Ron Livingston Joins Boardwalk Empire
Actor Ron Livingston is best known for his role in the movie “Office Space” and he’s been doing great work in so many different projects on film and television. He appeared in HBO’s “Band of Brothers”, performed in the films “Adaptation” and “The Cooler”, co-starred in “Dinner for Schmucks” and his newest film– “Drinking Buddies” is getting raves from critics and audiences. He stopped by the SiriusXM studios to talk with Ron Bennington about his role in the upcoming season of Boardwalk Empire. Excerpts from the interview appear below. You can hear the interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio.
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Ron Bennington: Ron It’s been a big summer for you. You’ve got “The Conjuring”, a big hit. You’ve got this very cool independent film, that I’m a major fan of, called “Drinking Buddies” which people can see On Demand. And now you’re with “Boardwalk Empire”.
Ron Livingston: Yeah, that’s right. It’s one of those things actually, where you think – because you always feel like, “Oh, they must be making all those things now.” Some of them just kind of came together, some of them I did a while ago and they’re just now coming out. “Conjuring”, we did a year and a half ago. And then they just delayed it, they were going to put it in February, in that little horror film spot in February. And the studio, somebody over there has tremendous balls and thought, “We’re going to put this in the summer against all the action movies.” And it paid off.
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Ron Livingston Talks About “Drinking Buddies”
Ron Bennington: Well also, I brought up “Drinking Buddies”. Which you can see On Demand. I really love the way that that film feels like life.
Ron Livingston: Yeah, that’s one of my favorite movies that I’ve done in a long time. Joe Swanberg I think he’s a real filmmaker, he’s an artist, he’s got…he’s doing the kind of stuff – I don’t know, I think it’s kind of cutting edge, forefront stuff. And it’s a romantic comedy that’s just like different from what you’re used to seeing in a romantic comedy. It feels real.
Ron Bennington: It is. That’s the strange thing, that now when we see a film that looks like life. And we’re like, “Oh, I could know these people.” Or, “I’ve kind of sleepwalked through that myself.” It almost looks strange to us because you keep thinking, well where’s the bag of diamonds? Where’s the alien neighbor?
Ron Livingston: Where’s the “Harry Met Sally”, like all the – you’re so used to the kind of formula of the thing. That when they kind of forgo it. I think there’s a weird thing – people don’t trust audience, that audiences like to be surprised. You know what I mean? There’s this thing of like, well you can’t make a movie unless it’s based on an old board game, or a Saturday morning cartoon. And the audience has to know exactly what it is, exactly what the popcorn is going to taste like. We have to know what’s going to happen in act 3. Or they’re not going to want to go and see it. And, I don’t – it may be true in like a number of ticket sales way. But there’s something that’s really refreshing about going to a movie and sitting down, and I don’t know what’s going to happen.
Ron Bennington: And you don’t, they’re not stereotypes, so you can’t say, “here’s the good person, here’s the bad person.”
Ron Livingston: Oh, there’s the guy in the white hat. He’s being mean to the girl, so we know he’s going to get his comeuppance in act 3 and let’s just wait and see how.
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Ron Livingston Talks About Joining “Boardwalk Empire”
Ron Bennington: And now you’re doing “Boardwalk Empire”, which you’re all great heavyweight actors in this thing. And you’re in a different decade. You’ve got to be careful not to modernize anything as well.
Ron Livingston: Yeah. Well first of all thank – this cast is extraordinary. And guys like Buscemi and Jeffrey Wright. To even get to go play in that sandbox with those guys is – I’m really honored to be considered for that. The period thing is tough, and it’s a little strange. Because had – it’s a fine line to walk between the way people actually sound. Like if you listen to radio in the 20s or just recordings of people. Language has changed a lot.
Ron Bennington: So much, yeah.
Ron Livingston: It’s crazy. And if we were all doing it like – it would kind of be unlistenable, you know what I mean? It would be, “Say, you know” (mimic 20s voice).
Ron Bennington: “Lindbergh has landed everybody.” Why did everybody talk that way, they talked faster then, when life was slower. You’d think they would have talked very slow.
Ron Livingston: I don’t know, the only thing I can think of is that I feel the – can I talk out of my ass here? Because I’m gonna – I like talking out of my ass. I feel like the invention of the microphone changed the way that people were allowed to record music and changed the way that people were allowed to communicate with each other. Like before the microphone, if you were a singer, you had to sing like an opera singer. Because you had an orchestra or a band that you had to like blow over. Or even if you’re a solo, you’re standing on a stage and you had to… And I feel like the microphone kind of allowed the crooners to come in. And I think the same way with – I think a lot of it was radio. When people needed to communicate it was big and it was loud, and it had to carry. And there’s something about, there’s just something about recorded sound that allowed everything to get a little more quieter and a little more intimate.
Ron Bennington: And slow it all down a lot.
Ron Livingston: And slow it down.
Ron Bennington: It’s fascinating, if you’re in this city and you see people from the 70s. The aggressiveness and the voice, and how tough – it wasn’t that long ago. But this city has changed, Chicago has changed the same exact way. And people allow that – I don’t know if people could go now, back a few decades and live in those cities if they had to. I don’t think they could pull it off.
Ron Livingston: Yeah, I don’t know, I think people are malleable. But there’s something about, yeah I don’t know. It’s always interesting to me if you think like every human being on Earth – if you give it 125 years, none of us are here. So, to me, it’s surprising that anything stays the same. Given you’ve got a completely fresh batch of humans every 125 years. That they’re not just completely making it all up. They may get tattoos and pierce different things…
Ron Bennington: That there’s any transition.
Ron Livingston: Yeah, yeah it’s small little pieces. But I kind of went to, for the sound of it, I went to – I kind of went to some 40s guys. Because that’s as far – I went to my grandfather and the way that I remember him talking. He was a salesman, and he kind of had sort of a cadence to it. And he’d have his sales voice that he’d put on. Then he’d have his, “I’m telling a joke now” voice. And a little bit of guys like that. And Jimmy Stewart, always been a big Jimmy Stewart fan. And he had – because my guy is Midwestern and, but not Chicago. So it wasn’t Chicago Midwestern. It was sort of more like Jimmy Stewart, I think he was from Indiana, and Johnny Carson was from Nebraska. So it was like a swallowed…
Ron Bennington: All of it together.
Ron Livingston: Yeah, I kind of threw it all together. And then threw my grandpa on top of it and came up with this weird sound.
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Ron Livingston Talks About His Character
Ron Bennington: I watch the hell out of “Boardwalk Empire”, Gretchen Mol is – what a fucking disaster. Everything she touches, you’ll be lucky if you make it through the season alive.
Ron Livingston: It’s a little dangerous. I don’t know, I don’t know if it’s getting shot by Nucky Thompson or going home alone with Gillian Darmody that’s – they’re both treacherous situations. Her storyline has been like really Greek, kind of, you know what I mean? Literally with the son and the incest thing, and now – it’s been really big and Greek like that. I think part of the thing that, I get to get under the hood a little bit and see a little bit of what makes her tick. And I think they thought it would be interesting to introduce her to – put her in a room with a character that didn’t know anything about her past. Like, so what happens if she gets a fresh start with somebody that doesn’t know anything about her? Where will that go?
Ron Bennington: She’s so amazing too.
Ron Livingston: She’s the best. They said that to me actually when we very first talked about the job. They were like, “Listen, it’s a great set. Everybody knows what they’re doing and Gretchen is the best. She’s a doll, you’re going to love working with her.” And I was like, “Yeah, what are you going to say?” But they weren’t lying at all, she’s just dynamite. She’s a real sweetheart and she’s just – and a great actress, just a real joy to work with.
Ron Bennington: That’s really – it’s always interesting with people that you can’t understand how they do what they do. But there’s something about her, she changes the temperature in a room. She came in here one day, and by the way, defended that character. Which always makes me laugh about actors. Would not totally act like, “Oh I’m playing a psychopath.”
Ron Livingston: She’s kind of got a point. She’s like, “I’ve killed two people on this show. I’ve killed two people. He’s killing somebody every week. I’ve killed two people on the show and I’m the bad guy.”
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Ron Livingston Talks About Bringing A Part Of Himself Into A Character
Ron Bennington: How much of you are you bringing to your character? Is that also in the past?
Ron Livingston: Well there’s always that. You can’t get away from that, even if you think you are. I could be thinking, Daniel Day-Lewis is playing Abraham Lincoln. But who the hell knows what Abraham Lincoln was like. So he’s playing his idea of it. And in doing so, changes forever our idea of Abraham Lincoln. He went from in one year Abraham Lincoln went from the Hall of The Presidents Disney guy to having that thin reedy voice. I think for me a lot of it is how can I take the stuff that I’m working on, that’s happening with me right now in my life. How do I throw that in to the – how do I just make the part about that. In a way that’s going to keep it interesting for me. And I don’t have to – nobody has to know. I don’t have to tell anybody about it. Because it always sounds pretentious when you’re sitting on Actors Studio and going, “well you know, that day I was late to work and I realized, this character is late in his life.” You sound like a jackass talking about it. But there is something about it where your number one job, as an actor, honestly is to drink the Kool-Aid.
Ron Bennington: To believe.
Ron Livingston: To believe in the make believe and to care. You have to care. So that’s the trick, is to find something that you really care about. And when you’re young, it’s easy to care about, “I just want everyone to think I’m a good actor. And I want everyone to think I’m handsome and my hair looks good.” and you get past a certain age and you kind of realize, “Well shit, if they don’t think that already they’re not going to think it. And if they do, I don’t know how it really changes my life anyway. So I’ll try to make it about something else.”
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Ron Bennington: The new season of “Boardwalk Empire” it’s such an amazing cast. And it is a – there’s so many storylines, you talk about trusting in the audience. Because you have to follow each one of these storylines. And even when I started off this season I was like, “Where did we drop off last year.” There’s so much shit that goes down. Thanks so much for coming by man.
Ron Livingston: I appreciate it brother, thank you.
Ron Bennington: It was really fun and I’ll see you next time coming through.
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Watch Drinking Buddies on Demand or Rent it from Amazon.com. Get more information on Season Four of Boardwalk Empire at HBO.com.
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You can hear this interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio. Not yet a subscriber? Click here for a free trial subscription.
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You can learn more about Ron Bennington’s two interview shows, Unmasked and Ron Bennington Interviews at RonBenningtonInterviews.com.