An interview with Gus Van Sant
By Kaizaad Kotwal
Kaizaad Kotwal is a professor at The Ohio State University's Theatre Department. Originally from
India, the author has his B.A. in Theatre, Art, and Economics and an M.A. in Theatre. His dissertation research concerned Virtual Reality and Cyber-Technologies for Theatre and Cinema. He is also an actor, director, producer, writer and designer with over 150 credits to his name.
Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Gus Van Sant was honored at the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio, recently with a retrospective of his cinematic oeuvre. Van Sant came to the Wexner to introduce his latest film Gerry, which will open nationwide at the end of March.
Van Sant and I sat down for an extensive chat about his work, his life and the times we live in. Exuding a shy demeanor at first, once he got to talking about the passion of his life, cinema, Van Sant opened up completely.
Van Sant's latest film, Gerry, a dazzling and intelligent piece of cinema about two friends (Matt Damon and Casey Afflec) who get lost in a desert, is a mature and breathtaking work of art. Van Sant says that he is "very happy with the finished product." He relates how the "process of shooting in the deserts of Argentina and Death Valley really hard." In addition, this was the first time that Van Sant has worked with a basic script outline, but no dialogue. Instead, he and the actors improvised throughout, creating not only an organic end product, but also a process that was constantly shifting and morphing, much like the varied landscapes the two protagonists find themselves lost in. Van Sant says that he always uses a certain amount of improvisation and script flexibility in all his projects, especially as in Drugstore Cowboy and Mala Noche.
Van Sant admits that he "liked working with no dialogue." In fact, Van Sant's career as a filmmaker has allowed him to constantly try new things within the often staid paradigms of how to make cinema. "There are lots of ways nobody has done things," he says, and this seems to have been his raison d' etre throughout his career.
With Gerry, or other pieces where he has allowed things to grow organically, Van Sant says that he is drawn to the idea of the cast and crew "acting and reacting to what might be." "In Gerry," he adds, "the characters are getting into a lot of trouble and this reaches ridiculous proportions because the size of he trouble was large as well." It is this troubled journey that is the kernel of truth seeking in Gerry and while the film has dark and tragic undertones, the organic process has allowed the film to have many very funny moments of existential angst and human endurance.
That same dark angst and humor put the Nicole Kidman vehicle To Die For on the map. Not only did it acknowledge Kidman as a serious actor, but it jump started the star career of Joaquin Phoenix and put Van Sant in the Hollywood mainstream.
Van Sant's true Hollywood bonanza came in the form of Good Will Hunting, a critical and box-office hit that gave him the clout to do anything he wished. The film notched up 9 Oscar nominations and Robin Williams finally won a statuette and screenwriters Ben Affleck and Matt Damon took home the original writing prize that year.
Gerry is Van Sant's third collaboration with Damon who had a small cameo in the director's Finding Forrester. Van Sant talks very highly of Damon whom he calls "a really good actor." "In fact," he continues, "Matt was supposed to have Joaquin's role in To Die For." The reason Van Sant ended up opting for Joaquin over Damon was because "Matt had a bit too much of the football jock in him and the character needed to have a more helpless aura about him."
Like the great filmmakers before him, Francois Truffaut and Ingmar Bergman, or like his contemporaries like Pedro Almodovar, Van Sant is keen on the idea of working with the same ensemble of actors over a period of time and in a number of different films. "This appeals to me," he says, "but I want to do so with unknown actors as opposed to famous ones." He wants to opt for the anonymity because "with unknown actors you are better able to buy them as the authentic character," as opposed to stars who are less able to completely shed their personas to be able to slip completely and unrecognizably into the skin of their characters.
Not being comfortable in one's own skin is a character trait embodied by many of the protagonists in Van Sant's films. From My Own Private Idaho to Gerry and from To Die For to Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, the central characers in all these films are searching for a sense of belonging, are longing ot be at home with themselves and those around them. I ask Van Sant if he identifies with this, if he is consciously drawn to such characters and stories. "Yes, I probably am drawn to this motif," he admits, "but it is probably at a more subconscious level."
Prying a bit deeper I wonder if he has this proclivity because of his sexuality and/or because he has chosen to always stay a bit outside of the Hollywood mainstream. "I guess it's just my standard emotional position in life," he admits, "being on the outside, you know?"
In terms of fellow filmmakers, whom he considers to be important voices, both stateside and internationally, Van Sant is once again drawn to other so-called outsiders. He mentions the august names of Thomas Vinterberg, Bella Tarr of Hungary, Abbas Kiarostami of Iran (Taste of Cherry, Ten), and Lars Von Trier (Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark). From the U.S he is drawn to the work of Todd Haynes, also one of the few openly gay directors working in Hollywood today, whose Far From Heaven was nominated for 4 Academy Awards this year. Van Sant says he liked Haynes' most recent film a lot. While all these filmmakers tackle different subject matter with varying cinematic styles, Van Sant sees one similarity in all of them. "They are all doing something that's beyond simply telling a story," he concludes.
Not that telling a story is irrelevant for Van Sant. But the more important aspect to filmmaking is how one tells that story because according to him, even the simplest stories can be told in the most compelling ways and the most compelling stories can be botched by inept execution.
While Van Sant's films have not always been critical or box-office hits, he is demure when asked to name those of his own films that he is partial to. "They are all equal to me," he said.
We then shift focus to the current state of affairs in the U.S. and the world, particularly vis-a-vis the impending war in Iraq. I asked Van Sant whether stars and celebrities should use their clout to speak out against the war, or in favor of the war for that matter, as Bruce Willis recently did by calling up President Bush himself and asking if he could enlist to serve.
"They should," Van Sant said. I remind him that many celebrities, particularly like Sean Penn and George Clooney have recently come under a lot of fire, both from the White House, and from certain segments of the American people, for protesting the President's insistence on a war with Iraq.
"I think that the complaints are probably based on whether the celebrities are considered to be serious or not," he said. Nevertheless, Van Sant believes that people should use their positions to speak out, pro or con. He said he remembered seeing a People magazine, right after the 9-11 attacks, where actors were photographed giving blood and helping in other ways. The White House or the public didn't mind that, he seems to infer from that anecdote.
Van Sant, quietly yet emphatically states however, that the current "insane Republican administration is very much like the McCarthy witch-hunts" of the 1950s. Referring to the Bush regime as very "reactionary," Van Sant says that they are very eager to find "scapegoats to blame things on."
"The nineteen-fifties grew out of this bizarre obsession with McCarthy," he continued, "and famous people like those in Hollywood were blacklisted and harassed as a form of terrorism to keep people away from the ideas" that went against the establishment, the government. He sees many parallels between that era and the times we are living through currently.
We ended our discussion with the seminal moments of people in his life that led Van Sant to where he is today. After a lengthy pause, his brow furrowed, Van Sant said that, "I can mention teachers who profoundly impacted my life."
From the ages of ten through seventeen, Van Sant lived in Darrien, Connecticut, and two teachers, Robert Lavigne and David Sohn made quite an impact on the future auteur.
"Lavigne was my seventh grade art teacher," he said, "and he himself made a lot of art which inspired me and got me very excited." "He was also quite a disciplinarian which was good," Van Sant added.
In the ninth grade, Van Sant came in contact with Sohn and in that class they made films, the start of what would become his life-long dedication.
Even though Van Sant has been making films for a while, and as he approaches middle age, it seems as though Van Sant's best work still lies ahead of him. What makes him the maverick that he is, is the fact that Van Sant is not afraid to try new things, he is insistent on making his audiences think, and he seems to have a real gift for telling stories about people yearning for true connections, about those human emotions and yens that live on the outer fringes of our consciousness and subconsciousness.
Van Sant continues that odyssey of charged and important films with his next feature, a film called Elephant, which he said is "about high school violence." Elephant will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on the French Riviera, later this year in May.
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