Youth and Acting
This was such a physically and mentally challenging role that was very dialogue light. Do you think you could have done it twenty years ago as a younger actor?
Stephen Lang: I don’t think there is a role that I did twenty years ago that I couldn’t do better today. It’s a question of simplification. As you get older, I try to simplify my work, unless the work needs to be baroque and arcane or ornate. I do think that I’ve arrived at a place where I immediately was able to lend myself to this part. As a human being too, which I think also helps as an actor, I’ve become more empathetic as I’ve gotten older. I think that my capacity to understand and to have patience, and give people a break, has enlarged over the years. I guess I would say I’m glad played this role now, and not twenty years ago.
Fede Alvarez: I would add that aside from him, the rest of the cast were very young. For my money, he [Stephen Lang] was the one with the most youthful approach. Our relationship for the film was one that I most enjoyed. We were both of the spirit of “Let’s play!” or “This is going to be great because of this!” and he would try different stuff. Sometimes, with the younger actors, they are more conflicted. They’re in a place in their careers where they’ve only made a couple movies, and thinking, “This one better work!” They’re in a place where they sound like old people and bitter. I’m not talking about anyone in particular, but I’ve worked with young actors in Evil Dead and now in this film and they sometimes just remind me of an old soul. They are bitter with just fears of failure. This is the first time in a film that I work with an actor that is older than 25 years old. He [Stephen Lang] has made more movies than any of them, but he felt like the youngest one of them all as far as his approach and spirit of not being scared to try things.
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