Tim Blake Nelson is a character actor extraordinaire who first hit mainstream attention as the dim-witted Delmar in the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? and has since racked up steady work in films such as Syriana, The Incredible Hulk, Lincoln and Blue Caprice. He’s also amassed a small-but-acclaimed filmography as a director with pictures like O, Leaves of Grass and his latest Anesthesia, a small-scale drama set amid a myriad of interconnected stories in New York City.
Nelson assembled a powerhouse cast for the film, which besides himself features Sam Waterston (“Law & Order”), Kristen Stewart (Twilight), Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs), Gretchen Mol (“Boardwalk Empire”), Corey Stoll (Ant-Man), Michael K. Williams (“The Wire”) and K. Todd Freeman (The Dark Knight). We talked exclusively with the accomplished actor/director during Anesthesia‘s premiere week at the Tribeca Film Festival about entitled children, K. Todd Freeman’s stunning performance and how VOD is changing the landscape for smaller films.
ComingSoon.net: The first movie that came to mind when I was watching “Anesthesia” was “Husbands and Wives.” Were you thinking of Woody Allen while writing this or is that just a natural outgrowth of a story about New York intelligentsia?
Tim Blake Nelson: More “Crimes & Misdemeanors” if there’s a Woody Allen antecedent, ’cause he had that philosopher in there.
CS: You cast a lot of Allen vets like Sam Waterston, Jessica Hecht, Corey Stoll, Gretchen Mol…
Nelson: I definitely wasn’t trying to make a Woody Allen movie or cast Woody Allen actors, but I do love “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” that’s my favorite Woody Allen movie, and it certainly did effect me to hear the philosopher’s monologue in “Crimes and Misdemeanors” in juxtaposition with everything else going on in the movie.
CS: An important aspect of the story is not only you and Jessica Hecht’s kids but Gretchen and Corey’s. My experience is there’s something very simultaneously accelerated and insulated about upper middle class kids in New York. Would you say that’s a fair characterization?
Nelson: I think it is fair, and I’m raising children in New York and everything that happens in the movie (laughs) is specific to stuff I’ve seen. That’s upper middle class and kids in and around New York are simultaneously insulated from the world and exposed to the world in ways that are unprecedented.
CS: I believe Gretchen used the word “entitled” in the movie.
Nelson: Yeah! (laughs)
Nelson: Emotionally, also, because of the access to information and the ease with which they can communicate, or pseudo-communicate, with one another the growing up process continues to accelerate. There’s a kind of Moore’s Law acceleration that’s probably been occurring since the end of the second World War until now, an acceleration of how kids are growing up.
CS: Despite great performances all around, especially Kristen Stewart and Sam Waterston, the biggest revelation has to be K. Todd Freeman, and not even for the more histrionic drug addict beats but those quiet moments when the person his character used to be will reappear.
Nelson: He’s extraordinary, and I’m glad you point that out. There’s a high-wire act that character has to play, not only because he’s playing addiction. I don’t think Ken has any experience with addiction, maybe he does, but I don’t believe he does, so there’s the spiritual transformation into an addictive character and then he physically had to look like an addict so there’s the weight loss, but also the language I give him is this very careful and difficult mix of street argot and a very high-end vocabulary. His character, you eventually learn, went to Amherst and was a writer. That becomes manifest as the film moves along and Ken pulls it off beautifully.
CS: Especially that scene with him and Sam in the bodega.
Nelson: Yeah, and I loved writing that scene and I was so worried that the audience wouldn’t be tolerating any of that anymore and I’ve been gratified to learn that it seems further to elevate the film when that happens. That is in large part because of the honesty that both Sam and Ken base that scene on.
CS: When you say you didn’t think the audience would tolerate that, you mean the erudite dialogues?
Nelson: Yeah! The movie is unapologetically erudite, and the characters are often hyper-articulate. Particularly as we become less so, there’s less interest in seeing that in the movies. You get people who can tolerate and even flock to movies that celebrate inarticulate characters who look beautiful and commit daring and violent acts. There’s not only patience for that there’s veneration of it, but then you put a really articulate character onscreen and people come after you with their pitchforks. (laughs) I don’t accept that. I think if you can put beautiful people onscreen and physically agile people onscreen there’s room for really articulate people onscreen, and I love finding actors who can pull that off.
CS: Even something like “Birdman,” which is essentially a character piece, still provided a fair amount of visual spectacle. Is that something you would consider applying to your next project, or are you still drawn to a more raw style of storytelling.
Nelson: I think the way you shoot a movie has to be guided by the material. I think that Alejandro Iñárritu found that in “Birdman” and it happens to be spectacularly innovative and arresting. I think if we were to have shot “Anesthesia” in that way it would have distracted from the ideas in the movie that I would rather have be the focus.
CS: You brought up the fact last night at the premiere that the Tribeca screening may very well be the only time people get to see this movie in a theater. Do you see VOD as having killed the small-scale drama or given it a new avenue to find audiences?
Nelson: It gives it a new avenue to find audiences. That said, however, I want my movie to be seen in movie theaters. I will despair if this movie is not released theatrically, and I think it will be because of guys like you… so it’s all on you! There’s been a very good response, so journalists remain very important to a movie’s future.
(Photo Credit: WENN)
