavy medium.

With minimal dialogue (the first half hour is practically a silent film), the burden largely falls on Dorff’s facial expressions and body language to convey the excess and monotony of Johnny’s life. Dorff hints that he was able to mine his own past to help inform his performance, admitting he has plenty of firsthand experience wrestling with demons similar to Johnny’s.

“Johnny’s got a fast car, likes to drive in circles, follows girls aimlessly — because he doesn’t know what he wants to do, ’cause when you’re depressed, time moves very slow,” says Dorff. “It’s quite sad, but it’s very honest. Being a performer is a very lonely job, even if you have a family. For me, I don’t have a family. I mean, I have my family family, but I don’t have my own responsibilities, so when I go home after a movie ends or after the show stops, it’s weird. I don’t go to an office the next day. I don’t have anything to do except normal stuff. But after a week of that normal stuff and seeing my family and going to the grocery store, it’s like, well, now what?... Being an actor, a musician, any kind of a performer, is a strange job. It’s why you probably hear about all these famous comedians killing themselves, and horrible stories where all these talented people die. I’m sure they were missing something inside and never got to fix it, through success and just constantly going to the next circle and the next round of girls, and you just get lost along the way.”

Though Coppola hasn’t said this particular piece of art is meant to imitate Dorff’s own life, Johnny and Dorff have at least one thing in common: both men were in dire need of a fresh start. And even though he’s been reaping the rewards of Coppola’s casting choice for months, Dorff is still awed by his good fortune — even if he’s not willing to call it a comeback.

“I was just so blown away the way that Sofia embraced me at a time when I really needed it,” Dorff says. “I needed to show a different side of myself. I was over-playing villains. I was ready to grow up into another role, and this was kind of the perfect one to start with.”

Terry Gilliam Q&A

My interview with Terry Gilliam coincides with the DVD release of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.

A Q&A with writer-director Terry Gilliam

Posted By: Andrea Warner

05/05/2010 12:00 AM

Just four months ago, writer-director Terry Gilliam was anticipating the Christmas Day release of the most unintentionally notorious film of his career. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (now available on DVD) was an epic fantasy with lush visuals (it would go on to be nominated for Academy Awards in both Art Direction and Costume Design), an A-list supporting cast (including Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell), and was, of course, Heath Ledger’s last full-length feature. The 29-year-old Australian was Gilliam’s friend and Imaginarium’s leading man until his untimely death, right in the middle of shooting. Gilliam spoke with WE about stealing inspiration, his troubles with Hollywood, and the feat of finishing without Ledger.

WE: Did your vision for Imaginarium change when Heath died?
Terry Gilliam: Heath’s death didn’t really change my vision at all, except of course having to work with the three hacks [Depp, Law, and Farrell] who replaced Heath. (Laughs) Going down to the actor’s depot in Hollywood, they’re just hanging around all desperate for work... In reality, I was lying on the floor in grief, my daughter kicking me and making me get up again. It was a different kind of pain but it helped me keep going.

Imaginarium is stunning visually. What were some of your inspirations?
It starts with me just doing the storyboards and doing silly things, and then we take my drawings and make them a little more elaborate. I’m very magpie-like. I just steal from anything that interests me, squeeze it all together, and hope that something interesting comes out. That’s my approach. There’s nothing original in what I do. I steal all the time. If I’m smart, I steal from dead painters. They don’t sue.

What’s up next for you? I know Don Quixote’s been a long time in the works.
Don Quixote’s what I’m working on at the moment, and hopefully we’ll be shooting next year. I was hoping to be shooting in the spring time, but it’ll have to be later than that since we don’t have any money yet. (Laughs) It’s always the money. The writing, directing — that bit is the easy bit. It’s the money. Anytime I go out there with my begging bowl, I walk into these offices and they always say, ‘Oh god, Terry we love your films! I grew up on Time Bandits, Munchausen, 12 Monkeys... Oh, these are brilliant, Terry. We are such big fans.’ And then I give them the scripts and they go, ‘Oh, well, but this one... I’m not sure.’ I’ve been hearing the same thing for 20 years, maybe 25 now. The list gets longer of films they love, but they don’t want to do the new ones. It’s always the same. So I have to lure people in like Heath and Johnny. That’s how we get the films made, by suckering those famous actors in. The thought of something new and original and different is just not what they’re ever looking for. They’re frightened of that. And even though my wife says I keep making the same film — that I’m just changing the costumes — the guys with the money think it’s all different.

Terry Gilliam talks The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Heath Ledger

My interview with Terry Gilliam on the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is in this week's WE.

MOVIES: Terry Gilliam honours Heath Ledger’s final performance in ‘Imaginarium’

Posted By: Andrea Warner

12/23/2009 12:00 AM

The journey from storyboard to celluloid is fraught with complications for most filmmakers. But few have experienced the sort of kick-to-the-chest heartbreak that writer-director Terry Gilliam did when Heath Ledger accidentally overdosed and died January 22, 2008, in the midst of filming Gilliam’s grandly dark new fantasy, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

“I was lying on the floor in grief,” Gilliam admits, upon finding out that the star, who was also his long-time friend, had passed at just 28. “But then my daughter started kicking me and making me get up again. It was a different kind of pain, but it helped me keep going.”

Shortly before Imaginarium’s North American opening (the much-coveted Christmas Day slot), Gilliam is giving back-to-back phone interviews. Despite the sombre aspects of the film, the former Monty Python member is in good spirits. He jokingly introduces himself as Mr. Repetitive — after all, he’s been fielding the same questions about Ledger for almost three years, and he’ll now forever have the dubious distinction of being the director of Ledger’s last film.

Imaginarium was the pair’s second collaboration, Gilliam having first cast Ledger opposite Matt Damon in his 2005 fantasy-comedy The Brothers Grimm. By the time they reunited, Ledger had evolved as both an actor (his roles in Brokeback Mountain and The Dark Knight had catapulted him to a new level of stardom) and as a person — with a two-year-old daughter, and a dependency on a cocktail of prescription pills to help with sleeping, depression, and anxiety. But he was also more sure of his gifts, and was starting to show an interest in expanding them.

“Even the Joker — you know, he’d just play it and enjoy it and leap fearlessly into whatever the part was,” Gilliam says. “He was ad-libbing a lot on this film, and coming up with lines that were a lot better that what we had written. It was his way of showing he could write as well. This is a pretty extraordinary talent that was only just developing.”

Imaginarium could have shut down production following Ledger’s death — it’s been alleged that financial backers who’d put up money on the strength of the actor’s marquee appeal wanted to pull out. But Gilliam and his cast and crew persevered. The finished product reveals how almost eerily prescient Gilliam’s script proved.

Ledger’s character, Tony, is rescued by a down-on-their-luck band of travellers, led by the immortal Dr. Parnassus, an increasingly decrepit and drunk mystic who performs nightly, showcasing his mind-expanding abilities through a faux-mirror that leads to the Imaginarium, an alternate reality of the entrants’ making. His daughter, Valentina, is about to turn 16, but has been promised to the devil in a bargain made years ago. Tony, on the run from some shady mobsters, and attempting to escape his innately evil nature, keeps ducking inside the Imaginarium. Ledger hadn’t filmed these scenes yet, so Gilliam appealed to a few famous faces — Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell — to take turns playing the alternate-reality versions of Tony.

“Heath’s death didn’t really change my vision at all,” Gilliam says. “Except, of course, having to work with the three hacks who replaced Heath. [Laughs] You know, going down to the actor’s depot in Hollywood, they’re just hanging around, all desperate for work. It’s still the same movie I storyboarded in the beginning.”

Gilliam momentarily ditches his trademark gallows humour when he reflects on what it’s taken to adjust to a post-Imaginarium life. He admits that sometimes even he can’t quite believe he finished it.

“We had a film that really works, basically, because so many people loved Heath and came to the rescue,” he says. “That’s what it’s about. It’s like an ocean voyage where part of the crew died, and other people came to the rescue and we got there. That kind of outpouring of affection for Heath — Johnny, Colin, Jude, everybody involved in the process and the project — is what’s magical about it.”

As for the film’s critical reception, Gilliam confesses that the biggest weight on him has been honouring Ledger legacy. The morbid humour creeps back in, though, and one realizes how crucial it’s been for the filmmaker to keep himself laughing through what’s been one of the darkest periods of his life.

“[Imaginarium] is certainly more emotional for me, and dragged me in more... The biggest sense of responsibility while we were shooting was, ‘Is it going to be worthy of his last work?’ And some critics think it is, and others don’t, because they’re awful people that should die,” he says, beginning to laugh loudly. “But that’s alright; they can have their opinions. But they must also understand that death is swiftly coming their way. Vengeance will be ours!”