The odd-couple police drama is a
staple, but you won’t find many more eccentric than John Michael
McDonagh’s comedy drama about an uptight US FBI agent hooked up with
an antisocial local cop in the boonies of Ireland.
Starring Irish actor Brendan
Gleeson (the Harry Potter series, In Bruges) and
American star Don Cheadle (Oceans 11, Iron Man 2), The
Guard is the directing debut for screenwriter McDonagh (Ned
Kelly).
McDonagh had met Gleeson through
his brother, playwright Martin McDonagh, who directed Gleeson in
Martin’s film debut In Bruges. Gleeson plays Gerry
Boyle, a fascinating Irish mash-up of Archie Bunker and Lt. Columbo.
Boyle is often obnoxious and always opinionated, but he is also a
very savvy cop.
Cheadle takes the straight man
role as a by-the-book agent who suddenly finds himself in the middle
of a strange area he doesn’t understand, dealing with a cop who
seems to be a bigoted buffoon. But is he really?
Gleeson and Cheadle were kind
enough to meet with us and some other news outlets at the Sony
Building in New York City days before the film starts its limited
release.
How did this film come about?
You’re not only acting in it, Don, you’re also executive producing.
Don Cheadle: This was a
movie that came to my attention in the conventional way, through my
agent. The script team really sparked to it and they sent it to me
and I read it. I had the same reaction. I thought it was really
great. They said that Brendan Gleeson was talking about playing the
lead. I’ve been a big fan of his for a long time, so I just wanted
to throw my hat in the ring any way we could to help. We decided to
partner with John and lend whatever credibility that we could get it
and just started going about the business to get this done. I met
Brendan. He came to Los Angeles. He had won a Golden Globe for
Churchill. It just kind of snowballed from there. It was a
great project and I really wanted to be a part of it. Glad to get
the opportunity.
Brendan Gleeson: Actually,
I didn’t get the Golden Globe. I got the Emmy.
Don Cheadle: Oh, you got
the Emmy? I thought you got a Golden Globe for that. (laughs)
Brendan Gleeson: No, no.
They didn’t offer that. Gave it to some other fellow. (laughs)
Anyway, I met John, we were there for In Bruges at the Golds
and I met John with Martin, his brother. We were having a chat
about various things. He sent me a script and as soon as I read it,
it just sang. He said we’re going after Don. I said, this would
just be made in heaven. Similarly, Don’s work has always… I kind of
knew before I met him that I would kind of love him, because I knew
that his work in an odd way really is who he is. In a kind of a
beautiful way. So we went in and that can turn out where you meet
an actor to [be a] nightmare. It didn’t. We had a great time.
We’d just met. We only read the script through a couple of times
and we knew we were going to go with it. Then we went our various
ways. So I was working back down in Connemara, waiting for Don to
arrive in the rain.
You’ve
worked now with two of the McDonagh brothers. What are they like to
work with? How are they similar and how are they different in their
work?
Brendan Gleeson: Well, you
know, it is two different voices, that is for sure. It’s a
different set. Two different worlds but there is an obvious
similarity. The wit has a shared pedigree, I think. More than
that, it’s the rigor of their writing. The ferocity of the way they
approach a shot. John would come up just before we’re about to go
on something he’d be just right there. (mimes movement)
“We’re just going to do that.” Thanks, he’d say emotionally. They
both have slightly different ways of working, but they both have
extraordinary calm. They both knew absolutely, because no word, no
comma, nothing goes down there unless it’s been absolutely thought
through. We were the beneficiaries of that. We came along and just
explored it. It was the same with just Colin [Farrell, his In
Bruges co-star] and myself and all the people [who worked on
that film]. It’s just coming on and you try to realize what’s
there. The potential that is there. When you start working with
other people, humanity gets involved and the room starts to raise
the bar, hopefully. You never have to wander away. You always know
what the core target is. So, they both are similar, but as I say,
very different voices.
How important was it to you
that this story was not just the stereotypical black guy, white guy
fish-out-of-water buddy cop pic? How hard was it to deal with such
an outrageous character?
Don Cheadle: To me, it was
a story that when I was reading the script, I was laughing from the
first page all the way to the end. All of the outrageous stuff that
came out of Boyle’s mouth was stuff that was hilarious to me. I
thought that everybody gets it. (laughs) Everybody gets it
in the story. It’s an equal opportunity slander. I love movies
like that. Every character has their own bias. To me, Boyle was
the least prejudiced person in the flick. He’s clearly saying the
things that he is saying to get a rise out of the people that are
around him. He is smarter than everybody else. He is literate.
He’s a cinephile. He knows what’s up. I just laughed hearing those
kinds of things and thinking of John actually putting it down on
paper. I go, no one writes like that. People talk like that all
the time. We play like that. I play like that in my life with
people that are close to me. So I was glad somebody took all of
those taboos on and just put it out there in a way to make it
something to bandy about like a shuttlecock. It was funny to me.
Brendan Gleeson: It’s a
kind of fearlessness, to actually go and do it. I don’t think there
is a racist bone in Boyle’s body, to be honest with you. So playing
him as the biggest asshole that ever walked was easy, because I know
it’s not the truth of him, really. I was just talking earlier on
about you can not go to a doctor and entrust him with your mother’s
life. That actual scene was cut back, there was quite an
interesting thing where Boyle talks to the doctor about what it’s
like going to tell someone that their nearest and dearest is dead,
for example. Cops do it. Doctors do it. So I think Boyle is
mischievous. It doesn’t excuse, exactly, everything he’s doing.
(laughs) But let me ask you something: How do you think I
feel? I’m a Dublin person. (laughs harder) Dublin girls
get it. Everybody gets it. The one guy says he caught something
from the ladies. Where they from? Dublin. Ahh…. What do you
expect? What are you looking for? So, equal opportunity is a good
way to take it. Everybody was getting it. I really think there is
also a culture thing that sometimes gets lost in the mix. I don’t
think it’s necessarily just purely Irish, but there is a culture
thing and I think it’s from going to markets and stuff like that and
not letting anybody know what to pay for the thing you are trying to
flog. It’s about making the other guy think you are really dumb.
It’s not just restricted to any particular [group]. It’s quite a
good way to take what you like from people who are maybe
underestimated anyway, to let them think that you’re dumb and then
their real selves come out and you hear all this stuff. So there is
a whole pile of stuff going on behind Boyle that I don’t think that
he is just an idiot. I don’t think he’s a racist at all, actually.
The
film has a very unusual tone. Definitely unlike his brother’s…
Brendan Gleeson: I’m glad
to hear it, yeah. I think so, too.
What was interesting was how
well you two fit into the tone. Was it there on the paper?
Brendan Gleeson: I thought
it was.
Don Cheadle: I thought it
was, too. I really believe that, as I just said earlier, that I
thought wow, if we are able to just do what’s here and this is
people. This cast was believable. I had no concern about Brendan,
but I was like, these other roles – is everyone in this as
believable and grounded and has a sense of humor and gets the joke?
Brendan Gleeson: And plays
it straight at the same time.
Don Cheadle: Plays it
straight but understands what they are saying. I was like: this is
going to be great.
It’s so dark, all these awful
things, and yet it is so funny and bright at the same time.
Don Cheadle: When you’re
asking a guy who’s sitting there dying and he says “There’s so many
things I wanted to do” and [Boyle responds] “Run with the bulls in
Pamplona?” (laughs) Have you got no respect for anything to
say that? No, not really. That’s John’s dark, wry sense of humor
that you get from the very first moment. Brendan’s first reaction
when the car goes by and it crashes and he’s like (groans)
“Oh, do I have to deal with this shit?”
Brendan Gleeson: Another
day at the office.
Don Cheadle: I think it
just sets it up right, right away, that if you get it from the very
beginning you’re going to get what’s happening.
Brendan Gleeson: But also,
it’s a thing that is not filled with hatred. It is important that
he can come out with this stuff and he does have a dark side and he
will go there. If you say it’s a bit of a dark hole over there,
he’d be over there like a shot. (laughs) He does kind of
gravitate towards it. But there is no malice and hatred and
mean-spiritedness about it at all.
Don Cheadle: If there was
it wouldn’t… my friend said the same thing. Some people kept saying
“Racism. Racism.” My friend’s brother, a guy I know, said, “If he
really was like that, it wouldn’t be funny.”
Brendan Gleeson: No.
Don Cheadle: If he was
really hateful and filled with that. A bigot couldn’t do this and
make it funny. It would be offensive.
Even
the villains are elitists.
Don Cheadle: Yes!
(laughs) They’re debating Nietzsche.
Brendan Gleeson: I think
John does have a thing – you can ask him yourself – but he has a
thing about always depicting working class people as really, really
dumb. Nobody ever reads a book. Nobody ever has a discussion about
the central core issues of life. So he throws in this stuff and
just sees how you get on. He’s a great man, as I say. A lot of it
has to do with that fearlessness. It’s where you are not being
patronizing. You’re not afraid to say; oh that person wouldn’t say
that. Almost anybody would say almost anything at some level at
some point. He fires as many of those things out as he can and sees
how we get on. (laughs) I think it’s about that, more than
anything else.
How have the Irish been
responding to the film? You had done a similarly dark look at the
country with Tiger’s Tail and that was not received well.
Brendan Gleeson: Oh, we
were eaten alive for Tiger’s Tail, especially John [Boorman,
the writer/director], because he’s English. We tried
to show in a film around 2006 that the society was going down the
tubes – it was throwing out everything that it held dear, that made
it worthwhile as a place. It was all full of bling and wealth,
meaning nothing. We were actually castigated at home. Actually
eaten alive.
It was a big economic bubble
being explored [about the real estate and building markets in
Ireland].
Brendan Gleeson: That was a
big bubble. Blah, blah, blah. People were talking so loud in
coffee shops about having profits in Bulgaria and all this absolute
ghastly nonsense. How to want to make a killing. Everybody was
going to be rich. It was just a horrible thing to see. And John
Boorman painted it in as bright a color as he could. He really did
try to put it in a place where it wasn’t sanctimonious. But the
rejection was utter and total. I don’t take any great satisfaction
out of it – for obvious reasons – but the bust isn’t a whole lot of
fun, either. I’m not sure. I haven’t made a connection between
that and and Gerry Boyle. But there is something about puncturing
the notion of perceived authority. You know this unearned respect
that happens where people expect that you would respect them because
of their position. Ireland has been going through a real trauma:
which is the church, it’s the economics, it’s the politics. It’s
just about every slice of the societal pizza. At least they’re okay
there. Except the arts. The only place that people were not let
down was in the arts. Actually, it does say an awful lot. I don’t
know, because John [Michael McDonagh] would never tell you if he is
Irish or English, either. He doesn’t really care. But as part of
that whole thing, it would be good to see it. It’s done something
like two million in two weeks now. (laughs) There’s only
four million people in the whole country. It’s doing fantastically
well at home. So it’s obviously hitting something. Tiger’s Tail
absolutely hit the funny bone and they didn’t want to know about
it. Now, they actually love to see all this stuff, because it has
been punctured. Gerry Boyle… (laughs) I’m only afraid it’s
going to breed all these little Gerry Boyles going around saying the
most offensive things to everybody who comes into the country we are
hosting.
Don Cheadle: Hey, now, wait
a minute. You actually are an asshole!
Brendan Gleeson:
(laughs hard) Yes! Exactly. The approach is to go in the
home to make sure they don’t get the wrong idea of this. But, I
think it’s great to puncture all that unearned nonsense.
It’s
sort of like a love letter to the country, too. The area was so
beautiful and so unusual. The photography made it even more
eccentric.
Brendan Gleeson: Well,
there is something about just getting up someone’s nose that
obviously turns us on. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s just
the boredom factor. But it is shot well and Connemara did become
part of our hearts in a way. I’d been to Connemara loads and loads
of times when I was 19 or 20. I went down there to learn Irish and
all this. They wouldn’t give me a job, but that’s another story.
We went over working in there. We were part of the place. You
know, it is Gaelic speaking and quite of itself. But being on the
inside, working on the inside, was absolutely beautiful. We spent
the last two weeks working over in Wicklow on the pier. We shot it
all against the country. Everybody felt bereft in a weird way to
leave. So yeah, I think there is a kind of love in it, I guess.
Don, your character is supposed
to be very straight-laced and not have a great sense of humor about
himself. As an actor, was it difficult to keep a straight face when
you heard some of the things coming from Brendan’s mouth without
cracking up, completely?
Don Cheadle: Yeah, there
were a couple of times where I just actually did. Like, okay, let’s
go back and reboot and do that again. Because it is so outrageous
and it is so unbelievable and because I know Brendan and I’ve seen
the twinkle in his eye when he’s saying it. But like I said, it was
fully realized on the page. It was kind of fun for once to be the
character that everything is happening to. To be in Ireland – a
place I’d never been before. To be in that part of Ireland, which
is not even like any place else (laughs) in Ireland. To have
this fish out of water story, I didn’t have to act much. I just had
to stand there. The only thing I had to do was act the out of water
part. Everything else was just right there. You don’t always have
a director that is very clear and direct about what they want. Very
assertive and definite. John really was. So it was just putting
myself in his hands.
How did you prepare for the
relationship between the two of you?
Don Cheadle: For me, like I
said, I was a fan before I walked in the room. I know it sounds
clichéd, actors saying, “Oh, I loved him in five minutes.” But, I
really did. It really took about 45 seconds. I shook his hand and
said hey. We sat down and started reading. We read the first two
or three lines and we were cracking up.
Brendan Gleeson: That’s
when we cracked up.
Don Cheadle: Yeah.
Brendan Gleeson: That’s
when it happens, really, in answer of the other question. When you
get a chance to rehearse the scene. That’s when we fell around the
place. After that you’re doing your job. You’re kind of in a
slightly different place. The script was the bond. The script was
clear and our understanding of it was on such a level – on terms of
being on the same level – that that was so easy. We didn’t have to
think about that much, really and just go at it. After that, then
the fun came later.
