How did you make your ordeal in 127 Hours seem so real? Well, I think a lot of things happened there, a lot of very important things that ultimately guided me through the performance. I’ll talk about a few.
We had discussions, and Aron did some of the early work of just walking us through and showing us some of the things that he did. Most importantly, the first time I met Aron, he brought this ratty VHS tape that had the original, the real videos on it. We all sat there and watched it and for me, it was incredibly powerful for a lot of reasons.
I think one of the main reasons, just why it was so powerful and why it was so valuable as an actor, too, is that every other story you hear from now on, you know that Aron made it out. Aron can tell the story, and we can tell the story, but you know, kind of, what happens. On the video, it’s Aron in the middle of the situation, not knowing that he’s gonna get out. I imagine by the end, I mean, I was saying to myself while we were watching it, “Wow, there’s a guy that thinks he’s gonna die, and in some ways, he’s accepted it.”
It’s not in our film, but Aron left some of the messages, like details about where his ashes should be spread, and then afterwards, he said a couple funny things. He said, “Gosh, it’s a little arrogant.” Because the places he tells people to put his ashes are like the top of this peak, and like all over the globe. Like a hundred places they’re supposed to scatter his ashes! But these are very intimate tapes, with a real simplicity. And we were very privileged to see them. So it feels very immediate, like it was just a guy talking to his friends and family in a very, very simple and intimate way, but also not wallowing in self pity.
Did it ever start feeling a little freaky for you, stuck in that static space and stressing out all the time? You know, frankly, I actually don’t mind a slow movie. So, if this had turned out to be a like incredibly slow-moving movie, I probably would have been OK. But knowing that [director] Danny [Boyle] definitely, decidedly does not like those kinda movies, I think that’s one of the things that gives it this great power.
You know, there are a lot of contrasts in this movie—there’s an incredibly intense situation, but there’s humor. The character is static, but the cameras and the technology they’re using are cutting edge. This is really, I believe, the most cutting edge kind of mainstream movie that you can find, just based on what they’re doing with the technology and how they’re using the cameras to serve the film, not to show off, and to serve the experience. So, in that way, you get, like, Beckett on speed.
One of the most common things we hear is that “I’ve never had a movie experience like that,” and it’s because you’re drawn into the character, and then when the character does speak it’s as if he’s speaking right to the audience. You get incredibly close, like almost first person, where he’s talking to his friends and family. You never break the fourth wall, but it’s as if Aron’s talking right out to the audience, so it’s an incredibly intimate kind of thing, and that gives it that energy.
So what’s the word on Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel? Yeah, that’s weird news, huh! But I just heard about it on the Internet, like yesterday. Maybe I’ll do Mapplethorpe in the Alien movie!