- 7 weeks ago
"I'm not going to be in this film. The one person still in charge is Jerry Bruckheimer and Mr. Bruckheimer and I don’t really get along," Ironside said of 'Top Gun.'
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Hi, this is Mariah Gullow from The Hollywood Reporter, and I'm in studio today with Michael
00:08Ironside. Hi, Michael. Hi, darling. How are you doing? I'm good. It's good to see you again. It's
00:13good to see you, too. We're going to talk about your new film, Knuckleball. Knuckleball, yes. I have
00:19a lot of questions about this movie, but the first thing I wanted to know is, are you a fan of the
00:25horror-slash-Halloween season? No, not really. It's like asking a baseball player if they're a fan of
00:38bats. No, not really. I like films that have substance, that have a sense of integrity or
00:47depth or social comment in them. A lot of your Halloween films and stuff are what I call a
00:52pizza and a beer film. You see the film, you go have a pizza and a beer, and you forget about it.
00:56Right. And Knuckleball's not that kind of film. Yes. Knuckleball stays with you. It, uh, and we
01:05designed it that way. We really did. It's, it's something that you relate to it with. Three or
01:10four days, you go, oh, oh, you know, because it's about miscommunication within families. We went to a
01:17couple of film festivals with it, and, uh, and I usually, I don't always go out for films that
01:22support them, and I went out for Knuckleball, and we went to a couple of film festivals, and usually a
01:28half the audience will get up and leave afterwards, and there's a few, you know, kind of movie nerds
01:32that'll stay behind, and some people that are interested. Almost entire audiences stayed afterwards.
01:39People from their late 70s to their, um, teenage years saying stuff like, that's not what I expected,
01:45or, was this intentional, or, my God, I remember when, and did you mean, you know what I mean?
01:51So it kind of, it resonates with a lot, quite a lot of broad audience, and that's, I'm very proud
01:55of that. Michael Peterson, the director and writer, and, uh, Lucas Villas, and Monroe Chambers, all of us,
02:02we, we all bonded together on the film to say something about familial communication and a lack of it,
02:09you know. Let's talk about your character. Uh, you play Henry's grandfather.
02:14Um, so, you've been known to be somebody who really likes to discuss your character with the,
02:20with the directors, and we, well, yeah, I don't know about discussing, but build a character that
02:26works, or, you know, that, uh, is good for all seasons. My, the actual, the script was sent to
02:31me through a mutual friend of Mike Peterson, the director, he's out of Canada, and I'd never met
02:36Michael before, and I read it, I read it twice, because it was quite good, and then, uh, I got a hold of him,
02:42and we met at a restaurant for breakfast while he was at the AFM a couple of years ago, and hit it
02:47off immediately. I said, this is the agenda, this is why I'm interested, this is the way I think it
02:52speaks, and this is the underlying story, and, uh, and he said, I'm right on board. I'm, I'm exactly
02:58the same, and he said some stuff that resonated with me, and we started from there. We started to,
03:03do rewrites, and think about casting. Monroe Chambers, who's in it, uh, we did Turbo Kid together. He was
03:09forever on, uh, Degrassi Street. He's the kind of young, Gregory Dancer, good-looking kid, you know,
03:15and, uh, we did Turbo Kid, where he played this adolescent kind of innocent, you know, kid in the
03:22future without any parents, and I said, you're going to have to get rid of this guy. You're going to have
03:26to get rid of some of this blue-eyed, curly-haired shit, and I'm sending you a script, and he saw it
03:32and read it, and he says, it frightens me. I should do it, and I said, yeah, yeah, so, and we did subtle
03:38things with him. We added a little bit to his hairline, not a lot. We changed, slightly changed some
03:44cosmetic stuff around his face, and gave him a denture to change his, his teeth line and stuff,
03:49and he's such a wonderful actor. I told him, you have to let people see the full breadth of what
03:55you can do, not just that three percent that they, you know, the, the boy next door, a good-looking
03:59kid, you know, with an emotional hang-up. Show us what you can do with this, you know, and he did a
04:05phenomenal job. So I've been, I've heard before that you're a method actor, or is that one of the
04:12types? No, I, yeah, I'm trained method, I'm trained method. Yeah, you have several training
04:17techniques. I don't let people, I don't tell too many people that, because there's this illusion
04:20of what method acting is all about. I was taught that never make your work process somebody else's
04:25problem. Have all your work together before you show up on set. Right. As opposed to the
04:30idea of the method actor, everyone's got to wait for to find his emotion, or her emotion.
04:34That's not the way I was trained. Yeah, I, I find something that emotionally I can connect to
04:40in my life, and use the emotions of that to lay it under the situation that's being
04:46scripted so that I can have an organic reaction to it. And you've also worked with some other
04:51actors who are well known for being method actors. I suppose, yes. Most notably Christian
04:56Bale. Christian, yes. A couple times. Yeah. Oh, what's it like when several method actors
05:03are on set together? There's not a lot of conversation. Oh, really? My, I have actually got a blanket
05:09character. My, my older daughter, Adrian, who, you know, calls him Binky, like a kid soother.
05:16Because most of the characters I've played through my career are fairly heavy and fairly socially
05:22unacceptable people. And so I can't walk around and sit being this, you know, this emotionally
05:29unacceptable person. So I throw this blanket over it, which I, somebody who can just, hey,
05:35how you doing? Can't remember anything. He knows nothing. You can ask me the time of day
05:42and when I'm on set and I won't be able to tell you. Um, I can't remember hockey games,
05:46can't remember characters, can't remember. And she just calls Binky. She's, she's, you know,
05:51Adrian has been an AD around me and a producer and stuff. And I remember I was doing a, a TV
05:56interview on set doing this character on one film and she came up and she said, Mr. Irons said,
06:01they want you on set soon. You have about five minutes. And I said, that's my daughter. And,
06:06uh, and the reporter said to me, he said, if everything around us collapsed right now and,
06:12uh, you know, it was destroyed and you weren't killed and you got up. Um, what, what do you think
06:18you would do if it wasn't, if you couldn't be a film actor or something that night or be in the
06:23entertainment industry, I said, I don't know, maybe I could teach. And I heard Adrian go,
06:28and I went, do you want to say something? She says, you, we have to go back to set,
06:34but you have to understand if the world collapsed around my father, he would get up,
06:39dust himself off and walk towards the nearest camera. Now it's time for you to go to set.
06:44And it was kind of humbling. It was, it's, I think it's true. It's, um,
06:51I get my sense of being from being able to function on a set to get underneath some,
06:58to be the light under that stained glass. That's a script, you know, or, or, or
07:03our director's vision and, uh, and bring it to life, you know, and all they basically
07:08have to say is brighter, softer, you know, louder, softer, but I think she's pretty well nailed me.
07:15You've had an amazing career that has included a lot of death scenes.
07:22What are the essential ingredients to a good death scene?
07:26Essential ingredients to a good death scene. Wow.
07:30You have to care if, if it's to work, whoever's dying, you have to have an emotional response to that person.
07:38Uh, if it's somebody who, who has caused a lot of anxiety, pain, suffering,
07:43and you want them to go down, it should cause you conflict.
07:47When that person dies, that no matter how bad they've been,
07:51their death should cause a certain amount, not really like relief.
07:55It should be like, and if it's something you care about, it should,
08:00I think it should cause you to reflect about yourself or somebody close to you,
08:04like a family member and stuff.
08:06I tried to do that in a knuckleball in the death scene.
08:10Uh, I'm going to get emotional.
08:13Is the body posture is very similar to where my, my sister found my father,
08:19laying on his back with one leg cocked and his arm out under the covers.
08:23And, uh, and I called Wendy.
08:26I said, when you found dad, was he on his back or on his side?
08:29And she said, you know, like I told you,
08:31he was half on his side with his one leg cocked and he was half covered.
08:35And, uh, and I look a lot like my dad these days.
08:38It's, uh, he's one of my heroes.
08:41And that's what I tried to recreate in that film.
08:44Now, when you look at the film, the outcome of the film and the characters,
08:48um, the Jacob character I was playing is not the end product of the film.
08:54I'm playing somebody who has been hurt, damaged, can't communicate,
08:59does his best to sort of organically live day to day.
09:03Uh, the child comes, his grandson, he has an organic reaction to him.
09:07It's the only emotional scene in the film is when he hugs his son that, uh,
09:12you know, Monroe Chambers happens to look up and see the bedroom window
09:15and sees his grandfather kissing this kid and hugging him.
09:18Um, it's, it's the one place in the film that causes everything else
09:23to have a certain amount of emotional distortion.
09:26Cause it's the only place anyone ever shares any real emotion
09:29until the mother and the child and the mother and father show up at the end,
09:32you know?
09:33Yeah.
09:34And, uh, well, I didn't know I was going to have that reaction.
09:38Yeah.
09:39Well, it's, you know, it's, it's a, it is like a wonderful quality
09:44that every character that you play has a empathet, there's an empathy underneath it.
09:49There's gotta be.
09:50And now we know it comes from a personal place.
09:51But it's not an, so much empathy or an empathetic thing.
09:53It's gotta be organically correct.
09:55Right.
09:56You know, it has to be organically correct.
09:58I, I have to do my due diligence and talk about the new Top Gun sequel
10:02because I did not see a, uh, jester in the new cast.
10:07No, I'm not going to be in this film.
10:09Did, did anyone reach out to you?
10:11No, um, the one person who's still in charge is Jerry Bruckheimer.
10:14Yeah.
10:15And Mr. Bruckheimer and I don't really get along.
10:17Oh.
10:18Didn't get along.
10:19Um, I said, he offered me a project about 10 years ago or 12 years ago.
10:23Um, and I think that may have been the miscommunication.
10:26Um, and I said no to it.
10:28Yeah.
10:29I didn't like the writing and stuff.
10:30And he asked me if I'd do it.
10:31And I said, I don't feel comfortable.
10:32I said, there's something else I can do.
10:34And the next time I saw him at a hockey game, he sort of turned his back on,
10:37when I walked around and said, Hey Jerry.
10:39And he just sort of turned around and I figured, well, that relationship's over with.
10:42Uh, but he has a business.
10:44He has to run.
10:45He has to make decisions based his way on his way of doing things.
10:48Um, and what makes him feel safe, uh, with Don Simpson gone.
10:53And, uh, the interesting thing though, is I'm a fan of Thomas by the Cruz.
11:00Yeah.
11:01Uh, I have nothing bad to say about him.
11:03Um, uh, that I'm looking forward to this new film because it's going to deal with, uh,
11:10like we were talking about knuckleball where there's so many ways to communicate.
11:15So little is being said now in the military, you don't even have to be physically present
11:19to kill somebody.
11:20Yeah.
11:21You know, you can buy drones and stuff like this.
11:24There's, you don't even have to take, um, emotional or spiritual responsibility for
11:28the taking of another life.
11:30It's like going to work on a keyboard and they go home at night and you might have killed
11:34140 people that day.
11:36And I hope that's the way the script is going.
11:38Cause I heard they, they shut it down and put it on hold for a while to, uh, examine
11:44and possibly expand the, expand the story to go into that.
11:47It would be interesting if they folded drone technology into the plot.
11:51It, it would be great because the Maverick character with, with his isolation, um, in
11:57the first film and the sense of being alone and apart from, um, there's something that
12:02you, they get to sort of excavate and sort of, uh, hopefully, um, challenging with that
12:09character, you know, being responsible for your actions.
12:12Uh, what was the best souvenir you've snagged from one of your movies?
12:15I take a lot of things.
12:16I, I'm, I've been sober 35 years.
12:18And, uh, what I do is I'll take something and I'll hold onto it for a while.
12:23And then I'll give it to a, uh, a recovery center or to a halfway house or something so
12:28that they can auction it off or raise money.
12:31Uh, the jacket, for example, from Top Gun, Jester's jacket, I heard brought somewhere between
12:3675 and 1150 when it was sold or resold, um, for that place.
12:43And it was a place out in, uh, um, near too much palms.
12:47Um, what's the best thing?
12:50I've still got the swords from Highlander.
12:53Wow.
12:54We had six of them.
12:55They're especially made with titanium and they're fairly light cause a steel sword that
13:01side would, you wouldn't be able to lift it off the floor.
13:03I've still got two of those.
13:04I, we're moving after 32 years and we were cleaning out the closets.
13:08I found a couple of hats from, uh, Total Recall, some of the uniforms.
13:14I found some other stuff in cupboards.
13:16Uh, it was kind of neat.
13:17I was like, Oh, here's something.
13:18I'll raise somebody.
13:19Somebody.
13:20I like to carry the merit, the, the, the memories.
13:23I like the conversations.
13:26I like the, the quiet nuances that have between people and stuff.
13:32Yeah.
13:33Like I remember on Total Recall, uh, we're shooting in Mexico city.
13:37And, uh, I got so many of them, but there's one, I remember walking out and they were
13:43refilling this water pool in the Cherubusco, the oldest movie studio in North America.
13:48And to do it, they had to drop water from this water tower had to be filled.
13:51And then I had to go from there and be dropped into this, the square swimming pool for this
13:56water sequence.
13:57And I walked out and Arnold, um, was standing there and he was like this joyous seven year
14:03old child going, Mikey, look, come here.
14:05And he said, if you stand right here, you can see a rainbow through the water.
14:08And there's the two of us standing there and everyone's all trying to posture around.
14:12Arnold and I were like, like two kids joyously looking at a rainbow, but those are the memories.
14:19Yeah.
14:20Those are the things you remember and not the memorabilia.
14:22Yeah.
14:23Uh, I will take things that, um, like I said, that I can possibly say, I try and keep something
14:30that's personal from every film, a little thing.
14:33Uh, out of all the roles that you've played, I mean, you've played cops and military men
14:39and bad guys.
14:40Priests.
14:41Women.
14:42What, is there anything you haven't played yet?
14:44Is there anything you want to play?
14:46Okay.
14:47It's not so much something.
14:48It's each, I'm getting, I'm, I'm still learning as an actor.
14:52I'm still learning and I'm getting opportunities now to do a little more.
14:56I just ended up playing JP Morgan in that TV series.
14:58The Alienist.
14:59The Alienist and it may be coming back next year and stuff and to do all the research on
15:04him.
15:05And my brother is a total nerd and he does all this research for me.
15:08And to be able to bring something to life and not just on a two dimension, but be able
15:15to get inside something and give it integrity, give it life so that people actually feel like
15:23they're in the presence of somebody or something or a situation and they learn from it.
15:28Uh, that's what I like.
15:29And, and the more I can do it, I, there's some scenes in some movies I could do all day.
15:36Let's try it this way.
15:37Let's try it that way.
15:38Go, you know, and you get a good actor across from me.
15:40It's like playing tennis.
15:41It's where nobody ever wins the point.
15:43They just keep volleying back and forth.
15:46Um, I would like to try Shakespeare.
15:49Um, I'm getting older now that a couple of opportunities I did have it ran conflict
15:54with things that were, um, I was already in, uh, under contract and there was some smaller
15:59productions came up.
16:00Um, some classics.
16:05There's a couple of Ibsen's I think I'd like to take a run at.
16:09Um, I'm not dead yet.
16:14You know, there's time.
16:15No, sir.
16:16You know.
16:17There's definitely some time.
16:18There's some time.
16:19Yeah.
16:20Yeah.
16:21I mean, we're looking at the golden age of television.
16:22I feel like there, there will be plenty of opportunity for you and film stage and television.
16:27Yeah.
16:28I'm 68 years old.
16:29I don't, I've beaten cancer three times.
16:31My wife's had cancer twice.
16:33Uh, I don't think I'm going anywhere.
16:35I have this sense.
16:36There's something I've, I remember my, my sister, Wendy and I, she's, she's just getting
16:41over an illness herself.
16:42She's the second oldest and when we were kids sitting on the stairs and she said, I feel
16:49like I'm here for a reason.
16:50I mean, this is like a four year old having this conversation with her seven year old brother.
16:55And I remember we're sitting on the top step in our kind of underwear and Sunday morning
17:01and I said, yeah.
17:02And I still feel that way.
17:03I still feel like there's a purpose.
17:05Yeah.
17:06There's an, an integrity or a purpose to something I've got to do.
17:11Maybe it's just being the moment.
17:13Who knows?
17:14Well, Michael Ironside, thank you so much for being here.
17:16The new movie is Knuckleball.
17:18Knuckleball.
17:19Go see it.
17:20Bye.
17:21Bye.
17:22Bye.
Be the first to comment