LET THE FILMS BEGIN
Festival features diverse offerings
John C. Reilly may never again work with Joaquin Phoenix, his costar in The Sisters Brothers. But as far as he’s concerned, “I walk away from it now thinking I’ll love this guy for the rest of my life. I would do anything for him. And that’s not something you get around the water cooler at work.”
Reilly and Phoenix play Eli and Charlie Sisters, dangerous assassins working in 1851 California for a man known only as the Commodore, in a story based on the bestseller by Canadian author Patrick deWitt. The film screens Sept. 19 as the opening-night gala of the Calgary International Film Festival.
The Sisters Brothers rides into Cowtown laden with accolades, having won the best director prize at the Venice Film Festival for French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, who had never made an English-language film before.
“We did very well in Deauville, too,” said Reilly, who was also a producer on the film. “They made up a prize for us. Which is a really cool thing because Jacques spent his childhood going to Deauville.” The Sisters Brothers took the honorary film prize at the Deauville American Film Festival in the French seaside town.
Reilly was speaking at the Toronto International Film Festival, where The Sisters Brothers had its Canadian première. (TIFF won’t announce its prizes until Sunday.) It has been a long road making the movie; he first read deWitt’s notyet-published book in 2010 while making a film called Terri, also written by deWitt.
“Human beings who were tiny children when we started this process are as tall as me now, just to give you some sense of the time that’s gone by while we’ve been trying to get this made,” he said. “We love this book so much. And when I say we, I mean Alison Dickey, one of the producers who also happens to be my wife. We’ve been such an intimate part of this coming together that it’s beyond satisfying to have people find meaning in the film.”
Reilly has three “duo movies” coming out in the next few months. In addition to The Sisters Brothers, he stars with Will Ferrell in Holmes and Watson, which opens Nov. 9, and with Steve Coogan in Stan & Ollie, due Jan. 11. You could even argue that Ralph Breaks the Internet (Nov. 21) is a buddy picture pairing him with Sarah Silverman. Coincidence?
“I do think that I excel in that kind of relationship,” he said. He’s one of six children, but believes it may have more to do with his early days in Chicago theatre. “The way I was taught to be an actor in Chicago was not so much to reach out and connect with the audience, it was to reach out and connect with the person I’m acting with. The more connected we are, the better the whole thing is and then we get (the audience).
“It’s sort of frowned upon to think you’re better than everyone and go for that golden ring on your own ... it’s more about community. The play ’s the thing.” And, he added with a grin, “If things go wonky it’s not all your fault.”
Getting to know Phoenix was thus a joyous assignment. “We realized these brothers have spent every waking hour together their entire lives. And we’re just getting to know each other. So our way to do it was to start spending time together — all of our time together.”
That meant living in the same hotel during pre-production, taking long walks and training together on horses or with period weapons. When shooting began, “we’re cooking dinner for each other every night, driving each other to work and spending all day long on the set together, literally shoulder to shoulder.” It got so that if they were at a party together, Reilly would find himself keeping an eye on Phoenix.
“Where is he? Is he all right? Does he have what he needs?” said Reilly. “It’s a beautiful thing to get that close to somebody. If I had a job as an accountant, it might be kind of weird if I got super connected to the girl in human resources. But as actors, you’re encouraged to have these really deep connections for periods of time and then you break off and you go into these other orbits and it could be years before you come around to the same place again and swing past each other.”
The festival runs from Sept. 19 to 30. For information, visit calgaryfilm.com.
I do think that I excel in that kind of relationship ... The more connected we are, the better the whole thing is and then we get (the audience).