My junket interview with Eric Bana for "Deliver Us From Evil" came out in yesterday's issue of The Philippine Star. The online link can be found here: http://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2014/07/02/1341391/how-bana-learned-about-demons
Below is the text of my interview.
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| My selfie with Eric Bana |
MANILA, Philippines - This writer has had several opportunities to interview Australian superstar Eric Bana in the past but scheduling conflicts always got in the way. Last week, luck finally did me a favor when Sony invited me to the junket for their current film, the supernatural thriller "Deliver Us From Evil" starring the actor.
The roundtable interview lasted about 15 minutes. There were three other journalists from South America with me. One journalist was a self-confessed fan of the actor who informed us that he wouldn’t let the day go by without getting a picture with the actor. He did! And I took a selfie myself.
Eric was in good spirits that day. He even teased the Latin journalists that he was going to badmouth Edgar Ramirez, his co-star in the movie who happens to be one of the biggest superstars in Venezuela. He did not, of course. The 45-year-old actor instead talked about his current film and many others, including the most memorable experience he’s ever had as an actor.
In "Deliver Us From Evil", Eric stars as NYPD cop Ralph Sarchie, a real-life policeman whose encounters with the supernatural and demonic possessions during his stint as a cop in South Bronx is the subject of this frightening new film from Sinister director Scott Derrickson.
Here are excerpts from our interview:
What did you like about your character?
"He was really well-written! He was a fascinating character on the page and I knew it would be a lot of fun to play — he just happened to be in a horror film so I think I would have taken the role regardless. I loved his swagger, his sense of humor. I loved his brutality. As an actor, there was a lot there to work with and it was a bit of a bonus that he was in this amazing horror movie."
This is your first horror film, right?
"Yes."
Is your character the reason why you wanted to do this or did you pass up on other horror projects before?
"I’ve been offered them before. I liked the script and I loved Scott’s previous films so that was very helpful to read the script and imagine the world. The thing about horror movies is that when you read them, they’re not scary. You can say that they are going to be scary but you don’t lose sleep when you read the script. So knowing Scott’s work was helpful in trying to imagine what the film would be like in the end."
Was meeting the real-life Ralph Sarchie helpful in building your character?
"Yeah! It wasn’t essential because Scott did an amazing job of writing a fully formed character that I felt like I knew Ralph after I read the script but I spent time with Ralph. He had an official job on the film as our police adviser and he was a very, very intense guy, has an amazing presence and physicality to him that definitely rubbed off into my performance."
What was it like doing the movie?
"It’s like doing three different movies depending on whom I was working with that day. It was really interesting… I guess, as an actor, Scott gave Edgar and I some fantastic scenes together, some great dialogues that are very deep, philosophical discussions about life and religion. That was a lot of fun and interesting and not what you’d expect in the middle of a horror movie."
Do you believe in demons?
"I never really thought about it seriously. It was interesting signing on to do this movie because Scott has an encyclopedic knowledge of horror, of the genre, respect for it, understanding of religion, of cultural stuff — I learned a lot, I really did! If he weren’t the director, I would have employed him as my personal researcher. So, yeah, it’s a lot more interesting to think of the subject matter in a real sense rather than be dismissive of it. I learned a lot about it and I am fascinated by it."
This movie is also about religion. Are you a religious person?
"Not overtly religious. No."
Your character in the movie had to undergo this religious transformation, how did you take this because as an actor you sometimes have to imbibe the spirit of the character you play?
"Every film you do kind of rubs off in some way. Sometimes you are not even aware of it. It’s not like you consciously take things away but you do enough films you end up feeling a bit schizophrenic. The good thing about this job is it forces you to think about the world in a lot of different perspectives because as an actor it’s not how I feel about something but what my character feels about something. It can be very confusing, too, because you have all these different perspectives and it’s hard to have a hard line view at something because you’ve looked at it from so many different angles and different people’s shoes, so it is interesting."
You’ve done so many different roles in many great movies, what’s your favorite?
"I can’t say, I’m sorry. (At this point, the Ecuadoran journalist enumerated his personal favorites on behalf of the actor: The Hulk, Star Trek, The Time Traveler’s Wife, and Eric was visibly amused.)"
Let me rephrase my question, if you are to revisit a character that you did before, what character would that be?
"(Eric had to think a bit before coming up with an answer) I don’t know. I had a lot of fun being on a horse in Troy so that was a pretty amazing experience just because it was such an incredible production — you’ll never probably see something like it again. It was such an amazing cast! You know, being outside every day and all those people, I’d say it was the most overwhelming experience on a film in terms of what it was like to go to work. That was pretty, pretty incredible."
Do you have any new projects?
"None. I am just reading at the moment. I am not sure what to do next."
But you are going to be racing, right?
"Always racing! (This last question elicited a wide smile from the actor whose passion in life is car racing. He directed a 2009 documentary called Love the Beast, which was about a 1974 Ford XB Falcon Hardtop car that he bought when he was 15 years old.)"
Deliver Us From Evil is now showing in theaters.
xxx
Raymond Lo
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