INT: Smokin’ Aces

This
Friday, director Joe Carnahan (NARC) is back with his first film in
over four years. What took him so long? Well, for a while he was
busy developing a little movie called

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3 (more on that HERE).
Fifteen months into it, however, Carnahan left the project over
creative differences with the film’s producers. The experience
left Carnahan with a bad taste in his mouth, so he decided to take
out all of his rage on a movie. The result is SMOKIN’
ACES, a violent, chaotic film that just might put Carnahan
back on the map. The
folks at Universal hosted a huge press conference for SMOKIN’ ACES,
featuring Alicia Keys, Common, Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Nestor
Campbell, the key grip, the janitor and a few people from craft
services. Here are some excerpts.

Jeremy Piven	Alicia Keys
Ryan Reynolds	Common

Alicia,
You’ve probably gotten offers in the past to starting a movie career
before. What made you want to do this project?

Keys:
I did not want to play a character that was a reflection of who I
am. I also wanted my first film to be something where I was
surrounded by an amazing cast. This fit that criteria to the
fullest. I wanted to do something that was completely unexpected,
totally out of the box, something that would blow people’s minds,
that the last thing on the planet earth that they would ever think I
would do would be– this met that criteria as well. It was very
exciting and it totally took me out of my element and out of my
comfort zone completely and it challenged me in a way that was very
rewarding for me.

Alicia
and Common, what did you learn about acting that will inform you now
as an artist and vocalist?

Common:
For me I just learned to be a freer artist. I think that it made me
more comfortable with myself, actually acting, because I started
getting more in tune with him, by doing roles or even just being in
a class and being around people. That gave me a certain confidence
and I started digging into parts of myself that I had probably
ignored and don’t really get to express because Common is an artist
that is conscious and is aware and is trying to put a positive
energy to the world. So, me being able to be acting and doing other
things has opened me as an artist, and I think even more from a
visual standpoint too as far as writing goes.

Keys:
I felt that I rediscovered how tremendously close the two worlds
are. I grew up in the theater. My mother is an actress. I was always
around the world of acting and theater and I was always amazed the
way that people would come in looking one way and transform
completely to the point where I couldn’t recognize their language
and their accent, the way that looked and their hair and their faces
even changed in becoming so inside of the character. So, I think
that I reconnected to the way that that affects me so much when I
see a film that moves me in one way or another, either angers me or
makes me feel good or saddens me – whatever – and how that
connects so much to what I do as an artist as well. The two are very
close together in regards to drawing on your life experience,
drawing on something that you understand and transforming it into
something that you give to the world or give out in another way. So,
for me, it actually confirmed how close they are for me.

This
movie is violent. Was there any apprehension in playing a role where
you’d actually have to shoot a gun, and how did you go about
actually developing your character?

Keys:
Oh, there was much work that went into, tremendous work that went
into developing

Georgia

in regard to the acting and digging into her. I almost called it –
when I was with my coach – I almost called it therapy for me
because she dug things out of me as a human being where I was like,
“Wow.” But I knew that if I didn’t or wasn’t able to address
them there in that room with her then I would never be able to
address them there on that set. So that was intense work for me to
do. I physically worked out tremendously.

That
was intense work for me to do. Our gun training was extensive to the
point that my hands were cut and bleeding and it hurt very badly,
but these were all things that were a part of developing Georgia to
discussing with Joe (Carnahan) and Taraji (Henson) in a private way
of what Georgia’s story was, where did she come from, what her life
had been like that, why did she feel that this was what she had to
do and her only option, what it was that drove her to this, what was
it about my relationship with men as Georgia that would make me feel
these feelings? So many just deep discoveries and things that went
into pulling Georgia out of my understanding of who I wanted her to
be.

Jeremy
and Common, Joe Carnahan talked about how you guys formed a bond off
the set. Can you talk about how you started with that bond and how
it developed while you were working together? I know that Jeremy is
constantly talking about Common.

Piven:
Absolutely, to the point where I think I’m stalking him. It’s
actually awkward for him. No. The synchronicity is pretty heavy. I
mean, literally the other day I pulled up to a stop light and I
looked next to me and there he was and that doesn’t even happen. I
can’t find anyone in this town ever. I met him backstage before his
show, yet again me stalking him, and he had an energy on stage that
was- – He has this kind of poetic energy that’s very soulful and
peaceful and yet I saw like this element of danger.

He
would kind of kick the stool, like he had this moment, and he was so
theatrical in his presence and his cadence as a rapper is so similar
to human speech when you’re in front of the camera. It was almost
there anyway, and then the duality that he has as an artist. I felt
something that you couldn’t direct or teach someone to do, and so I
knew and thought that he could do it probably before he even had it
confirmed himself. I just called Joe immediately and said, ‘This guy
is just so perfect.’ He had already auditioned and was the front
runner and was killing it and I saw the auditions and it was really
clear there anyway. so the synchronicity was kind of amazing and
then we had this Gap campaign together and this is one of those
things where they didn’t know about our movie, and suddenly we’re on
the sides of buildings together which is kind of ridiculous
anyway.

Reynolds:
They’re actually holding hands under the table.

Piven:
Yeah. There is something that we need to tell you all. No.

Common:
Easy, easy, easy.

Piven:
No, no, no.

Common:
I’m a rap artist (Laughs).

Piven:
I single handedly kill his career. No one wins. No. We just kind of
connected. We’re both from Chicago and are kind of kindred spirits.
Immediately I felt very comfortable with him and it was almost as if
we went to high school together or something. There was a kind of
shorthand that we had. I think that both of them are superstars in
this arena and then they come to a new arena and yet they’re kind of
students and were very open to the whole process which says a lot
about them as human beings and this is a reason why they’re such
great artists because it’s a collaborative medium and they kind of
get that.

It’s
so fun to do this process because he’s kind of doing this for the
first time and so I kind of get renewed about it as well. This is
kind of an exciting time for all of us and the cast is so completely
eclectic and everyone is so strong except for Ryan (Reynolds), and
God bless him…No. There’s not a weak link in this thing. I was
really, really proud watching this film that’s a true ensemble
piece. Everyone is really strong. I didn’t mean to take up all the
time.

Ryan,
can you talk about what drew you to the project?

Reynolds:
Well, yeah, I’ve certainly never been in a movie that’s had this
unique brand of unblinking violence before. So that’s sort of new
for me. But it’s like any other role. You tackle it in the same way
and you try to find the truth to it and I was really caught with
this guy who was trapped in this bureaucratic FBI cluster-f*ck, for
lack of a better word, and because of that loses someone that is
very dear to him. So for me it was just playing the truth of that
the whole time and I was sort of alone throughout the movie because
my character is sort of a rogue player and he kind of arrives to the
party a little late and in doing so I didn’t establish the special
friendships that people seem to have made here [Laughs]. But when
all is said and done it was great and I’m also just a huge fan of
Joe Carnahan. He’s such a charismatic individual and someone that
just applies every part of himself to the project that he’s in. So
it was great for me.

Carbonell:
Well, for me, like Ryan said, Joe is such an enormous talent. If you
watch ‘Narc,’ it’s amazing to see how incredibly talented he is in
that particular genre which was just a drama, and then to come
around and do a follow up, second picture that is such a tonally
different kind of movie – this being a dark action comedy – and
every character, as Jeremy said, has a moment, has a sort of
epiphany.

Even
though it’s incredibly violent there’s a real moment of clarity for
characters and as dark and as depraved as some of the characters,
which mine certainly is, we all have a sort of moment of lightness.
I think that the reason the movie works so well is because the
violence is so well balanced with the comedy. On my first day I got
to take a blow torch to a man’s genitals which was only funny when I
saw it onscreen, but I mean, how often do you get to play something
as dark as that and still make it funny. So, for me, it was just a
dream to get this job and to be able to work with this phenomenal
cast, and Andy Garcia is helping me to develop a script and attach
an actor to the script. So we’re in the process of putting that
together.

Ryan,
what’s going on with The Flash?

Reynolds:
Oh, and yeah, ‘The Flash.’ It’s a $180 Billion movie if they do it,
and so I don’t know how that stuff works and I don’t really get
involved with it. I think that if they’re going to do it they’re
going to see it through the eyes of Wally West and it’s an
inanimate world and I can hear people falling asleep while I’m
talking about this. I honestly don’t know that much about it and
it’s just a huge undertaking. So I would love to wear a red unitard
sometime, but I can do that on my own.

Ryan,
your character is one of the only ones sort of emotionally affected
by the violence going on. Everyone else seems to be cooler and even
happy about it. Were there conversations about that perspective?

Reynolds:
No. That was just part of the story. I mean, he was the guy that was
deeply affected emotionally by it, deeply and through the ringer by
the end of this adventure. So, it was the focal point for me as the
character. The climax for the character of Messner was the reason to
do this movie, to really get inside of that guy and find out what
made him tick. For me I haven’t done a lot of films where I had to
jump into something in this way. So, it was the least amount of me
that I usually put in and oddly enough the most. It was the most
effort and a departure from anything that I’ve been comfortable in,
any sort of wheel house that I’ve established.

Jeremy,
I was wondering how long it took you to learn all those tricks and
if you worked with a magician to learn them?

Piven:
That’s an excellent question. Paul Wilson was the guy that I worked
with for the magic and the thing that he said that was the most
important was to actually pull a trick off in front of people and he
was absolutely right. I went with Common and Joe, Ryan wasn’t
invited, but anyway went to the Magic Castle [Laughs] and we got up
there and I actually did a trick. It is addicting. It really is.

I’ve
been on the stage my entire life as an actor and it’s a kind of
another level where you pull this thing off and then to look in
people’s faces that are completely freaked out by something I could
see why you could dedicate your life to that as I did to the stage,
and so that was really informative for me. I had never really been
around cards. I wasn’t that guy and so I really had to work kind of
extra hard and always have them in my hand, and they’re kind of like
worry beads for the character that I kind of incorporated. So that
was really great, to always have them in my hand. What was the other
question?

Also,
it’s a very emotional film for you, all of your scenes. Can you just
go in and out of that easily or do you stay in that mode for the
whole day?

Piven:
That’s just what you live for as an actor, to get there. Joe
said to me when we met on this role, ‘Do you want to go deep?’ I
mean, I’ve waited my entire life for that moment. I had been doing
it onstage in Chicago for a couple of hundred people and so I always
knew that I have an emotional instrument and I’m accessible in that
way and a big cry baby, to be honest with you. So, I knew that I
could tap into that. Also, even though a character like that is far
from my experience there are a lot of metaphors there when you have
a guy like that that’s looking at himself in the mirror and
wondering who he is and if he’s a charlatan and what’s happened to
his life.

I
think that any one of us have had moments where we question
ourselves. So these things are not too far from something that we
can get into touch with and you just have to kind of make it real
and go to that place. We had a moment where I had to get really,
really emotional and I wasn’t quite clicking in the way that I
wanted to do. Joe asked me to put this little kind of twist into it
that threw me off balance for a little bit and so I had to call upon
some other stuff. It all sounds really cryptic what I’m saying here,
but anyway I kind of connected on a very deep level that ends up
being in the movie. I knew that it worked because I talked to Common
afterwards and he said that he was in the other room and he felt
something through the wall.

So
it was like, ‘Okay then.’ It was confirmed that I was sort of onto
something. So the whole thing was just a complete gift and Joe and I
knew that if you didn’t care about this guy, if he had no heart when
everyone was trying to kill him and extract his heart or put him on
ice for the money, whatever their motivations were – everyone was
converging on this hotel room – and if you didn’t care about this
character, if he didn’t have some potential as a human being and
if it wasn’t a tragedy then all the hard work that everyone puts
into it wouldn’t mean as much because you needed to have that
central character be tragic. It was just an honor to be able to kind
of live fully through that guy.

Alicia,
what kind of character do you play in The Nanny Diaries?

Keys:
Well, basically her name is Lynette and she is tremendously in every
way in every possible crevice different from Georgia which is
another reason why I chose to do that film. She is way more
bohemian. She is like the earth of the movie and is kind of the one
person that has sense. I would even be inclined to say that in
regard to the worlds that are described are just chaotic. So it’s a
very, very great film. I love it very much. Scarlett [Johansson],
again working with Scarlett was fantastic, and being able to, again,
take a character that wasn’t precisely like me but still so
different from where I just came was a tremendous experience. That’s
what I want to continue to do.

Jeremy,
you’ve had a great year. Do you have a goal or a vision for your
future, are you on a track of things that you want to achieve?

Piven:
I never really got off too far ahead of myself, but there is a lot
of stuff out there. For so much of my career I’ve been trying to
find little things and make something out of it. This is one of
those gems, this role. It’s the best role that I’ve ever had in my
life and was just a true gift to be here with this cast and to have
Joe be at the helm was magical, no pun intended. As far as the rest
of it, I started a company and I’m producing some stuff right now
and got the rights to some stuff and I wrote a script and I’ve been
whispering in director’s ears for a really long time I’d love to
direct. I know that everyone says that, but it’s true for me. I just
think that it’s a really collaborative form and I want to continue
on with that. I’d love to get the girl in something if that’s
possible. How about that?

Jeremy,
do you know anything about season four of Entourage?

Piven:
I know a lot about it just because it’s going to be twenty episodes
and we’ve already shot eight of them. To me it’s the best stuff that
we’ve done because I get to do so much. See, that doesn’t print
right. Let that be a lesson to everyone. Irony doesn’t print and
that just makes me look like a bad guy. HBO does something that most
networks don’t do which is give a show a chance to find their voice
and unfortunately with networks everyone is worried about their jobs
and they pull these shows based on ratings and back in the day all
of these great shows, ‘Seinfeld,’ and everything they never had
ratings out of the gate. They just didn’t and it was impossible to
get it. So I think that the show is hitting it’s stride and the best
stuff is sort of in the season to come and Ari Gold will rise like
the Phoenix. You can’t count him out of it.

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