Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix star in We Own the Night.
There are a few things you should know about the cast of the new cop drama We Own the Night, in which actors and co-producers Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg play brothers on opposite sides of the law, Eva Mendes plays the hot Puerto Rican girlfriend, and Robert Duvall plays the veteran-cop father. Phoenix made constant fun of Duvall on the set in order to keep their onscreen father-son relationship as testy as possible, Mendes had a cocktail before her first-ever sex scene, and writer-director James Gray tends to blast Schubert on the stereo to set a mood. The director and cast share more thoughts on working together on this cop-family drama.
Question: What’s it like working with Joaquin Phoenix?
James Gray (who worked previously with Phoenix and Wahlberg on 2000’s The Yards): Working with Joaquin is like a trip to the home of the Marquis de Sade. It’s a very interesting experience. It’s somewhere between Alice in Wonderland and the movie Salò by Pasolini. He’s a wonderful artist, and the truth is that demands a lot of attention. He’s a great actor, but a lot of work. Also, Joaquin has great internal conflict on screen. He radiates torture, which is great, because what you want from actors is danger.
Eva Mendes: It's kind of like working with a puppy dog or a two-year-old. When you have its attention, it’s really cute, but otherwise... No, seriously, Joaquin I think is one of the best actors of our generation. I respect him so much.
Mark Wahlberg: I love Joaquin. We have this chemistry and there’s a familiarity there that you can rely on. But he’s intense too. He was smoking a lot of cigarettes during this movie. And he wants to talk about every scene. So you get in a room, and you’re in a room for two hours, first thing in the morning, and he must smoke 12 to 15 cigarettes. He’s mumbling about how much he hates this scene and the lines, and my part’s great but his part’s bad. And then of course when we get in there and do it, that’s when it all kind of happens.
Robert Duvall: It wasn’t like working with him, it was like fighting with him. Getting into the skin of a character, that’s what it was. And James [Gray] is not too good a mediator.
Wahlberg: Let’s put it this way. [Joaquin] called me and said there was a scene he didn’t like, and we’re producers so we should do something about it. It’s a scene that he’s in, and I go, “Well, what about it?” And he says, “I don’t know, I haven't see the [finished film] yet.” I told him he had to see the movie, and then he said, “No, you’re the producer, you’ve got to talk to James about cutting it out.” And I answered, “Well, you’re the producer too, so you’ve got to watch the movie.” I think he enjoys being the dark, tormented artist.
Question: What’s it like as an actor to work with director James Gray?
Joaquin Phoenix: All you have [on a movie set] is ambiance and the environment, and James is kind of a master of the craziness. And I think that’s something we all draw on. I certainly do. I remember the first time working on The Yards, the first day that I had, I went to set and James was playing music from Franz Schubert [on loud speakers]. It was amazing, it put me right in the place, and I think James really is an incredible director in that way. He really knows how to create the right environment for the actors.
Wahlberg: James is a perfectionist and if he could, he would still be shooting We Own the Night today. So it was good that he only had a limited amount of money to work with. [The film, originally budgeted for $50 million, wound up being made for $20-21 million.] James is incredibly specific, so I’ll go to him first and ask for a line reading of the whole scene, because it will turn into that anyway. With a guy like that, who has such a specific vision, I have no problems just doing whatever he tells me to.
Mendes: This film contains my first sex scene, and I wasn't comfortable at all. But thank God it was [directed by] James. He did it at the end of the shoot, so it was the last day and I was really, really comfortable with these clowns [Phoenix, Gray]. They were very sweet and they poured me a vodka and orange juice and then I was fine. I'm very professional and I don't usually drink on the job, but that morning, I had a little vodka and OJ.
Question: What’s it like working with Robert Duvall?
Gray: Joaquin calls him the Zen Master. You cannot get him out of a scene, you cannot shake him.
Mendes: I only had a couple of scenes with him, and I look forward to the future where I can actually work on a film with him because I’m a huge Duvall fan. This is the first film where I feel I have really been challenged on a daily basis. It’s my favorite experience in my career so far.
Wahlberg: He’s the only actor that I ever saw that, in every movie, he reminded me of my real dad. So when I found out he was playing the part of my dad in the movie, I was ecstatic. He just kind of comes in and he knows his lines, and we just try to make it real.
We Own the Night is in theaters Oct. 5. Get more details and watch the trailer here.
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