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The Guard

Coverage by Nobuhiro Hooki

Story : A vulgar Irish cop (Brendan Gleeson) and a straight-laced American FBI agent (Don Cheadle) uncover police corruption among the former's superiors while probing a drug-trafficking ring.

Opened July 29, 2011 (Limited 7/29)

Runtime:1 hr. 36 min.

 

Interview with Actor Brendan Gleeson, Actor Don Cheadle

 

(Q): How did this film come about for both of you?

(Don Cheadle): This was a movie that came to my attention in the conventional way through my agent. My agent liked the script and they sent it to me and I had the same reaction. I thought it was really great and interesting. My agent told me that they were thinking of casting Brendan for the lead. I've been a big fan of Brendan's for a long time so I just threw my hat into the ring to help in any way I could.

We decided to help John Michael McDonagh and lend credibility to it. I met Brendan in Los Angeles when he won his Golden Globe for TV Movie, "Churchill" and it just kind of snowballed from there. It was a great project that I wanted to be a part of and I'm glad to get the opportunity to do it.

(Brendan Gleeson): Don, I didn't get the Golden Globe. I won the Emmy for "Churchill."

(Don Cheadle): I knew it was one of them! (LOL)

(Brendan Gleeson): I was with John for "In Bruges" at the Golden Globes and Martin and his brother. We chatted about several things, "The Guard" being one of them. So he sent me the script and after I heard that Don would be involved, I just thought this would be made in heaven. I knew I'd get along with Don before I even met him.

I love his work and his work kinda reveals who he is in a kind of a beautiful way. He met which could turn into a nightmare and thank god it wasn't. We read the script together a couple of times and then prepared for the film. Then we waited for Don to arrive in the rain.

(Q): Brendan, you've worked with both McDonagh brothers? How are they to work with? And in what ways are they different and similar to each other?

(Brendan Gleeson): It's two different voices that's for sure. It's a different set and a different world but there's an obvious similarity. The wit has a shared pedigree I think. More than that it's the rigor of their lighting, the velocity of how they approach their shot. I mean John would come up just before we're about to go on something and he'd be right in your face. They both have slightly different ways of working but both have an extraordinary calm.

They both don't go into the project unless everything has been thought through and Don and myself felt the benefits of that for sure. We came along and just explored it. You try to realize what's there and when you start working with other people. That's when you really deal with the humanity between the people, but you always knew what the core target was in the scene because they are both very prepared in what they want.

(Q) : How important was it for both of you that this film wasn't a stereotypical fish out of water story?

(Don Cheadle): For me it was a story that when I was reading the script I was laughing from the first page to the end. All the outrageous things that came out of Boyle's mouth was stuff that was hilarious to me. I thought that everybody gets it from him in the story, there's an equal opportunity slander from him and I love movies like that. Every character has there own sort of bias.

To me, Boyle was the least prejudiced character in the film. He's clearly saying the things he is saying to get a rise out of people that are around him. He's smarter than anyone else. He's literate. He's a cinephile. He knows what's up. I just laughed at hearing those kinds of things and thinking of John actually putting these words down on paper because nobody writes like that. People talk like that all the time and play like that. I mean, I play like that in my life all the time to people that are close to me. I'm glad that someone took all of those taboos on and just put it out there.

(Brendan Gleeson): There's a fearlessness to actually go and do it. I don't think think there's a racist bone in Boyle's body to be honest with you. To play him as the world's biggest asshole was easy and I know it's not the truth of him really. Don and I were talking about this earlier in that you cannot go to a doctor and entrust him with your mother's life. That actual scene was cut back where Boyle talks to the doctor about what's it's like to have somebody nearest and dearest who is dead.

I think Boyle is mischievous. He doesn't reveal everything he's doing but he's a Dublin man so everybody from Dublin may get him. Equal opportunity slander is a good way to say it. Also there's a culture thing that sometimes gets lost in the mix. I don't think it's necessarily an Irish thing but it's just making the other guy think you're dumb. It's quite a good way for people to underestimate you by letting them think you're dumb so their real selves come out. I don't think he's a racist at all but he is very mischievous.

(Q) The movie has a tone unlike any other. Was that tone entirely on the script because you both play off each other and the tone well?

(Don Cheadle): Thank you. I thought it was.

(Brendan Gleeson): I thought it was too.

(Don Cheadle): I really believed that if we were just able to do what's here and if it was cast with believable people. I wasn't concerned about Brendan but if these other roles were believable, grounded, and has a sense of humor and gets the joke.

(Brendan Gleeson): And plays it straight at the same time.

(Don Cheadle): Right, but understands what they're saying, this is going to be great.

(Q): But it's so strange that it works because it's so dark yet it has such a warmth to it.

(Don Cheadle): When you're asking a guy who's sitting there dying and he's saying "There's so many things I want to do, and you reply "What, running with the bulls in Barcelona?" There's no respect there and that's John's dark, wry sense of humor that you get from the very first moment. I mean in the very first moment you see Brendan when the car crashes, he's like "Oh man," and has this angry look of "I don't wanna deal with this shit," I think it just sets it up right away that if you get it from the very beginning, you're gonna get it throughout the film.

(Brendan Gleeson): Yes but the other thing is that the film is not filled with hatred. I think it's important that you can come out with this stuff, it does have a dark side, and you can go there, but there's no malice, hatred, and mean spiritedness at all.

(Don Cheadle): Because if there was, and a friend of mine said this, if Boyle was a clear racist, it wouldn't be funny. A bigot couldn't do this to make it funny. It would be offensive.

(Q): Even the villains were elitists.

(Don Cheadle): Yeah, they were debating nature.

(Q): What was that about?

(Brendan Gleeson): John has a thing of always depicting working class people as really dumb. Nobody ever reads a book. Nobody debates on the core issues of life. So he throws in this stuff and just sees how you get on. He's a great man and a lot of it has to do with his fearlessness. It's where you're not being patronizing. You're not afraid to say "That person wouldn't say that." Every person is capable of saying anything at any given point and he fires as many of those things as he can.

(Q) : Don, your character is supposed to be straightforward and not have a sense of humor. Was it difficult in trying to keep a straight face on set at this with the dialogue you were hearing?

(Don Cheadle): There were a couple of times where I actually laughed because it was so outrageous and I know Brendan. I could see the twinkle in his eye as he's about to say it. It was all fully realized on the page. It was fun for once to play the character that everything's happening to. To be in Ireland, a place I've never been before, and to be in that part of Ireland, which is unlike anyplace else I've ever been in Ireland, to have this fish out of water story, I didn't have to act much.

(Brendan Gleeson): You were definitely a fish all right.

(Don Cheadle): Yeah, the only thing I had to do was act the water part. Everything else was right there. You don't always have a director that is very clear in what they want and John really was so it was just putting myself in his hands.

(Q): Was there anything that you did together in preparation for the relationship the characters had that deviated a little from the script at all?

(Don Cheadle): For me I was already a fan of Brendan before I walked into the room. I know it sounds cliché because you don't always believe that "Oh I walked into the room and we became best of buddies," but we really did. It really took about 45 seconds. I shook his hand, we sat down reading and within a minute we were cracking up.

(Brendan Gleeson): That's when it happens actually. When you get a chance to rehearse the scene, you're in a slightly different place.

(Don Cheadle): Yeah, that's what I felt.

(Brendan Gleeson): But really I think the script was the bond, wasn't it?

(Don Cheadle): Yeah it really was.

(Brendan Gleeson): The script was clear and our understanding of it was I think on such a level in terms of being on the same level, it was so easy. We didn't have to think about it that much really.

(Don Cheadle): Definitely.

(Q): Thank you both and best of luck with "The Guard."

(Brendan Gleeson): You're welcome.

(Don Cheadle): My pleasure.

End.