00:00 And he was a giant.
00:01 He put football players to shame with that body of his.
00:05 So that was the thing that was intimidating.
00:06 Not the height, just the power.
00:08 (upbeat music)
00:11 - Well, actually I do wanna go to just the start
00:18 of your relationship with Stephen King,
00:20 which is the Langoliers back in 1994.
00:23 - Northern Lights over California at this time of year.
00:27 - Who knows, the weather's been really freaky this year.
00:29 - When you signed on for that project,
00:30 what was your familiarity with his work?
00:32 - You know, I read a little bit.
00:33 I'm not sure that, you know, I'd read a little
00:37 and I liked him and read short stories.
00:39 I was, you know, I wouldn't know if,
00:41 I wouldn't say at that time I was a huge fan.
00:43 I just, I liked reading him.
00:44 I liked, and I liked the Langoliers short story
00:46 when I read that.
00:48 And at the time I really needed a job
00:50 and I was happy to get a job.
00:52 And over the years, I really have come to appreciate Stephen
00:56 as an author and as a really fascinating human being.
01:00 - Did he spend a good amount of time on set?
01:02 How much time did you get to spend with him?
01:04 - There was one day that I saw him on the set
01:07 and he's actually in a scene in it,
01:09 out the runway out there with the touch and go's
01:12 of the Air National Guard out there going all day long.
01:15 - So give us your report, Craig.
01:19 Tell us how much money you made for us.
01:22 - We didn't actually talk, but I saw him out there
01:24 and I was like, wow, that's Stephen King.
01:26 Unusual looking guy, but that's Stephen King.
01:29 - And I mean, 28 years on, I mean,
01:30 how do you reflect on that experience?
01:32 Because very much like "The Green Mile,"
01:34 it is a very intimate cast that's spending a lot of time
01:37 together in really one primary location.
01:40 - Yeah, very two different experiences though,
01:43 I have to say.
01:44 Like I said, it was, you know,
01:45 that story is supposed to be, it's totally silent.
01:47 You know, it's, we're eight seconds behind, you know, time.
01:50 Somehow we've gotten this and the Langoliers are coming.
01:54 We don't know what they are, but they're coming
01:55 and people can hear them.
01:57 And I'm afraid there was a little bit
02:00 of unhealthiness on that set.
02:02 It didn't, it wasn't a great experience,
02:06 although I'm always happy to be acting
02:08 and I'm always happy to be with other actors,
02:10 but it was not a great experience.
02:12 But we were up there in Maine, I love Maine,
02:15 but it was totally the opposite with "The Green Mile."
02:18 Even though there was a tension on the set
02:20 because we knew that this was behind schedule
02:23 and it was gonna be a long process.
02:25 There was a real bonding that happened between all of us.
02:28 And it helps because everybody is so fantastic.
02:31 They're great human beings.
02:32 They're really fantastic actors.
02:34 Everybody's at the top of their game
02:36 and we're in this completely beautiful story.
02:39 So it was, like I said, two different things.
02:42 - From what I understand, the scenes on "The Green Mile"
02:45 actually were filmed in scene order.
02:46 Basically you were playing out the movie.
02:49 How much did that ultimately influence the experience of,
02:52 I mean, like you said, you got the chance to bond
02:53 with all these other actors,
02:55 but you also had like, after Edward Delacroix dies,
02:59 like that's the end of Michael Jeter's time on set.
03:01 Like what was that experience like?
03:03 - Yeah, it's so unusual to do something like that.
03:06 I mean, almost always it seemed like I would always get,
03:09 when I get my script and there's the most emotional scene
03:11 in the movie, that would be the first thing
03:13 they wanna shoot.
03:14 You know, I don't even know everybody's names.
03:16 I haven't met them,
03:17 but somehow I have this relationship with them
03:19 and I've gotta be emotional about all of them.
03:21 And that, but because of money and budget and time,
03:24 that's how we do it.
03:26 It's a real luxury to have, you know,
03:30 your world unfold together and get to live it out.
03:34 And so it was great.
03:35 - Well, actually one interaction
03:38 I wanted to specifically ask about is working
03:41 with Sam Rockwell as Billy the Kid,
03:43 because that's an intense performance.
03:45 And from what I understand, he kind of stayed
03:47 in the headspace even when cameras weren't rolling.
03:49 Plus there's also that scene where he spits the chocolate
03:52 in your face.
03:54 Kind of what was it like just working with him?
03:56 - Well, I didn't know anything about him at the time.
03:59 We learned pretty quickly about him because he is,
04:03 I mean, you've seen the work, his work over the years.
04:06 He is, you know, he just knocks it out of the park.
04:09 It doesn't matter what he's doing.
04:10 But the thing that I loved about him
04:15 with all of the stuff he had going on,
04:17 we had studied the similar acting method
04:20 with a guy named Bill Esper.
04:23 So we were kind of working in the same mold.
04:26 And so with him, it was particularly, particularly fun.
04:30 (upbeat music)
04:33 - You can come in here on your legs.
04:39 But you go out on your backs.
04:41 - You being 6'3", I imagine you're used to the experience
04:44 of kind of viewing down on your co-stars.
04:46 Was it weird working with James Cromwell
04:48 and Michael Clark Duncan on the coffee highway?
04:51 - I'll tell you, the very first movie I ever did
04:53 was called "Inside Moves," where my character
04:55 had to become a professional basketball player.
04:58 He's just kind of a street basketball player.
05:00 And over comes stuff from an operation.
05:03 And my first real experience among giants,
05:07 as we played with the real Golden State Warriors,
05:11 my character became on the team, Golden State Warriors.
05:16 That's where I felt like I was another planet
05:18 working with all of them.
05:20 And then, you know, Michael was only an inch taller
05:22 than me, actually.
05:23 And I was 6'4" at the time.
05:25 I'm on the way down.
05:26 I'm 6'3" now.
05:28 But he would have been on the way down too
05:30 if he'd hung around long enough.
05:32 So I was a little bit, I wasn't so uncomfortable.
05:37 The only thing about Michael Clark Duncan
05:38 was he was 350 pounds of muscle.
05:42 I mean, he was a giant.
05:45 He put football players to shame with that body of his.
05:48 So that was the thing that was intimidating.
05:50 Not the height, just the power.
05:52 - Moving on next on the timeline,
05:53 there's "Hearts in Atlantis,"
05:55 which is an interesting performance
05:56 because there's a lot of parallels
05:58 that exist between that movie
06:00 and some of the other Castle Rock, Stephen King adaptations.
06:03 I'm curious, did you use Richard Dreyfuss' performance
06:06 in "Stand By Me" as a reference?
06:07 Like, what was kind of your headspace for that?
06:09 Also, just playing the older version of this character
06:11 we saw for most of the film.
06:14 - Yeah, no, I didn't really, you know, with Richard.
06:17 No, 'cause that's not really helpful to do stuff like that.
06:21 No, you just have to put your attention on the character.
06:25 But I did get to know Anton a little bit,
06:30 another actor who unfortunately, you know,
06:33 his life ended way too soon.
06:35 You see, I just watched that again for something else.
06:38 And God, he's so lovely in it.
06:41 And it's another lovely movie.
06:43 And that's Stephen King.
06:46 It comes from Stephen King's heart and imagination,
06:49 his world, and there's often a real beauty to it,
06:53 to his stories.
06:55 - One thing, and this isn't a movie yet,
06:57 but another book from Stephen King
06:59 that I have to ask about is "Revival,"
07:01 because I love your audio book reading.
07:04 And that book, absolutely, like the end of that book
07:07 completely destroyed my brain for a good week.
07:12 What was your experience just reading that book
07:14 and then recording it?
07:16 - You know, I hadn't read a Stephen King book before.
07:20 I was thrilled to get it,
07:21 just to, you know, do another Stephen King thing.
07:23 And I, you know, we're talking about Maine.
07:25 I grew up in New England, Boston,
07:27 and I'd go every summer up to Maine.
07:29 That's part of my childhood.
07:31 And the story all took place in Maine.
07:33 So I got, I was familiar with the accents,
07:35 you know, that world, and get to just dive into it.
07:38 One of the great things about doing those books
07:40 is you get to be all the characters, you know,
07:43 and that's fun.
07:44 And it gives you such great characters to play.
07:46 And that climax that you're talking about
07:48 is a real, honest to God, Stephen King climax.
07:52 You got one book going along,
07:54 and then there's Stephen King, you know, pouring it on.
07:58 And to do it, you know, the woman who produced it,
08:02 she, you know, we were sort of playing with
08:04 how far should I really go with this?
08:06 How sort of emotionally into it should I go?
08:09 And she was like, "Well, let's just record it.
08:12 Let's just go for it.
08:12 Just do it, go."
08:14 So I did, I just went for it.
08:16 And I was a little sweaty afterward,
08:18 but it was fun to take that.
08:20 - Well, I mean, honestly, I want to see "Revival" as a film.
08:22 And if you want me to play that feature role,
08:25 that would be-
08:26 - That would be great.
08:27 Yeah, I would love to play a role on that.
08:28 - That'd be cool.
08:29 Yeah, unfortunately that is my time.
08:31 But again, thank you so much for taking the time today.
08:33 It was really wonderful talking with you.
08:35 - Thanks, very happy to talk to you.
08:36 (upbeat music)
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