{"id":15749,"date":"2014-07-30T17:19:20","date_gmt":"2014-07-31T00:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qgp.ykq.mybluehost.me\/cinephiled\/?p=15749"},"modified":"2014-10-27T22:03:51","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T05:03:51","slug":"interview-michael-pitt-origins-benefits-outcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/interview-michael-pitt-origins-benefits-outcast\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Michael Pitt of \u2018I Origins\u2019 on the Benefits of Being an Outcast"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pitt-hedwig\"<\/a>I\u2019ve always admired Michael Pitt\u2019s 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<\/em>. Pitt was 19 when he made that film and it led to a lot of interesting work such as starring roles in Bernardo Bertolucci\u2019s The Dreamers<\/em> and Gus Van Sant\u2019s Last Days<\/em> as well as smaller parts in such mainstream films as Murder by Numbers<\/em> and The Village<\/em>. More recently, Pitt\u2019s interesting choices have included the film Seven Psychopaths<\/em>, the role of Jimmy Darmody in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire<\/em>, and a recurring role on NBC\u2019s Hannibal<\/em>. Pitt is the star and executive producer of Mike Cahill\u2019s new sci-fi film, I Origins<\/em>, 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 Berg\u00e8s-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\u2019s 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,<\/em> I mentioned his role earlier this year in the crime drama Rob the Mob.<\/em>
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\"robthemob\"<\/a>Danny Miller: I talked to director Raymond De Felitta <\/a>a few months ago about Rob the Mob<\/em> and I just loved the chemistry you had with your co-star Nina Arianda. That was such an interesting movie!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael Pitt:<\/strong> She is absolutely amazing, I really can\u2019t say enough about Nina Arianda! I really fought to have Nina involved. I knew that she was the perfect choice for that role.<\/p>\n

That was a really great cast all around. It was cool to see Cathy Moriarty as your mother.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cathy\u2019s another one \u2014 she\u2019s fucking amazing! I remember she came in for the meeting and I was like, \u201cWill you please do this?\u201d She looked at me and said, \u201cI\u2019ll do it for you, Michael!\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve always made such interesting choices in your career \u2014 from very high-profile projects to much smaller films such as this one. How do you decide what roles to take on these days?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve 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\u2019re not in that place of facing a certain kind of ridicule, you miss out on lots of really cool experiences. When you\u2019re an outcast you\u2019re 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\u2019s kind of like having a little secret!<\/p>\n

And you\u2019ve often played outcasts in your movies \u2014 including, to some extent, Ian Gray who is a passionate scientist hell-bent on his research.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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\u2019s so fascinating. The people working in these fields are rock stars!<\/p>\n

\"pitt-iorigins2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What kind of research did you do for the film?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s terms what he was attempting. And then he said, \u201cYou know, I also like taking photos, would you like to see some of my work?\u201d And Brit and I were like, \u201cYeah, dude!\u201d His photos were amazing \u2014 really abstract and minimal \u2014 it was really uplifting and interesting to see something like that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a fan of Mike Cahill\u2019s first film, Another Earth<\/em>, as well as this one, both of them somewhat odd stories with sci-fi elements. I\u2019m very impressed that Fox Searchlight is so supportive of people like him and Brit Marling.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Me, too! They are nothing like the clich\u00e9 of the studios who don\u2019t give a shit about the artists, they really want to support his work.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like the best part of the old studio system where careers were really nurtured instead of only thinking about the bottom line.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah! Mike has also been very smart in the way he\u2019s 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, \u201cNo, that\u2019s okay, here\u2019s what I need, just give me that amount.\u201d He\u2019s really taking the time to have the career that he wants to have.<\/p>\n

\"pitt-marling\"<\/a>Which reminds me of your career, too. There\u2019s a line that Brit Marling\u2019s character says in a scene between the two of you that obviously applies to her own life as she navigates through this industry: \u201cRecognition makes me extremely nauseous.\u201d Was it challenging for you to deal with fame and recognition early on in your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019ve 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\u2019m 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 \u201cfamous\u201d and to make a lot more money but it would have involved doing things that were less creative. I\u2019m so happy that I took my time and realized that all that stuff isn\u2019t what life is about. I believed that things would come when they were supposed to come.<\/p>\n

Which is why your body of work is so interesting and diverse.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you, it\u2019s very encouraging to hear that!<\/p>\n

You seem to have a lot of films coming up this year \u2014 although I never know whether to believe anything I see on IMDB.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, you probably shouldn\u2019t! Or Wikipedia. We talked about Rob the Mob<\/em>, I hope everybody sees that \u2014 it\u2019s on DVD now \u2014 I\u2019m really proud of that film. I also did a movie called You Can\u2019t Win<\/em>, set in the 1920s, that\u2019s taken me forever to finish but it\u2019s really great and should be coming out some time this year. And I did a film called Criminal Activities<\/em> with John Travolta that was directed by Jackie Earle Haley. Stay tuned, there\u2019s a lot more to come!<\/p>\n