Excerpt Interview from The Virgin Suicides Magazine,
Pgs. 22, 25
The paragraph in The Virgin Suicides where your character, Trip Fontaine, is first describes is so decadent. He's made out to be the most georgeous specimen of oozing lust on the face of the planet.
(Josh)
They tried to get all these gorgeous guys to do it and ended up with me....
Did you wear a wig for this role?
No, there's this amazing hair tonic that's been out for a long time but has just been rediscovered. I used a lot of that, and evernight I had this grat big huge head of hair. Got it down to there. [points to shoulders]
Is your wardrobe totally '70's?
Yeah... velvet tuxes - a crushed red velvet tux. Trip's from Detroit, and everyone else in the movie is from Grosse Pointe. He's like the one flare in this whole mundane society, so he sticks out lik ea sore thumb.
Did wearing those clothes help you get into the role?
Oh yeah. Those tight bell-bottoms, especially the velvet ones, don't leave much to the imagination. You have to grease youself up and slide into them.
Kirsten Dunst plays your girlfriend. Did you enjoy working with her?
Yes. She's a very talented actress. As she gets older, I think she'll be given the kinds of roles she can take care of. Right now, she only gets the roles that are out there for young kids, not so heavy. I think that her role in Interview With the Vampire described the way she is.
She seems like an old spirit in a young body.
Old spirit, but she doesn't play it up. She acts very young. But she's got some amazing ethereal qualities to her.
And James Woods and Kathleen Turner play her parents.
I had this day where me and James Woods had to do these rehearsals for these two scenes. And in both of them, we were doing inprov rehearsals where I tried to get something that he had, and he thwarted me every time. I've done exercises like that before and I felt more successful with every other person I've ever worked with than with him. I came out tof that day like a beaten puppy. It was great to work with him because he doesn't give, he doesn't budge, and he tried to take over every scene, which gives it some excitement, some spontaneity.
And what about Kathleen Turner?
Kathleen Turner I didn' work with that much. She's a very nice lady, and lookin at her body of work, I think she's done some amazing things.
Pun intended in "looking at her body of work"?
Definitely not....
Tell me about working with Sofia Coppola.
Sofia surprised me. I didn't know her as a person so I didn't expect anything otu of her, but I didn't expect her to be as great as she was. She had her father's intuition as far as workin with actors and whatnot, but she also has something else. Kind of a - I don't want to say a female quality because that's ridiculous, but she's very nurturing. She doesn't really get into the technical aspects as far as I saw. Working behind the camera she left to tachnical people. And to me, she was just very warm.... She let me do everything I wanted to, even though we had a very small budget. As we went on, I'd do the takes that we thougth would be right, and then we'd try something else.
Did you meet Jeff Eugenides?
Yeah.
Did you get along with him?
Definitely. He wrote an amazing book. I can't say enough about his book. It left a lot of room for interpretation, but it was also very specific, and it's rare to see that kind of a blend.
What was it like workin on a low-budget film as opposed to a big studio film?
It was a unique experience. I had never done a low-budget independent before. I think the indie feel is great, just the chance to experiment, and everybody who's on it pretty much feels like they want to be there, because they're not there for the money. They're not there to meet people. It's the closest to art that we get in this business.