Fisher Stevens Directs Three Legends in “Stand Up Guys”
Academy Award Winning actor, director and producer Fisher Stevens is probably best known for his roles in the movie “Hackers”, “The Flamingo Kid”, and “Short Circuit”. He’s also had a distinguished career in theater, and won his Oscar for best documentary feature for co-producing The Cove. Fisher recently stopped by the SiriusXM studios to talk with Ron Bennington about his new movie, which he directed, “Stand Up Guys” which stars Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin. Stand Up Guys is in theaters now. Excerpts from the interview appear below.
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Ron Bennington: Great music in this thing. Very, very much of a 70’s vibe, and I noticed the whole thing kind of throws back for those guys and gives them a 70’s vibe.
Fisher Stevens: Yeah, I was very inspired by movies of the 70s and “Dog Day Afternoon” and “Five Easy Pieces.” When I read the script it just had that flavor, so I started looking for music immediately, and “Baby Huey” … just felt like the perfect way to open the film.
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Fisher Stevens Talks About the All Star Cast of Stand Up Guys
Ron Bennington: Well all these guys, the characters themselves, would have peaked in the 70s.
Fisher Stevens: That was their time. That was when they were it. It was all about them then.
Ron Bennington: And first of all, the phenomenal cast where you look at all these Oscar winners together. And these aren’t just like great actors, but these are people that the audience has loved for decades.
Fisher Stevens: Yeah.
Ron Bennington: So you already have this feeling about all the guys in the film before it even starts.
Fisher Stevens: It’s nice that Arkin and Pacino and Walken bring their history into this movie. Often it can be a hindrance to a film, but for our film I believe that it helps that they have that history. It helps the audience kind of settle in.
Ron Bennington: Yeah because you know if they’re being disrespected anywhere, in your head you’re still thinking — you guys don’t know who you’re fucking with here, you know what I mean?
Fisher Stevens: That’s right. They will kill you. They will hurt you.
Ron Bennington: Yeah. And Serpico is King of New York. But you look at this — was there any intimidation factor for you knowing that you had this cast to deal with?
Fisher Stevens: Yeah, I have to say the first day on the set was a little daunting. Fortunately, I’ve known Al a long time. We used to play a lot of poker and we used to do a lot of play readings together. But, I have to say, it’s still not the easiest thing to give notes to Chris Walken or Al Pacino. And then the first day that the three of them worked together, that was terrifying, cause then I had all three at once in one scene. And I’m trying to give them all notes and I’m insecure at times like… I hope I’m giving them the right notes. I hope I don’t trow them off. And they were open. You know sometimes they’d tell me to fuck off. (Walken impression) I did that, you know. I give a note to Chris he’s like ‘I did that.’ I’m like, well can you do it a different way? (Walken impression) Alright, alright, for sure.
Ron Bennington: It’s actually one of my favorite things Walken has done for a long time. He can play menacing and he can play comedy, but here there’s a blend that is just, I don’t know, it’s just lovable right across the whole thing.
Fisher Stevens: He’s a lovable guy, and I don’t think people really know that. They don’t get to see that side of him, but he’s very present and even keeled here. But there’s those moments where he explodes, which are so great.
Ron Bennington: The thing about him when I think about Walken — and it reminds me of Bob Dylan — is that he makes choices no one else would make.
Fisher Stevens: Right.
Ron Bennington: And when you look at it, you can’t figure out whether he’s screwing with you a little bit or whether it’s the most genius move that’s ever been made.
Fisher Stevens: He has a line in the movie where the girl in the trunk — Vanessa Ferlito — and he’s suppose to ask her, ‘You feel better?’ And so he would do the line like this: ‘Feel better?’ And I’d say, Chris, um, what is that? And he’d be like ‘What?’ And I’d say, can you just ask her if she’s feeling better? (laughs) He goes, ‘I did.’ I mean there were moments like that, but I like it. And then you see it, he’s like ‘Feel better?’ But he has his own way and it works, and it’s worked for 40 years.
Ron Bennington: And all these guys play with the idea of age, which is something actors do, it’s something movie stars would not do.
Fisher Stevens: The thing about Walken, Pacino, and Arkin is they are actors first, movie stars second. And they didn’t even wear makeup in this film. They’re not vain at all. It was kind of beautiful to watch. And they worked every single day 100% they gave, and you know these guys are pushing 70 or over 70, and it’s amazing to see them just every single line questioning or wanting to know how they were or doing another take cause they didn’t feel satisfied. And that’s an actor, that’s not a movie star.
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Fisher Talks About Casting Bill Burr in a Supporting Role
Ron Bennington: How do you not jump in and cast yourself into that? (Fisher laughs) How do you not say, you know what Bill Burr, I love you, but let me do this scene.
Fisher Stevens: Bill Burr. You know it’s funny you say that because I offered that role to a couple friends of mine, well known actors I won’t mention. They turned it down, and I wanted to say to the producer Tom Rosenberg and Sidney Kimmel ‘Can I play it?’ But, I didn’t have the balls you know.
Ron Bennington: Right.
Fisher Stevens: I also was so nervous on the set at first that I thought I better just watch. And Bill Burr did a great job.
Ron Bennington: Yeah he’s fantastic in it.
Fisher Stevens: And I didn’t know who he was. The weirdest thing was, Bill Burr, for those of you who don’t know, is one of the funniest stand-up comedians. He’s kind of like a Louis C.K.
Ron Bennington: Everybody who listens to this station knows him very, very well.
Fisher Stevens: Okay, so Bill Burr — I didn’t know — this guy comes in to read. He’s a redhead. I was looking at like real goomba types. And I cast him. I said what have you done? His resume wasn’t that extensive.
Ron Bennington: Right. Not as far as acting, it’s just about to explode now.
Fisher Stevens: So he gives a CD, a DVD of his comedy act, and then I was like I couldn’t believe it was the same guy. The producer of this movie is producing a movie with Elizabeth Banks, a big comedy, and he cast Bill right out of this in a huge role.
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Fisher Stevens Talks About his Other Projects
Ron Bennington: That’s great, that is fantastic. This is kind of a cool year for you because the producing is going great. I saw the “Beware of Mr. Baker,” which is fantastic. And then you throw Jay Bulger even into one of the scenes I noticed.
Fisher Stevens: Yeah, Jay Bulger gets hit in the nuts (laughs). Cause try producing Jay Bulger. That was like great justice. Then I just directed Bon Jovi’s new music video for his new record “Because We Can,” and I put Jay in that and made him a real scumbag in that too.
Ron Bennington: And you’ve got some Bon Jovi songs in this, so everything is mixing together.
Fisher Stevens: Yeah, I guess he got a hold of the script and wanted to write for a movie. Al Pacino and Chris Walken are his heroes. He wrote us a song. I thought it was good, but I was like, you know Jon, most of my songs are sung by black guys in the 70s. You don’t really fit into that. And he’s like ‘Yeah, but…’ and he sang a little of that song in the end with acoustic guitar and his iPhone and I loved it. And then he came on the set and then he wrote “I’m Not Running Anymore,” which got nominated for a Golden Globe, and now I just directed his music video.
Ron Bennington: That’s really interesting how all your stuff keeps flowing back and forth.
Fisher Stevens: I’m having a great time and I feel very lucky that I get to kind of juggle all of these things.
Ron Bennington: Is there one thing that you would put at the top of your resume, is it still actor? Is it director? Is it producer? Writer?
Fisher Stevens: I like doing it all. I have to say directing “Stand Up Guys” was probably the highlight of my life. Maybe acting in “The Flamingo Kid” I’d put with that. I love doing it all. I got to direct Leguizamo on Broadway, John Leguizamo, and we’re going to tour that show — “Ghetto Klown” — so I love doing that as well.
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Fisher Talks About the Extensive Editing Process of Stand Up Guys
Ron Bennington: But when you are directing something like this, the time that you have to put to it has got to be so much more right?
Fisher Stevens: This is all. You know one thing I enjoyed about directing “Stand Up Guys” is I just did that. There was nothing else. I put the documentaries on hold, I put the acting on hold. You have to give it your all and there’s something beautiful about that, but also you’re on the spot and you have to have your shit together. Especially with Pacino and Walken and Arkin. If you don’t have your shit together for those guys they will chew you up and spit you out.
Ron Bennington: And the editing process, I imagine, you’re always leaving something out that you wish you could shove back into it.
Fisher Stevens: Yeah. We had a seen with Pacino dancing, another scene. There were 2 dances that I loved, and Al can really move his ass, he can really shake it, he’s great. That’ll be on the DVD extras. There weren’t that many thing we cut cause we shot this thing really quickly, so there wasn’t a lot of opportunity to shoot fat, you know to have the fat. I mean they shot “The Graduate” in 100 days. We shot this — not to compare, I love “The Graduate,” it’s like one of the greatest films ever made — but we had 30 days to shoot this.
Ron Bennington: 30 days start to finish. It’s gotta be done. Everybody’s gotta walk away. So every night that you’re going to sleep you are like holy shit, right.
Fisher Stevens: A lot of stress.
Ron Bennington: Never a relaxing time over those 30 days.
Fisher Stevens: No, never a relaxing time. Not until it’s all in the can. But even then, then you got to go edit and then you’re like oh my god. And you’re watching it and you’re like praying that it will all come together.
Ron Bennington: Yeah because the fact that you say you’re doing it that quick — then there’s these action scenes, there’s car scenes.
Fisher Stevens: Yeah the care chases. Fortunately I had stunt men that were amazing and a second unit director who just worked on the cars exterior. The interior cars were all did. But that stuff is not easy; especially, again, some movies you get 3-4 days just to do the car stuff, but we were doing two units at once. So I was shooting the interior of the cars while they were shooting the exterior, and I’d have to bop from one set to the next set to the next set, so that was pretty intense.
Ron Bennington: The interior car scenes too are so much fun because you’ve got these three iconic stars all in the same shot together.
Fisher Stevens: I kept taking pictures of the monitor because I couldn’t believe it. (laughs) I was saying to my mother and my father, ‘Look!’ That was a great moment.
Ron Bennington: And those were the three choices right?
Fisher Stevens: Those were the three choices. Originally when I got the job to direct this film they had told me that years ago Al Pacino and Chris Walken had done a reading and they were gonna play the opposite roles — that Al was gonna play Doc and Chris was gonna play Val. And they told me that Al Pacino will never do this movie, he’s passed. So I spent a little time trying to cast it, not going to Al who I knew and who I told should play Val, because I know Al and he would be perfect. It just worked out. Finally Al called me about something and I begged him, and he read it and he was like, he was in.
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Fisher Talks About Future Projects
Ron Bennington: So you will still act and you want to keep directing, you want to keep producing, keep this whole thing going.
Fisher Stevens: Yeah I’m producing a bunch of other documentaries. I’m doing one on a 77-year-old oceanographer who is kind of the new Jacques Cousteau — or older, the next Jacques Cousteau — named Sylvia Earle. And I’m going to direct a movie of Philip Roth’s “American Pastoral.”
Ron Bennington: Wow that’s really cool.
Fisher Stevens: Which is a monster, but I’m excited about it.
Ron Bennington: And you couldn’t go in two different directions again with you.
Fisher Stevens: That’s right. I know I’m crazy, but that’s what life’s about. It’s about jumping on opportunities when you have them.
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Ron Bennington: “Stand Up Guys.” It’s going to be released when?
Fisher Stevens: Friday, February 1.
Ron Bennington: And it’s one of those films that I think that if you love movies, particularly if you grew up on that golden age of 70’s movies, it’s like a valentine for that.
Fisher Stevens: Oh thank you.
Ron Bennington: A chance to catch up and figure out what would’ve happened to all those guys, cause you don’t really get to retire from that life, all those guys that they played. Fisher thanks so much for coming in. This was great.
Fisher Stevens: Thank you very much for having me Ron.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NApJNjPTqZs]=======================================================
Find out more about the film on twitter @StandUpGuysFilm and standupguysfilm.com
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You can learn more about Ron Bennington’s two interview shows, Unmasked and Ron Bennington Interviews atRonBenningtonInterviews.com.
