Caffeinated Clint
When veteran actor Daniel Stern (City Slickers, Home Alone, Bushwhacked) was approached to star in Whip It – he assumed it was a S&M movie. When he read ‘Drew Barrymore – Director’ on the cover sheet, he was convinced it was! CLINT MORRIS and ASHLEY HILLARD report.
How was it working with Drew on her directorial debut?
You know, it didn’t feel like I was working with a first-timer. I worked on Barry Levinson’s first movie, Tim Burton’s first movie… and like Drew, they didn’t seem inexperienced at all, and I think that’s because they bring their life experiences to the job. Drew was so confident and so prepared, so open-minded, so free, not scared of curve balls – she had a great set of actors that were throwing curve balls all the time, and she was able to accept that into her vision – and just brilliant. Really brilliant. She really took the time, and the space, and let rehearsals happen – she wasn’t just looking at the clock and wanting things to keep moving. She has a long and brilliant career ahead of her.
Are you disappointed you didn’t get to spend more time at the Derby’s?
I think I had it great – I got to spend a little time there, and I didn’t have to do any of it! That looked hard, did it not? I’m too big for skates anyway – anything on my feet, forget about it! I enjoyed watching their enthusiasm of going around the track. My first day on set was at the Derby – and there’s little Ellen [Page] going round the track, jabbing people with her elbows, and there’s Drew jumping in and out of acting and directing. I’ve done a few things where I’ve had to train a little bit – like City Slickers, where I had to learn to ride the horse – and there’s a really excellent bonding when everybody’s got to learn something.
From the final credits it looked like there was a scene that didn’t make it into the movie that featured you in the van with all the girls?
That’s the closest I got to be to their craziness! If I recall correctly, I was driving along and they’re all in the back – on their skates! They were sliding everywhere, and singing something or other. I got a lot of feedback on the scene – mainly that I looked a bit in shock [Laughs]. And I’m sure I was – because I was responsible for all their lives, being that I was the one zooming down the highway with a bunch of girls on skates sliding around the van in the back. I didn’t notice that the scene got cut until the credits came up. I thought that was great, the final credits sequence, it made you leave the film so happy – again, very sophisticated touches. That’s really excellent craftsmanship.
When you got the offer to do the movie, and you see that it’s called Whip It – what did you think it was about?
That’s an interesting question – I guess I thought it was an S & M movie [Laughs], and with Drew involved it had to be that! I didn’t take much notice of the title actually, I was just drawn to the fact of working with Drew and Ellen. I was so flattered when Drew asked me to do the movie. When she was talking to me about the movie she said that one of the inspirations for it was Breaking Away, which was the first movie I ever did. And there is a lot of similarities – kid coming-of-age, stuck in a small town, has a dream. And I thought it had similar tone, humour, action, and the whole ‘rooting for the hero at the end’ element. Only now I was the old guy playing the Dad, whereas in Breaking Away I was the best friend. So it was not only flattering to be offered the movie, but interesting to be in sort of a bookend to the Breaking Away part of it.
Had you seen Ellen’s work in Juno and…
Oh yeah. She’s a brilliant, sensitive actor. She reminded me of my daughters actually – I have two – in the sense that she’s politically active, thinking about the world and the bigger things, strong, determined, fierce, and yet very sensitive and creative underneath. Ellen is a hard shell with a very creative interior, and I just loved being challenged to get into her rhythm. And acting against Marcia [Gay Harden] – wow! That’s the big dog right there! It’s sort of a challenge but it’s also very comforting to be with actors that are so good and applicable. And with Drew being an actor too he was happy to let us play and find the best way to play something. It was a dreamy kind of a job.
How would you react if you found out your daughters wanted to do roller derby?
Ah… I guess the physical danger… but I guess I’d be like the dad in the film, ‘Try it – what the hell!’. You gotta let them do their thing. And I found that very relatable in this movie. The breaking away that has to go on between daughters and mothers is very complicated and the father is the mediator -you don’t understand the subtleties that the women are feeling towards each other, but you just want to make sure that everyone still loves each other , and you want that kid to have their chance to fly, but you also wanted the mother to be respected. In my parenting I let my kids try anything they want to – my son’s actually a clean-energy lawyer, my daughter’s in med school, and my other one is a songwriter. So I’ve only lost one to showbiz, the other two are doing pretty good [Laughs]. I don’t know what they’re talking about half the time – when he’s talking about his law cases, or she’s talking about biology – but I think that’s great, that they’re telling us about something we don’t know anything about. I don’t know about Roller Derby – that might be a little harsh – but if that’s the dream, you gotta let ‘em go.
What are you doing next?
I’m doing a picture with Paul Haggis and Russell Crowe called The Next Three Days. I play a Lawyer. My son is a lawyer so I had to ask him about some of my lines – and I asked him what a ‘PCRA’ is, and he didn’t know [Laughs].
