Alicia Malone
Since deciding to make a move into the acting world, Justin Timberlake has been slowly building a portfolio of interesting roles. He’s shown his acting chops in The Social Network and his comedic talents in Saturday Night Live, and combines the two in The Trouble With The Curve, joining Amy Adams and Clint Eastwood.
Adams, meanwhile, has an impressive career for someone so young. She’s already been nominated for three Oscars, with the possibility of a fourth for her incredible performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master.
The two young stars joined me and a small group of journalists, to talk about working with each other and the legendary Clint Eastwood.
So, being a fan of Clint Eastwood… were you nervous going toe-to-toe with him?
JT: I wasn’t really a huge fan. {laughing} I’m getting that question a lot. The only real answer that I do have for working with Clint, is, you know, you have an impression in your mind of what you think Clint is going to be like and it’s obviously based on the, like, this grrrr. It’s a testament to his work as an actor not just a director, his work as an actor from decades and decades of kind of amazing work that he’s been able to build an iconic leading man persona out of his characters that have that sort of tough and gruff thing. I’m sure Amy would attest that he’s like a teddy bear.
AA: He’s so warm.
Doesn’t he treat women differently than men because he’s such a flirt…
AA: I don’t know. I had such a different experience because I was playing his disgruntled daughter so I had to lose the intimidation factor pretty quickly in order to go toe-to-toe. I think it helped that I first knew him from Paint Your Wagon. Growing up, I was really into musicals so I knew him as like a singing cowboy and then I knew from him Bridges of Madison County. For me, he was like this hot hunky drifter-singing cowboy…
JT: You had your own set of butterflies.
AA: Yeah, had my own set. He’s still got it. I shouldn’t say that; I was playing his daughter. It’s weird. But I think having to play in the nature of our roles, I had to lose that intimidation pretty quickly in order to be able to do the scenes with him and feel empowered.
He’s famously efficient and you’re a famous perfectionist, how did that go together? Did you want to have another try when he said no?
JT: I think it’s really important to point out that Clint produced this movie and really gave Rob Lorenz the platform to direct it. I think Clint was really supportive. Rob has wanted to direct a film for years and Clint felt like he was really ready. He felt like this was a great vehicle to start his directorial career. I felt like we probably got to see Clint in a different way because he wasn’t a multi-hyphenate on set. He was just an actor. For me coming into the movie kind of being an athlete when I was younger and knowing that your coaches, your trainers and the people that really mold you into having the type of ethic that you have, that’s the type of relationship my character had with Clint. It’s almost surrogate father-son thing when you sort of understand that he scouted me when I was a younger hotshot phenom. When you get on set all of that really goes away and you just get down into the specifics of the relationships. While baseball is the catalyst for the relationships in this movie, it’s really a movie about people.
Did you guys have any similar figures in your professional life, in entertainment like some guy who you think is your mentor?
It’s always been Clint Eastwood. {laughing} Clint calls me on the phone, {Clint Eastwood impression} “I think that song sounds good.”
AA: I have Meryl Streep’s imaginary voice in my head a lot. I played a ‘what would Meryl do’ game in scenarios and situations. I will never be Meryl Streep. I adore her. She has a successful career and family, and that’s something that’s really important to me. I sort of look at her a lot…
JT: I would say Meryl Streep as well. {laughing} I think that she’s such an iconic gift to the world of film. I have so many. On a personal note, I think after working with David on The Social Network, I constantly check in with him and get his feedback on anything that I have an idea for because he’s so kind of in touch with everything. David cuts his own trailers. I remember when we were getting ready to promote The Social Network, I came to his office to have a meeting for something entirely different. He was like hey check out this trailer that we cut (meaning him and his editing team). So I think I relate to him in that way, with the other things that I have delved into when you’re responsible for so much of it.
You’ve done the same thing more or less when you call a radio station to make them play your record.
JT: Sure.
What do you do in the movie business… are you really proactive? Are you calling people if you hear of a role, are you chasing it or you just leave that to your people?
JT: No, no, no – I mean with this, I have no problem telling you guys that I have put myself on tape for this movie. I have no problem doing that because to be honest, when I first read the script I immediately called Rob and said, hey I think Clint and Amy’s characters are really fleshed out and I don’t know that mine is yet, and I have some ideas on how to inject humor and add things that are a little more colloquial to me that I think could ground the character. On paper, he was great and he was charming and funny but he could come across as a little crass as well. That was a characteristic I wanted to extract.
AA: He was the first person that I heard of that Rob and Clint both agreed upon and were excited about it. There were a lot of people who either read or whose names came up. But Clint apparently saw Justin’s tape and loved it and Rob did as well. I was excited. I met Justin at different events. He had such an excitement and passion for acting.
I’ve worked with other actors who – it’s so dumb and I hate to even say it, but this is a compliment to Justin – when you’re above someone on a call sheet sometimes men have a hard time with that. To have that much passion and energy and talent join our film, I was so excited because we’ve had conversations about film and about acting. I was promoting The Fighter when he was making the rounds for The Social Network so we ran into each other a lot. I was really, really excited to have that on our film.
Amy, what drives you to play a character? You have The Master, you have this movie and you have Lois Lane, a character that has been played a lot…
AA: I started out in theater so I never have a problem role sharing. I think it’s always fun to put your mark on a role in your own way, and I never worry about comparisons because the nature of art is people comparing and contrasting.
I think what drew me to this character was that she felt really contemporary and she felt like someone that I would be friends with, someone that I have a lot in common with. A lot of times I’ve played characters that are based in the past and I love that as well. This was the first time a very contemporary character had been presented to me and I was really excited. I haven’t seen a father-daughter relationship explored in film very often and that was new for me too because almost every girl I know has some daddy issues…
JT: We all have daddy issues. {laughing}
AA: Exactly. I really think that women deserve to see themselves reflected in a lot of different ways in film. This was a new way I felt that I hadn’t seen.
What about you, Justin? What was new about your character?
JT: Johnny comes into the mix and creates a triangle but really he’s the only character that’s being honest about everything. I really liked that about him because I don’t – maybe this will kind of answer your question – in a way I don’t really see men portrayed like that. I always see men as holding on and holding on. I just liked that he called Mickey out on her stuff and he called Gus out on his stuff. But he was there and there was this grounded patience with him specifically with Mickey. He says, “As long as it takes.”
AA: His character is very sexy. That’s why she takes her clothes off and swims in the lake.
JT: Shut up girl! {laughing}
Amy: He is really sexy! {laughing}
Amy, it sounds like your career is on an even higher echelon since you’ve become a mom. Are you just more fulfilled and happier and does that translate into even better work?
AA: I’ve been really, really lucky I have to say. It’s not a matter of having it all because I don’t. I don’t have any sleep. I don’t have any vacations. But I do have a great daughter and a great family. I will say that a lot of what enables that is a really great partner who makes a lot sacrifices. I couldn’t do without him. I get all weepy… He’s such a sweetheart. I really couldn’t do it without him. It would be impossible. Thank goodness we live in a time that actually values men’s roles in the house as well. He does much more than that. He’s an artist and actor in his own right but he picks up and moves his life for me.
JT: I think there is kind of a triangle going on there. {laughing} You have to understand that her guy has become my guy in his own way. We don’t want it to get awkward, so we kind of don’t tell Amy what we do away from her.
AA: And that’s okay. I think men deserve their time together. It’s like don’t ask, don’t tell. But also, I do feel that there’s a really great thing and I’m feeling it more and more the older she gets. When I close that door to get to not be an actress… I walk through the door and I’m her mom, and to have that consistency and that grounding factor, it allows me to then lose myself in my work a little bit more. If I’ve had a day where my character has lost her mind and cried, I get to close the door and be like, “Hey, what do you want for dinner? You want some chicken?” For me, I can’t recreate life if I don’t have a life. The more that I am able to be her mom the better I feel about acting.
What about you Justin?
JT: I told you, I have her man. He really grounds me. {laughing} I’ve always been pretty vocal about the fact that I’m a family guy. I have my folks and my significant other. Those things really do ground me. And like Amy said, I think one thing I’ve learned from being lucky enough and tenacious enough to have whatever amount of success at a younger age… you do learn at some point that having a life, it feeds everything. It is the most important thing.
I just read a story, I know it’s old but I hadn’t heard of it before, where you dressed up as Ernie?
JT: At Comic-Con – did I tell you about this?
AA: No, but this is amazing. Do you still have the costume? Because Aviana would freak out.
JT: She loves Ernie?
AA: Yeah.
You’ll be coming to the next birthday party. You’ll be the entertainment.
JT: I just dressed up as Woody for a 5 year old’s birthday like four days ago. It was pretty stellar I gotta say.
The Ernie story was… We had to go to Comic-Con for In Time. I had never been to Comic-Con and I wanted to see Comic-Con, but I can’t really just walk out on the floor. So I had this great idea that I would get an Ernie costume. I was going to go dressed as Ernie and I was just going to walk Comic-Con. The writer showed up that day. I made sure I got a Bert costume so that we could go as Bert and Ernie. There were a lot of funny comments shouted at us and from us, but it was hilarious. I walked Comic-Con for like two hours and saw the different freakery.
But if your costume is too good, you’ll get stopped for photos anyway.
JT: Here’s the thing about the Ernie and Bert costumes, they’re terrible. They’re terrible. You guys have been to Comic-Con. I mean, people literally look like the Storm troopers that are in the movie. We had spandex, draping – it’s like the ones you buy at a drugstore. For me I thought that was funny.
What are the things that you’ve learned from Clint Eastwood working on this film? What was the most valuable thing that you learned from him for both of you?
JT: Clint is actually really funny. He reminds me so much of my grandfather. He’s just always been such a huge figure in my life – my mother’s father. He’s got kind of that same charm like you’re watching John Wayne walk around. He’s got literally a suitcase full of jokes. Clint is the same way and it’s so disarming. The thing I loved the most about him is how he is still so youthful about the work. He’s excited to be doing it. He loves it. He lives, breathes and eats it. It’s his passion. I think that’s probably the thing that I would take away from it the most is that if you can continue to have that that would the reason to stay in it.
AA: What Justin said, and I would also just add that you can see what loyalty brings you. The loyalty and generosity that you give out comes back at you. You can see that exchange of committed passion from the company that he works with.
JT: This is the most familial experience I think we’ve ever had making a movie. We really felt that – and it is a movie about a new family. Kudos to Clint because they just don’t make movies like this anymore.
The Trouble With The Curve opens in Australian cinemas on December 6.
