INT: Mike Vogel

When
it came time to make a pivotal career choice, POSEIDON
star Mike Vogel decided to anchor himself to a sinking ship. A year ago the
promising young actor was offered roles in two potential blockbusters –
not a bad dilemma to have to face – and opted for Wolfgang Petersen’s
remake of the 1972 epic disaster film. In this version, Mike stars as part
of an impressive ensemble that includes Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss, Josh
Lucas and Fergie from Black Eyed Peas.

We first interviewed
Vogel last September as part of our set visit and just last week, I
sat down with Mike at the Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel for a one-on-one
interview, where he talked candidly about often grueling experience of
making POSEIDON.

Mike Vogel

You’re
wearing a

Texas

belt buckle. I take it you’re from there?

No.
Born and raised in
Philadelphia
–
Bucks

County
, right outside of

Philadelphia

. I just love

Texas

. I spend a lot of time down there – I have several buddies that have
ranches and everything. It’s a lifestyle that I can relate to, that I
love. It’s working hard and relaxing. The skies down there are second to
none. It’ll be a second home someday, hopefully.

You’ve
been in the business for a few years now. While making Poseidon, did you
look to Kurt Russell as a mentor of sorts?

I did.
You get in a movie like this and you want to bring those actor-y moments.
You wanna get real emotional and get that extra thing, and Kurt’s just
like, “Kid, it doesn’t have a place here.” You quickly learn you just
need to lose yourself in the fact that your in hell – and believe it.
It’s completely different from any training you do or anything.

I
think Kurt started when he was six. I always want everything now, now, now,
and the thing to remember is: ok, I’ve been here for five years, but in
the grand scheme of things, that’s really not all that long compared to
how most people have been trying to do it. Especially the other kids that
I’m up against out here that have been born and raised out here that have
been doing this since they were born. Getting to talk to Kurt – and
Richard Dreyfuss too – just hearing their stories of how the business has
changed.

Kurt’s
stories of going out drinking with Lee Marvin and all those guys, when he
was half their age, and them leaving him in their dust. It was just a
different time, a different cast of characters. You see how much the
business has evolved. And I think we’re kind of at a weird point now,
where movies don’t perform the same as they used to. No one quite knows
where the future is heading, with DVD, with this, with that. So there are a
lot of unknowns. I just want to be a part of whatever that next wave is.

And
the Poseidon shoot was, quite literally, hell.

It was
pretty bad. I didn’t get beat up as much as Josh or some of the other guys
did, but I did fight through pneumonia and swimmer’s ear. Having to go
down 20 feet underwater and blow your eardrums out, it just feels like your
brains are exiting through your ears. It was rough. And everyone was like,
“Did you read the script?” Yeah. But you never anticipate what that’s
like, day after day. When you read the script, it all happens that fast
[snaps fingers]. You don’t realize that it’s day after day, hour after
hour of sitting there in the water.

And I
didn’t realize they can only heat the water to something like 82 or 83
degrees, because above that temperature bacteria starts forming and you can
get hypothermia. I’d never thought about that. All the safety divers were
in wetsuits, and I was sitting there thinking, “You guys are just pansies.
Come on, the water’s warm.” Cut to three hours later and you’re
shivering with your teeth shaking out of your head, because it brings your
body temperature down. And several people almost hot hypothermia. It was
really a hard experience, but it’s a rewarding one at the end of the day.
You feel like you did something.

When
you went home at the end of the day, did you have countless nightmares
involving water?

The
week before I finished shooting, I had a photo shoot for a magazine, and
they were like, “So here’s the shots we want to do. We want to put you
here and here, and we have this great shot in the pool.” And I said, “F*ck
no, dude. You are not getting me in that water.” I definitely stayed away
from the water, from the shower, from anything like that for a while. Also
because my ears were so shot that I couldn’t deal with the pain
anymore.

If
you’re stranded on a sinking ship, Emmy Rossum’s not a bad person to be
stuck with.

Not a
bad choice to have to go down with. No pun intended. Emmy is gorgeous,
talented, and was just an absolute blast to work with. She jumped right into
it. The girls especially had a tough time of it, but they were all such
troopers, just jumping right into it. “You want us to hang on a line 50
ft. in the air? Ok, cool.”

Being
the young guy of the cast, did you feel like you had to prove yourself to
Kurt and Josh?

It’s
a weird dichotomy. Everyone says to me about the character I play in the
movie, “You’re not taking the lead. You’re not barking instructions.
Doesn’t that frustrate you?” As a person, it frustrates me, but I like
to give respect where it’s due, to people who have gone before me, to
people that know how to do this. And I put myself in that situation in that
boat. If I’m stuck in a situation where I have to get the hell out of the
boat – in the movie I’m 20 years old, do I really know how to get
out?

But
there’s definitely a macho thing that goes into it. When everyone’s
like, “I’m hurt, I can’t do it,” I’m not admitting my pain while
we’re shooting. “No guys, I’m fine. Let’s do another one.”
[Laughs]

Were
you familiar with Wolfgang Petersen’s work?

Yeah.
The Neverending Story was like one of my favorite movies of all time. So the
one thing that I expected going into this was that we’re not gonna do the
big, dramatic actor’s piece here. But it’s gonna be a damn good action
film, because that’s what he does. And that’s what came out of it. The
same day I got offered this movie, I was offered X-Men 3. So having to
decide between the two on that day was a rough choice, because you have
something that’s proven, and then you have something that’s a remake,
but it’s Wolfgang Petersen and there’s just a lot more meat to it. So at
the end of the day, that’s what I went with. And you just gotta trust him.
He has that entire movie in his head. The entire thing is planned out in his
head. It’s not so much about the acting; it’s about making sure
everything orchestrates correctly. So it’s just a different
ballgame.

When
you were offered X-Men 3, was Brett Ratner attached at the time?

It was
Matthew Vaughn, back when he was still attached.

So
in hindsight…

In
hindsight, I’m satisfied with the decision that I made. Brett’s a great
director, but I looked at that movie and I thought, if you’re gonna do a
third installment of something, it would be rad to see a really fresh take
from and indie director like they were gonna do with Matthew. I thought that
was great. And then I heard rumblings that he might not be staying, and I
said, “That kinda sums it up for me.” Because it might be interesting to
be a part of something like that with his take on it, but once all that fell
through, having an opportunity to work with Wolfgang, it was pretty much a
no-brainer.

What’s
next for you?

I did
a British film called Caffeine. I got to play a British character, which
I’ve wanted to do for so long – I grew up on Monty Python. But next, I
may regret it, but I’ve turned down a bunch of stuff. I’m waiting for
the next movie that feels right. I just want to position myself in a way
that, as I move up in this and get my shots, that I’m taking the right
shots, to make sure that I’m in a position to do this for the rest of my
life.

Questions? Comments?
Manifestos? Send them to me at [email protected].