INT: Alpha Dog

What
do you get when you have a bunch of bored young American punks
land-locked in their privileged white suburban LA neighborhood?
Drug dealing, thug emulating,
wanna be gangsta-‘Scarface’ posses.

Emile
Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, Anton Yelchin, Shawn Hatosy and Ben
Foster are part of the powerful ensemble cast in the upcoming film
Alpha Dog that demonstrates all too realistically what goes down in
rich suburban neighborhoods full of young, thrill-seeking hot-bloods
trying to fight complacency and prove their power, popularity and
existence by dealing drugs, partying hard and imitating the much
glamorized and over-hyped thug lifestyle.
Unfortunately, like most scenarios, the crime is often
unpremeditated and the serious consequences unconsidered before the
situation quickly spirals way out of control.
Alpha Dog displays how a gang’s cognitive reasoning is
blind-sighted by fear resulting in a chain of events that lead to a
shocking and impulsive outcome.

I
recently had the opportunity to meet and speak with the young, very
handsome and talented cast of the upcoming startling and tragic film
Alpha Dog as they talked about their thoughts on the film, and its
impact and influence on today’s youth.
Check out what Timberlake, Hirsch, Hatosy, Foster and Yelchin
all had to say.

***
SPOILERS AHEAD


***

It’s
fair to say that these characters are morally repulsive.
What was the attraction to do this film and how do you feel
about the risk involved with portraying someone like that?

Justin
Timberlake (JT): First of all, I’d like to thank you for pointing
that out. We didn’t
really plan out the characters, so we didn’t intend them to be
repulsive. The point was to reveal the truth of what was happening
in the story. We had all laid so much groundwork all of us as
actors. There was so much information on the characters and I think
that all of us felt morally responsible for portraying that. It
don’t think it’s a stretching statement at all to say that this
is a tough movie to watch. This is as close to what happened as we
felt like we could make it. As far as the repulsiveness goes, you’ll
have to talk to the director about that. He definitely wanted to
push that.

Not
that you have to justify the character, but did you think it was a
risk? Most people want to play sympathetic characters.

JT:
My only stipulation for the movie was that I just wanted to crack a
couple of jokes here and there. That was it.

Can
you comment on your movie career versus the music?

JT:
Well I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. I haven’t thought
that far.

Shawn
Hatosy (SH): Wait. You have a music career [laughter]?

JT:
I know. Yeah, I’m sort of a struggling musician. I’ll give you my
demo.

If
you still have a copy…

JT:
Yeah. I’m sorry I misunderstood that question but to answer that
question, for me it was just attractive to be involved [in the film]
with great actors and a great director and great material.
And that’s what leads me to this film.

On
the heels of that comment, how did you guys work together with
everybody to establish the characters? Did you guys talk to any of
your counterparts and the people who were the actual characters, the
various witnesses and all? Also,
did you know people who were like this?

JT:
Anybody want to jump in?

SH:
Nick made us all get together and train actually.
So that was helpful for us to get to know each other because
I think these characters grew up together, they played sports
together, they did everything together; so the opportunity to work
out and spend like two months prior to shooting.

Ben
Foster (BF): Five days a week, right?

SH:
Yeah, that was pretty intense. Five
days a week before we started shooting, but I think that was a good
idea.

BF:
Yeah, it was nothing short of boot camp.

Emile
Hirsch (EH): There is
one really funny story though. We had to lift weights and stuff and
I got it in my mind that since I was the youngest one, “Yeah,
I’m going to make a statement through this work out. And we were
doing these exercises where we had these two and a half pound
weights but we were doing this thing like a thousand times until
your arms were dying. And so I showed up and told Frankie because he
was kind of training us and I said we’re moving on to five.
And Shawn looks at me and he’s like “Dude, no! No!”
And I’m like yea. And I killed myself lifting this five and I only
– and as soon as I did [Frankie was like] “You did? You did?
Everyone’s doing five.” And so we all did five and it was
torture.

JT:
Yeah, you made some enemies that day.
Thanks a lot.

SH:
Yeah, that was awesome.

So have you guys kept it up?

JT:
[laughing] Yeah, can’t
you tell?

SH:
Just take off your shirt.
That’s what they want.

EH:
That’s what they’re here for.

Getting
back to my question, did you have to go and talk to people that
experienced this? And did you know people who were actually like
this?

JT:
I don’t know that I know anyone growing up who specifically like
this. But I think you know as an actor its your job to find the
relative to play a character, I think you can latch on to some
things that might have happened, I think all of us can as kids –
kids are cruel. I think that I speak for myself, I actually went
with Nick – we traveled to upstate to Cali to go to prison to visit
the guy that my character was based off of.
Literally, when we signed up for the project, we all got a
stack of files. It was like this thick. I mean literally like a
novel of files of all the police reports and all the sort of the
newspaper reports about what had happened and I know that Nick was
able to really get a lot of information. And we really just trusted
him with all the information and we all signed up to just do, you
know, to portray the truth of what happened. And we followed
Nick’s lead on that.

Anton
Yelchin (AY): I don’t think
it’s scientifically to find similar characters because its
relative apathy in general that’s just pervades society. These guys
they just took it to a different level you know? With carelessness,
or whatever it was. They’re just apathetic. You find that
everywhere. It seems shocking when you watch it like how did this
happen. But it’s not really when you think about it. Everything is
sort of just kind of justified in how ridiculous it is. It just
happened and nobody really cared. It’s not hard to find people not
caring. It happens all over the world.

There
are so many people that witnessed this. One of the brilliant parts
of the movie is the on-screen labels if “witness” and
“suspect”. Can
you speak individually on that, the entire panel on how it was to
meet the actual characters and their actual families who let this
happen before their eyes?

JT:
You know interestingly enough when we screened the film at Sundance
I think when we all saw the film, when you see it without an
audience you don’t see things like that coming but literally the
first half of the film when the witness credit would kind of come
people would giggle – at Sundance. So I think that sort of helped
support the point it served Anton sort of made. I don’t think that
it was, you watch it as those kids, as those characters watched it
happened. That’s what I think is sort of special about the film is
that you literally watch it through their eyes. No one saw that
happening and I think that is sort of the point.

EH:
I never met Jesse James in Hollywood. He was sort of on the run at
that time. I thought that, his dad was on set almost everyday. And
he told a lot interesting stories, and he definitely wanted to get
across that he loves his son, and he’s like my kid is a good and
it’s complicated talking to a father about his son like that.
Because you don’t want to be like oh my god get away from me, you
monster. You have to be understanding and reasonable.

AY:
Well you know that obviously I didn’t my character but the
weird thing is that when you watch the film, kind of like Justin
said, the terrible feeling you get at the end of the film is because
you liked the characters for the first half of it.
When I watched [the film] I thought these are cool guys – I
wouldn’t mind spending time with them. And the more you like them,
the more you either feel guilty or at least uncomfortable with
yourself for liking them. It’s normal. You just spent an hour liking
somebody and then you spend the next 45 minutes being shown what you
just had affection for and just liked [about them.] And it’s
terrible. When I saw it I didn’t really know what to do with myself.
And I knew, I knew everything obviously but you watch it and you
aren’t sure how you feel. You
want to like these people but there’s just no way you can. It’s
almost like a paradox.

JT:
It’s morally repulsive.

AY:
Yeah, yeah it’s morally repulsive.

Were
you able to talk to his parents?

AY:
No I didn’t. But probably one of the most depressing things I’ve
seen was this website they created dedicated to their kid. And they
wrote letters about it him. And I looked through that and it was
another one of those things I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. The
only person I really kind of felt clear about was the kid himself
because I don’t know how much you can blame the family. How much you
can feel bad for them.

You
read these like, the mother wrote letters to her son and how she
misses him and how she’s lost him and she sees him everyday. And
he’s this angel. It’s
just heartbreaking but at the same time she drove him away just as
much as she loved him and it’s really hard to handle. It’s one of
those things that you want to point fingers at everybody but you
can’t. The weird thing is that you sort of, the only choice you have
is to make sure you don’t do anything similar in your own life – I
don’t mean to sound like hahaha you know, but it’s true.
All you can do is hope that you are not going to be as
selfish.

Did
you meet any of the witnesses?

AY:
There was actually a guy at Sundance who was like friends
with all these –I met this one guy a tall guy that was like …

JT:
This movie created…I don’t know – in California, it became like
almost like legend. It was really interesting because I found just
around town, around Los Angeles and outside of it – I mean
literally people would come up to me and say hey you’re doing that
movie, on the Jesse James and Nick Markowitz thing right, and they
would always label it like that. And I would always say yeah sure
and [they would say] yeah, I knew that guy, I knew Jesse James
Hollywood.

Like
everybody knew somebody that knew him – it became this interesting
thing. It actually helped when we were making the film to hear those
kinds of things because you realize how kids spread and how young
people converse with each other.
You can tell immediately that half of the people that would
came up to you and sort of tell you about it knew nothing about it.
All they knew that he was kidnapped and murdered but they
would always be like ‘Yeah I knew him.’
And I found it interesting that through his infamy he became
this weird sort of tall tale to these young people who are in some
weird way wanting to be involved with it.

Do
you have any thoughts on your viewing audience, specifically the
younger crowd that will see this film, and what they come away with
or you hope they come away with?

SH:
I think the theme that we are missing though is that there were a
lot of parents that were there that were witnesses as well and they
could have done something. So its good for young people to see and
its also good for parents to see it because these kids were
misguided in every sense. Even the love that Jack Hollywood had for
his son was misguided.

Anyone
else? What do you feel
about the audience who will see this film especially the younger
ones?

EH:
I think it’s a good cautionary tale in a certain sense
because you got this kind of party lifestyle world and get like this
is oh it’s so crazy and there is a certain glorification of that.
But the glorification is just very inherent.
That’s part of the self. That’s the hook that gets you.
Then it kind of hits you over the head with reality. And that’s what
a lot of this stuff is you know – a lot of the violence in the
media, a lot of the music we listen to today there’s the whole myth
and when the myth is confronted with the actual reality of acting
any of it out in real life, it kind of shatters the myth. And I
think that’s what “Alpha Dog” does so I think it’s even
more important for young people to see this because as much as every
kid may love rap or really violent music or violent video games its
good for them to get just a healthy dose of reality so that they
don’t think it’s just always going to end riding off into the sunset
on a horse with no cops around. It’s good to see consequences.

But
it’s rated R.

EH:
Well yeah, but young people over 17.

Have
any of you considered that you have a role in this myth making by
virtue of the fact that you are entertainers. I mean you can talk
about rap and all that but it’s not all 50 Cent. Some of the myth
making comes and from us too. We are all complacent.

JT:
Yeah I find that every conversation I have with anyone after they’ve
seen this film is sort of like this group therapy discussion, and
rightfully so. I think
it’s all in there but I think what this film does is that it doesn’t
you know – it’s fun it’s fun it’s fun and then all of a sudden it’s
not. And that’s the way it ends and that’s how this story ended.
That was the responsibility of us. Yes we are entertainers but this
is sort of this is a different theme and what I like about the film
is that it doesn’t treat you like a dumbass so to speak. It lets you
feel what really happened…I find that 100 percent of the people
that I know, like friends that I’ve brought to screenings or
anything, they have to speak about the film, they have to talk about
it, they have to talk it through. You’re right its not all just rap
with any group of kids what I took away from the film is that is how
just the little perspective on things can change a humongous outcome
in someone’s life and that’s what I took away from it.

BF:
I mean you bring up rap but it’s not rap…

JT:
It’s hip-hop damnit! [laughter]

BF:
[laughs] Got it.
It’s a violent culture and this is not a film that you can
practice kids pulling triggers. It’s just a vacuum of culture. It’s
prioritizing things that don’t actually have value. The idea of fast
cars and a fast lifestyle and bitches is not solely rap. It’s a
Hollywood sort of culture we’ve always had violence images in our
society. We’ve always had violence and it’s nothing new. It’s
getting worse because we have it, because we don’t have the moral
guidelines to guide us along to process these images and these major
entertainments. So I just wanted to say it’s not just about
rap.

JT:
Yeah, I think it’s a short change on the film to say that rap music
created this. That’s not what happened.

EH:
I would think movies, more than music would…

BF:
We’ve always had violent films. Be it lions attacking gladiators,
we’ve always had a form of violent entertainment. People are drawn
to that but what is lacking in this society is people guiding us
along to find our own morals and ethics. There is just a vacuum
right now. And I think that for anybody should watch this film –
teens know this film. This
isn’t an education for teenagers.
We know that young people have this lifestyle. It’s not an
exaggeration. This is what it is and I think that’s what drew all of
is into participating in it because the script is so authentic. Nick
did such and incredible job in documenting it and interviewing with
kids for these sequences. When
you watch it, it feels legit. I was shocked. I knew these kids. I
grew up in Southern California you know.
I know these guys. And the fact that it escalated was a lack
of guidance and its not movies and its not video games and it’s
certainly not hip-hop.

This
question is for Justin, what’s the difference in process from acting
to music. As opposed to going to a studio for writing and bouncing
off all these guys…

JT:
There are lots of differences. In creating music you are the writer,
the director the producer – you create it from scratch. Obviously in
playing a role in a film, you take guidance and put your trust into
the director and the writer and also I find it even more
collaborative especially with a project like this.
You come into it and you really trust the people you are in
front of the camera with which was very easy I can’t speak about how
amazing the other four actors are here. I was a sponge the whole
film just watching all of them.

Well
except for Emile (laughs). I was just kidding. It’s sort of like
you are playing a position on the team. You are like okay today we
need you to play small forward; we don’t need you to play point
guard. That’s probably the closest analogy, it’s probably a really
crappy analogy but that’s the closet one I can think of off the
top of my head is that you play a role and you’re part of a
collaborative movement. Obviously, with creating music you are
solely responsible for the creation of it.
So to wrap your mind around those two things, you definitely
approach it differently.

Obviously
this is an emotionally charged film. Can you talk about which scenes
or parts were the most emotionally challenging for you?

AY:
The pool scene was quite challenging for me personally. (laughter)

JT:
The pool scene was challenging for us to watch because we weren’t
in it. That was just not fair. (laughter)

SH:
It was crazy driving Anton’s character up the hill, up to the final
scene and actually doing it – walking him up the hill. It’s one
thing to do it as an actor but it’s a whole other thing to realize
that it happened. I
remember going through it thinking ‘God this really happened.’
People were walking by that could have stopped it.

JT:
I found that for me personally the hill top scene wasn’t the most
challenging for me because I could relate it to so many times when
you might have been intoxicated or whatever and something happens
and all of a sudden you are not in control of the situation. The
reaction to that I didn’t’ find difficult.
The most difficult scene for me was with Shawn and I when we
were sitting at the hotel sort of on the steps and he’s kind of
talking me through why this should happen and for my character to
accept that – that was the toughest scene for me to sort of wrap my
mind around. I think that for me to get through that scene I just
had to accept that his decision was based solely on fear. When you
are afraid at the moment, you either don’t take control of the
situation and you don’t do the right thing or you let the wrong
thing happen and by doing that you don’t do the right thing. That
was probably the toughest scene for me to kind of wrap my mind
around.

BF:
It took a long time to cool down after this project. [The
toughest scene for me was] probably with Sharon [Stone] – when
she’s missing her boy and doesn’t know how to deal with that and
she starts hitting Jake. The
hits are real and that’s a lot of pain to absorb.
I got a fantastic bloody nose from it.