WKND

THE BLIND SIDE

STEPHEN LANG PROVES THERE’ S PLENTY TO FEAR ABOUT THE DARK IN HIS LATEST FILM DON’ T BREATHE

- BY IAN SPELLING

“Asa kid, even when I was very little, I wanted to be an actor,” Stephen Lang recalled. “I just always knew what I wanted to do. Maybe I had ‘ architect’ in my head for a minute or two, but anyone who knew me as a child will tell you I wanted to be an actor.”

So here he is, at 64, with 30- plus years of acting in movies, television and stage under his belt, and nearly 100 credits to his name. Among his movies are Manhunter ( 1986), Last Exit to Brooklyn ( 1989), Tombstone ( 1993), Gettysburg ( 1993), Avatar ( 2009) and Conan the Barbarian ( 2011). His stage credits include A Few Good Men ( 1989), Death of a Salesman ( 1984) and Beyond Glory ( 2015), while television viewers have seen him on Crime Story ( 1986- 1988), Terra Nova ( 2011) and the current series “Badlands and Salem.

“It’s been satisfying, but I don’t get too retrospect­ive about such things, really,” Lang said, speaking by cellphone after a workout at a gym near his Manhattan home. “I’m too busy looking forward to what’s going to happen, to what’s in front of me, to look back.

“But, if I take a minute, it’s been a great trip,” the actor admitted. “I’ve gotten to play some wonderful roles over the years, some roles I really wanted to play. And, every role that I have played, I’ve invested in and found something cool in it.

“So it’s been great,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate. This is a tough business and not everyone makes it, and not everyone who makes it sticks around. There were tough times and disappoint­ments, and I’m sure there will be more of those in the future, but you weather it.” Lang laughed. “Looking back ... Maybe it’s like childbirth,” he continued. “You know it was painful, but you don’t remember the pain itself because the joy of what you’re left with is so great.”

Lang’s l atest project i s Don’t Breathe, a thriller set to release in the US today ( Aug 26). Directed by Fede Alvarez, who won acclaim for his rookie effort, Evil Dead ( 2014), the film focuses on a trio of young petty thieves ( Jane Levy, Dylan Minette and

Daniel Zovatto) who plot what appears to be their easiest robbery yet: stealing a small fortune hidden by The Blind Man ( Lang), who lives with his dog in a house on a remote street.

Unfortunat­ely for the thieves, the Blind Man can defend himself and then some, and he’s got a few tricks up his sleeve. His home becomes a house of horrors that the kids — and probably the audience — never see coming.

“It was a very physical shoot,” Lang said. “We were in cramped quarters, shooting very intense scenes. But it was, in its own perverse way, a pleasure. Fede is very efficient — that’s the word I use. He knows what he wants and he does it quickly and efficientl­y.

“We shot Don’t Breathe for a month,” he continued. “It was four weeks of work, maybe a little more, a few more days than that. I had very few days off, which was fine. I liked that. For this film, I wanted to get in there and do it.”

At first, audiences surely will be rooting for the Blind Man. However, once heturns the tables and gains the upper hand, allegiance­s may shift — drasticall­y. Lang’s didn’t, though. “I’d fallen for the guy,” he admitted. “I was on his side, and that never left.”

Daringly, Lang didn’t consider it his task to keep moviegoers on the Blind Man’s side.

“I’m not sure that’s the objective,” the actor explained. “Yes, it is, but in a way, not really, because all I’m trying to do is inhabit the guy. The audience will feel how they feel, but if I bring enough truth to it, enough authentici­ty, enough feeling, and if I, as an actor, feel such empathy for the character, then you can be hopeful that the audience will as well.

“They may not,” he admitted. “He may cross a line in the eyes of some people, in the eyes of many people. But I believe that was the goal of the writers, and Fede’s goal, too, that whatever feelings you have for him are quite ambigu- ous and conflicted.

“It’s up for debate here who’s heroic and who’s villainous, and who’s the perpetrato­r and who’s the victim,” Lang added. “It all gets quite muddled up, and that’s to the benefit of the movie, I think.”

To play a blind man, Lang said, he did what actors do. He observed blind people. He put himself in the mindset of a sightless person as best he could.

Back in his early days, he admitted, he probably would have blindfolde­d himself for a few days, perhaps even a week.

“I don’t do that anymore,” Lang said. “I’m too old for that. But I wanted to get this right. I felt a responsibi­lity to get it right.

“But his vision, or lack of it, isn’t who he is,” the actor went on. “It doesn’t define him. At his home, in that house, he knows every inch of the place. When the kids break in, they’re in his territory, on his turf. Even though he can’t see, he’s got the advantage, the upper hand.

“And he uses that,” Lang continued. “In that house he is far from disabled. He’s really pretty much in control.”

The weeks and months following the release of Don’t Breathe will find Lang on screens big and small alike pretty much nonstop. He’ll be back on Salem and Into the Badlands. On the way are the films Gridlocked, Justice, Solar Eclipse and Braven.

“I’ve been busy the past couple of years, really busy,” Lang said, “but I like to work and I like diversity, and all of these opportunit­ies came up. I just took a month off, actually. I was tired and wanted to recharge.

“Also, I knew that eventually James Cameron would be ready to go with the Avatar sequels, and those could take a really long time,” he said. “So I wanted to get in as much as possible before I started on all of that.

This summer Lang will shoot a western in which he’ll co- star with Christian Bale. By January, though, if all goes according to plan, Cameron finally will roll camera on the Avatar sequels. Two, three or even four of them may be shot back to back.

“I’ve geared everything in my life toward those movies,” the actor said, “because I want to bring my A game, just physically. It’s going to be a tough shoot, a very long shoot, and it’s going to be fascinatin­g. I know that Jim is going to bring it, so I want to make sure I do too.

“It’s going to be fantastic,” Lang concluded. “The story is epic, and you’ll learn a lot more about what drives Quaritch, why he’s doing what he’s doing.

“We have the hard start date, so it’s almost a reality.”

— The New York Times Syndicate

IT’S UP FOR DEBATE HERE WHO’S HEROIC AND WHO’S VILLAINOUS, AND WHO’S THE PERPETRATO­R AND WHO’S THE VICTIM

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 ??  ?? HIS MANY AVATARS: 1 Playing the evil Khalar Zym in Conan the Barbarian 2 Seen in Gods and
Generals, with Sean Pratt. 3 As the brusque Col. Miles Quaritch in James Cameron’s Avatar 4 Scaring away intruders in Don’t Breathe
HIS MANY AVATARS: 1 Playing the evil Khalar Zym in Conan the Barbarian 2 Seen in Gods and Generals, with Sean Pratt. 3 As the brusque Col. Miles Quaritch in James Cameron’s Avatar 4 Scaring away intruders in Don’t Breathe

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