Interview with Liev Schreiber on "Everything is Illuminated"
Page 2
Liev Schreiber on Shooting Half of "Everything is Illuminated" in Russian: ?I?m a big fan of Emir Kusturica?s movies and what I think he always accomplishes with such specificity is the credibility of place and character. I think it?s very important in a film like this, particularly because it?s a stranger in a strange land story, basically, that place has to be really wonderful and credible.
For me that meant hiring real people, as many as I possibly could and letting them speak their language. It was more important to me that they felt and looked real than that they were actors, which I think was rather naïve. But I think it worked for me. It really, really worked for me.
It took much longer because I had a hard time communicating with them. When I eventually did communicate, then you had to deal with the vertical learning curve of acting, which none of them had done before really. Not none of them. Some of them were actors, but the majority of them were not.
I just think there is something about human beings, we are intuitive about people. We know if they are who they say they are. If it?s a really great actor, there is a suspension of disbelief. But when it?s the person, it?s truly powerful - to me, at least. You see by the dirt under someone?s fingernails, by the color of someone?s teeth, by the redness of the skin. You know they are real. You can hear it in their voices.?
Liev Schreiber on Casting Elijah Wood: ?Elijah is amazing and he grew up making films. He has an incredible vocabulary of film. He knows what?s going on, always. He?s very, very aware of the camera, marks, the needs of the day, and the schedule. He?s very, very proficient and he?s very, very professional. That was a bonus because I had to spend so much time with the other actors, I needed someone who could figure out what?s going on and find his place.
The reason I hired Elijah is because Jonathan [Safran Foer, the novelist] and I started talking about this movie in the fall of 2001, right after September 11th. I had been working in Europe a lot and was hearing a lot of frustrating and derogatory things about Americans. Not that I had really identified with being an American, but when you find yourself abroad you realize, ?Oh, I am American.? And it becomes acute. I don?t blame them because I think for the most part they were responding to the media that we inundate them with. The clichés and notions about who we are as a people really are ludicrous! Unfortunately, our government and our media doesn?t truly represent us culturally.
So what I was very interested in, and part of why I loved Jonathan?s book and part of what I was looking for in a lead actor, was someone who could present an image of Americans that broke some of the stereotypes and the molds. I felt at this time in our history the most important thing that we could present was a character who was vulnerable, who was flawed, who was open, who was nostalgic, who was defeatable, but more importantly than anything, looking for his own history beyond the boundaries of his own country. Part of what had moved me so much about Jonathan?s book, particularly in the shadow of September 11th, was the recognition, the awareness of the idea that the oceans are not that wide and historically we are much closer than we know. There is a short term memory to history in America and if you go to Europe, you realize that the war was fought on European soil so the people have a more acute sense of history.
In America, part of the ideology is most Americans are Eastern Europeans and Latin American and Asian. What?s an American? It?s an immigrant. Part of the ideology and the philosophy of this country, and I?m not saying it?s a bad one, in fact it?s a very effective one - it?s probably why we?re the number one economy in the world - is that we come here and we reinvent ourselves. What I liked about Jonathan?s book, to homogenize with the American nature, is at a certain point it asks you what is the cost of not knowing your history? One of the costs that became prescient to me after September 11th is we feel no connection to another country. In fact, there is a kind of continental sociopathy that develops.
I love the idea of a white Ukrainian kid who is obsessed with Black American culture and a neurotic American kid who is obsessed with nostalgic Eastern European culture. There is a future in those two. There?s a future there. For me, there is a kind of openness and sweetness in the American that I don?t think people in the rest of the world have been exposed to as an element in our character. I don?t think anyone embodies that better than Elijah Wood.?
Page 3:Liev Schreiber on His Personal Journey and His Future as a Director
Liev Schreiber on Shooting Half of "Everything is Illuminated" in Russian: ?I?m a big fan of Emir Kusturica?s movies and what I think he always accomplishes with such specificity is the credibility of place and character. I think it?s very important in a film like this, particularly because it?s a stranger in a strange land story, basically, that place has to be really wonderful and credible.
For me that meant hiring real people, as many as I possibly could and letting them speak their language. It was more important to me that they felt and looked real than that they were actors, which I think was rather naïve. But I think it worked for me. It really, really worked for me.
It took much longer because I had a hard time communicating with them. When I eventually did communicate, then you had to deal with the vertical learning curve of acting, which none of them had done before really. Not none of them. Some of them were actors, but the majority of them were not.
I just think there is something about human beings, we are intuitive about people. We know if they are who they say they are. If it?s a really great actor, there is a suspension of disbelief. But when it?s the person, it?s truly powerful - to me, at least. You see by the dirt under someone?s fingernails, by the color of someone?s teeth, by the redness of the skin. You know they are real. You can hear it in their voices.?
Liev Schreiber on Casting Elijah Wood: ?Elijah is amazing and he grew up making films. He has an incredible vocabulary of film. He knows what?s going on, always. He?s very, very aware of the camera, marks, the needs of the day, and the schedule. He?s very, very proficient and he?s very, very professional. That was a bonus because I had to spend so much time with the other actors, I needed someone who could figure out what?s going on and find his place.
The reason I hired Elijah is because Jonathan [Safran Foer, the novelist] and I started talking about this movie in the fall of 2001, right after September 11th. I had been working in Europe a lot and was hearing a lot of frustrating and derogatory things about Americans. Not that I had really identified with being an American, but when you find yourself abroad you realize, ?Oh, I am American.? And it becomes acute. I don?t blame them because I think for the most part they were responding to the media that we inundate them with. The clichés and notions about who we are as a people really are ludicrous! Unfortunately, our government and our media doesn?t truly represent us culturally.
So what I was very interested in, and part of why I loved Jonathan?s book and part of what I was looking for in a lead actor, was someone who could present an image of Americans that broke some of the stereotypes and the molds. I felt at this time in our history the most important thing that we could present was a character who was vulnerable, who was flawed, who was open, who was nostalgic, who was defeatable, but more importantly than anything, looking for his own history beyond the boundaries of his own country. Part of what had moved me so much about Jonathan?s book, particularly in the shadow of September 11th, was the recognition, the awareness of the idea that the oceans are not that wide and historically we are much closer than we know. There is a short term memory to history in America and if you go to Europe, you realize that the war was fought on European soil so the people have a more acute sense of history.
In America, part of the ideology is most Americans are Eastern Europeans and Latin American and Asian. What?s an American? It?s an immigrant. Part of the ideology and the philosophy of this country, and I?m not saying it?s a bad one, in fact it?s a very effective one - it?s probably why we?re the number one economy in the world - is that we come here and we reinvent ourselves. What I liked about Jonathan?s book, to homogenize with the American nature, is at a certain point it asks you what is the cost of not knowing your history? One of the costs that became prescient to me after September 11th is we feel no connection to another country. In fact, there is a kind of continental sociopathy that develops.
I love the idea of a white Ukrainian kid who is obsessed with Black American culture and a neurotic American kid who is obsessed with nostalgic Eastern European culture. There is a future in those two. There?s a future there. For me, there is a kind of openness and sweetness in the American that I don?t think people in the rest of the world have been exposed to as an element in our character. I don?t think anyone embodies that better than Elijah Wood.?
Page 3:Liev Schreiber on His Personal Journey and His Future as a Director