Compared to other filmmakers, Alexander Payne hasn’t made that many films — only six since his 1996 debut — but the expertise he brings to every one of his films is awe-inspiring. Citizen Ruth (1996), Election (1999), About Schmidt (2002), Sideways (2004), and The Descendants (2011) were incisive, refreshingly original looks at the human condition. The films also provided once-in-a-lifetime roles to an impressive roster of actors including Laura Dern, Reese Witherspoon, Jack Nicholson, Paul Giamatti, and George Clooney. Payne’s latest film, Nebraska, shot in glorious black and white, gives that same good fortune to screen veteran Bruce Dern and former SNL star Will Forte in his first dramatic role.
Nebraska tells the story of the Grant family. Now transplanted to Billings, Montana, Woody Grant (Bruce Dern), the stubborn patriarch of the family, is well past his prime — such as it ever was — and believes his final shot at the brass ring hinges on a letter he received announcing that he’s the lucky winner of a million-dollar sweepstakes. To claim his fortune, Woody insists on going to the company’s headquarters in Lincoln as soon as possible. The 750-mile journey seems quite unlikely since Woody no longer drives and can barely shuffle down the road a few blocks, at least without stopping for a drink! Worried for his father’s safety and state of mind, Woody’s son, David (Will Forte), reluctantly agrees to accompany him on the futile trek. When Woody and David make a pit-stop in their hometown of Hawthorne, Nebraska, they are joined by the sharp-tongued matriarch of the family (June Squibb) along with David’s anchorman brother (Bob Odenkirk). News of Woody’s “fortune” briefly transforms him into a returning hero, but it also brings out the vultures (including an old business parter wonderfully played by Stacey Keach) and ends up giving David a much better view of his parents’ past than he ever imagined.
I recently attended a press conference in Los Angeles with the film’s talented cast: Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, and Bob Odenkirk, as well screenwriter Bob Nelson. While Alexander Payne wasn’t there, it was a love-fest for him and everyone involved with this poignant film. Bruce Dern won the Best Actor award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for this film and is sure to be a favorite in next year’s Oscar race. While Dern has been making films for over half a century, has worked with some of the greatest directors in history, and has appeared in classics such as They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, The Great Gatsby, and Coming Home, this is arguably the most nuanced, skilled performance of his career. He talked at length about his joy in working with someone as committed as Alexander Payne.
“The exciting thing is that you have a director who’s right there, right next to you as you’re shooting — not back looking at some monitor,” Dern explained. “You can feel his heart rate, you can feel his pulse. It’s like you have a guy in the huddle with you who’s calling the plays and he’s going to sit back and see if you run them well. It’s an experience I’ve never had in my career — and I’ve worked with plenty of people who have major game as directors. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a piece of material that was all there to begin with so we didn’t have to add anything. And I’m ‘Mr. Add,’ trust me — I’m a guy who puts in anything I can to make Brucie look a little better!”
One of the biggest surprises in the film is Will Forte’s moving performance as David Grant. Known primarily for his brilliant sketch comedy work on Saturday Night Live, Forte was asked if making this film was part of some master plan to move into dramatic roles. “It wasn’t something I had ever really thought about,” he admitted. “I love comedy! I read this script and I loved it but I really didn’t know why my agent sent it to me. I thought, well, this is a beautiful script but there’s no way I’ll ever get this role. It was just the most unexpected thing, not a strategic move to go into drama! I’ve never taken any formal acting classes so it was a very intimidating situation going into it. I was very excited when I got the job but then the terror set in. I kept thinking, ‘Oh my God, I do not want to ruin Alexander’s movie!’ And just knowing who Bruce has worked with and seeing all the stuff he’s done, I was such a huge fan! So I was intimidated going in but once I got there he was so wonderful to me, as was everyone on the set.”
Screenwriter Bob Nelson talked about the genesis of his moving script. “It started with a father and son,” Nelson said. “Woody is sort of based on my own father. A lot of the people you see in the movie are like the relatives I grew up with. It all began with that but in writing the script, I tried to bring in some other themes. Even before the economic downturn, there are parts of the Midwest that were already suffering. When I’d go back there I’d see all these abandoned houses. My relatives would tell me how tough it’s been. All along I had in mind great actors like these people here who could take whatever I could get on the page and make it real — make these characters feel like the people I grew up with. June’s character is based on a real person. When I wrote the first draft she did not survive Act 1 — just like in About Schmidt — so I figured out a way to have her join Woody and David on the trip as well and after seeing her performance, I’m so glad I did!”
June Squibb, thought not yet a household name, starred as Jack Nicholson’s wife in About Schmidt and also worked for directors such as Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese. She made her Broadway debut back in 1958 as Electra, one of the strippers in the original Gypsy starring Ethel Merman. Squibb is a delight in Nebraska and was grateful for the chance to work with the talented ensemble. Her favorite scenes were the intimate moments with family. “Those scenes we shot with just the four of us — I so loved doing them. And it was really interesting — Bob (Odenkirk) just sort of gravitated to helping me, and Will gravitated to helping Bruce! We never discussed this, it just sort of happened, which was so perfect for these characters. When I see those scenes in the house, it resonates so much.”
Bob Odenkirk, also known primarily for comedy in addition to playing a sleazy lawyer on Breaking Bad, felt a personal connection to the material. “My father had a struggle with alcohol and responsibility toward his family so I related to that immediately,” Odenkirk said. “Our reaction during that trying time for our family was that all of us kids supported each other so that’s what I connected with. But while Will’s character is a lot more forgiving in this story, I also felt like my character’s anger was a justifiable angle.”
Dern emphasized the importance of working in an close-knit ensemble. “One of the treats of the movie for me was to see what my teammates came up with. Some of the choices the other actors made really touched me. The way Odenkirk says to Will when he leaves my hospital room, “You want this open or do you want it closed?” When Will is lying on the floor of the car, the way he looks up at me as we’re driving down the street and has that really innocently beautiful smile on his face — that stuff just breaks my heart. And then June — the way she comes to my bed, we all know the trouble she and I have had throughout the film, and yet she touches my hair and says, “You big idiot.” As an actor, you do anything you can do to get into an Alexander Payne movie, just like when I started, you did anything you could do to get into a Kazan film! Alexander gives actors an opportunity and a setting that is almost operatic in size but on a much different scale. This was a bunch of people coming together at the right time in their careers and in their lives with a guy who believed that there are folks out there that like this and that their story deserves to be told.”
Asked about his Oscar chances, Dern (who was last nominated in 1978 for Coming Home) didn’t even try to sound blasé. “It would mean everything to me,” the actor said. “When I won at Cannes, I was stunned! But the thing I’m proudest of in this movie is the group effort. And I also mean behind the camera, because he’s got 45 people there who have worked every day on every film he’s ever made. So he’s got a family there, and that encourages you to dare to risk take after take after take — to push the envelope. They’re pushing it and you’re pushing it. And that’s what made it exciting. I knew this was an at-bat, but it was an at-bat for all of us! Will and Bob are going different places than they ever have, June is going to a different place — it’s about time they let June Squibb get out there and be fucking Rosalind Russell! And our producers had the courage to know that this had to be a black and white movie — whatever the worries were in other places about that, they knew that if you hire Alexander Payne, you don’t mess with him, you’ve got to let him put his vision on the screen.”
Nebraska is currently playing in New York and Los Angeles and will soon be expanding to other cities.