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The Rice Thresher
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Dalton Tomlin thresher staff David Morse is one of the most familiar supporting actors in films today. He is probably most recognized for his role as prison guard Brutus Howell in The Green Mile, but he has also had parts in Twelve Monkeys, The Rock, Contact and The Negotiator. In the critically acclaimed Dancer in the Dark, currently in theaters, Morse plays Bill, a police officer who rents a house to Selma (BjUrk). The Thresher recently asked Morse some questions about his latest film.
Thresher: How did you get involved with Dancer in the Dark - did they contact you, or vice versa? Morse: They contacted me - apparently when [director] Lars [von Trier] was doing Breaking the Waves, my name had come up for that. The producer had kind of pushed my name around a little bit while they were casting it, but obviously that didn't work. But when they were doing Dancer in the Dark, she brought my name up again, and I started catching wind of a musical. I didn't know it was Lars. I just had heard that there was a musical that may be coming my way. That was pretty cool, because nobody really thinks of me in those terms. And then I eventually got the script after hearing that it was Lars, and I got excited that it was Lars. And when I read it, I didn't really want to do it. There were just things in it that I didn't believe, and I didn't know how he was going to really be able to tell that story - forget the music, just how to tell that story. And it was partly me being a parent that I didn't like the character [Bill]. I really didn't like the character, I didn't really want to do him. And my manager encouraged me to call Lars and talk to him, which I did, and I'm very glad I did. And now that I've seen the film, I just think it's great. Any doubts that I had, he just answered in spades in the way he told the story.
Thresher: Compared to film, what was it like shooting with digital video, especially in that musical number that had the 100 cameras all rolling at once? Morse: Those numbers were very different than the experience with the single digital camera. The 100 cameras were actually really cool, because you could go through the whole event - there was no stopping it, there were no close-ups. Actually, I'm going to say that the single camera was similar, but there was no crew present. There was no camera in your face, they were all hidden. So really you were just getting to go through the whole event, like you might on stage, from beginning to end. It was really a very moving experience to do that number, and also to watch it. I actually went out and watched the day that they were filming the number on the train, and to watch it was one of my favorite theatrical moments of my life. None of us have ever experienced or seen anything like that, that kind of shooting. _ And with a digital camera you could just keep going: With a film camera, you run out of film, you're very aware that the film costs a lot of money. But with tape, you could just keep going and going and going, improvising. You could do anything, it was a freedom to do anything. And especially with Lars - Lars became kind of another character in the scene with that camera - so I was improvising with him as well as improvising with the people in the scene.
Thresher: How do you respond to critics especially and people in general who just flat-out hate the movie? Because it really does seem to be splitting them down the middle. Morse: I've heard that there's some critics who completely dismiss it, and I think that's too bad. I've heard of other critics, one in particular, who has decided to go and see it three times before he writes his review because he feels it's important enough to really give it that chance. If somebody's going to do that and they still don't like it, God bless 'em - what I appreciate is that they've given it that chance, taken it seriously.
Thresher: What was it like working with BjUrk? As she and Lars von Trier have stated, she's not an actress at all. Morse: Lars felt that an actress should be able to distance herself from the role a little bit, and he felt that BjUrk had to live through it too much, and I think that's the reason he thinks that she's not really an actress. And I just don't agree - I think she had the real instincts of how to bring a character to life, and she just went really deep for it. There's the scene where she has to take the gun on me when she'd never even lifted a gun in her life, never held a gun. It was very disturbing for her to have to do that. But I think if she wanted another character [i.e., acted in another film], even though she says she won't do it, [with] the experience she had here and the instincts she has for bringing a character to life, I think she would find and people would find she's much more of an actress than anybody believes.
Thresher: If I had to guess, as far as comparing people, I'd probably say Lars von Trier is like Orson Welles, in the sense that they both want to be in control of everything, mainly because they know the material they're working with is great and only they can do it justice, and from what I've heard they're maybe a little ego-driven as well. What are your thoughts on von Trier in general, and are there any other directors you've worked with or know of that you think he's like? Morse: I think actually he's closer to Sean Penn than most of the other directors I've worked with. Almost every director I've worked with, with only a couple of exceptions, is very ego-driven. I think that's part of the way that they get films made - it kind of needs that force. Lars is actually much too Buddhist in his nature to be compared to Orson Welles. I don't have a great sense of his ego on the set - he's not forcing himself on anybody, he's not imposing himself, imposing his will in any way, he's not having to command the set in any sense of being this great commander, a big personality that some people need to be. It may be just because it's a very small film community there in Denmark, and he's been at the center of it for so long, he doesn't need to do that kind of thing. One of the things he says when things go wrong is, "That's a gift," which is a great way of looking at things - it's a very positive way. Whatever goes wrong, you take it in and use it for something better, and I don't imagine someone like Orson Welles doing that. [Welles and directors like him are] just too locked into their traditions and making everything bend to their will.
Thresher: You're probably best known for supporting roles in The Green Mile and The Negotiator. Is that something you're comfortable with or aim for, or do you want to try more lead roles? Morse: Well, The Green Mile, that's not a bad one to be remembered for, and The Negotiator turned out to be a pretty decent film and it was a great cast to be a part of. In terms of if I'm uncomfortable being remembered for supporting roles rather than leading roles, no, I don't think so. It's not that I wouldn't like to have access to more of those bigger roles, not so much because they're the bigger roles, just because they're sometimes more interesting. They get to be a more complete human being, and the supporting roles aren't always as complete as the central role.
Thresher: I don't want to get too political, but both The Green Mile and Dancer in the Dark are, on one level, against capital punishment. Do you agree with that sentiment, and if so, does that factor into your decision to be in these films? Morse: It didn't factor into them at all. I think with Dancer in the Dark, I think it's clearly anti-capital punishment, [and Lars] feels very strongly against it. The Europeans - it's not just him - a lot of people in this world think that there's something wrong with our country that we have capital punishment. And The Green Mile - [director] Frank Darabont and Stephen King have both said that that is not at all their intention with telling that story, being anti-capital punishment. I don't know how you could watch it and not feel that way, but that was not their intention in telling that story. [The films] do reflect my feeling about it and sentiment about it.
Thresher: You just finished up Proof of Life with Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan? Morse: That's right, it's coming out at Christmas. Thresher: How did that go? Morse: It's potentially a really terrific film. It was a very difficult one to make for a lot of different reasons, but it was another one that had a really good script. I don't play a law guy in this one, I just play a different character, which I was glad to do.
Thresher: Anything else on the horizon? Morse: No, there's nothing else on the horizon at the moment. The full text of this interview can be found at www.ricethresher.org.
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