Since the turn of the decade few
people have been as prolific as Mark Duplass. Over the past four years the New
Orleans born and raised indie mogul has starred in 11 films, served as a
screenwriter on five features (three of which he co-directed with his brother Jay),
produced 13 projects (with seven more to be released by the end of 2015), been
hired as a recurring cast member on FX’s “The League” and “The Mindy Project,” and most
recently created an original series for HBO entitled “Togetherness.” It’s safe
to say that Duplass could never be accused of being an unambitious laggard. But
even amid his hectic life, Mark took time to talk to RogerEbert.com about his
role in “The One I Love” (out in theaters/VOD now), sex scenes, film reviewing
in high school, and why becoming a movie star is not something he’s
particularly interested in.
Dating back to “This Is John” and “The Puffy Chair,”
you’ve always had a penchant for drawing from your reality. How much of “The
One I Love” is lifting from your relational experience? You’ve been
married now for nearly a decade, right?
MARK DUPLASS: Yeah, I would say this couple is very different from my
wife and me. One thing that has been fascinating to me about all the
relationships I’ve had, even the failed ones, is when you get in that rut and
you get in that place where you feel like you’re not sure whether you should
just lower your expectations a little bit, keep going to therapy, keep working,
and just make it work. Or if you should say, “You know what, we shouldn’t
have to work this hard. It’s just time we break up.” And that’s a
fascinating conundrum that I feel like I find a lot of my friends are in and
I’ve found myself in during relationships over the years. So we kind of wanted
to start Ethan and Sophie off there. It was a real connection point for all of
us involved in the film. Although we’re all at wildly disparate places in our
relationships, we have all sort of had that experience before.
Has couples therapy ever worked before?
I haven’t done couples therapy, but I think that it
definitely works. I know a lot of people who have done it and it can work for
sure. It can also be terrible because it can make you just focus on the
problems and you start going down a wormhole. It’s certainly can be amazing but
it’s also fraught with peril.
To shift gears, looking at your career I found that you’ve
played similar characters in many excellent films. In a way, this seems like a
departure for you. Are you actively looking for roles in which you’re
doing some different?
I don’t think too much about whether I’m playing a similar
or different character necessarily. You know the stories that I play in tend to
be more important to me in terms of the decisions I’m making and what I want to
do. Also, the people that I’m working with are very important to me. I feel
like if I have anything really unique to offer as an actor it’s less about what
I’m specifically doing in the movie and more about what I draw out of people.
I’m good at reading people. I’m good at throwing surprises at people in scenes.
Because I’m also a director and a writer and producer, I kind of know how to
get great performances out of people that I’m in scenes with. I love the actor
John Cazale and I remembering seeing a doc on him and how it said, “Actors
love working with him because he will make them better.” That’s something
I kind of aspire to.
That shows in a lot of your films. It seems people are
generally better around you, feeding off your energy. On an unrelated note, you
have a theory on sex scenes in movies, yes?
Yeah, I think that most actors are full of shit when they
say that, “Oh, it’s just like a fight scene. There’s nothing sexual at all
about it.” They say that because it would be inappropriate to say anything
else. But I do think the truth is that we are animals, and certain times it
does happen that people are—for better or for worse—attracted to someone
when you’re kissing them. It just happens because there are three parts to our
brain and not all of them are extremely intellectual. So I find that funny and
I think it’s something people don’t really like talking about because it seems
unprofessional or inappropriate. When the camera is not on most people will tell
you that there’s at least been one time where they were like, “Oh shit,
that one kind of got to me.”
I don’t see why it’s inappropriate to
express attraction. It’s only natural.
It is what it is. When you’re playing brother and sister,
the whole goal of yourself as an actor is to feel exactly what you’re supposed
to feel in that brother and sister way. The only thing that’s different is the
sex scene, but obviously there can be some impropriety with that.
The other day you tweeted a photo of a movie review you
wrote back in high school of “Before Sunrise.” Was there a point in your
life where you considered film criticism?
(Laughs) No, I didn’t necessarily think I was going to be
a critic. I was real cocky in high school and I was a big indie-cinephile and
so I was like, “I’m going to take the job as the film reviewer for my high
school paper and I’m going to show everybody at school a bunch of cool indie
movies.”
Your lede is something like “This is intellectual
perfection and the first intellectual romantic film.”
The review is a little overwrought with some questionable
adjective and grammatic use. But I think my intentions were good. I
remember reviewing “My Own Private Idaho“ in 8th grade and everybody
being like, “You can’t review this. That’s a weird R-rated movie
with a ton of homosexual content. This is a Catholic school newspaper.”
I think when you’re promoting Linklater you can’t go
wrong.
Absolutely man. He is my hero. I used to see that dude do
Q&A sessions for “Slacker“ when I was visiting my brother in college
and I was 14 years old. He would get up there in jeans and a t-shirt, and I
would be like, “Wait a minute. He’s not wearing like a beret and smoking,
how is he a filmmaker?” He’s just some dude, and he was the guy that made
me feel like I could be a filmmaker. A normal person could have something to
stay.
Can you imagine working with him? Do you have
that bucket list of filmmakers?
Yeah, he would be huge for me to work with as an actor.
We’ve become friendly as I’ve gotten older and made movies that have more
recognition. There are a lot of directors that I really love right now. I like
when Bennett Miller is doing inside of the mainstream. I feel like he is one of
the few filmmakers that are making bigger movies, but he still is keeping his
vision intact. I would follow Kathryn Bigelow off the end of the earth if she
asked me to. I just like people who have maintained what they’re good at even
when they enter the studio system.
I’m interested, as prolific as you’ve been—writing,
acting, directing, producing—what do you want to do next?
It’s a valid question because I’m much further along in my
career, not only at this age than I thought I would be, but this is further
than I would ever get period. Setting goals for myself is a little strange at
this point.
You’ve just done so much …
I’ve kind of done it all. Yeah, it’s like what else is
there? If it were the early ’70s, I would be trying to win an Academy Award. But
that system is so fucking crazy right now, I can’t even imagine what that
requires. So I’m not worried about that. I’m loving exploring television. My
brother and I made a show for HBO and that form, creatively for me, is great
because I’m new to it and I have a lot to learn. I think we made a great first
season of TV, but I also think I can make a better second season. I’m just
getting better at the form. That’s a way to keep myself vital. I like working
with young filmmakers because they bring me new things and bring me enthusiasm.
Working with Charlie [McDowell] was like working with a version of my brother
and me when we were making “The Puffy Chair.” I look for that vitality in
my collaborators. I don’t want to be that filmmaker who had 10 great years and
then just made a bunch of crap because they got out of touch and rich.
Fame and fortune is something you’re wary of, and something
you made note of in that conversation with Mike Ryan where you talked about
those brief two weeks when “Tammy“ blew up.
It’s pretty interesting. I don’t know if you’ve ever
watched an interview with Francis Ford Coppola? But you look at the way he
talks about himself and how he knows he’s not capable of making a unique film
anymore, and it tortures him. And I’m just like, “How do I keep myself
from doing that?” In terms of the “Tammy” thing that was freaky for
me just losing my anonymity for a couple of weeks. That was scary, and that
makes me feel like being a movie star is probably not something I’m going to
actively seek out. But I am part of the conversation and I’m on all the casts’
lists. I like my corner of the sandbox right now, where I am.
It’s a double-edge sword because I would love for you to
make a movie as brilliant as “The Godfather,” but I would also hate to see
you feel awful about yourself.
(Laughs) I mean look, our system is different right now.
It’s very, very difficult to make huge budget movie truly as an auteur. There
are a handful of guys out there that are doing it, and I’m proud of them, but I
think the beatings they take are pretty rough. I don’t aspire to make a 50
million dollar epic that also maintains its artistic integrity. I look at that
as when you’re using all that money it’s a commodity, and there’s an inherent
compromise in that. So why not make something that is viewed as a commodity and
do it on your own terms? That’s just the way I’ve always thought.
Do you think other directors would benefit from using your
“instinct oriented” approach to filmmaking?
I don’t know … it’s hard to say. I feel like you could
look at my career and see it as a model to making movies. But, you know, and
this is all false humility aside, I don’t think that everybody can do what Jay
and I do and the way that we produce these smaller movies in particular. And I
don’t know why that is. A lot of its about curating the right group of people
and having the relationships and goodwill that we’ve built through the years.
I’m very fortunate that I’m at a place in my career where people still want to
lift me up, and they’re not looking to chop my legs off yet. You know what I
mean? And as someone who has been in the industry for 10 years, I’m still
really blessed to be viewed as an underdog in that way and everybody still
wants to help me out.
It would be nice if your legs stayed fully intact.
Yeah, you know, what’s going to happen is one of my movies
is going to breakout somehow and make 80 million dollars, and then everybody is
going to attack me.
And then that’s it. Your anonymity will be gone and I
won’t know who you are anymore and you’ll go through some existential
crisis.
But that’s the rhythm. People have a huge breakout and
then they get a lot of money and then they make a bomb, then they get depressed
and become alcoholics, then they get sober, divorced, and then make a new
movie. But I don’t need that all that shit. I like my corner of the sandbox.
I’m good.
I feel you could probably bypass divorce
and alcoholism and be okay.
(Laughs) Exactly.
What was it like throwing out the first pitch at a
Cubs game?
It was so amazing. I got a jersey with my name on the back
of it. I got a ball signed. I got a little Cubs hat with an ice cream sundae in
it that I’m cleaning and giving to my daughters so they can eat ice cream out
of it. I grew up watching WGN and Harry Carey and fucking Ryne Sandberg and I’m
a huge Greg Maddux fan. It was kind of epic for me.
Did that opportunity arise because of “The League” being
set in Chicago?
I have no idea how this shit happens. I certainly don’t
think the Chicago Cubs are major fans of sensitive indie dramadies such as
“The One I Love.”
I’ve heard they really like “The Puffy Chair.”
Yeah, exactly. I have a sense it came from “The
League,” but who knows?