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The Devil’s Own Dodo
By Lisa | November 15, 2007
Another great interview with Marisa. I am loving how much press she’s getting! This one comes from canada.com
You couldn’t ask for a better symbol of Marisa Tomei’s round of interviews for Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead than the tray sent in to the windowless room where she waited. On it stood a mango smoothie and two boiled eggs in white cups.
Tomei brought sweetness for reporters, while photographers discovered they were treading on eggshells. My photographer and I got the first crack (so to speak) at Tomei, which turned out to be fortunate (another photographer was asked by a member of the actor’s entourage to delete his photos of the actress).
Tomei breezed into the suite late, but fashionably, in a grey pantsuit. Meticulously coiffed and styled, she sat primly on a soft, armless chair. To try to break the ice, I’d brought along a package of Skittles for show-and-tell. “See?” I said. “I thought the movie was so gripping last night that I completely forgot about my candy, and here it is.”
“That’s so cute,” she said, her nose wrinkling. “That’s not a movie to bring Skittles for.”
There are few light moments in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. The non-linear film builds to a tense crescendo in a minor key, held together by Carter Burwell’s haunting soundtrack and demonstratively emotional performances from Hoffman and Hawke. Tomei, as Hoffman’s disillusioned trophy wife Gina — who is also sleeping with Hawke’s character — provides the restrained counterpoint. It’s a performance worthy of the woman who showed early promise as Mona Lisa Vito in 1992’s My Cousin Vinny, a role that won her a best supporting actress Oscar. (The Brooklyn-born actor’s highlights, such as 1998’s Slums of Beverly Hills and 2001’s In the Bedroom, have been sporadic since.)
What does Tomei think motivates Gina, torn between an apparently strong husband and his weak brother? “What did of you think of her?” she replied. “Don’t you think she’s kind of stupid ? like a dodo? I haven’t figured her out yet.”
There’s a scene in which Gina’s awkward attempt to carry her own luggage seems to tell us simultaneously how vulnerable and sheltered she is. Did Tomei have to practise gracelessly carrying a suitcase? Not really, she said. And besides, Lumet’s directing style is famously breezy — two takes is all an actor gets for most scenes. Tomei doesn’t remember much about shooting the scene. “I did it once and Sidney said, ‘That was great. Do it again.’ ”
So what will Tomei remember of working alongside the legendary director of 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Network and The Verdict?
“Not much,” Tomei admitted. “I just remember it being summertime and very hot. And very New York. Sidney’s films just have that. I actually love, in this movie, his shots of the street when no one’s even in the scene — just these transition shots, because they have such a real flavour.”
It was one of those 10-minute movie-star-in-hotel-room interviews during the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Tomei was promoting the Sidney Lumetdirected drama about a pair of desperate brothers (played by Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman) who plan a robbery of a mom-and-pop jewellery store that, not coincidentally, belongs to their own mom and pop. The robbery goes horribly wrong; mom is shot and things go further downhill from there.
To put it as tactfully as possible, Tomei spends much of Before the Devil without the support of a brassiere, and one wonders if this gave her the jitters.
“No, I definitely wasn’t nervous about that,” Tomei said, adding that Lumet made her comfortable. “He’s, like, such a bubbie. He’s very paternal, and known for taking care of people in their performances, and not doing things that are ugly or off-putting. I wasn’t very scared about that.”
She added, “I kind of thought I should have got paid more, though.”
The publicist shot wrap-it-up eyes at me, so in parting I asked Tomei about her next movie. She brightened at the chance to talk about War, Inc., an upcoming comedy in which she plays a journalist covering the Middle East opposite John and Joan Cusack.
“It’s funny. Really funny. And I really like it,” Tomei said, girlishly. “It’s sort of like a sequel to Grosse Pointe Blank. At War, Inc. you can eat your Skittles.”
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Topics: 'Before the Devil', Articles & Reviews |
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