Actor/Executive Producer Billy Zane talks to The Inside Reel about location, humor and personality traits of the man in regards to his new film: “Waltzing With Brando” from Iconic Releasing.
00:43And I've talked to a lot of people who have interacted with Brando,
00:46and that's just insane.
00:48I mean, because you capture the humor of the man,
00:51which most people don't realize how humorous the guy was,
00:55dry humor.
00:56But can you talk about finding sort of that cadence of the man,
00:58but also that sort of internal chronometer?
01:01Thank you so much.
01:02It really was the connective tissue.
01:06We heard from family and friends about his humor,
01:12his love of being a trickster and a practical joker.
01:18But, you know, I think funny people are smart,
01:21and smart people are funny, ideally.
01:24And his really kind of tapping into the passion of a man was really the best way to tell a story about them.
01:39A cradle to grave biopic never lands for me personally.
01:42I don't think you can ever really depict a character across a chronology that's so expansive in scope.
01:49This is more of a, we focus on this five-year period, which really focuses on the man's, I think, most bold undertaking,
01:59and where he was leveraging this unique celebrity, the access, I should say, the unique access celebrity affords for causes he really believed in,
02:09which were not of the time, you know, well, certainly pressing, but no one was really stepping up.
02:15There were no activists at that time walking the walk as he, for civil rights, indigenous rights,
02:21and little known fact that he was, you know, championing environmental rights at this time.
02:26And that particular angle and insight, tempered by this kind of engaging and funny, pluckish, whimsical, joyful quality
02:45that we don't normally attribute to the man based upon the work we know of him, was such a fun counterpoint and thing to play.
02:53I found it obviously challenging in concept at first, right, as one would, the idea of playing Marlon Brando.
03:10But discovered very quickly that the only way to, the real challenge was to ignore that insurmountable task.
03:22And the reverence that we all approach this man, as any actor does, and every actor does,
03:28and really remove that completely in order to be him, was to not fall into the fear of it.
03:37So to play it, like, the question was, how would Marlon play this?
03:40And the answer was to not really give a damn.
03:42To not, you know, what would be like, you know, just to flow and wait for the beautiful accidents,
03:51wait for the surprises to keep you off base and off kilter.
03:55You're Marlon Brando.
03:58Can you swim?
03:59Yes.
04:00Drop those drawers.
04:01What's the matter?
04:02You're not one of those uptight L.A. architects, are you?
04:05Boy, everybody's naked.
04:07I own an island nearby.
04:10It is a Polynesian treasure.
04:12I'm far away from those suckers in Hollywood.
04:15Don Corleone, what do you want of me?
04:17Cut.
04:18I want to build a home there.
04:19You want to live on an abandoned island with no potable water or food source or electricity.
04:25Yes, I do.
04:28Boats cannot go there.
04:31Then I'll just swim there.
04:33Yeah, he gets it.
04:36I want to build the hotel right here.
04:42Wait, hotel?
04:43What hotel?
04:44From this height, I can create a highly detailed map.
04:50I don't care.
04:52I can't believe it.
04:56You tried to out swim a shark.
04:58And that's kind of how, that's what I did, basically.
05:01I connected with his love of people and his sense of humor.
05:14And the most fun was, I mean, we meticulously recreate these moments that we all know.
05:21And then subvert it.
05:22And that was a lot of fun.
05:24So we started the process with The Godfather.
05:28We start, you know, in Tango and then Carson and Cabot.
05:32And we were meticulously recreating breath for breath, gesture for gesture, aesthetic look.
05:41And once we were able to achieve that, we were like, okay, that gave us the liberty now to tell the story on the island.
05:50And it allowed me to now improvise as him and to connect to those parts of me that I found resonated or were similar in terms of our passion for leveraging the unique access celebrity forwards towards solutions that might be found in institutional academia or in little known science.
06:15That needs to have its be connected to heads of state or captains of industry or policymakers who should implement them.
06:24Like, this is the most fun use of this gift that is this crazy job.
06:30And I was connecting with that before I ever knew he was doing it to that level.
06:37Like, and that's where that was the that was the big surprise about approaching this.
06:41You know, I felt very similar to him in that respect.
06:44And that's weird.
06:46It's one thing to kind of look like the guy, but it's another to I've been, you know, find myself connecting on that leverage point of service and going, okay, this is more than coincidence.
07:02And this is kismet and this is there's something at play here.
07:08So the journey is overall been completely humbling, but a mystery.
07:13Like it's it's opaque and and it's and it's it's charmed.
07:19You were the one who told me to lose my inhibitions.
07:21You, you would have done the same thing if you were me.
07:25You're goddamn right. I would have.
07:27But you're not me. You're Bernard Judge.
07:30Oh, come on.
07:31And listen, you got a stable home. You got a, you got an honest job.
07:37And you got an adoring family that wants nothing more than to grow old with you.
07:44Bernie, you are completely unremarkable.
07:49Unremarkable?
07:50Yeah.
07:52Believe me, there's not a day that goes by
07:56that I wouldn't trade all of the everything I've accomplished,
08:00everything I've acquired to have what you have.
08:04I have.
08:06But it seems almost like, you know, how did it come to you?
08:09I mean, obviously you helped shepherd it.
08:11But what how because going down the rabbit hole and eventually ended up ending up on the actual atoll shooting that scene.
08:19That's such a grand path.
08:21You know, it is.
08:23And you have to wonder how it's a miracle any film gets made.
08:28Do you know?
08:29Yeah, yeah.
08:30It's an insurmountable.
08:31It's crazy.
08:32And this has been over a six year journey.
08:36And you hear some movies take 10 years, seven years.
08:38There's passion projects.
08:39It's by all means an independent film.
08:41And we were always punching above our weight.
08:43You know, making a film on location and in your water.
08:48You know, you're just doubling your budgets.
08:50You know, what it would take to execute from a pure logistics standpoint was like building the damn retreat, you know?
08:58So, but the, the, there's indeed a level of satisfaction to see that we've arrived there.
09:09The most satisfying thing to me upon seeing it and making sure, you know, you asked earlier about the cadence and rhythm.
09:16You know, early on, we had, we had talked about how the movie has to take on his personality and, and, and the scenes need to flow with the space.
09:32He needs the, you know, it was the space with which he, his pauses and his manner had to, you know, it was interesting.
09:42I remember speaking with the editor early on.
09:44It was wonderful.
09:45Michael Yanovitch about like, you know, slow it down, slow it down.
09:49Just give it a, give it a second to like, let it breathe.
09:52Cause we're so used to reactions and jumping across.
09:56And I was like, just click into the minute.
10:01I just kind of whispered that.
10:02And, you know, same with, with, with Bill, we were working on the day.
10:05Just like, let's, you know, how can we.
10:08Find the cadence of, of the man to, to really kind of drive.
10:16And, you know, Bill did such a great job bringing the, the general tone of, of comedy to this story.
10:23It was like such a smart delivery system.
10:25The world's going to judge us by our success.
10:28We got to get this right.
10:30How is this an Oscar?
10:32Yeah.
10:33I mean, the decisions you make will profoundly change my legacy.
10:39Don't disappoint me.
10:42I made an oath to achieve the impossible.
10:45A safe haven to contemplate the glorious potential of our planet.
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