(Laughs)

You know, what’s funny I actually felt this pressure early on because he and I are best friends in this movie and I thought, “I am going to get some serious hate mail from Mewes’ fans.” Because I do not want to be the guy who steps into Jason Mewes’ thing and ruins this buddy feel.

But, thankfully, my character couldn’t be further from Mewes. I play a guy that’s anal retentive, a little high strung…so I don’t think people will be drawing too many comparisons between me and Jason anytime soon.

So, when is this movie eventually going to come out? I saw the trailer and it said this spring.

You know, I heard from Susannah and I talked with Kevin, I think the movie, for one reason or another, Sony is resituating the film so that Jennifer [Garner] can promote it when she’s still not working on Alias which will be around January of 2007. It’s just one of those things. Everyone I talk to…Kevin said, “You know who this sucks for? This sucks for Sam because we all have careers.”

(Laughs)

All I can say is one of the first jobs I got when I came out to LA was that I was cast in TRAFFIC.

Really? I didn’t see you attributed in the credits…

And the reason is because I was cut out of the movie.

Here was this movie where I thought, “This is a great stepping stone for me!” I was feeling pretty big in my britches and I went to the premiere to with my girlfriend and I’m sitting in the theater and…my scene passes. And I lean over to my girlfriend and I said, “That was the scene I was in.” She went, “That one?!” And it kind of dawned on her that I wasn’t in the scene she had just seen and she just kind of held my hand as my ego was horribly deflated.

Tell me, honestly, what was it like to just see that happen before your eyes? You could play it cool and tell me “It just happens” but really…

Yeah, I was torn. I think a lot of times in life, at least for me, when I start to feel really confident, there’s some higher being, some presence, call it what you will, that comes down and smites me and I…had been smoten. It’s just a way that keeps me from taking any role, or opportunity, for granted. There’s so many variables that go into making a movie and being a part of it that it’s just about being thankful for what you have.

Is that what keeps you going?

Yeah.

This is just an unusual job. On the one hand, I’ve never waited around for the phone to ring, I do work hard for these slim opportunities, these auditions…and my job essentially is auditioning, it’s not acting. It’s going into a room and trying to sell people on the fact that I am the guy they need to be in their product. That can be a very dangerous position to be in because you’re constantly trying to build yourself up and pat yourself on the back…I compare it, like I do to my brother back in Ohio, I’ve come up with an analogy: It’s like going in for a job interview with the perfect company, and you really feel this company is going to go some places and that you can climb the ladder and all these wonderful things…and you go in and you feel great about it and you leave and you start talking to your family about how this could be the best job in the world and you find out you don’t get it. Then, if you can, imagine that 50 times a year. It can be…no wonder actors can be so precious, so silly, because they’ve had to go through some really ridiculous things.

I am sure actors, all up the ladder, can tell you stories of being…insulted or cut down in certain ways.

But, it’s what I do, I’m not complaining about it, I’m really fortunate to be where I am, it’s just a process. I went on an audition yesterday and I got so attached to it because your mind starts racing about where it could lead you, what this could do for you or how you could better the film or role and then it’s gone. You don’t hear back from those people and then you start to think, “Am I good?” Yeah, we actors have such a strange sense, need for approval. I think it runs through all of us. It’s such a balancing act with telling yourself that it’s ok and being ok with realizing that the most important thing is our family, our friends and that what we do is not who we are.

Is your girlfriend an actress?

She is. She’s actually starring in a film that I am directing this summer.

What’s it about?

It’s called TAKE ME HOME. A woman gets into a taxi cab in New York and convinces the driver to take her across the United States. In the process, the two form a relationship and the relationship unfurls across the landscape of America.

One of the things that I sort of realized, especially with CATCH AND RELEASE coming out later, was that no one was going to give me these opportunities. People sit around in this city and wait for these opportunities to come to them. Even producers wait for a magic number, like people are all shooting for a budget. “If we can just get this money, we can make this film.” “If we can just get this star we can make this film.”

One of the things I found so interesting about working with Kevin is that I think he has a certain distaste for stars because they can come in and the movie comes about them as opposed to the script which should always be the most important thing about the film. You always have to serve the script and anybody who comes into the process should serve the script. And so, this movie, instead of shooting for a budget we are going to shoot for a date. So, when August 1st rolls around whether we have $5,000 or $500,000 we are going to shoot this movie. There’s no excuses now. It was a really important decision for me to make. I’m just sort of bulldozing and I am going to try and make the best movie I can by the time we start rolling film or shooting digital and it’s a really exciting process.

Did you ask Kevin for any advice?

Yeah, I’m going to sit down soon and talk to him about it but like the example he set, after CATCH AND RELEASE he said, “You know, I told Susannah, ‘Five million.’ That’s the budget.’ You make a five million dollar movie, it’s the perfect amount of money. You tell people, ‘Listen, it’s a good script, just be a part of it…” And that’s something he should be proud of because people are coming to that movie because they believe in Kevin and they are obviously huge fans of CLERKS.

And I will say this, this is another thing I love about that guy, is that when CLERKS II started he invited me to a pre-shooting party at his house and everyone had nametags and everyone was getting to know one another and that’s the way he has kind of built up his community. The people that love Kevin Smith love the fact he allows them a glimpse inside. His fans feel immersed in what he does and that is true. Everyone down the line feels like they are a part of making a movie and I respect that wholeheartedly. So, I am putting together my team for TAKE ME HOME and I am just utilizing that lesson I learned from Kevin.

We’re in the process of shooting it back in Ohio, pulling resources from the college I went to, trying to put people up in dorms, doing whatever we can to save money and still make it look like a 5 million dollar picture. Part of the process is also getting people who love the script, who believe in my abilities and are willing to go along for the ride.

Are you rearranging your schedule to make room for this project?

Yeah, yeah. I get too immersed in the process of making a movie that I have to remember that, “Oh, I get PAID to be an actor. Oh, that’s where the money comes from.” But, pilot season is underway and I am trying to give a lot of time to that as well but my heart has always been in film. I feel it’s like Harrison Ford who used to go into auditions where, he was a carpenter at the time, and people were mystified why he was preoccupied. He was like, “I gotta go build a deck in a half an hour. I’ve got to get this deck done today. Let’s hurry this up.” And, I think, as an actor when you give all of your vitality and all of your feelings of worth to another person or another company to a studio you end up kind of soulless and that’s just one thing I am trying to avoid. I am just trying to not let my ego get sacked by a bunch of people who judge me by whether my collar is ironed or not when I walk into the room.

How do you keep that in check? Do you say, “Well, I’ve got to do this,” regardless of the circumstances or is there some wiggle room for you to say, “I don’t have to go along with this”?

I think in talking with you I realize that I’ve never been cast for something where I was trying to force myself to be someone that I’m not.

The roles I’ve gotten are ones where I happen to be confident with who I was when I walked into the room and confident with the job I did when I walked out. That says something. Sometimes I want a part so badly that I want to immerse myself in it and hold it too tightly, as with everything else we want in life, but it shouldn’t be forced.

Thank you very much for your time.

Those soft, rounded globes pierce right through you and, I dare say, they were able to see my soul when I asked her a total of two questions during the press roundtable, which was more like one dude who felt compelled to ask every twit-laden question rocking around in his noggin and not letting anyone else ask anything, and when she looked back and answered my queries with a friendly countenance. Now, most fan boys seem the need to fawn over the notion that Natalie is the embodiment of all their geek wishes and dreams wrapped in this perfectly shaped feminine vessel. Well, she’s obviously more than that but I do admit that I felt a tinge of something very boyish as I managed to work in a question about THE PROFESSIONAL, a quintessential must-see for any person wishing to start on their education when it comes to Ms. Portman.

Even more than that, though, and I have to be honest, I think I was more in awe with the wattage that Joel Silver brought to the table more than anything else. I know the common “cool” thing to do is say his real name is Joel “Fucking” Silver, an moniker born out of homage to the man who made wearing black leather trench coats by every burn-out and overweight, goth wannabe disciple of Neo and Co. so badass, but please. How old is your average writer on most of the movie sites? Grow the hell up. That said, the guy commands a lot of fucking respect. When he talks, he does it so smoothly that you wouldn’t never guess that this man who is speaking no more than 3 feet away from me has been a part of a lot of big movies.

I do, though, have to give a sorry shout-out to the other two dudes there, the director and co-creator of V, who were all but ignored by the billowing amounts of backed-up sperm producers who almost saw their presence as an intrusion as they tried to get Natalie to speak even more.

It was a weird panel, one that would be repeated by the same kind of pole smoking at the Jack Black panel, which kind of freaked me out and I’ll discuss more of that later, but I liked the way things were going with the kinds of things people were asking about the nature of the movie. V FOR VENDETTA has a weird hybrid as the Wachowski brothers were tightly involved in the production, writing and day-to-day operations of the movie. That’s fine with me, though, as the brothers Wacho are a talented duo who needed to get the hell away from THE MATRIX for a while, yeah I liked Monica Bellucci in tight latex rubber but that only goes so far, and get back to making films.

Anyway, enjoy the panel transcription. At the conference was Natalie Portman, Joel Silver, director James McTeigue and producer by Grant Hill.

Natalie, I noticed in the clip that they played you had a British accent. Can you talk a little about that?

Natalie: I worked with a dialect coach, Barbara Berkery, for about a month and a half before we started shooting and she was with me the whole time and we would do exercises every morning before we started. So, I was pretty comfortable with it by the time we shot but it definitely is an extra thing to think about.

If you could, give us an idea of why you brought V FOR VENDETTA to the Comi-Con…

Joel: Well, V FOR VENDETTA comes from a graphic novel, comes from a comic book. So, it’s uniquely suited for this.

Yes, the kinds of things that are associated with this kind of genre, young male, young female, fan base seems to be drawn to Comi-Con. It seems uniquely suited because it is a comic book but it’s a great place to launch something because the viral Internet connection between the convention and the world is enormous. It’s an epidemic. And if something is really cool, and effective, and it works here, people seem to know about that pretty quickly. And I think it is run very well. This is a group that understands what we’ve done. It’s a pleasure to come here, bring everyone here and talk about the product.

The interaction here [at the Con]. You don’t get that at a lot of places. Talk about the kinds of fans you’ve met here…

Natalie: They just seem very passionate about this project, they really seem passionate about the comic book, the film coming out, and they seem united in their passion and I’ve seen it in other places.

Do you find any part of your life that you’re passionate about outside of your career?

Well, I definitely never attended a gathering like this. I mean I love music and I would travel far to see a band I liked if I had the time and cash to do it. Like, if I found myself in the position to do something like that, I would do that.

When you first got the script and you found out that your character is going to be shaved did you think if you would have to put on a skull cap? When did that conversation take place?

The first time I met Larry [Wachowski] and James James McTeigue. They asked me, “Would you shave your head?” And I was like, “Yeah!” Everyone else made such a bigger deal of it than I did.

It seemed the brothers [Wachowski] have done a little more on a movie that they weren’t the directors of. Can you explain the relationship between where the one relationship of producer ended and director began?

Joel: It’s the boys’ vision. No, it’s David Lloyd’s vision. And they [the director and producers of the film] took their vision and crafted a script, which they wrote even before we made THE MATRIX. The first draft they made of V was many many years ago and they came back to it after MATRIX REVOLUTIONS and they wanted to give James the chance to direct the picture. But, they were there. I mean, they were there everyday. They were on the set and they were very involved with the look and the feel of the movie. I mean the movie was directed by James, produced by myself and Grant…

Natalie: I also think that they are the second unit directors, they are also the producers and the writers which is more than most second unit directors so I think, just in that nature, they were a lot more involved than usual. In that respect they gave James the chance to create his own vision and do his own work. It was just they, you know, helped with ideas as writers and producers and second unit directors.

Joel: Grant, why don’t you comment on how they worked together?

Grant: Obviously, there’s a key family group which has developed through THE MATRIX films and into this. Larry and Andy developed a strong relationship with James as well as several other key people involved with the production. It’s very much a symbiotic thing. It’s very hard to sort out where the demarcation lines are, they are very much in it for James to make his movie. As Natalie has said they wrote it, they wrote the screenplay and they were very active in producing it and, fundamentally, want to make a good movie. And they wanted to give James the opportunity to do that.

Boo-yah, here’s question one of two that I was able to ask on my own. Not that anyone cares but I just thought to point that out for my own erudite and shameless reasons

Natalie, Luc Besson to George Lucas. Do you find that when you’re working with a European director versus an American director there are any fundamental differences that inform your performance or technique?

Natalie: I think it’s more an individual difference than a European/American difference. I mean, I worked with a few non-Americans. It’s hard to make generalizations but individual differences…all over the place. It’s very different of how people will direct you, like Luc Besson, like Larry Wachowski, like Anthony Minghella will shout things out to you in the middle of a scene, and there are other directors who will never say a thing. Woody Allen I don’t think ever said anything to me the entire time I worked with him.

(Laughs)

I don’t think he knows I worked with him. But, I think, it’s very individual difference but I think it has to do personality.

In the comic V is a terrorist but he’s also a good guy. How do you handle that in this movie?

James: You say he’s a good guy but he is a good guy, in the one sense, but he is a homicidal maniac. He’s not heroic in the sense that he only kills people that deserve to be killed. He has complete, absolute dedication to wreaking vengeance on people who maybe have changed their ways, who have reformed. He’s not really a good guy and I think that’s kept in the film. He’s very complicated, he’s a great character. I was quite disturbed when the idea of making a Hollywood movie about this guy because it would be so easy to make him a good guy. In fact, he’s not. He’s a very complicated character and he actually has a lot of the traits of the terrorists who wreaked havoc on London. It’s that complication, those nuances that are still in the screenplay and I think that’s very good.

Me again

Joel, you have a penchant for taking ideas and making them big. When I think of big picture, I think of you. When you got the comic book what did you see where you could say, “Oh, I could punch this up right here…”?

I acquired this thing many years ago in the late 80s when I acquired The Watchmen; I had them both and I was not able to hold onto Watchmen but I did hold onto this. I was intrigued by it. When I read it, it was black and white galleys. It hadn’t even come to America. It was just beginning to be seen by people.

I was just intrigued by this incredibly weird society and this story about this guy and this girl. And I thought, “I could make this movie.” And that’s how you do it. It’s almost 20 years later when we’re finally making it but it exited me and I thought we could find a way to make it great. And, when the boys wrote it and, again, it was before they made THE MATRIX, their script was effective but nowhere near as it was when they went back and did it again because it really came to life. It’s a remarkable film. It’s quite thrilling to watch it all come together.

Ditto, Holmes.

Is Watchmen out of your hands now?

It was one of the only DC comics left over at Warner Brothers. I was head of Fox at the time and I acquired it there. So, when I went back to Warners it was gone. And then it moved about town. But, I don’t know. There are now so many pieces of material that tread on Watchmen territory that I don’t know. When it came it out it was a blinding beacon that now it will just seem derivative because so many things have come since it that are based on ideas that are in that book.

Natalie, Now, what do you think of the message in the book?

Natalie: I don’t think necessarily there is a message. That’s part of what David is saying. It’s not a manipulative story that says “This person is the good guy, you should fall in love with him. This is the bad guy…” I mean, you definitely have one who you can probably identify with more but who’s heavily flawed and you can also criticize him more. I think it’s more of a provocative piece than a “This is what is what you should think” piece and trying to make you think, make you criticize, make you object, find faults in someone’s ideology or agree with parts. It’s not black and white and that’s why I liked it. It made me have questions I couldn’t answer or I had different answers to every five minutes and it has continued to be that way for me.

Did you see the script first or did you read the comic book, then the script?

Natalie: I saw the script first. The script had to condense a lot of the sub-plots to make it a film but it is very faithful to the graphic noel. I think that story…things that explore how we define violence is very interesting because we have many categories to how we define violence. Was it intended? Was it state sanctioned or is it individually sanctioned? All these things, we make sort of moral judgments and categorizations. That’s why some of these categorizations are in the eye of the beholder and that’s why some people who watch this will identify with the government and that’s why some people will identify with the revolutionaries. And that sort of openness, that sort of ambiguity, is interesting.

Last one, I swear

Women and the parts for them. It’s fairly common to see women in movies in the subversive roles and this part really has you in the dominant position. Do you find a good mix of interesting roles coming to you?

Natalie: Well, I see a lot of movies that aren’t very interesting for women or for men. And, in terms of things that I do, I have been able to find things that I am interested in and, when I don’t, I like not working.

(Laughs)

But I wouldn’t, like, cry over it if I couldn’t find something interesting. And, if you can’t find something interesting, make something interesting that isn’t movies. There is plenty out there that is interesting that doesn’t involve movies.

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