Lovable geek takes the Starr-ing role in Operator
Dark comedy-drama explores ways technology pushes us farther apart
It’s not a career arc an actor would usually second guess.
But Martin Starr says his transformation to leading man was not something he expected, or even necessarily wanted.
“It had taken me awhile to take the lead part in something, it was a big decision,” says the soft-spoken actor, sitting a downtown Calgary coffee shop late Friday afternoon prior to attending the screening of Operator, at the Calgary International Film Festival.
“In general, they carry a lot of heavy responsibility. My goal in this business isn’t for fame and fortune, it’s the satisfaction of the work and to challenge myself ... It’s a very different experience than going and playing a peripheral character. There’s a much bigger responsibility.”
It’s something Starr, a California native who is probably best known for playing memorable but supporting roles in the cult series Freaks & Geeks and HBO’s Silicon Valley, learned after playing a former Green Beret who falls in love with a Muslim woman from Iraq in the topical 2014 film Amira and Sam. It was an acclaimed dramatic turn that was generally viewed as an against-type role for the actor.
So with Operator, which screens again on Saturday, Starr not only signed on as the lead but upped his responsibility even more by taking on the role of executive producer. But his initial attraction to playing Joe Larsen, the intelligent-but-socially-awkward lead in the darkly funny comedy-drama, was based largely on the vision of first-time writer-director Logan Kibens.
“Honestly, it was Logan’s passion,” he says. “I think I fell in love with wanting to make a movie with Logan before I fell in love with the story.”
Still, Joe Larsen does seem to fit nicely into Starr’s wheelhouse, at least on the surface. These days, the 34-year-old actor is probably best known for playing the acerbic but geeky computer expert Bertram Gilfoyle, systems architect of startup company Pied Piper in HBO’s hit series Silicon Valley. But it’s just the latest in a gallery of intelligent-but-socially-awkward characters he has brought to life. In the beloved but short-lived high-school series Freaks & Geeks, he played lovable uber-geek Bill Haverchuk. In the Starz comedy Party Down, he played frustrated screenwriter and sci-fi fanatic Roman DeBeers.
In Operator, Starr seems to be on familiar ground as an overly analytical coder tasked with pro- gramming an automated operator for a health-insurance company’s helpline. When he’s told he needs to find a more empathetic voice to help diffuse the anger of callers, he decides to use his devoted wife Emily (Mae Whitman), whose work manning the front desk of a luxury hotel has given her plenty of experience dealing with irate customers, as a model.
Eventually, the exercise begins to highlight problems in his seem- ingly happy marriage, particularly when he begins to relate more to his wife’s soothing automated voice than the woman herself. Prone to panic attacks and forced to become the reluctant caregiver of his increasingly neurotic mother (Christine Lahti), Larsen’s life and mental state begin to unravel. All of which gave Starr another funny but dramatic role to sink his teeth into.
What results is a film that twists the tropes of the rom-com into a heartfelt but at times darkly comic cautionary tale.
“I think there’s a pretty clear message,” Starr says of the film. “But more than anything, I want people to take away what they see in it. What I see in it is being cautious about advancing technology, because it’s pushing us farther apart.”
Starr will soon return to work shooting Season 4 of Silicon Valley and also has a supporting role in the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming. As is usually the case with Hollywood blockbusters, Starr cannot reveal too much about his character — something he poked fun of during a segment on Conan O’Brien in July — but he says it’s a thrill since the webslinger is his second-favourite superhero ( Wolverine is his favourite, in case you were curious.)
What Starr can say is that he plays a professor, who will likely also fall into the intelligent-but-socially-awkward category of the actor’s gallery of characters. But it’s a characteristic that makes so many of his creations — be it Bertram Gilfoyle, Bill Haverchuk or Joe Larsen — so endearing and relatable.
“People root for the underdog,” he says. “Because most people feel like the underdog."
Operator screens Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at the Globe Cinema as part of the Calgary International Film Festival. Martin Starr will not be in attendance for Saturday’s screening. Visit calgaryfilm.com.
I think I fell in love with wanting to make a movie with (writer-director) Logan Kibens before I fell in love with the story.