Last Thursday I got to spend some time in L.A. at the Coffee Bean on Sunset and Fairfax with none other than actor Clifton Collins Jr., one of the most talented chameleon actors of our generation, you’d recognize him in compelling roles in movies like 187 and Capote and you could see him recently in J.J. Abrams’ STAR TREK, playing romulan Captain Nero’s right hand man, General Ayel. He’s also in SUNSHINE CLEANING and CRANK 2 and the upcoming Mike Judge movie EXTRACT and the sequel I’m looking forward to watching, BOONDOCK SAINTS 2: ALL SAINTS DAY.
He’s also the grandson of the late actor Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez
What’s probably new to some of you is the fact that he is currently promoting the two music videos that he directed for the Zac Brown Band. Voting is currently happening for the CMT Music Awards and the awards will be announced in June 16th, 2009, which is also Clifton Collins Jr.’s birthday!
By the way, the man is very cool, fan-friendly, very down-to-earth, hella funny too!
For the record, that rumor about him being involved in Marvel’s movie THOR,.. he did audition but he didn’t get a part.
Special Thanks to Wendy Shepherd for making all this possible. So..Without further adue, here’s the interview with Clifton Collins Jr.
RS: It’s awesome to finally meet you, man. I’ve always been a big fan of your work, but now you’re directing..so what’s this whole music video Zac Brown band CMT gig all about?
CC: Platinum, a little while ago, album’s golden.. we got CMT nominations.. it’s music video that I not only directed but also shot. I came out with a treatment pitched to Zac Brown. And from there, we collaborated quite a bit, he’s really proactive enough in the creative process.. He’s not just a musician, he’s a very well-rounded artist. He’s also a badass cook too.. He’s good people, good folks, the whole band is very family oriented
RS: How did you hear about Zac Brown?…
CC: Actually my manager’s repped him and they were in between labels and they needed a video for their song that was burning up the chart, it hadn’t quite made the top 20 yet but it was getting up there so I gave it a listen and Zac met with other video directors and he called me one day said “Clift, I’m going with you! I sad ‘o sweet man! and he said ‘you’re the only motherf*cker that got it! ‘I don’t want no chicken near this video!’
I said ‘ok, man but Imma put a chicken in there somewhere but not the way that other people probably got it’
I listened to the song I thought ‘What is Chicken Fried?’ It became clear to me that it was a slice of life. Being grateful for what we have. At the time, ya know we were in a tough time, Obama wasn’t quite yet president, I’m thinking the only big country song that might’ve had this kind of impact on me was THE ANGRY AMERICAN by Toby Keith which is a fantastic song, I love the song.
So I think this is a beautiful bookend to a resolution and resolve into moving forward with our lives. Not just as American but human being so. The album’s called The Foundation. Meaning, ya know, the foundation of everything. Foundation of the album, foundation of the band, foundation of their family, the family being the foundation itself. That said I really wanted to design a video that was a docu style and capture pieces of life… so in that video.. I know some people commented that it was a stereotype or cliché in a sense of ya know.. these people living in the Midwest, Atlanta.. but what they didn’t know was that those people were really his people, his friends and family. So ya can’t.. ya know.. I don’t know what you’d say to that.
But that was like 1 negative comment out of 120 positive. It’s pretty astronomical to be able to read stuff like that. So I’m excited about that. And my second video for Zac Brown, it was his idea, his conception and when he pitched it to me, I sat there and collaborated with him on how I can make it different in directing it and what I can bring to the table. I brought a dear friend of mine, an ex girlfriend of mine, Emmanuelle Chriqui, but that’s another story all together. Completely my fault (laugh), it’s probably the only regret I have in life but there’s a lot of beautiful things that came out of this.
RS: What is your directing style? what would make the audience know that that’s the work of director Clifton Collins Jr?
CC: My style, if I can even alleged having a style would be something that services the purpose of the song, something that compliments the song, whatever style that comes out of that endeavor I would say is a style but in regards to how I shoot, and how I direct, I don’t know if I have a style, it’s constantly evolving right now. I’d like to in some point be able to say I do have a style.
As of right now, I just kind of stay in the moment of service and the purpose of the song with the proper video to compliment it the right way.
RS: Was it a long process? How many days was the production?
CC: We shot Chicken Fried for about 3 days and Whatever It Is, we only shot for about a day and a half. I was in a real tight schedule there and my most recent video Betty Jean by The Soul Of John Black, with limited resource you only time to lock stuff up so you gotta get the help where you can get it sometimes that takes time but we finished it and we’re gonna release that video next week.
I’m really proud of that.
That definitely has a very definitive style that compliments the album and the artist’s integrity and his influences via old school blues, a lot of old influences and that said, I wanted to have elements of the video that lended itself to old Hollywood influences like the blaxploitation films or I’d use the landmark hotel that was used in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard
RS: Is that the kind of music you grew up with?
CC: I like listening to anything that moves me. Ya know, like a good screenplay. Any character that moves me. It doesn’t have to be Latino or white, or a drug dealer or a priest. I gotta be moved by this character and it’s art
RS: Heath Ledger directed a music video
CC: He did,.. yeah.. Ben Harper.. yup. rest in peace
RS: Shia Labeouf directed a music video too
CC: I saw his too
RS: And now Clifton Collins Jr.. so is this like a rite of passage? Will it lead to hopefully directing short films and feature films someday?
CC: I got a few film screenplays at home I actually have some pretty big names waiting for them. They’re waiting for me to finish. It’s hard to really have the time to donate to your project and also I’m the kind of artist that likes to get lost in the process. So that said, ya know, I’d cheat myself if I don’t get to sit down for a couple of hours and really shut off the phone and just get lost, so I’m waiting for that time to come up.
There’s a big William Morris endeavor merger and all these things happening right now so I need to constantly be creative whether it’s playing guitar or writing a song or writing a short or coming up with a video treatment for a song which is much like scoring a scene for a film but reversed and I’m a little dyslexic anyway so it works out perfectly.
I love it, man.. I wanna be known as a creative guy. Just look at Leonardo Da Vinci… he was an artist, he was into painting he known for all these things. So people say ‘o you’re acting, you wanna direct too now?!’ I say why not! Orson Welles didn’t do so bad. Clint Eastwood’s ok.
RS: We know actor Clifton Collins Jr., We know producer Clifton Collins Jr. and now we know director Clifton Collins Jr. but how come screenwriter Clifton Collins Jr. hasn’t been mentioned yet
CC: O, I’ve got my screenplays at home. But much like the music videos that are not listed on IMDB.com. They’re a little slow sometime. IMDB is a little slow on processing things, computer error (Laugh)
RS: I think you should’ve been nominated for CAPOTE.
CC: Thank you, man.. a lot of people seem to think that way
RS: I got respect for Daniel Craig who played the same character in Infamous but I think you hit the target with your performance
CC: Thank you brother, I appreciate that
RS: Especially that scene when you and Philllp Seymour Hoffman were in the cell and tear was falling and I was like now that’s awesome acting right there! Do you think you got snubbed?
CC: I feel like ya know.. I enjoyed the ride. It was a great ride. It was a great company and David Polan sent me a beautiful e-mail and said I was gonna get nominated. It’s nice to have people just talking like that but if you set your hopes and dreams on what people say, you’re only in control of what you can do. So you just hope that people receive it well and it was received well and the fact that people I look up to and admire like David Polan and other film critics, taste makers, so to speak, it’s a beautiful thing.
RS: Ya know cause that’s how it was with Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti, they were once just supporting actors but now they’re Oscar worthy lead, I think the time should come for Clifton Collins Jr.
CC: Thanks man, from your mouth to God’s ears
RS: How long have you been in this business?
CC: since 1988
RS: What compelled you to be in this business? What made you say ‘that’s what I’m gonna do!’?
CC: My grandfather kept talking about how none of his kids followed his footsteps.. and I was always a class clown anyway, getting detention for various reasons that often led to some kind of detention in school which is called JUG, Justice Under God.
So I thought I knew it was something I wasn’t gonna try to do, it was something I was gonna do. I took the time to really think about the path I was gonna take and in that time all these incredible signs came to me, It was kinda obvious that I had to do it. So I just went for it. My first 30 days of auditioning, I had a part in a commercial and then shortly thereafter I got 2 commercials in 1 week and then my mom actually started to believe me. She fully thought I was lying to her face. She couldn’t fathom it.
RS: Let’s talk about STAR TREK, man. How did you get the part?
CC: J.J. Abrams called me at home about STAR TREK,..he wrote a role for me based off of a Frankie Flores from my character in the movie Traffic, for Alias. He went to the casting director and said ‘I got this great role that I wrote and do you think Clifton Collins could do this?.. Do you think he’d even do it?, does he still do TV? And she said ‘yeah he’ll do it’ Abrams asked ‘are you sure?’ and she said ‘yeah I’m positive’ and Abrams asked again ‘why are you so positive?’ and she was like ‘because he’s my brother’. Abrams didn’t know she was related to me (laugh) So I did 3 episodes
With STAR TREK, I heard my name my name being thrown around, I heard my name and I heard Eric Bana’s name. No real offer being made. So J.J. Abrams called me, pitched me the character, he pitched me Ayel in essence and he said ‘what do you think?’ and I told him to call me again the next day. Just kidding (laugh)
I said ‘hell yeah!’ I’d walk off a cliff for J.J. Abrams. he’s a badasss. He has such a love for storytelling he’s a loving person. There was not a single attitude on that set. There was no diva. We were working 18 hour days. This is a testament for J.J. and the entire team, the kind of set where the producer would walk on a set early morning, 4 in the morning, they were wrapping or something and he’d give this full speech of how hard we’d worked this week and how hard it’s been but the difference between this producer and the producers I’ve worked in the past is that we really believed this guy, the kind of speeches that would make you cry like a little b*tch, trying to hold it back ya know (laugh)… it feels good to be appreciated at the end of the day.
RS: Were you a trekkie?
CC: Nobody on that whole set was a Trekkie
RS: Now true STAR TREK fans would know that this is not exactly an origin story, not the Shatner’s Kirk origin story, it’s J.J. Abrams version of origins story, the alternate parallel universe so did you get any negative comments from fans saying ‘hey you guys are doing it wrong, man!’
CC: No they didn’t know about it, they had no clue. That thing was so tightly under wraps.
RS: It was well done that’s why
CC: J.J. is just such a good storyteller, he just knows how to tell stories, man. he’s a kid at heart, every great filmmaker is. He’s approachable. He’s just fun to work with
RS: Has he called you for any future project yet?
CC: It’s probably too early right now but I’m sure the phone will be ringing at some point
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RS: CRANK 2. You were hilarious as the crazy villain in that movie, man. The whole thing didn’t make sense at all and yet that’s why I found it entertaining. Why did you choose such a crazy character?
CC: They came to me, wanted me to kinda build this character. I read the screenplay and I felt the frist was quite a bit of who Chelios was and how he came to be, but in the second one, it’s just a journey to stay alive. So I read it, I watched the first one and I laughed my ass off and I said, out of respect for the actors, the two bad guys were kinda forgettable, and I really didn’t wanna be forgettable in this one, so I told them look guys you wanna make this character memorable, you’re gonna have to take me off the leash and so they said yes and I said hell yeah and I’mma tell you this much, Elvis Presley 68 to 71 circa, I don’t know why,
So this character evolved. So my roots come from old world roots, the motherland of Mexico, the Aztec history and the Mayan folklore that comes with it and takes me back to Jesus Malverde patron saint of narco drug traffickers. He looked kinda like Elvis. 1914, his best friend turned him in for a thousand pesos, they cut off his feet and hung him from a tree, he was considered like the Mexican Robin Hood.
So yes I went through all these things, acquiring the weapon 2 weeks early. I incorporated my martial art history of nunchaku, I spinned it around and I got good enough to make it look real. It’s probably the most fun I had working on a film in a long time, working with Mark [Neveldine] and Brian [Taylor] and Jason Statham
RS: I met Mark and Brian once and those are some crazy SOBs!
CC: They’re bananas! (laugh) BANANAS! and they break all the rules and what happens when you break the rules is you get new stuff you get stuff you’ve never seen before.
RS: So you were comfortable with them filming with roller skates and remote control cameras running at high speed?
CC: O my god. yes. Flying off set!
RS: How do you as an actor, try to mix things up?.. You did indie flick like Sunshine Cleaning and then you went big budget again. Do you have criteria to choose roles to stay versatile?
CC: I love being versatile. I love the diversity I’ve acquired throughout the years and the conscience effort to be diverse, I don’t ever wanna get comfortable. A role like Sunshine Cleaning, My manager found that for me. I was a bit uncertain because the director Christine Jeff hasn’t worked in a while and I had my reservation of being an amputee and doing it justice and I had a lot of questions so it was a process and once we got past it, I just dove in head first.
I was actually shooting Sunshine Cleaning on my days off from doing The Horsemen. I had like a 2 week period off from The Horsemen so I flew in from Winnipeg which was like 50 degrees below zero working for a Jonas Ackerlund film, Ackerlund is a genius by the way, a visual filmmaker. And then I went to Santa Fe. And working with Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin. What a joy!
RS: You’re going to be in Mike Judge new comedy EXTRACT. (check out the trailer) What can you tell us about your character?
CC: I play Step, and he’s a redneck, he’s one of those folks who thinks some thing’s right, well he thinks some thing’s right. He ain’t necessarily the sharpest tool in the box, but certainly he’s a person. One of those slow guys
RS: I gotta ask about BOONDOCK SAINTS 2.
CC: You gonna be at Comic-Con?
RS: Hell yeah! Religiously! You’re gonna be there?
CC: I’m gonna be there for BOONDOCK SAINTS 2. Troy Duffy will be there, Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, Julie Benz
RS: Julie Benz is hot, man!
CC: She’s beautiful
RS: So when are they going to release the movie?
CC: Well, it’s called ALL SAINTS DAY so they wanna release it on November 1st, which is All Saints Day but the Sony Studio is really excited about the film, so there’s a good chance they might push it out earlier.
RS: Tell us about your character, Romeo
CC: Romeo is a guy who’s been following the saints for a while, he’s been a big fan of them, maybe because they’ve overcome the oppressive powers that be and Romeo fancies himself a bit of a saint and then when he stumbles across these things during an overly ambitious crazy stunt of his, he gains a bit of a respect from them and they take him under their wings
RS: So he’s not a bad guy
CC: Well, we’re all bad guys (laugh) ya know, we’re killing in the name of God but that’s our own perception of what we perceive to be good
RS: But you’re not the villain in the movie
CC: We’re not the villain, I guess we’re the good bad guys
RS: So what’s the synopsis, not much that people know about the storyline?
CC: They get another calling from God to come back and take out the filth and vermin of the planet
RS: That’s all there is to it?
CC: In a nutshell, it’s actually more evolved than that? Troy really outdid himself on this one, he really raised the bar. there’s a lot more laugh, lot more memorable scenes, I think Troy’s style also evolved quite a bit, we got some really great DPs on this one so they brought a definitive style as well.
RS: Are you gonna shock us like when Willem Defoe was kissing that dude for the longest time
CC: I’m not gonna give you that kind of shock, but there’s kind of other shockers, there’s plenty of stuff, it’s a fun ride. A lot of gratuitous violence if you will.
RS: I looked you up and found out that you’re a fan of Gary Oldman. Why?
CC: At that time, it was his character work, seemingly effortless ways of getting lost in these characters where you can’t even recognize him, his talent for.. ya know you look at film like Sid and Nancy or even his small role in True Romance.
You look at film like Hannibal. This is how much I’ve learned about Gary. When I saw this crippled little guy in a wheelchair, there was something about his mannerism, the way he moved his head, I looked at him and something about this guy reminded me about Gary Oldman.
Gary intentionally, if I’m not mistaken, went out his way to not have his name mentioned at the opening credit.
To be the kind of artist who doesn’t say ‘I want my name above the title’, it says something about his confidence, and his commitment to creating characters just for the sheer joy of creating great characters and not putting the light on themselves. This is the man that’s truly after it for the glory and not the fame. You’re not gonna see him on The Hills or any Reality Show anytime soon.
RS: You’ve met him?
CC: I’ve gotten to know him quite well. He’s a wonderful guy. He’s a father now. now he’s doing family movies like Harry Potter and great films like that.
RS: Are you going to work with him?
CC: I’d love to work with Gary. Are you kidding. Of course, man!
RS: Have you been animated yet?
CC: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Cesar Vialpando
RS: What would you say to Rama’s SCREEN readers who might be aspiring filmmakers or struggling actors. How can they make it in this town?
CC: That’s a tough question man. I think so much of this town is broken man. The economic condition. William Morris let go a hundred of its agents. It’s definitely a different time. I don’t know if now is the best time to break in if it’s something you’re passionate about you’re going to do it anyway.
If you’re a poet, are you going to write poetry only because you get paid for it or because you love writing poetry. If you’re an actor, if you love acting you’re gonna continue to act. At some point, I’m sure you can break in. Commercials are probably fun because it’s kinda a quick way to get your foot in the door and get seen and make some money maybe keep you out of the restaurant a little bit, it gives you some time to ya know, study, read books, watch movies.
RS: What’s next for you, Clifton Collins Jr?
CC: That’s a good question. I’m looking at some projects right now but activity’s pretty slow. I’m pretty available which is why I’ve got all this free time to direct music videos (laugh) which is great for me cause I’m pretty hands on because I like to operate cameras, my DPs try to rob me of that (laugh) but sometimes there’s a good reason why they rob me of that. I’ve worked with some pretty good DPs.
RS: So if you’re a director and your actor is Christian Bale and he starts yelling at the DP, would you tell him ‘Hey bale, cut it out, I’m the director, it’s my job to yell at the DP, not yours!’ (laugh)
CC: Ya know what you’re absolutely right. Ya know nobody really knows what happens on a film set. it’s so easy to walk in and judge him for what happened but… it’s equivalent if you’re doing a play. Let’s say if you’re watching a play on the broadway. Suddenly the lighting guy gets up to readjust the light in the middle of a shot and now the audience is engaged, the audience is watching and now the audience will actually be mad.
Or let’s say the guy operating the projector in the movie theater wants to readjust it in the middle of a movie, he shuts it off and turns on the light, you don’t think the packed audience is gonna get pissed off as hell?!
And when you’re an artist of a caliber like Christian Bale. And we’re not talking about somebody who does hack job. This guy is a true artist, I can watch anything he does.
To have the lighting people’s process finished and say ‘okay the set is yours’ that means it’s time for the actors to do their thing, to get into their tool box, to access their emotional whatever it is they’re going through, however it is they get to the place they need to. So when that time is violated, and you go in and you’ve done the kind of work you do to do a good job and suddenly somebody whose time is already up wants to come in and rob you of that time instead of saying ‘hey I need the set back from the actors’.. heh, I’m not justifying what he did, I’m just saying I understand it, and there probably should’ve been a better captain of a ship on that film.
RS: Have you ever lost your temper and went psycho on a film set?
CC: I walked off on set one time and that was on THE PERFECT GAME. It was a very emotional scene I was with Cheech Marin. I was basically throwing in the towel, I’m gonna give up on these kids. There’s a lot of emotional baggage that comes with that and..
I made sure that they were ready cause I already got a feel for it, so I asked multiple times to make sure that they were ready. When they finally gave me the go ahead, I got to that emotional place, I started acting and started crying and walked out the door and lo and behold, the DP and the director and another guy were having a full blown conversation as though there was no acting going on, the cameras weren’t rolling, the sound wasn’t going. everybody was talking as though I hadn’t even walked out onto the set.
I just more or less blew up on myself, I didn’t blow up on them. I threw my hands up in the air and said ‘I’m out of here!’ Because I had to deal with my own freakin’ little demons I unleashed, they’re running all over the field and I gotta go catch them and I gotta stay in this place. So I took off, I took a walk in the dark, I knew somebody would come get me when they were really really ready and then really really ready. But that was the only time.
RS: You’re known as guy who’d put hours into your research and would lose sleep just to work on your character and study it seriously
CC: I was studying Sexy Beast for this role in Statham movie. I watched Sir Ben Kingsley and did the whole accent. I was up til 3 in the morning, I really wanted to do the role justice and give it my best shot. I’m not from England but I pick up accent and mannerism quickly.
I was really tired. I had to videotape myself because I was alone I had to record the other persons’ dialogue on a recorder and change my voice, so it sounds different, and then I put that recorder by the video recorder and I’m supposed to be on a cell phone so because it’s coming off the recorder so it already sounds like coming off the phone anyway so it’s perfect but I’m sitting here, running the camera, playing the recorder, and trying to act at the same time, talk about Jesus H.. juggling freakin’.. (laugh)
So I honestly got tired but.. I gotta trek through this, I gotta trek through this. I got up at 6 AM, semi rested but still tired and trying to hit it hard again and by 10 AM I was done with that scene and another scene and I sent it to London which they loved it , it just didn’t work out. But it was great to get that feedback. If you love acting, you’re gonna do it regardless.
