READ PART 1 OF OUR SET VISIT HERE
We are in between set ups and Justin Timberlake approaches the table with his sleeves rolled up and a bottle of water, following him is Amanda Seyfried, still wearing her (very) high heels and sporting a fashionably futuristic red wig. Both look particularly relaxed given that they just drove a truck through a bank lobby not an hour earlier. “I’ve never done this [set interview] before, so forgive me if I seem the opposite of specific for what you guys are looking for.” Justin opened laughing with ease and sincerity, which would follow through the rest of the discussion on their new science fiction thriller IN TIME.
Justin plays the protagonist, Will Salas, on the run from Timekeepers, a police force ensuring the validity of the time you have left in your life. Amanda plays the Bonnie to his Clyde, Sylvia. When asked what drew the two of them to the project, the answer was immediate and similar. “The concept for me. It was very different.” Amanda replied, while Justin continued, “I had sort of two or three meetings with Andrew before I decided to do it. It is a high concept so my conversations with him were more to find out how we could bring out the characters as well. I thought the idea was really amazing and Andrew is obvious pretty prolific when it comes to this kind of concept in film, but he said he was looking to delve deeper and see what he could bring out of it with this experience and it seemed like it would be fun to… Rubik’s Cube with him… I just used Rubik’s Cube as- [Amanda and Justin say at the same time] -a verb!”
Across the street the crew is cleaning up the shattered glass and metal shards of the Weis Bank, now boasting a two ton uninvited truck in the lobby along with a mob of twenty five year old extras ready to raid. A crime for time. Conceptually different almost sounds like an understatement. Justin elaborates “The movie is going to open up with me waking up and walking to the kitchen and any other movie where I and Olivia Wilde are the first two actors you’d see in a movie you’d be like ‘oh, well they’re obviously together’ but I walk in and say ‘good morning mom.’”
Addressing the consistent age range throughout the cast, Justin continued “The first week of shooting we got all of that weirdness out of the way sort-to-speak with Olivia, who plays my mom and is three years younger than me in real life (laughs) I got to tell you man, I officially… The Social Network and this film, they make me feel old, all the cast members are younger than me, or most of them- Yeah, it was a real challenge, we spent a lot of rehearsal together sort of figuring it out… . It’s really funny it felt like one of those things you would do in class or something where it’s like ‘You’re the mother and you’re the son and go!’”
Indeed one of the most provocative aspects that always pop up on the set of IN TIME while speaking with the cast and crew is the superficiality of youth. You’d be hard pressed to find a younger and better looking ensemble than the likes of Justin, Amanda, Olivia Wilde, Cillian Murphy, Vincent Kartheiser and Mathew Bomer, yet some of these roles require the grace, wisdom and experience of elders.
“Olivia Wilde and I sat down in our first rehearsal and we talked about the things that our parents do with us, you know the things that really registered with us in our memory that our parents naturally do with us and will always continue to do.” Justin explains, adding “I think Olivia was very conscience of… and I don’t want to speak for her, but I know she was very conscience of moving in a way that felt more motherly and maternal. It’s one of those things- when I first read it, it didn’t hit me as hard as when you actually see it. As the movie progresses and you see that everyone looks the same age I think you start to let it go a little-“
“But they don’t act the same age which is crazy.” Amanda interrupts, continuing, “I’m a little envious of the people who get to play these older characters like Vincent [Kartheiser, of Mad Men] because in my career I like to look for characters who are so unlike me and then that’s the challenge just trying to relate to somebody like that, so he’s trying to relate to somebody who’s like eighty years old, his character is eighty years old and it’s just so weird so you have to study that and the nuances of someone who has lived sixty years more than you. It’s a crazy thing.”
If sixty sounds difficult, how about a hundred and sixteen? That’s the case of Matthew Bomer’s character. “I think he [Matt] has the most challenging role in the movie.” Justin adds. “I don’t even know what you’d research to try and figure that out! I think it’s just one of those things that you ask yourself what values and characteristics would you hope to have if you’ve got to live that long, I think you’d hope for a certain type of grace and a certain type of patients and all of the things that none of us obviously posses-“
“Or is it proven that-“ Amanda interrupts again, Justin attempts to retort, straight faced before laughing, “I wish you wouldn’t interrupt me when I’m talking.” Amanda, not missing a beat, continues, “Maybe we are more the same, maybe we’re realizing that we’re more similar to our elders than we think.” Justin ponders, concluding, “Absolutely. This is the type of movie where people walk out and ask those certain types of questions.”
At this point in our conversation it became evident that the movie’s themes have already effectively infected the conversation without so much the nudge or pull of conventional questions. If that doesn’t indicate the strength the concept, I don’t know what will. It has been an absolute blast here visiting the set of NOW and concept aside, my enthusiasm jumped a mile over already high expectations after visiting and seeing Andrew Niccol and Roger Deakins’ beautifully crafted bank heist set piece come to life. Rubix Cube it up with Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Wilde and Cilliam Murphy when IN TIME is released October 28th!