Posted by KB on June 29, 2010
Joel Edgerton hardly needs an introduction. As a star of film, TV and theatre and one of Sydney’s best-loved exports, he has appeared in episodes 2 and 3 of the Star Wars trilogy, alongside Cate Blanchett on stage in A Streetcar Named Desire, in his AFI Award-nominated role in TV’s The Secret Life of Us, and recently, in the acclaimed Animal Kingdom, among other things. Here he talks to The Waiting City director Claire McCarthy about his latest film and what it was like shooting in India.
Covered: The beauty of India, drawing crowds of adoring fans, filming for 18 hours on a train, doing another prequel.
Claire McCarthy: What attracted you to being involved with The Waiting City?
Joel Edgerton: It’s always a script that attracts me to a project first. I loved your script and the story itself drew me right in. The icing on the cake was that the film was set and to be shot in India.
CM: Can you describe the character you played in the film and what it was like playing this role?
JE: Ben, the character I play is a husband and he is about to become a father. In his career he is someone who feels he has somewhat failed. Once upon a time he was in a band that did well and may have had massive success but he fell down the excess path with drugs, and blew his chances. We learn in the story he is on medication for depression, so the demons of the past are still lingering. But on the surface Ben is a guy who embraces everything. He gets turned on by India and welcomes the place with open arms. Through this film Ben develops a sense of responsibility and level of maturity that was a little lost to him before they made the trip.
CM: How did you respond to India and the creative process of working in this new environment?
JE: I loved it. You shoot anywhere in the world and movies are all essentially made the same way. You have similar departments: lighting, camera, make-up, catering etc., but everywhere you go, crews can differ ever so slightly in their own way. What really is the changeable factor is the environment, and Kolkata is a very special, chaotic, busy, loud, populated city. We were shooting mainly on location, and film is so popular in India that everywhere we shot we drew massive curious crowds. I just loved it, though. I remember thinking how lucky the art department and camera crew were, because literally anywhere you point a camera in India you capture something amazing for free. It’s never ever ever boring.
CM: Can you outline what was the most challenging day of the shoot for you?
JE: There was a very tricky day we had shooting a series of train scenes. We travelled I think eight or nine hours one way, shooting a series of scenes. When we arrived at the end of the line we shot a scene on the rural train platform, ate lunch and then travelled the nine hours back shooting more scenes. It was a long day and difficult getting everything done in that confined space. Although when we completed the scenes two hours from home, we had a massive party in the cabin.
CM: What was the highlight(s) of the shoot for you?
JE: Every day was a highlight. I have to say every time we went to a new location I was ready to have a new experience. I loved India for that. Every corner you turn holds a surprise. Every person has an interesting life or story to tell, and nothing is predictable.
CM: What’s on the horizon for you now?
JE: Right now I am shooting a film in Toronto; a prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing. I also have plans to work in New Mexico later in the year with an Indian director. I am really looking forward to that. I only wish the film itself was shooting in India.
joel edgerton, claire mccarthy, the waiting city, kolkata, john carpenter, interviews, cate blanchett