Brotherly Love: Q&A With Casey Affleck

By Angie Argabrite

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Casey Affleck has long been overshadowed by the celebrity of his big brother, Ben. But in two new films, the younger Affleck is working with -- and outshining -- not just his more famous sibling, but also Brad Pitt, a star whose light is so bright one can almost imagine the heat emanating from magazine covers and paparazzi shots (and for whom Casey professes his extreme admiration). Casey co-stars with Pitt in 'The Assassination of Jesse James' (in theaters now) as the slightly creepy stalker-cum-sidekick wannabe whose obsession with James' notoriety leads to a sad end for both men, and headlines Ben's directorial debut, 'Gone, Baby, Gone,' (opens Oct. 19) a crime thriller based on a novel by Dennis Lehane ('Mystic River'). Casey's getting glowing reviews for both films, and with awards talk buzzing around him, the busy young husband and father (one boy, August, with wife, actress Summer Phoenix, with another on the way) is finally stepping out of the shadows -- and isn't it about time?

Moviefone: Hello
Casey Affleck: Hi, this is Brad Pitt

MF: Oh, there must be some mistake. We were supposed to be talking to Casey Affleck.
CA: He's busy.

MF: [Laughs] I think this is Casey.
CA: Right. Where are you?

MF: I'm in New York. Where are you?
CA: Austin, Texas. They're doing a special event here for the movie. Don't ask me why. We did the junket and we've done 45 junkets. We did them in Venice, then in Deauville, Toronto, New York, but now this is just a special one-time phone call to you.

MF: Is this your very last press for the movie?
CA: Probably not, but it's winding down.

MF: Okay, well I want to say congratulations to you on your upcoming baby.
CA: Aw, thanks.

MF: Around when is the baby due?
CA: 2009

MF: [Pause] Wow, I feel sorry for your wife!
CA: That was a great pause. Sometime in the early coming year.

MF: Have you had any sympathy cravings? Or sympathy pregnancy symptoms?
CA: Not really. I mean if she doesn't sleep well, I don't sleep well. That's about it. But she doesn't get a lot of cravings. And she looks beautiful.

MF: I saw a photo from Toronto and she does. You just have so many great things happening for you right now. You have the baby and then you have these two movies that are coming out and they are getting such good reviews, such good buzz on them. Are you paying much attention to the awards talk, I'd say Oscar but ... ?
CA: No, I try not to. I just don't think it's ... God there are so many of them. I try not to pay attention to them when I don't have anything going on so why should I pay any more attention now? It's really nice that people kinda respond to the movie and the performances in the movie. I've been in a lot of movies where that's not the case and so it's a nice change. When you work really hard on something, it feels good to have people see it and be moved by it or want to talk about it or something. It's not a bad thing at all .

MF: Did Ben give you any advice about what to do around the awards buzz? Have you talked about that at all?
CA: No, we haven't.

MF: Let's talk about 'Jesse James.' Before the movie, or since you got the movie, did you read up a lot on the era or on those characters...?
CA: Well, you know there's not a lot of information available about Robert Ford. There's a lot available about Jesse and the gang and Frank and different things. But Robert Ford for one reason or another has just remained sort of a mystery and his life is pretty much undocumented. He wrote a couple letters to the governor after the assassination and there's this one famous photograph of him, there's another very bad photograph of him that's difficult to make out at some hotel he owned in Colorado later on in life. But no one can say for sure when he was born, they don't know a lot about him. I had to approach it as I would a fictional character with the help of this one photograph and a very detailed character study that's in the book and in the screenplay. Through the guidance of ['James' director Andrew Dominik] ... I mean he lived the movie and all the characters and he really has that incredible ability to get into the mind of 30 different people, to talk about the way they might be feeling in a scene -- and it's not something all directors can do -- and then to give very helpful direction, to articulate some unusual but good choices for the actors to make. That is what I had to work with, that and kind of 2,000 hours staring at a wall, just thinking about who he was and how to play him.

MF: 2,000 hours?
CA: Well, 1,900 hours.

MF: Okay, yeah, I thought that was a bit much. The performances overall are really great in the movie. So I understand what you are saying about the director. He got really good and completely different performances from the whole cast. Could you relate to Robert Ford in any way?
CA: Definitely. I don't think you could play a character if you can't relate to them in some way. I fell in love with him in a weird way. I think that was the case of Ron Hansen, the author of the novel, as well. I talked to him last night at the premiere in New York. And he kinda said the same thing. And I said that's how I felt. He was just a kid who felt misunderstood and acted in this one moment of petulancy. He made a mistake. A mistake that he couldn't ever disentangle himself from. It just became like one mistake led to another and to another, just a series of things that created this web that he couldn't get out of. After he killed Jesse James, he lived the rest of life in a real dignified way. By the few accounts that there were, he didn't devolve into a violent or bitter criminal, he wasn't a murderer, he wasn't a violent guy. He's pretty incredible actually because his life was ruined by that one act, and he just carried on and for the next 12, 10 years, trying to get away from it. People never ever let him live it down.

MF: Did you and Brad do anything off camera to establish the awkward dynamic that you have in the film?
CA: I don't know. Those things are kind of unspoken. You don't even know if you were imagining it or if it was happening or what but months go by and you have a new relationship with the person and you ask what part comes from the characters and what part comes from working with someone. I think that Brad is an amazing person. I think it's obvious to most people what some of the things are that are incredible about him. Getting to spend so much time with him reinforced my great admiration for him. I don't know how he does it. So many things going on and he's the most prepared person on set, the most professional. He's always surprising you with the choices he makes, always taking risks, and always doing something really exceptional so he's also this ... he just has that thing ... I've been in the room with Michael Jordan and Bill Clinton and they just have this energy, kinda larger than life inner presence. He has that and that was helpful and for me playing this role, that was a part of what was going on. Bob Ford was so uncomfortable around this person that he wanted to be comfortable with. Brad has that in spades and he always uses it in a positive way, and I can't remember what your question was anymore.

MF: Yeah I don't either. Oh, it was if you guys did anything off camera to establish the...
CA: Oh, so off camera, all of which I described was going on, what else did we do. I learned a lot from him, as an actor, a person. He's really an inspiration.

MF: Did you go for this role or did the director approach you? How did that happen?
CA: I went after the role. I had seen 'Chopper', read the [Ron Hansen] novel, read the script and met the director. Then they told me Brad was doing it, Roger Deacon was shooting it and I just thought this is going to be an incredible movie so I pursued it. Doing what you can do. Audition ... and that's what I did, just audition.

MF: In 'Gone, Baby, Gone,' you had Ben as your director, was that easier or harder, or how different... from having a director who isn't your brother?
CA: I'm not avoiding the question, but it just didn't factor in. It made some things a little bit easier and I can't think of anything in any way that was harder, you know actor/director relationship is sort of by nature contentious. One person is trying to get the other person to do something. And the other person is trying to get the other person to see something else. There's an element of that. It's always a little bit ... What was great about having Ben as a director was that we kind of felt very comfortable having those conservations, that might have to be handled a little more delicately. We are very comfortable disagreeing and when we agree, it's very productive because I know exactly what he means, what he is saying. And I'd say I know exactly what you are talking about, I agree with you, let's do it like this, and oh great let's do it like that. You can gather momentum very quickly when you have a shared history and a common language and that was great. Doing a movie, you can get really close to people since you are spending so much time with them and you are fighting with them, laughing and working, playing, and that always creates strong relationships, positive or negative, and always strong feelings. But then there's brotherhood for 32 years, with a movie it wasn't really going to change much. Even if it's an intense experience, it's just kind of a drop in the bucket.