Night moves weigh heavy on Messina
Chris Messina reveals to James Croot why he piled on the pounds to play his latest role in the gangster movie Live By Night.
Even while he was on the set of his big-budget gangster movie, Chris Messina was committing his own act of larceny.
Speaking to Fairfax recently from New York, the 42-year-old actor admits he took advantage of starring alongside writer-director Ben Affleck on Live By Night. Messina plays Dion Bartolo, righthand man and henchman to Affleck’s organised crime ‘‘businessman’’ Joe Coughlin.
‘‘For me, it was like a film school. Because I was in a lot of scenes where I didn’t have a hell of a lot to say, I watched and tried to steal as much as I could from Ben as possible. That’s pretty hard to do though because he’s a one-ofa-kind.’’
Messina, who says working with Affleck on both the Oscarwinning Argo and this adaptation of the 1920s-set, 2012 Dennis Lehane novel has inspired him to do more directing [he made his debut with 2014’s Alex of Venice], confesses it can be difficult when your’re playing opposite the leading man – who also happens to be your director.
‘‘It’s really tricky when your scene partner isn’t happy with your performance, or they’re not happy with the scene.
‘‘But honestly, I will say with Ben, on both movies, I didn’t see the director in the scene, only the character, which really seems to me to be almost impossible. But he does do it and then, when we stop filming, he goes back to the monitor and puts on the director’s hat. It’s a truly remarkable magic trick.’’
Less ‘‘magic’’ was required for Messina (whose previous work include TV shows such as The Newsroom and The Mindy Project and movies like Julie & Julia, Ruby Sparks and You’ve Got Mail) to bulk up to play Dion. His secret to gaining 40 pounds (18kgs)?
‘‘Beer, icecream, pasta – all the great stuff. It was a lot of fun – not to take off though. Ben got me a trainer when we wrapped, which was nice, because I needed one. My wife appreciated it.’’
So why did he put his body (and wife) through it? ‘‘Dion is described as a heavy and Ben is much bigger and wider than me. So I kind of felt like the only way for me to feel like the heavy, as I couldn’t get much taller, was to get wider.
‘‘I did a little bit of it and we did a camera test and Ben really liked it, so then I kept going.
‘‘It became like some really strange game I was playing with myself and the rest of the crew. When I was on set, people were proud and excited about it and then, when I was dropping my kids off at school, people just thought something terribly wrong had happened.’’
Attracted to the character because he thought Dion represented ‘‘the night’’ in Live By Night and it was an opportunity to have ‘‘a great role in a big Warner Brothers gangster film’’, Messina also got into character by reading the book several times. ‘‘Because I live in Los Angeles, I also bought the audio tape and I would just drive around and listen to it.’’
Inspiration also came from the gangster movies he used to watched as a kid – Once Upon a Time in America, The Godfather Parts I and 2 – and older examples of the genre he’d inadvertently started watching recently. ‘‘Little Caesar, Scarface, The Public Enemy. I returned again to those after I got the role,’’ he says. ‘‘There was a certain fun about the way The Public Enemy‘s James Cagney played his role that I felt was really right for Dion.
‘‘Actually, the first person I thought of was [Goodfellas, Casino actor] Joe Pesci – in every movie. He had so much fun and was so loose. I also took to watching a piece of Raging Bull in my trailer every day on set because there’s a certain loyalty that the brothers have in that movie that I wanted Dion to have with Joe.’’
Messina’s method acting included growing his own moustache.
‘‘The makeup department were on the fence because moustaches at the time were not that popular, it was more of rebellious kind of thing to do. So I grew it and they shaped it. I like not shaving, so anything with hair, is a better thing for me.’’
However, a growing obsession that his character should be like Al Capone was reined in by the movie’s costume designer Jacqueline West. ‘‘She had a book on every character,’’ says Messina.
‘‘The amount of work she did and how specific it was, was incredible. She turned me towards Frank Nitti, who was Capone’s right-hand man. He was smaller and shorter than Capone, but he was called ‘the enforcer’ and people lived in fear of him.’’
The actor says West’s commitment to authenticity and her craft was just one example of many throughout Live By Night‘s cast and crew.
‘‘Walking on set was like walking out of a time machine. Everybody from the set designer to the producers were just incredible. You’d open a drawer on set and there would be like period matches in there.
‘‘They weren’t even part of the scene. It felt like you were transported. It’s been very rare in my career to find everybody so damn good at their job.’’
Messina also has plenty of praise for someone he worked with on 2009 dramedy Away We Go – New Zealand’s own Melanie Lynskey. He played her husband in Sam Mendes’ much-loved film.
‘‘I think she’s an absolute treasure. I think she’s an amazing actress. I loved working with her and since then we’ve tried a couple of other times to find projects to work together on. She’s incredibly kind and very, very brave. I loved that experience of making that movie and I would love to work with her again.’’
But for now, Live By Night has somewhat spoiled him, admits Messina.
‘‘It is very hard to motivate yourself after a film like this.
‘‘There’s a bit of a rarefied air about it. I’m patiently waiting for something that gets me just as excited as I was about this. I haven’t yet stumbled on what that will be.’’
Live By Night (R16) opens in New Zealand cinemas on Thursday.