Q: How do you get into an extreme character like this?
RR: There’s not a lot of preparation you can do for something like this. I just wanted to get inside and see if the shoe fit. In the coffin. And yup, the shoe fits, so let’s go. And that was really it. But with the character, I did some layering with some unlikable traits, as opposed to, you know, him just being some wonderful human being. There needs to be something to draw you in that this is a real person, someone that you may want to have a beer with if he were to get to the surface. The human condition is to empathize no matter what and no matter who he is. We want this guy to get up to the surface. So we can hug him, or punch him out, or do whatever. No matter what your personal feelings about this guy, you want him to live. We’re human beings, and that’s how we operate.
Q: Is there anything you drew from your own life to get into an over-the-edge state of mind?
RR: Gosh, I haven’t really had a lot of post-traumatic stress instances in my own life that I would draw upon, that would even remotely help in a situation like this. But I’ve certainly had my moments where I felt like I was out of control. You kind of try to tap into that to the best of your ability and put it on the screen. But for me here, the goal was to be as honest at every moment as possible. There’s no right or wrong to it. As long as it’s truthful, the audience is gonna stay with this guy. And that was my only job.
Q: What about some of your co-stars in this movie, like gadgets, especially counting on a cell phone to maybe save your life?
RR: Yeah, for me the movie is speaking about communication, and how safe we feel with that. Being connected all the time, a hundred percent of the time—and we are. We have BlackBerrys, mobile phones, all sorts of things. And then there’s a hidden enemy, and it’s not a terrorist or lack of oxygen, or a coffin. It’s bureaucracy. That’s killing Paul Conroy in this movie and that, to me, spoke volumes about the world we live in. You know, “Press one for help in Spanish, press two for help in English.” I mean, you can’t get a human being on the phone for an emergency.
Q: How do you go back and forth from a wacky comedy like The Proposal, or say Green Lantern, to this bizarre thriller?
RR: Hmm…Wow. A movie like Green Lantern, you’re spending five months…doing gymnastics. And when you’re like 6-feet-2, that just shouldn’t be done! But a movie like Buried is so psychological and so terrifying that you really have to have more of an emotional preparation. I’ve been lucky so far. I have an ability that I’ve used throughout my career, and I’ve been fortunate to have that. But most of it has been dumb luck. I’ve had a career that allowed me to do a number of things early on. Because of that, I never had this meteoric success early on. I wasn’t a 19-year-old kid on the cover of every magazine. You know, I was in the industry, but I wasn’t of the industry. That really allowed me to have an outside perspective. I was able to mature in a normal way, like a career should. So in my early 30s where I am now, I’m afforded an opportunity to do a movie like Buried and then a movie like Green Lantern in the same year. I’m going to keep trying to do that—as long as they let me!
