They may not make them like they used to, but Robert Duvall is still optimistic about the future of movies.
“There’s still room for all kinds of films. Going into the 21st century, this is such an in-medium that you’re getting all kinds of people to do it — African Americans, Spanish — it’s open to all,” Duvall told a capacity crowd at a showing Thursday night of his acclaimed new drama “Get Low,” part of TheWrap's ongoing Academy Screening Series.
Unlike other actors of his generation who mourn the passage of the decade when “Easy Riders” and “Raging Bulls” took over the studios, Duvall said he believes that film’s future is bright.
“What’s been pushed to the outside can still be seen by the public, and the public can benefit,” Duvall said.
In fact, the Oscar winner mentioned one movie that is even better today than four decades ago, when he first rose up the acting ranks with memorable roles in screen classics such as “The Godfather,” “Apocalypse Now,” and “The Great Santini”: the Coen Brothers' remake of “True Grit.” The actor played Ned Pepper in the 1969 original, squaring off against John Wayne.
(Duvall pictured right with "Get Low" director Aaron Schneider, TheWrap's Dominic Patten and producer Dean Zanuck; all photographs by Jonathan Alcorn.)
“The old guys were more authoritarian,” Duvall said. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen the first one, but I think maybe this ‘True Grit’ is a little better.”
Though Duvall is optimistic about the current state of cinema, he said getting a movie like “Get Low,” a low-budget, Southern flavored drama that tackles issues of guilt and redemption, was no easy task.
“It’s sometimes easier to raise $100 million than it is to raise $10 million,” Duvall said. “[“Get Low”] definitely would have fit in during the moviemaking era of the '70s, which was a rich time. It’s definitely outside the Establishment now.”
When it came to “Get Low” — which tells the story of a hermit living in the Depression-era south who decides to throw himself a funeral party — Duvall was so impressed with the concept that he stayed with the project for years while it struggled to find financing.
For the actor, the film provided a nice bookend to the parts he played in movies such as “Tender Mercies” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” that center on the lives of common people in rural settings.
“It was a combination of Faulkner and Horton Foote,” Duvall said. “When they came to my farm and told me about it, I said, ‘Anyone who sets up and goes to his own funeral, that’s a pretty good part to play.'”
Duvall’s familiarity with the Southern setting was essential, because despite the over five years it took to raise the financing, the production was shot in a whirlwind 24 days. So economical was the shoot that Duvall was able to nail his pivotal funeral speech — the emotional crux of the movie — in a single take.
“It was surreal. When it came time to film, it was like a gun went off. In just a few weeks it was all over,” Aaron Schneider, the film’s director, told the audience. “These people are extremely accomplished actors and when they show up you have this gypsy gang trying to make the best movie you can.”
The script was essential in attracting Duvall, Schneider and the film’s producer, Dean Zanuck, to the off-beat project and guiding them through the emotional terrain.
“I come from a family of producers, and they always instructed me to keep an eye on story,” said Zanuck, whose grandfather Daryl F. Zanuck and father Richard Zanuck are responsible for films such as “The Longest Day” and “Jaws.”
In crafting Felix Bush, the hermit at the heart of "Get Low," Duvall drew on the same understated process that has made him one of the greatest naturalistic film actors in cinema history.
“You go after a character in an intuitive way and you find those moments between action and cut and then go after the role in a sincere way,” Duvall said. “The truth is that acting is all about talking and listening. It’s as simple as that.”
For Duvall, whether he’s playing a reculse like Felix or a butcher like Joseph Stalin in the 1992 television movie “Stalin,” it's about finding the moments of vulnerability in a role. It’s a process that he learned as an actor in 1960s New York, when he roomed with Dustin Hoffman in a railroad apartment at 107th and Broadway and was close friends with Gene Hackman.
“If we mentioned Brando’s name once, we did it 25 times a day,” Duvall said. “I was more bonded to them then. I don’t see those guys anymore.”
In fact, Duvall noted that Hackman never responded to an email he wrote him during the filmming of “Crazy Heart” in New Mexico, where Hackman has a home.
One relationship that did stand the test of time was the one Duvall had with the playwright and screenwriter Foote, who helped get Duvall cast in his big screen adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and wrote “Tender Mercies,” which earned the actor an Academy Award.
Thus it was somewhat bittersweet that Foote died before the filming of “Get Low” was completed. In fact Duvall’s wife received the news while the actor was rehersing the climactic funeral speech scene.
“I told him that I wanted him to see this because it reminded me of his writing, so it was full circle. It was like he was there,” Duvall said.
