Casey Affleck: three friends cook up an experiment and go for it

In Gus Van Sant's new film, Gerry, the director and his two actors, Casey Affleck and Mall Damon, set out into the desert to tell a story of two friends lost on a hike. The result--a brave film made with a nod to the experimental cinematic works of Andy Warhol and Bela Tarr, in which time and point of view are the stars of the show--is an adventure in collaborative film making. The actors co-wrote the script with their director, and all capitalized on their friendship to find the trust to realize the film's ad-libbed and silent stretches. Here Affleck and Damon share a conversation.

MATT DAMON: Hey. So, Gezry. Why did you want to do it?

CASEY AFFLECK: Well, I was helping Gus edit Finding Forrester [2000], when you told me I should read In the Blink of an Eye, Walter Murch's book about film editing. I remember talking to Gus about the part where Murch says that in a thousand years movies from today will seem just as strange as ancient Egyptian pictures--with the heads turned to the side and the arms and legs turned out--seem to us. We talked about how everything's shot at the best angle now. So you, Gus, and I had that connection. That was the genesis.

MD: In Billy Bob Thornton's cut of All the Pretty Horses [2000] there were shots that went on longer than we're used to--and Gus and I had a conversation about the resonance a long take can have: IF it's done right you get through to this other place, and watching becomes a deeper experience. Of course, when it's done wrong it's fucking boring, and that's the risk we're running with this movie.

CA: [laughs] Gus introduced me to Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman 123 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, 1975], where you're watching somebody in real time. If you don't give up on a movie like that you sort of fall in sync with it. Jeanne does the laundry, does the dishes, and three hours later she has a nervous breakdown, and it's much more startling than the most upsetting movie breakdown you've ever seen. I guess that's what you mean about sitting with a shot for a long time and going through that process.

MD: Right. I don't know if it was Robert Towne or William Goldman who said you have 10 minutes to establish your movie, and at that point if the audience doesn't want to keep going they can leave. I think the opening shot of Gerry--we're in the car and no one's talking--makes you realize that this is the kind of movie you went into. You can walk out, but if you don't you're committing to two hours of that. What else was behind your wanting to do Gerry?

CA: I had this fantasy, because I knew you and Gus, that there wouldn't be the problems you encounter when you go on most movie sets and you don't know anybody: having to be diplomatic, not wanting to step on anybody's toes. As it turned out there were still fights, but they were a better kind of fight because we were really getting at something.

MD: Yeah. I've always said that writing Good Will Hunting [1997] was easy because Ben and I would say "That sucks" and it could never be construed as an attack because the respect was implicit in the relationship. Which is how I felt writing Gerry with you, and working with Gus. The collaboration was what was so exciting, all of us working together, sitting around the kitchen table in Gus's cabin a thousand miles from Buenos Aires. And also the freedom from anybody telling us what we could or couldn't do.

CA: Yeah. I remember the last few days, on the salt flats, there was really no one else out there but us. That was thrilling. It was incredible.

Matt Damon is currently filming Stuck on You. Above: Gus Van Sant. Photographer: CASEY AFFLECK.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning