WAMG Talks THE BAG MAN With CRISPIN GLOVER

THE BAG MAN, the all new crime thriller starring John Cusack, Rebecca Da Costa, Robert De Niro, and Crispin Glover opens in theaters today, and in support of the film I talked to star Crispin Glover about what attracted him to the role, his own films, and the appeal of touring to promote a film. Check it out below.

THE BAG MAN is a taut crime thriller that follows the story of JACK (John Cusack), a tough guy with chronic bad luck but human touches. Hired by DRAGNA (Robert De Niro), a legendary crime boss to complete a simple but unusual task, the plot centers around the anticipated arrival of Dragna who has summoned JACK and a host of shady characters to a remote location for unknown reasons. Over the course of a long and violently eventful night awaiting Dragna’s arrival, Jack’s path crosses that of RIVKA (Rebecca Da Costa), a stunningly beautiful woman whose life becomes physically and emotionally entangled with Jack’s. When Dragna finally arrives on the scene there are sudden and extreme consequences for all.

Not only are you an actor, but you are a writer and a director who has been touring with his your own films. What attracted you to THE BAG MAN, because you must have a lot of option?

Crispin Glover: Well, I’m glad that it seems like I have a lot of options. Sometimes it certainly feels like that, but I don’t know if I always feel like I do. It’s funny. But, I did like the dialogue for THE BAG MAN. Specifically, it was the dialogue. I thought that the dialogue was very well written, and it became apparent immediately who that character should be, and how I should look and play it. How I should sound. I’m realizing, while doing these conversations, that I actually didn’t have a huge preparation time. I knew that I wanted to have facial hair for it, and I think I had less than two weeks to grow out the facial hair. I wanted a little bit more time just for that, but we had just those two weeks… and it worked out. It looked enough like what I wanted it to look like.  For it to be proper. Of course, that wasn’t the only thing. There was the dialogue. That was important. Like I was saying, it was well written dialogue and very imperious to what was going on.

Some of the other actors  have talked about the improvisation on set. Did you do that as well, and do you prefer an environment where you are free to do so? Or, do you prefer sticking to the script?

Crispin Glover: For me – I don’t know about the other actors – I did not improvise in the traditional sense that people are thinking of with improvisation… where the actors are coming up with dialogue. I did not do that on this. I don’t think there is a single word that I say in the film that is not written in the screenplay. On occasion, there have been films where I have improvised in that kind of traditional idea, but that is pretty rare. I usually don’t. Usually I’m sticking pretty close to what’s written. I would say out of… I’m forgetting how many films that I have been in. I look at the IMDB sometimes to remind myself. I would say, if I had to – I’ve been in – I don’t know. Including television for me from when I was a teenager, I think I have somewhere between 50 and 60 credits. [IMDB credits 61] I can’t remember what it is now. Out of those, I would say there’s only 2 or 3 where I’ve really improvised dialogue. I usually don’t. I’m very comfortable with it if it comes to it. The way I studied acting , from age 15 to 20, many of my classes were improvisation with technique as opposed to improvisation with comedy. So, I have no problem with it. Also, a part of my training was scene study. Generally you are taught to say the lines, and if you stick with that there is an improvisational element within the thought process , underneath the lines, which is ultimately the most important aspect. What did happen in the scenes that I shot – not all of them, but certain scenes – we did a fair amount of takes, and interpretations of how to play those lines where we would just, kind of, keep going, and do multiple runs of a scene. But, we would stop and talk about it too. It was interesting. I enjoyed it. That’s not always that common to do, and I did enjoy that aspect. I wouldn’t call that improvisation in the way that it’s standardly used. We were sticking with the lines, but playing with the interpretation of how to play it. You can have different intentions in what you are getting at while saying the same dialogue. There was one scene in particular where we were kind of going through it, and then came to the realization that  – because the way that the dialogue was written, you could interpret it multiple ways as to what someone is thinking about, and that can give a very different feeling as to how you are saying the same dialogue but it means something quite different from what you – by playing it with one intention, with a different thought process behind it.

This is David Grovic’s first feature film, but he has a few acting credits under his belt. Do you find it beneficial to work with directors who have acted before?

Crispin Glover: I did not know that he came from a  background of acting. I realized when I saw him – he’s in the film. What I do know is that he funded the film. I don’t know if I’m supposed to say that or not [laughs]. I don’t know exactly what his business is, but he self financed the film, which actually, for me, that’s something that I was interested in because I do that as well. He’s financially independent. I’m not. I have to work in what my chosen profession is, which is acting, which is fine. I’m glad to do it. It is interesting to me when somebody is an autocrat. When you fund your film you can be limited by monetary decisions, but you can go into areas of what you want to do. I like that. I like when a director isn’t beholden to someone who is essentially the entity that it funding the film and has the final say of what the content is. When somebody funds the film themselves, they are the final say for the content, and I do like that better. I think, ultimately, it’s a much more individualized thought process… rather than when someone has to worry about, particularly, what a corporation wants the content to be. My own films, like my first film WHAT IS IT? specifically is a reaction to that. I tour with two different live shows, and two different feature films . People can find out where I’m going to be, with what chosen film by logging on to CrispinGlover.com.

But David was – it was apparent that he understood enough, certainly about acting, to let thought process be open, and that’s incredibly important. I’ve worked with writer/director’s that – first time writer/director’s – that make the mistake of getting into the word, and feeling like the word is the final element when it’s not. It’s what is under the word. That’s what is important. I’m sure David knew that. It was apparent. The fact that he is involved as a performer means that he has to be able to relate to that, and he certainly – obviously he understood working with good actors. He hired Robert De Niro, so [laughs] he has to understand something about that, for sure… and he did. When I read the screenplay though, Robert De Niro was not attached to it. I didn’t know about that. I did like the dialogue enough. That was what struck me about it.

You’ve been touring for some time now with your two films.  What is the most rewarding part about doing the old-school theater tours, and getting to interact with the audience?

Crispin Glover: It’s complicated, because… What I call it is vaudeville distribution, because a lot of the venues that I’m at are part of what were the vaudeville circuit, and these are 35mm movie houses that, for the most part, don’t entertain as much live performance as maybe they have cinemas. I’m quite convinced that – and I’m already seeing signs of it since I’ve been doing this these past 9 years – is that it’s going to become more popular. I think you’re going to see a lot of filmmakers that are going to start touring with their films. There are a few reasons. There’s a strong business incentive to do it. On top of that, the audience interaction is a real thing. What people get out of that interaction is extremely valuable. A lot of these studios keep coming up with ideas of “what can people not get at home” when it comes to 3D, or what have you. Ultimately, anything that you can put out digitally… people are going to be able to get at home, except for living, breathing humans interacting with them. You cannot replace that. Vaudeville once was the form of entertainment in the United States for more than 100 years, and live performance is still maintained. I strongly feel that this aspect will remain, and probably increase once people realize that interaction with humans… humans are social animals. They learn, and think, because they are interacting with other human beings. That is not to be underestimated.

You are currently working on new project, and I’ve heard that you have shown about 10 minutes of it. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Crispin Glover: Yeah. In parts 1 and part 2 of what will be a trilogy, and I think that I already said that people can find out where I am going to be by going on to CrispinGlover.com, but part 3 … I’m not shooting that right now. Sometimes I see it written that part 3 of the trilogy is , but it’s not. This is a separate feature film that I’ve been developing for a number of years. I’m shooting it at my property in the Czech Republic. This is a film that I’ve been developing for my father and myself to act in together. He and I have been in 2 films together, but we’ve never had a scene together. We’ve never acted together. This is the first time he and I have acted together, so I’m excited about it. I’ve complicated it by purposely not putting the title out. There’s so much misinformation that goes into it… like on IMDB. Already I’ve seen so many incorrect things. There is 20 minutes of edited which are contiguous that I am showing at the shows, and I still have quite a lot more to shoot. This is a project that I am in the midst of, and it’s hard to calculate how long these things will take when you fund your own films and on a limit budget. It takes time, but I’m very excited about it, and I’m looking forward to seeing people at the shows, and showing them this new footage as well as the two feature films that I’ve been touring with for this long amount of time. They’re solid underpinnings, and there’s a lot to talk about. I’m glad to say that it’s still going, amazingly, after 9 years of touring. There’s still stuff to talk about.

THE BAG MAN was co-written by David Grovic and Paul Conway, and is David Grovic’s directorial debut. The film has a running time of 108 minutes and is not rated by the MPAA.

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THE BAG MAN is in theaters now