Simon Baker - Land of the Dead - Interview

Date:14th December 2005
From:DVD Reviewer
By John Millar

Q: Were you into zombie movies before Land Of The Dead?
A: I wasn’t a fan of the genre. I did grow up freaking over zombie movies. But now I have a fascination that was started by meeting George. My manager was a fan of George’s zombie films and he persuaded me to meet with George. So I sat down with George and he’s quite a guy! I had heard of him and Night of The Living Dead and I had seen Dawn Of The Dead when I was younger and wondered “what is this!” At the time when that film came out I was a kid and all I was worried about was surfing and girls. I was even too young for that, I think, it was probably just surfing and football. But after I met George I realised he was unlike any film director I had ever met. He was really humble, self deprecating, he has no ego and he is incredibly warm. He is like a father figure but he doesn’t lay it on thick at all. He’s George, he’s just sweet. Then I looked at all of his films and I watched the DVD commentaries and started to get really intrigued. I thought this is good! This guy is making a whole genre that I thought was just one thing. I thought it was just about splattering zombies. But I really loved his whole subversive take on society in different periods in time. That coincided with this script, the political climate and the situation that we are in at the moment in the world. I thought it was a good time to reflect on something like that and what better way to do it - rather than getting up on a soap box and making a documentary about it - doing it through entertainment.

Q: It's not bad for your career to be in a film like Land Of The Dead either?
A: You cynic! (laughs) Yeah I guess, we’ll see.

Q: You and George have a Pittsburgh connection?
A: He lived in Pittsburgh and all of his other films are set in Pittsburgh and he is an icon there. I was doing a TV show - The Guardian - that was set in Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh was kind of the central character. Obviously the show was pretty big in Pittsburgh. We would go out there and shoot every year for two weeks and it was like the Queen coming to town because the town so embraced the show. The only other show that was set in Pittsburgh at the time was Queer As Folk and they weren’t coming out in droves to support that. I guess that was how George knew me.

Q: What made you decide to go to the States from Australia?
A: Some people go there with a movie. I just went there because I was sort of bored. There is a business side of it in America, they make money and they make a lot of stuff...some of it’s crap, but some of it’s good. But at least they are making things and in Australia there was a bit of a lack of that at the time. So we had a young child and a little bit of money - I mean really a LITTLE bit of money - so we thought let’s go and see what happens...and we are still there.

Q: Was it hard to break through?
A: Well I don’t look at it like that. I never have. That is an external perception of how this business works...that is a breakthrough performance and so on...from the inside all you think about is just doing it...do I like what I’m doing? Do I like myself? That is more how I like to approach things.

Q: Was it a struggle at times to pay bills?
A: Oh yeah! Of course. I have three kids. There were certainly jobs that I took because I needed the money.

Q: What was the crappiest thing you had to do?
A: That was in Australia for a Taco Bell commercial. I remember going to a football game in Melbourne and went to spend a penny and a guy in the toilet shouted at me ‘Taco Boy!’ I thought he was going to belt me, it felt like a really unfortunate situation.

Q: Why acting and was The Guardian a significant landmark?
A: A lot of it was fun. I did not study as an actor. I read a couple of different books and stuff. One of the reasons I became an actor is that I’m from a working class family - my stepfather was a butcher - and I did not want to work at any specific job, I despised the idea of working nine to five. A lot of it also for me was that it was a way of expressing myself and communicating with people that they could identify with. That was it. The Guardian was a blessing and at the same time I found myself working more than nine to five. For an extended period I was contracted to work from five 'til nine every day. You get paid really well but I'm not that obsessed with money so I wondered whether I had made a deal with the devil. Creatively for the first year I had an absolute ball. But then to continue playing the same character and to try to elevate the scripts is very difficult when all the elements around you are saying “this is the hamburger we are making, you have to keep making the same hamburger...enjoy it”. Then it becomes really difficult. But it was a good time and I learned a lot. There is a lot to be said for being on a set and having to deal with scripts and different directors and the immediacy of it. We were shooting seven or eight pages a day. Every eight days we shot an hour of television. So consider that a two hour movie in 16 days There is nothing better than that experience.

Q: Working those hours must have made you guilty about not seeing your children?
A: Yeah all those things were a real struggle. That became really difficult. I did Ring 2 - which initially was a small part in a hiatus period. Then there was talk of the TV show not going again and I thought that could be a blessing. Then on the first day of Ring 2 I was driving to work and I got a call to say the TV show had been cancelled and I thought thank God I was working on something. Then I did Land Of The Dead and a romance called Something New. Creatively it is good to keep doing something different.

Q: What was the mood like when filming Land Of The Dead?
A: It was so good, considering we filmed all night and it was freezing cold. It was colder that a witch’s tit. Some nights it was starting to snow and we were driving around with no roof on the car, trying to pretend we were warm. It was insane! But everyone got on really well, there was a real family atmosphere. George was like the perfect father figure in a very laid-back way. John Leguizamo and I clicked from the minute we met. We played off each other really well and enjoyed that process. That was a nice environment. Asia was just a sweetheart. I had no idea what she was going to be like. She is portrayed as a wild child and she shows up on the set and she is a lovely, warm, young mother. It pays not to make judgements about people until you actually meet them.

Q: What, for you, was the buzz about this role?
A: It was interesting for me to play a physical, action, heroic character but to do it more as a throwback to the 1970s. It is more of a noir character. He is more of a loner who feels responsibility for people but doesn’t necessarily like having to take that responsibility.

Q: Do you miss home?
A: Yes, sometimes. Sometimes I miss other places in the world where I have been. I grew up in Australia so I had a lot of time there. I have lived in America for a while and I think there would be something to be said for living in Europe for a while. In Australia you do feel psychologically a sense of isolation. That’s why I think Australians are intrepid and feel they have to go out and see the worlds.

Q: In Australia did you do the soaps?
A: Yeah, all the good ones...my first gig was a show called E Street then I did six weeks on Home And Away.

Q: Would you like to do more horror movies?
A: It kind of depends on each thing. It is not an objective that I set out with. It depends what I feel about the script and director.

Q: Do you want to direct films?
A: In the back of my head I probably feel I'd like to direct - as I did on The Guardian - as soon as I get to an age where I can sit still long enough. I really enjoyed it and felt very comfortable doing that. At the moment things are working for me as an actor so I’ll go along with that for as long as because I'm sure that'll dry up.

Q: Did you act at school?
A: When I was a young fellow in Sydney I was an understudy for Oliver Twist but I never got a shot.

Q: You don't appear to be driven?
A: I don't want to die saying...I never made it! Or having had such high expectations. If you say I have a balanced view for an actor, first and foremost I am just a person.

Q: Is self deprecation one of the reasons for the success of Aussies in Hollywood?
A: It's possible. And if you are driven you are not going to show it.

SIMON BAKER
Land of the Dead – Cannes, May 2005
by John Millar

FromDVD Reviewer