MICHAEL PITT
   AND
   BRADY CORBET
  (FUNNY GAMES)

In their short careers, both Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet have already established themselves as veteran actors with an impressive list of directors they have worked for. In the case of FUNNY GAMES, both were up to the challenge of playing two sadistic men who torture a family in a suburban home.

For Michael Pitt, at the age of 26, he has already worked with some of the best in the business, getting his break in Bernardo Bertolucci's THE DREAMERS and is best known for his Kurt Cobain-like portrayal of Blake in Gus Van Sant's LAST DAYS.

Brady Corbet, at only 19, started in the critically lauded THIRTEEN and has worked on Gregg Araki's MYSTERIOUS SKIN and also had a recurring spot on the TV show 24.

To promote FUNNY GAMES, the two were paired together to speak to a roundtable of reporters, including the Crypt, to discuss the making of this film, working with Michael Haneke, and the hopes and fears of the audience's reaction to the controversy of the film.

How was it working with Michael Haneke on this film? Was he difficult on you being it was a shot for shot remake?

MICHAEL PITT: He was difficult but he’s really smart so I didn’t feel that it was unjustified. I knew that going in though. That was something that with Michael, I would’ve been in hell if I didn’t know that that was the way that he was going to work. I knew going in that it was going to be like that. I did a work session with him and I could tell that some directors are very free and some directors are very specific. It seemed like doing a play, that relationship with the director, when you do a play.

Did you see the original before you worked on this film?

MP: I saw it once.

BRADY CORBET: I’ve seen it a few times.

How did you both read your characters and prepare for them?

BC: They are characters without a past or a future. They have no back story. They are a device. At least for me they are nothing more than a device. I think it ultimately came down to not being true or organic; it was more about being successfully manipulative, charming, and charismatic.

Was that harder for you?

BC: In a controlled environment like that, it was very, very easy to be charismatic if you have the right dialogue and the right captain. It’s much more difficult to be in Tim, Devon, and Naomi’s shoes. They were a wreck every day. Tim in particular had a pretty tough time. He has kids so he had a very rough time.

MP: I didn’t come up with a back story and I never analyzed why Paul was doing what he was doing. I wasn’t sure I was going to do it that way and then I decided that based on what Michael Haneke was telling me that I shouldn’t analyze what I was doing. In a weird way, it really freed me.

Did you both see your characters as one being a leader, in this sense Paul?

BC: Absolutely, it’s like Laurel and Hardy. It’s like Paul’s in the motorcycle and Peter’s in the sidecar in a way. For me, I found it very interesting. I tried to convey in a subtle way a sense of knowing. I didn’t want to be a genuine goofball or clumsy but I wanted it to feel exact, like when I drop the cell phone in the sink, I know what I’m doing.

How would compare Michael Haneke’s direction from other directors?

MP: Every director is different and they all have different styles. I’ve worked with directors who were very specific and their direction was very high, they gave a lot of direction. The one thing about Michael that I think is interesting is that he has a reason for everything he’s asking you. If you challenge it, he will discuss it but he has a clear idea of what he wants with reasons why. There are directors who direct high but then when you challenge it, they crumble. They can’t back up what they’re asking.

Michael, how did he find you for the role?

MP: I wasn’t looking for a project. I wasn’t interested in working in film at that time, but I had a friend called me and he suggested I check it out. I made a phone call and originally they said that they didn’t want to do an audition because I didn’t have dark hair so I thought that was fine. Then time passed and they had trouble finding someone. I had lunch with Michael and then we did a work session and then I got the part.

Was there rehearsal before shooting?

MP: I rehearse all the time when I get a role.

Brady, how did you get the role of Peter and how did you meet Haneke?

BC: I met Haneke for the first time at the Egyptian theater in Hollywood about six years ago. When I found out he was making a film in the States, this was before he was remaking his own film, and since I was a fan of his, I made a lot of phone calls and asked to be put in a room with that guy again. I would do anything for the film. They initially didn’t want to see me because I was too young and I was too skinny.

MP: They were right.

BC: After that I was taking bodybuilding supplements without exercising where you don’t retain water, you just bloat. I wore a little fat suit underneath the shirt. I had a face to match the little pad I had.

How was it working with both Tim Roth and Naomi Watts?

MP: I was really impressed with Naomi. She was a producer on it and she was doing things that I wasn’t really aware of. The way she was able to switch in handling problems, and then also shoot a really difficult scene I think is a real testament to her true ability, and Tim helped me a lot, sometimes when I had a problem and I couldn’t figure it out, he would talk to me because Tim is also a director.

BC: Tim is an incredibly smart man. He’s got a little pit bull in him, this Eastern London thing, but his first film which I saw again recently is amazing, THE WAR ZONE, it’s a great film. He should direct more. I think Tim and Michael Haneke had problems because Michael is intelligent but so is Tim and he had very particular ideas.

MP: Tim was constantly very worried about making a film that would be perceived as just a violent film, and he was very concerned about people taking it the wrong way so I think that a lot of the battles that were happening on set were as a result of that.

BC: He’s a father and what was interesting about THE WAR ZONE in that as aggressive as it is, it’s also very sentimental. I do think that he has this sensitivity in him as an actor and a father.

MP: Tim definitely had the hardest role. That is by far the most difficult role to play because he’s not strong and he’s not attractive. As an actor, for me that would be the most challenging role and also in a way even if you succeeded, very few people would realize.

Being it’s a shot for shot remake, it’s like a play where you are seeing the same art form but with different performers. Do you think movies can work as plays?

MP: I think it can but maybe I can’t be as objective if I wasn’t involved. It’s interesting because if you keep it shot by shot then in a weird way you see what the actors bring what’s different, where it was filmed differently it would be a different film.

BC: It’s a great cinematic experiment.

MP: It’s a tough movie in a sense where it’s very difficult when you watch it the first time, it’s very rough to watch it again.

BC: I think it’s good because we did a good job, we all worked very hard on it.

MP: I hope that this will broaden Michael Haneke’s audience because in America if it’s not in English, there’s a very select few people who watch it.

BC: I think the themes are clearer not because it’s a better film but because it’s the second time around. I think that the first movie is a movie about movies, and the new film is a remake of a movie about movies, so if the first film asked the question of why are you watching this, then the new film has to ask you why are you watching this again? I think it’s the only film of Haneke’s that could be remade successfully. The original and the new film are on the nose in a way that his other films are not because it’s his way of conforming to a genre in a smart way.

MP: I also think it’s good that Michael did it and it’s not some American director doing it some other way. I think it’s interesting that he did it.

Why do you think he decided to remake it?

MP: I think he was approached and had this idea to make this film. What he’s told me and what I sensed when I watched the original, it seemed like it was making a comment on a very American topic. That’s what I felt. Then I found out that it was true and that’s what he was intending. I think he’s even gone as far to say that he wanted to shoot the original in English and in America, but he didn’t have the money.

BC: The original film has an English title.

MP: He’s getting to finish what he started and also I do think that he is thinking that possibly it could broaden his audience. If a young kid in America sees this film, and he likes this, I would be worried about this, but he would want to research the work of Michael Haneke, then hopefully he’ll have the opportunity to see all of Michael’s films.

BC: It’s important to point out that there was no real financial gain in this for Michael. It’s a bigger film but it’s a still an independent film.

MP: I hope he gets some kind of gain from this. He deserves it.

BC: What I mean is he doesn’t have anything to prove at this point. He wanted people to see this because he felt that it was an important issue. It wasn’t that he wanted more people just to see him.

Are you both concerned that some people in this wide audience that Haneke is trying to reach might not get what the film is going for and might look at it at a very base level?

BC: Yes but what about all the people that will get it?

MP: I am a little worried that people will think it’s cool.

BC: I don’t think the film is that hip though. There’s a section in the middle of the film that shows the aftermath of this violence, this long, static shot, that’s not Tarantino. Nobody’s going to watch that over and over again, that’s what is so smart about Haneke.

MP: He makes a decision every time not to make it cool. Even when the woman is taking her clothes off, he makes the decision not to show things so hopefully that will come through to the audience.

The syntax of the film has changed since it is a movie about torture. Since the original, there is a rise of a genre in “torture porn.” Has there been a philosophical discussion with the cast about the changes in film since then and about this new genre?

BC: That’s just how ahead of his time that he is. He foresaw all that.

MP: It would be great if this came out in 1997 in English. Out of all his movies, to me, it’s making an obvious statement about that type of filmmaking.

BC: I don’t think we discussed it very much. It’s very practical making a movie. You find the art in it before and after making the movie, but during it’s too practical.

How long was the shoot?

BC: Eight weeks.

Michael, did you find it hard to make that break into the fourth wall, to look right at the camera?

MP: I think I got better at it. The first time I don’t think is as good as when we did it later in the film. I didn’t know at first exactly how to do it. When I watch the film now, what I did later was instead of making a decision to break the fourth wall, I just played it as though it’s already been broken. At any point, I could just turn to it. It seemed to work better.

How do you react to the rewind sequence?

BC: The whole movie is about manipulation. In that scene, he gives you what you want and then he takes it away. It’s about building up a bloodlust in the audience. That scene is the only on screen violence in the film, but he gives that to you and then he takes it back.

Do you find acting to be a little psychotic?

(Both laugh)

MP: It’s a job. I think that it’s important not to take it too seriously. It’s all pretend. It’s a strange job, it can be strange.

How easy were these characters to turn off at the end of the day?

MP: It wasn’t a very long shoot and we did most of it at a studio in Brooklyn. For me it was great, I just got into the car and went to work. I needed to stay in the character. I told my girlfriend that “I’m not here” and I just stayed in this character for the month and half that we shot it and once we finished, I just left it.

BC: I’m not a method actor however something interesting happened while I was making this movie. When you have gone out of your way to make a physical change, and while I didn’t gain enough weight, I did gain some weight by drinking those shakes, which made me sick. I felt very unattractive and small. I think that in a strange way if you spend ten or twelve hours of your day devoted to whatever it is that you’re doing, you can’t help but take a little of it home if you intend to. I didn’t intend to but I wish that I could’ve just taken a pair of glasses off and feel attractive again, but I couldn’t.

What did you feel about filming at the Hamptons?

BC: Do I think that the film is a statement against the upper class?

Yes.

BC:Michael Haneke is upper class, and I think he has been most of his life. He goes to the opera every Friday in Vienna. Anyway, nowadays he is part of that class so he makes films about what he knows. If you look at any of his films, he has tremendous respect for all his characters, they are all smart. In CACHE, the poor Arab is just as intelligent as the rich, white man. He’s really very generous, it’s amazing.

Did you guys have nightmares while shooting?

MP: No, for me, it’s pretend. I try to stay away from taking it too seriously. I think it’s very dangerous for an actor to take it too seriously because I think it could really damage you if you do that.

What are you working on next?

BC: I directed a small film, a series of films with Darius Khondji. Darius was the cinematographer of FUNNY GAMES. We shot the first part in the second half of last year and I have the other two coming up this year. I’m going to send the first part to festivals and see how it goes but eventually all three will be released as one. We’ll see, it’s pretty early on.

MP: I’m working on my music right now. I’m always trying to work on scripts. I’m pretty selective, sometimes maybe too much because I’m broke. (Laughs)

Talk about your music.

MP: I released an album about a year ago on the Static Peace label, which is Thurston Moore’s record company. Now I’m writing a new record.

Thanks gentlemen for your time.

BC: Thank you all so much.

MP: Thank you.

FUNNY GAMES opens in theaters on March 14th from Warner Independent Group.

(Special thanks to Caitlin Speed at Falco Ink)