Drew Turney
John Gallagher is one of those ‘that’s that guy from…’ guys. After Woody Allen’s Whatever Works, comic strip adaptation Jonah Hex, several episodes of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom and Short Term 12 (the movie that bought Brie Larson to underground attention) the 31 year old is finally getting a decent share of screen time in 10 Cloverfield Lane.
He plays Emmett, a fellow captive alongside Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), held against his will in a sealed bunker by antagonist Howard (John Goodman) but trying to make the best of it in his own slightly redneck-ish way.
But when he meets Moviehole.net in New York, it’s clear that with a wealth of stage experience only now translating to the screen in a big way, he’s nothing like his on-screen alter ego.
Why get more into film work only now after being in the theatre for so long?
Really The Newsroom opened up more doors for me to be able to do something like this and be part of higher profile film work. At this point I’ve done film, theatre and plays. I definitely have more experience on stage, but now I’m getting more experience on camera which has been great, because I had always wanted to make movies. As a kid that was the larger than life goal.
10 Cloverfield Lane looks very dialogue and character-driven. It seems like the stage would be the ideal training ground for that.
Totally. I did theatre and then, Aaron Sorkin writes very much in the vein of a playwright with seven to eight page scenes of rapid-fire dialogue. I think Dan [Trachtenberg, director] had seen my work on the show.
What are the themes of the film as far as what you responded to in the script?
It’s in the tagline; ‘Monsters come in many forms’. I think it’s kind of an existential take on a scary movie. In a sense that you have a character – Michelle – who’s essentially trying to escape something in her life, and ends up in that process becoming trapped in an entirely different way down in this bunker with these two strangers.
My character is a bit of a simpleton, I think he tries to be a peacekeeper in a sense. There’s something going on in the outside world that is keeping these people in this bunker, and it naturally causes some friction and tension. I think Emmett is the guy that kind of tries to lighten the mood.
What got you interested?
Naturally my interest was piqued when I saw JJ was involved and that it was a Bad Robot Production, and then I watched Dan’s short film based on the video game Portal, that was really impressive. But in reading the script what I really liked was that it was a human take on a genre film, and the characters were treated in a very real way.
I love that it had this claustrophobic character drama element to it that’s so much a part of the way genre movies used to be made. Like when you go back and watch Hitchcock’s Lifeboat, it’s just people trapped on this raft together and it’s all about the drama between them.
I think despite the fact that ours is a very modern film, there’s something about the sensibility in the script that we kept alive in the making of it, that makes it kind of an old fashioned movie.
Even watching the sequence of her waking up and the fact there’s no dialogue and it’s just this woman. You know, you start thinking ‘God, what would I do if I found myself in such a situation?’ It really plays upon the psyche in a scary way.
How tense and claustrophobic was the shoot?
It’s really funny because the tension and fear is very much alive on screen, but it was one of the most pleasant shoots of my career. It was really laid back, we were on schedule, nobody was stressed, it was really, really fun. The fear and the angst and the claustrophobia of the film would dissipate when they yelled cut.
Dan is an amazing person to have at the helm because he’s just so sweet and positive and smart and hyper-efficient as a director. Then all the Bad Robot people, it’s kind of a dream company to work with because everything they do stems from a childlike, obsessive love of movies.
Did you guys go method, did John Goodman isolate himself from you and Mary to make it more authentic?
It was the best of both worlds because John is so sweet and warm and generous and genuinely funny, he’s hilarious. He would keep everybody laughing in between takes, and I have so many memories of him just cracking me up.
At the same time he has an incredible work ethic and is a very, very disciplined and trained and serious actor. When it came time to do those scenes where he really gets intense and goes into that head space and cracks the whip, he is able to just lock into that so fast, it was so amazing to watch.
Being in a Bad Robot film and having JJ Abrams producing exposes you to another pretty big franchise. Might we see you in a future Star Wars film?
Yeah, I’ll do it. I’ll play a stormtrooper. I’ll be an extra, I’ll do anything.
Was he around? Did you get to meet him or get any notes from him?
He wasn’t really a physical presence on the film because he was still wrapping up production on The Force Awakens. But what’s so great about JJ is that, the Bad Robot people are such a team, and because he’s able to have multiple people from Bad Robot on set the whole time, it was like he was there via extension.
He’s not the kind of guy to just put his name on something and then go away. He was integral and very much a part of it and even though he wasn’t able to be constantly there with us physically, his input was always on the table. You also feel his energy because it’s contagious how much of a fan he is himself – it really infected everybody.
If you did end up in something huge like Star Wars you’d fade into the background a bit, here at least you’re commanding the screen with only two other people.
The way I’ve been approaching it for my whole career is to just trust my instincts and want to make movies that I would want to see. I’m pretty picky about it. I read a lot of scripts and I’m kind of OCD about which ones I like and which ones I don’t. I’m very careful about what I sign onto, and it tends to be stuff where I feel like it’s challenging and it’s the kind of thing I would want to go and see.
