INTERVIEW WITH JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT CO-STAR MATTHEW GOODE, AND DIRECTOR SCREENWRITER SCOTT FRANK

INT: This is the kind of crime film that doesn’t get made all that often. I’m thinking specifically about films like Memento or A Simple Plan or even Fargo that have come to be called heartland Noir. The Lookout also shares another important aspect of these other films in that you have damaged characters trying to achieve their dreams via cutting all the wrong corners. Scott what was it that attracted you to these elements when writing the The Lookout?

SF: I didn’t really set out to write a heartland film. When you are writing you latch on to the elements that seem strongest to you at the time and it just sort of happened. I had certainly been aware of other films that were sort of in this vein but I tend to write much more from character than say genre or even story. Unless I have really strong characters it’s really difficult for me to write story. Knowing who characters are and how they got here they are is what tells what the story is. And knowing what characters want is a key thing.

INT: Joseph and Matthew what was it about this script that made you want to get involved?

JGL: I think Scott is right. When I’m reading a script I understand right away if the character is clearly written and this was a really strong character. You knew what Chris Pratt wanted right away. It wasn’t stock at all. In my experience I’ve never met anybody who was all good or all bad. People are complicated in the real life and those are the sorts of characters I like to play.

INT: What about you Matthew? We’re you worried about becoming just another stock villain.

MG: Absolutely not. That’s what’s so wonderful about the part of Gary. Like Joe says, people are complicated. I think that’s especially true in Gary’s case. He’s broken rather than just being evil. Most parts I read I encounter one or at the most two-dimensional characters. When you play a character like that you’re always thinking, “Crap, I need business, I need something to do with my hands to disguise the fact that the dialogue gives no indication of what the character is about. But with Scotts script I knew that I could be still and just say my lines.

INT: Without giving it away there’ no doubt the ending of this film is quite different than one might expect?

SF: I think the characters in the film share a central dilemma although the character of Chris Pratt wears it on his sleeve a little more. Sometimes people want the things they want because it’s easier to want those things than face up to what they really need to do. I think what I hoped was that by the end of the film everyone would have been given the opportunity to see not only where they thought they wanted to go but to see how they got where they were at that moment. It’s really about self acceptance.

Without giving too much away I didn’t want Chris Pratt to be “all better” at the end of the film, I didn’t really want his circumstances to change at all. I wanted him to change in other ways that were more important than what job he had, or getting the girl or even having better health or whatever.

JGL: That was important to me as well. Everyone I talked to who had suffered brain injury or worked with people who had suffered them said the same thing, “Oh, you’re makin’ a movie huh? Does he get better at the end?” I’d say, “No.” And they would always say, “Good! We hate movies like that because that’s depressing and it’s bullshit.” The truth is people with these types of injuries are only going to physically heal up to a certain point and then they have to start working on how to deal with that, how to accept themselves. That’s Chris Pratts problem, he can’t forgive himself for what he did and he can’t live in the moment. That’s a real message for our culture because we teach people in so many ways to say to themselves, “My job, my life, my marriage whatever really sucks now but when I get that new job, make more money, get a new wife THEN I’ll be happy. It’s so debilitating.

INT: The theme of forgiveness in this film is really forceful.

SF: It’s funny I believe in accountability but it seems like we have a situation in the world right now where everybody needs someone to hate. No one wants to take responsibility for their own actions; the emphasis is on forcing others, punishing others etc. But self examination seems to be off the table and so it was really rewarding to look back on the organic process of telling this particular story and realizing I’d made a film where the characters went through that process.

And I think you have to be able to forgive yourself before you can move on and forgive others. Guilt and shame contribute nothing to the world unless they lead you to take responsibility for whatever you need to.

INT: Matthew your character deals with this almost as much as Chris does?

MG: Part of the back story I used in creating my character had to do with his relationship with his father. It was clear that Gary wasn’t just some evil little hood he was someone who suffered from a lack of real love or friendships. I mean he wasn’t really friends with anyone in his gang and in his own way he was actually pretty honest with Chris from the get go. You definitely get the sense that doing Chris over bothered Gary. Chris was the closest thing Gary had to a real friend. I think all he really wanted was to go somewhere where he could leave the past behind.

INT: Joseph you seem to have a great eye for picking projects in the last two years we’ve had Mysterious Skin, Brick, before that there was Manic…

JGL: Actually Mysterious Skin and Brick came together within the space of five months. I have been really fortunate to even see a lot of the scripts I have. I mean Scott was going to make Lookout whether I was in or out and I was just lucky he felt I was the right guy for what was, for him, a really personal project. I’d much rather make movies under those circumstances than because…

MG: You’re BIG IN JAPAN. Hot Damn are we gonna sell a lot of soda when this hits the screen!!

JGL: The bottom line is I try only to respond to the really good scripts. Big movie small movie isn’t really important, genre isn’t really important. I’m interested to see what people think of Killshot, and I got to make a film with Mickey Rourke called Stop Loss.

MG: But he’ll work cheap boys!

SF: Both these guys are gonna be way too big to ever work with me again. Anybody who wants ‘em better snap ‘em up now!