I’ve always admired Michael Pitt’s work, from the first time I saw him in 2001 as the teenaged boyfriend of the transgendered rock star in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Pitt was 19 when he made that film and it led to a lot of interesting work such as starring roles in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers and Gus Van Sant’s Last Days as well as smaller parts in such mainstream films as Murder by Numbers and The Village. More recently, Pitt’s interesting choices have included the film Seven Psychopaths, the role of Jimmy Darmody in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, and a recurring role on NBC’s Hannibal. Pitt is the star and executive producer of Mike Cahill’s new sci-fi film, I Origins, playing a scientist named Ian Gray who is studying the evolution of the eye. He finds his work permeating his personal life as he has in intense relationship with a mysterious young woman (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) who slips away from him. His work continues with his colleague, Karen (Brit Marling), and the two make a stunning scientific discovery that has far-reaching implications and complicates Ian’s scientific and spiritual beliefs. Traveling halfway around the world, Gray risks everything he has known to validate his research. When I sat down with Michael Pitt to discuss I Origins, I mentioned his role earlier this year in the crime drama Rob the Mob.
Danny Miller: I talked to director Raymond De Felitta a few months ago about Rob the Mob and I just loved the chemistry you had with your co-star Nina Arianda. That was such an interesting movie!
Michael Pitt: She is absolutely amazing, I really can’t say enough about Nina Arianda! I really fought to have Nina involved. I knew that she was the perfect choice for that role.
That was a really great cast all around. It was cool to see Cathy Moriarty as your mother.
Cathy’s another one — she’s fucking amazing! I remember she came in for the meeting and I was like, “Will you please do this?” She looked at me and said, “I’ll do it for you, Michael!”
You’ve always made such interesting choices in your career — from very high-profile projects to much smaller films such as this one. How do you decide what roles to take on these days?
I’ve been kind of an outcast my entire life. Now I feel lucky that I grew up that way because it gives you a very different perspective on most things and you tend to meet more interesting people! I think if you’re not in that place of facing a certain kind of ridicule, you miss out on lots of really cool experiences. When you’re an outcast you’re usually the one standing outside with five or six other people who society often overlooks and they are often these really amazing human beings. It’s kind of like having a little secret!
And you’ve often played outcasts in your movies — including, to some extent, Ian Gray who is a passionate scientist hell-bent on his research.
It’s true, but one of the things I love about this film is that it shows scientists in situations that you never usually see them in movies. You rarely see a scientist love story or a scientist getting drunk at a Halloween party and falling for a mysterious girl! I got to meet a bunch of scientists in preparation for this film, and while they are definitely passionate and out of the box. What I like about this story and what I hope this film promotes is that this shit is cool! It’s so fascinating. The people working in these fields are rock stars!
What kind of research did you do for the film?
We got to spend time at Johns Hopkins Research Lab in Baltimore and actually hang out with these guys who are fucking brilliant. There was this one guy we met who is very close to curing this particular kind of cancer of the eye. He spent a lot of time with us showing us diagrams and explaining in laymen’s terms what he was attempting. And then he said, “You know, I also like taking photos, would you like to see some of my work?” And Brit and I were like, “Yeah, dude!” His photos were amazing — really abstract and minimal — it was really uplifting and interesting to see something like that.
I’m a fan of Mike Cahill’s first film, Another Earth, as well as this one, both of them somewhat odd stories with sci-fi elements. I’m very impressed that Fox Searchlight is so supportive of people like him and Brit Marling.
Me, too! They are nothing like the cliché of the studios who don’t give a shit about the artists, they really want to support his work.
It’s like the best part of the old studio system where careers were really nurtured instead of only thinking about the bottom line.
Yeah! Mike has also been very smart in the way he’s conducted things. For instance, with this movie he probably could have gotten ten times the budget that he got. It takes a very intelligent person to not be tempted by that dangling carrot but instead say, “No, that’s okay, here’s what I need, just give me that amount.” He’s really taking the time to have the career that he wants to have.
Which reminds me of your career, too. There’s a line that Brit Marling’s character says in a scene between the two of you that obviously applies to her own life as she navigates through this industry: “Recognition makes me extremely nauseous.” Was it challenging for you to deal with fame and recognition early on in your career?
Well, I’ve been doing this a little bit longer than Brit and yes, it was certainly difficult in the beginning for me to deal with that. But now when I look back, I’m very glad that I conducted my career the way that I did. I was very wary back then about getting too much attention, I just didn’t want it. There were a lot of different roads I could have gone down to be more “famous” and to make a lot more money but it would have involved doing things that were less creative. I’m so happy that I took my time and realized that all that stuff isn’t what life is about. I believed that things would come when they were supposed to come.
Which is why your body of work is so interesting and diverse.
Thank you, it’s very encouraging to hear that!
You seem to have a lot of films coming up this year — although I never know whether to believe anything I see on IMDB.
Yeah, you probably shouldn’t! Or Wikipedia. We talked about Rob the Mob, I hope everybody sees that — it’s on DVD now — I’m really proud of that film. I also did a movie called You Can’t Win, set in the 1920s, that’s taken me forever to finish but it’s really great and should be coming out some time this year. And I did a film called Criminal Activities with John Travolta that was directed by Jackie Earle Haley. Stay tuned, there’s a lot more to come!