TOM
NOONAN

Tom Noonan has had a defining career in cinema, and after two decades is still in high demand as one of the top actors in his profession.

After making his debut on the stage in New York, Noonan carved out a career as a character actor with his big break coming as the serial killer The Tooth Fairy in Michael Mann's MANHUNTER in 1986. Seven years later, he became known as a powerful writer/director when his debut film WHAT HAPPENED WAS... was an audience favorite at Sundance.

Noonan is back on the big screen with a starring role in Ti West's latest THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, playing the mysterious Mr. Ullman, who hires a young woman to babysit for him while he goes out but may be more than he leads on.

To talk about his latest film as well as his career as a whole, Noonan spoke exclusively with the Crypt after the successful premiere of THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL at the Tribeca Film Festival.

CC: What inspired you to become an actor?

TOM NOONAN: What happened is a couple of different things. I was living in a commune. I was a musician and a woman made a documentary about the commune I was in. I was like 24 or 25 and she shot everything that happened there for three weeks like house dinners and meetings and shit. She then invited me to the screening of the movie. This was before videotape was even available so I’d never seen myself on film before and every time I would come on in this movie, everybody in the place started laughing. I acted so peculiarly when I saw myself. I couldn’t believe that I act that strangely, to be so quiet and was laughing at odd things, and also making these comments that make no sense. It was partially a chance to see myself but also I realized that I was an interesting person, that I could get interest in a movie if I was ever filmed. I moved to New York as a musician and I started writing music for plays and started writing music for movies too. I had the opportunity to be around a lot of productions and I started thinking that I could do this. It didn’t seem that complicated. One day I put my guitar away and asked a friend how I could get a job acting because I knew that I could make money acting. I was around 27 at the time. Anyway, this person said to get the Backstage and Showbiz papers and I had to learn monologues. I didn’t really know what a monologue was and he told me that I had to read plays and find these long speeches that I had to stand there by myself and talk. I thought that was kind of stupid so I started writing my own monologues from plays that didn’t exist. Within two weeks I had the lead in a play. I never acted before. I’ve never been in a school play. The second job I got was acting in BURIED CHILD by Sam Shephard which was a huge hit. It was the original production and won the Puliter Prize. The play ran for a year and by the time the play was completed I had done four movies. It happened very quickly and very easily. I didn’t give a shit. I knew that I was interesting and I would go and do things you’re not supposed to do at auditions and I got hired.

CC: In addition to acting, you’ve also written and directed several projects as well as being a musician. Do you handle each profession differently and is there one you prefer over the other?

TN: I guess I came from the 1960s where people did everything in a certain pursuit. I grew up seeing the people that I loved do everything. They would write the song, perform the song, and act in a film. To me, it all seems like the same thing. Writing feels like another part of acting and acting feels like another part of directing. They all are part of the same thing. Acting is easy. Acting is just showing up, you put these clothes on, and you know the words, it’s very simple. Writing takes a lot of time. I’ve written regularly for thirty years and it took a long time to get decent at that. It’s all the same to me. Also most of the major American directors either are actors or were actors. Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, Charlie Chaplin, it’s natural to have that background I think.

CC: Getting to your latest release, THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, who is your character in the film and how did you prepare for the role?

TN: These are the kind of questions I don’t think about. I don’t really think about character when I do movies. I don’t think what my motivation is doing a movie. I really think doing that is not helpful. I do what I do and I’m affected much more by the crew and the vibe I’m getting off of them and what it’s like to talk with the other actor.  I just go with that. I don’t really think much at all of what’s going to happen later, where my character is coming from, or what the story is supposedly about, I really don’t think about that.

CC: That’s very interesting. In that case, this was the second time working with Ti West because if I remember correctly from when we spoke at Tribeca, you only worked on THE ROOST for a day?

TN: It was part of an afternoon where I went into a Funhouse.

CC: How was it shooting with Ti this time around?

TN: It wasn’t that different. I was much more involved and it wasn’t shot on Hi8 which THE ROOST was shot on. I got to do a little more of what I’m skilled at but it wasn’t very different. Ti is, and I don’t mean this in a bad way, is a bit of an odd guy. He’s in his own world when he’s directing and I find that fun and inspiring. It’s like David Gordon Green in a similar way. They seem like they have some idea of what they’re trying to get because it makes me feel confident. They know what they’re doing. When you’re working with a director who’s asking you what you think or asking you to get involved, it makes me crazy. When you walk on a set and a director goes “Go here, go there, say this,” it’s easy. Ti’s like that, he’s very specific and knows exactly what to get. He also doesn’t talk all that actor bullshitty language like back stories and motiviation.

CC: So would you say that acting is a job where after you’re done with one project, it’s behind you and you’re on to the next project?

TN: Not so much that. I love acting more than anything I’ve ever done in a lot of ways but the process for me doesn’t have very much to do what people think acting is about especially with directors. Directors start talking to me like those acting class ways of acting. Directors usually don’t say much to me ever. They know that I’m interesting and they hire me because they like me. I’m pretty inventive and I come up with stuff at the moment. With Ti, I knew the frame in which I was operating very clearly. I knew how he was shooting. He was very specific on what the coverage was going to be. A lot of time when you work with directors I ask them how they were cover the scene so I should know if I should having my hand in the frame here or there because later we’re going to do a close up. He knows where the cut points are which is very helpful to me in acting.

CC: What are the elements, other than the money, that you look for in a project before you accept the role?

TN: Other than money?

CC: Other than money.

TN: (Laughs) Geez, I don’t know. I guess it depends on whether I connect with the director and also with the script. I am very particular about the way things are written and whether I think there’s a possibility for me to do what I do in that context. I can tell immediately when I read something whether or not it’s going to be doable. I want someone who wants me. I don’t want to be playing some character. I don’t want someone to come up to me on the purpose that I’ve never done something like this before. It’s not like I want to be doing the same thing all the time. I want them to want me become something that I want to become within the frame of the movie.

CC: You’ve done a lot of films within the horror genre and we had talked before about the films you like within the genre.

TN: As a kid, it scared me. Modern stuff doesn’t scare me too much.

CC: Why is that?

TN: It doesn’t feel like an attempt to be scary. There’s a movie called THE LAST WAVE, it’s a great movie. That movie’s really scary. It’s interesting and human. DON’T LOOK NOW I think is very scary. I don’t find SAW and HOSTEL scary. I just shut down emotionally. I think you scare people by drawing them in and making them understand that the people you are watching or the situation they are in is human where you can relate to it. If it goes to a place that you know life can go but you hope never goes there and all of a sudden you are in a situation where you are drawn in. I don’t like being beaten over the head with stuff. That has to do with horror and everything. I like things that are down to Earth a little.

CC: You have been in New York for your acting career. What is it about New York that excites you and being that you are in demand in Hollywood, why have you chosen to stay in New York?

TN: I lived in Los Angeles for a short time and didn’t enjoy it. It’s just a place that I don’t connect to. I find it slightly soulless. If I’m in New York and I get sad and depressed I become angry. If I’m in LA and something doesn’t go well in my life, I get anxious and weirded out. It’s a place that doesn’t vibrate with me very well. New York feels like a down to Earth place where people are human and have some soul here. It feels real. It has a lot of energy. It’s not perfect. There are some times where I can’t stand even being here but compared to any place I’ve been in the world and especially in the United States, New York is very different.

CC: Can you talk about the Paradise Factory?

TN: I guess originally I started in plays when I first started acting and I wasn’t getting the kind of work that I thought was interesting to me so I thought if I had my own theater I can do whatever I wanted. In a lot of ways that helped me end up direct the movies that I directed which was a very good thing for my life. WHAT HAPPENED WAS… and THE WIFE I did as plays in preparation for shooting them. After I did a couple of movies and I did a bunch of plays there people started saying “Can you teach us how you do this thing?” and I didn’t want to do it. I hated the idea. I didn’t want to teach anybody anything. I didn’t like academics. I’m not into any of that crap. Somehow through a long story someone lured me into doing this class and it was pretty much like directing. Working with actors in the way I worked with them was very fun. I started teaching acting and then writing and after that I started teaching directing classes. Then I had everybody from the writing class come to the acting class, and eventually had everyone go to all three things. Eventually I thought it was all the same thing but I didn’t want to do the teaching thing so much. I hate the word teaching. Now I did a thing called the Drama Workshop. I try to do all three things. I get people in there that have either written, directed, or acted, have had some experience in one of the three, and then I have everybody write, direct, and act a scene and we create a play over the course of two weeks. It’s very intense and it’s like making a movie in creating a group dynamic. I do it once or twice a year. I really don’t have a theater company. I tend to work with the same people a lot. I’ve shared my process with a lot of people. If they want to continue pursuing that process that I’ve showed them, I give them a chance to do them at the theater. There are a lot of protégés that have come out of the Factory. That’s my idea of a theater company. I don’t ask for submissions of plays. I don’t have general auditions. I don’t do the things that people generally do with theater companies. It just grew out of me doing what I do with a bunch of friends and people who wanted to learn what I do.

CC: It sounds like a really fun workshop.

TN: I love doing it. It’s one of the most fun things. It’s very intense. We do it for ten days and it’s 12 hours a day and it’s really intense and cool.

CC: Since you directed your first film, WHAT HAPPENED WAS…, in 1993, there’s been a big digital boom in filmmaking in terms of high definition. What’s your opinion on this digital boom and would you consider directing a movie with digital equipment?

TN: I shot a DV movie but it wasn’t very good and I never put it out. It’s called WANG DANG. It was shot badly. I own an HD camera and I continually toy and write scripts. I write two or three scripts a year. I would probably use HD if I directed again. I shot a thing on the Red and I thought it looked beautiful. Film always made me nervous like a fucking production assistant driving after he hasn’t slept in a day to the lab with the stuff. I’ve had problems where the negative got cut in the wrong place. Film is really scary to me. With digital it doesn’t look as good often but there really isn’t much of a difference. HD looks very good if you do it right.

CC: So you’re HD all the way?

TN: It’s cheaper. It’s easier. You can cut everything at home and do your own effects. It’s going to get better and better. I’m sure within my lifetime it’s going to be HD or some form of video that’s going to look better than film.

CC: Probably in fifty or a hundred years, they’ll just burn the films into your eyeballs as holographic images and you’ll view it that way.

TN: There will be an HD plug in on the side of your head when you’re born.

CC: With that said, where do you see the film industry going within the next few years?

TN: I don’t think there are very many independent films made. I don’t think there ever have been. It seems worse now than it has been in a long time regarding distribution and getting things out. I don’t see movies that are very good. I was sitting around with my girlfriend the other day and we were talking about stuff we saw in the sixties, seventies, and even in the eighties and thinking if there was anything out today that was vaguely close to that and it doesn’t feel like it. Maybe I’m getting old and crotchety but the whole thing seems futile to me. There are too many movies made and some people just really shouldn’t be making movies. It’s great that there are great movies but don’t some people have better things to do with their time instead of making bad movies? Having said that, I do love movies and I love making them. I also feel that video games are going to take over movies. There will be 3D movies and interactive movies and that’s the only reason people will go out to theaters because it will be more engaging than what is offered at home. I don’t go to the movies often because it’s not much different. I have a huge big screen TV and surround sound. I’m not watching it with an audience so that kind of sucks but other than that, it’s not much different at all.

CC: What is coming up for you?

TN: I’m going to be doing another season of DAMAGES which I love doing. I love the show. I’m trying to get this movie out on my own. I always do two or three movies a year so I’m sure something will come up. Besides THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, I don’t have anything coming out.

CC: Thank you so much for your time and best of luck with everything?

TN: Great, thank you. Good luck with everything and I wish you well on your moviemaking.

For more information on Tom's Paradise Factory, visit his official website at www.tomnoonan.com.