We are now very much acquainted with the quirky indie delights of director David Gordon Green, with last years Joe proving Nicholas Cage can still give a gripping performance. His latest film, Manglehorn, pairs the director with another legend, Al Pacino.
In what is the third in the David Gordon Green ‘Texas Trilogy’, we speak to the man himself about his latest film Manglehorn, working with Al Pacino and working with Danny McBride again.
In Manglehorn we see Al Pacino play a man trying to salvage his life. What made this script stand out to you?
It was a product of a seed of an idea when I met Al. I described to him this character of a melancholy locksmith that has had a lot of lost and regret – the one that got away in this kind of hindsight love story of an ageing man.
I just wanted to kind of make a grown-up modern day fairy tale. Have a timeless character in modern times and see how he rejects some things and accept others.
So far you’ve worked with some pretty big names, what was it like to be working with Al Pacino?
He’s a wonderful actor and knows how to take direction. I think it’s fun for him to play all different types of characters. When I came to him with something very different he got really excited about it.
I’d met him before and that’s what kind of got me thinking about an idea. We had a beautiful meeting and I saw this smaller, subtler, softly spoken side of him that contrasted the Scarface bravado persona we know of him.
I really just want to pull back some layers of performance and work with him in a way that he did in some of films in the 70s like Panic in Needle Park and Scarecrow that I really loved.
It seems to be a film that has a similar feel to it than Joe. How much did the intimate setting in Austin add to film as a whole?
A lot of it, we’ve got a great production community in Austin. It’s fun to bring actors like Pacino and Nicholas Cage – I did a movie also shot in Texas called Prince Avalanche. So it’s a fun little strange Austin, Texas, trilogy.
Do you reckon there’s a comeback to small-town America being depicted on screen?
Absolutely, it’s nice to have these timeless locations that have been forgotten being shown. Juxtapose it to the city that is expanding and merging into some of these towns and communities.
The house where we shot Manglehorn, his home, has already had a new house built in its place. The locksmith shop has just been closed down to be turned into a condominium complex. It really has unfolded in a funny way where a lot of the locations where we were filming a year and a half ago are already gone.
With such a short shoot was everything by the script or did the cast have room for improvising?
Yeah, tons of it. Al is the master of that. It was just a lot of fun to give him seeds of ideas to see where he’d go and what he’d say. It was a really, fun, playful set. A lot of the things that were scripted, we ignored in favour of stuff that was unscripted just to try make it feel like a unique organic process.
When we were filming it’s always fun to try a version that is radically different to what we prepared and rehearsed. See what strange discoveries you could find through improvisation.
You mentioned it was a fun shoot, who was the biggest joker on set?
That would probably be my sound mixer, Chris Gebert, who I’ve worked with in all my films. He’s really good but sometimes, like, instead of recording the actor saying their lines he’ll have the boom mic aimed at his butt for a fart.
It was fun. There’d be a scene where Al would give a great performance and I’d be like, “Sorry Al, the mic was on Chris’ ass.” He would then go over, high five Chris and give him a hug.
The poster for Manglehorn makes Pacino look like a Bond villain. Was that intentional…?
Yeah, it was. We wanted it to kind of be this strange, unlikely, out of place character you wouldn’t know how to feel about – is he a hero or villain? He is a strange guy in a weird background.
Last time we spoke you mentioned that there may be Pineapple Express 2 on its way. What’s the update on that and is it still going to be about cocaine wars?
Well, yeah, that was always my pitch. Nothing has happened with it recently, I am not sure what those guys are thinking. It would be fun to re-visit those characters and their situation at some point.
So do you think this could be your chance to do an action film?
I would love to do a big action movie, it would be amazing. I am just finishing up a movie right now with Sandra Bullock [Our Brand Is Crisis] down in Bolivia about a Bolivian presidential race. It’s the first political film I’ve done. It could be cool to get to explore various genres and get a sense of different technical techniques I could use my career to explore.
It’s very different but fun. I like doing all different types of stuff. When I made the three small independent films in Austin, I just had kids and didn’t want to take the burden of a huge responsible creative endeavour. I didn’t have the headspace for it; I was trying to get kids to sleep through the night. So it is fun now that they’re older, I get to do stuff that has a slightly bigger canvas.
A lot of fans were disappointed that Eastbound & Down ended, have you got anything in the pipeline with Danny McBride again?
Well, that was the idea. We killed it so we didn’t burn out. I am actually on a location scout right now in South Carolina for a new HBO series called Vice Principal with Danny McBride and Walton Goggins. It is the same team that did Eastbound & Down, so we’re shooting two seasons of that this summer. It’s been hectic but very fun.
Manglehorn, in cinemas August 7th courtesy of Curzon Artificial Eye. You can read our review here.
