Glover, Danny & Smith, Shawnee (Saw)
Steve Barton
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Think you’ve had enough Saw coverage yet? Think you have heard from just about everyone we could have possibly spoken to? Well think again! This time around our man Sean Clark sits down with Danny Glover and everyone’s favorite girl in head gear Shawnee Smith to talk about their involvement in this horror phenom and if we may see them return for Saw 2.
Q: How did you both get involved in Saw?
Shawnee Smith: Our management company, who represents actor, directors, writers and producers, they put this movie together. Everyone always says, I don’t know if this is Danny’s experience but you always hear in Hollywood whether it’s your agent or your manager, “Oh yeah we work with this person and this director and we like to put our clients together”, and it never works out that way.
Q: So you both have the same representation?
Danny Glover: Yeah we both have the same manager.
SS: Same manager and in this movie this is how they work. At Evolution they kind of broke every rule to make this movie and it’s paying off. I love to see that happen. You know they actually had to beg me to do this part, which is ridiculous because it obviously is a hit, but because I read the script and I was like “Oh this is just too horrible”. I mean it’s horrific. I just don’t want to live this for a day. Then of course they showed me their short film and I saw how bitchen I would look. (Laughs) I said, okay I can live through this for a day.
Q: Did you do your speech all in one take?
DG: We didn’t do it all in one take, no.
SS: You never do anything all in one take. Then we would do the whole thing and again from a couple different angles. And I got to work with Mr. Glover. That was really cool.
Q: Any concerns working with two unknowns coming to Hollywood from Australia?
DG: No. First of all you’ve got to like the person. Once you meet the person you have to figure out if they’re an asshole or somebody you want to work with, and I just liked James right away. Before I met him I saw this small clip of his, and I really thought it was interesting. He is young, but that was even more fuel because he wasn’t married to any kind of image of himself or way of filmaking. He wanted to tell his little story right here. He may only get one opportunity to do this. Somebody might say, “Okay now you have to make films the way we want you to make films”, and he has to make a choice. Somebody just mentioned the Royal Tenenbaums, when I worked with Wes Anderson. I just liked the guy. I saw his film Rushmore and I liked him. We were talking about a scene and I said, “You know what music would be great behind this scene with me and Angelica Houston? John Coltrane & Duke Ellington’s In a Sentimental Mood.” He walked right over to his CD collection and pulled it out. (Laughs) I said, “Okay!”
I was in New York and I took him to something I was doing at the U.N. and he came back stage and I said, “I want you to meet a very extraordinary man. This is Cofi Anand.” After Cofi Anand walks away he says, “That’s the look I want you to have in the movie.” So in the Royal Tenenbaums with the goatee I looked like Cofi Anand. I realized I wanted to take this journey, and with James it was the same way because they are loose in a sense in a certain way. They are in their own space right now. Get this, James saw me in an infomercial! He saw me in an infomercial that I did for a friend of mine because I am into pilates. Mari Winsor is a friend of mine who asked me to do an infomercial and now the infomercial is all over the world.
SS: You did Mari’s infomercial? (Laughs)
DG: Yeah I did Mari’s infomercial. If it wasn’t for Mari I don’t think I would have made it through the fourth Lethal Weapon because…
SS: That must be how I made it through the jaw trap…pilates! (Laughs)
DG: I’m a big pilates fan and Mari is one of the best teachers I have ever run into. So James saw me in this pilates infomercial in Australia and decided he wanted me to do the film.
Q: That must have really taken some balls to tell you out of your entire impressive resume that he had seen you in an infomercial.
DG: (Laughs) I mean that is a winner in itself man!
Q: You have always seemed to play the cop that has it all together and gets the job done. What was it like to play this role, especially in the later scenes?
DG: Now see, that is the kind of stuff that really is meaty for actors. (Laughs) Often we become over indulgent too and go over the top. In what ever I’m doing, I’m looking for character arc and for me this was a really wonderful one.
Q: Did either of you have any reservations about doing a horror film? Shawnee, I know you had done the Blob remake….
SS: Yeah I was knee deep in the reservations. (Laughs)
DG: Well I was in Predator 2 and I played the role that Arnold played in Predator, so it’s not as if it was a new venture for me. This kind of psychological thing I had never done before, however.
SS: Yeah this movie didn’t strike me as a horror movie that was horrific.
DG: Yeah.
Q: How heavy was the jaw trap?
SS: It was heavy. Apparently the one Leigh wore in the original short was about two or three times heavier than mine, and mine was heavy! I had this mouth piece I had to clamp down and they padded it up to try and get it as tight to my head as possible because I really had to fling myself around. If I do something like that I just go all the way with it.
Q: It was a very physical role for each of you, what was the most challenging aspect of the role?
DG: I think that the obstacles that I had to deal with were the ones toward the latter part of the film. Even with my death those were often challenging to me because I was trying to find some way that I could deal with his sense of the game being over. Two of the players of the game now have moved on. There is some kind of release and sense of relief in that and I think trying to find that was one of the challenges.
Q: Danny, are you aware that you are a puppet in Team America?
SS: He just found out.
DG: I just found out about two hours ago. I saw a commercial for it and it looked like an advertisement for toys for kids then I heard it was a movie. I thought, this is interesting but I had no idea I was one of those…
SS: I’m going to go see it and get back to you.
DG: Okay. (Laughs)
Q: How do you feel about being spoofed as a puppet?
SS: How would you feel about being spoofed as a puppet? (Laughs)
DG: I don’t worry about that stuff. I’m not going to get my lawyers you know. (Laughs) I always try to be transparent about what my thoughts are and what my beliefs are, and a lot of times that gets me into a lot of discord with some people. Some people may see that as being good and some people may see that as being negative, I don’t know. If someone says that I’m blown up because I’m considered a liberal I’m not going to argue with them. (Laughs) I think I’m beyond liberalism, but I’m not going to argue with that.
Q: In regards to what you said earlier about your death, we don’t really see you die per say. Would either of you be willing to return for the sequel?
SS: They begged me to do this movie. I’ll beg them to do the sequel. (Laughs)
DG: I don’t know. The first time is the charm and the charm of it the first time is what I’m intrigued about. None of us had any idea the impact this film was going to have on people. We did it because we thought it was something interesting. We found it out to be just that, and I can only leave it at that right now. You know sometimes you do something this well and you really hope that people are going to ask you to do a sequel. (Laughs) Another kind of human frailty comes into that and that is how much I’m going to get! (Laughs)
It’s very interesting because I thought Lethal Weapon 2 was going to be the last one and then somebody said I was doing Lethal Weapon 3 and then 4. Then you look up and pray, don’t ask me no more. Don’t tempt me no more. Because after a while I believe you can become ridiculous doing sequel after sequel after sequel.
And that, weeks and weeks later, wraps up our coverage of Saw, just in time for the recent DVD announcement, too. Special thanks to Lions Gate for letting us chat with Mr. Glover and Ms. Smith!
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