Do Not Disturb

do not disturb – 1998
With a new thriller costarting Katie Holmes and an upcoming war flick with George Clooney, Nick Stahl is suddenly hotter than ever.

By Sarah Goldsmith

Producers wanted a fat kid to play Gavin, the resident head-banging outcast of this month’s thriller Disturbing Behavior. At 5′10″ and 130 pounds, Nick Stahl was hardly a shoo-in. He wanted the part but wasn’t about to start stuffing his face to get it. “It’s not that I’m vain,” he says. Still, Stahl, 18, did a screen test; when he didn’t hear anything, he was convinced he was out of the running. “I was sure I didn’t get it,” he says.

In the end, the extra baggage was not an issuethe part was hisbut when Stahl was getting into character, he found that Gavin’s personal style clashed with his own. “He was into heavy metal and dressed in rags, kind of a Whitesnake look,” says the soft-spoken actor. “I hate that kind of music, but I had to learn to like it.” Stahl’s taste leans toward artists like Sarah McLachlan and Björk. As for clothes, his self-described style is “nothing very distinctive, just Texas casual.”

The Texas influence comes from Stahl’s hometown of Dallas, where he started acting in school plays at age four. He made the giant leap to films at age 13. And what a debut. He played opposite Mel Gibson in the 1993 drama The Man Without A Face. Gibson’s ultrarelaxed on-set attitude had a significant impact of Stahl. “We were filming this scene on the beach and there were these sand crabs crawling around. Mell asked me, “Do you like crab?” and then he reached down and popped one in his mouth and crunched it up,” Stahl says. “After that point there was no anxiety.” Stahl continued to work with Hollywood’s finestat 14, he costarred in Safe Passage with Susan Sarandon, and this December Stahl can be seen playing a naive soldier in The Thin Red Line (with ER’s George Clooney). Perhaps it was these steller credits that prompted Stahl’s Behavior costar, James Marsden, 24, to admit, “I wish I had what Nick has when I was 18,” he says. “He’s a real talent.”

Despite his experience in mainstream movies, Stahl still felt it was difficult to work on Disturbing Behavior because box-office expectations are so high. “There is a lot of pressure when you have to appeal to millions of brains,” he says. The Stepford Wivestype thriller tells the story of a town where parents are resorting to surgery to control their wayward teens. Gavin teams up with his friend Rachel (Katie Holmes) to try to persuade fellow student Steve (Marsden) that they must do something before another kid ends up on the operating table. Stahl felt he related to Gavin’s rebelious nature on a deeper level. “I put a lot of what I’ve been through into Gavin, you know. We both had not-so-great high school experiences.” Holmes, 19, on the other hand, who attended an all-girls Catholic school, had a little help from the director, David Nutter. “He drove Katie around to some rough neighborhoods so she could get a better feel for her role (as a tough girl),” says Stahl. “She really wanted to get it right.”

Although their characters are closely involved in the movie, Holmes and Stahl didn’t see each other off the set. “Katie was usually gone with her boyfriend,” says Stahl. And when was his last date? Stahl scratches his head, trying to remember. “I haven’t been on a date in a while because I’m busy. Yeah, that’s it, I’m really busy,” he adds with a coy smile.

Replacement Part

Meet ”Terminator 3”’s hot new star. For next summer’s certain blockbuster, Nick Stahl steps into Eddie Furlong’s shoes as John Connor

Entertainment Weekly
By Liane Bonin
April 20, 2002

In the Academy Award-nominated ”In the Bedroom,” Nick Stahl played a son who gets blown away by a bloodthirsty bully. Luckily, his character in ”Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” can turn to assassin cyborgs for protection. As John Connor (played by Edward Furlong in 1991’s ”T2”), Stahl joins Arnold Schwarzenegger for what’s likely to be next summer’s box office annihilator (the movie opens July 4, 2003). EW.com talked to Stahl, 22, about getting in shape for Ah-nuld and outgrowing his first director, Mel Gibson.

Is this the kind of role that demands abs of steel?
I’m not quite there yet, but for the first few weeks of filming I have very few scenes, so that buys me some time to get in better shape. I like physical roles like this since I need excuses to work out; I haven’t the willpower to do it on my own.

Has training forced you to cut out all bad habits?
Not really. After working out, there’s nothing like a cigarette. And I figure that your body just works that much harder if you have the lungs of a 4-year-old.

Everyone from Edward Norton to Shane West was rumored to be up for this role. How tough was the audition process?
I auditioned about five times, and there were three screen tests, which is more than I’ve done for any movie. But the director, Jonathan Mostow [''U-571''] is a pretty thorough guy — probably because everyone knows there’s going to be constant comparisons to the first two films.

Did they let you read the top-secret script before you auditioned?
The first time I did a screen test, I had to come to them, go into a room, and sign all these documents before I could even look at it. And they only let me read the first two acts. Don’t ask me anything about it, because if I tell you, someone will come to my house and kill me.

How difficult was it stepping into a role created by another actor?
I haven’t talked to Edward Furlong. The fact is, it’s been 10 years since the last movie, and people change, so it’s like creating a new character. I think audiences love these movies so much they’ll give me the benefit of the doubt.

What was it like meeting Schwarzenegger? Were you tempted to imitate him?
When you meet him you realize just how bad all those imitations are; no one else can really do him. I had these nightmares that he’d be a vicious anti-smoker and he’d throw me into the gym and scream at me, but he’s very nice and incredibly humble. He has a gym in an 18-wheeler that follows him wherever he goes, and he said I could use it. I may take him up on that.

You made your feature debut as the little boy in ”Man Without A Face.” Do you ever see your costar/director Mel Gibson?
It’s not like we go to bars and hang out. I saw him at an after-party not long ago, and it was great to see him. But it was weird — I’m actually taller than he is now.

In The Bedroom – Marisa Tomei and Nick Stahl discuss working with director Todd Field

In the Bedroom
Marisa Tomei and Nick Stahl discuss working with director Todd Field and their roles as Natalie and Frank
By Lizette Resendez
The Battalion
Posted: 1/15/02

Marisa Tomei, star of In the Bedroom, had no idea what she was getting into.

“I didn’t really think it was going to be as much as a challenge as it was when I got there,” Tomei said. “I would do a scene where it was emotional and would require a lot of concentration and think, ‘Okay, that’s out of the way, the hard scene is out of the way,’ but the next day there would be another hard scene. I didn’t really realize how much I immersed myself in that world.”

While the Academy award-winning actress has had plenty of practice preparing for roles in major movies such as My Cousin Vinny, What Women Want and Untamed Heart, Tomei had to spend time with a woman from Maine who was similar to her character, Natalie, in background and personality. Tomei spent several days learning new habits, speech and body language.

“I didn’t have anything or anyone to really draw from personally,” Tomei said. “I had asked [Director Todd Field] if there was someone that he knew, if he could find somebody who might be similar to my character’s background … he found someone who was willing to befriend me.”

Tomei’s co-star, Nick Stahl, last seen opposite Katie Holmes in Disturbing Behavior, also spent days at sea as a fisherman to prepare for his role as Frank. While he grew a deep respect for the way of life, he admits it was grueling work.

“[Fishing] is a really different world,” Stahl said. “I came away with a real respect for the profession. It’s a really tough job, kind of a lonely job as well. I had really done nothing like that before.”

Stahl started acting as a child and has had to adjust with changes in roles as he matured, while juggling a normal boy’s life and acting.

“It was difficult at times. You have a certain set of roles that you’re up for as a kid, but as you age, it really changes,” Stahl said. “When I was 14, I didn’t work for almost two years. It’s an awkward age to begin with.”

Despite Tomei and Stahl’s combined experience in film, they both said working with director Todd Field was rewarding.

“I’d say it’s exciting to work with someone who has no preconceived ideas, with a lot of fresh energy, clean point of view, ready to express himself or herself,” Tomei said. “I only had the script, which I thought was really good, and a couple of conversations with Todd which showed that we approached work the same way.”

Stahl said he was not only drawn to the film by Todd Field, but also by the script.

“Todd Field did an amazing job but it was more the story as a whole that was kind of the dominating force in wanting to do [the movie],” Stahl said. “If people don’t want to go to a film to experience emotion, I guess they should just go see the newest teen flick out. [In the Bedroom] really attempts to make a statement, which is more than a lot of films that I’ve seen attempt to do.”

While the film’s full plot was a secret, In The Bedroom won the Special Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and several nominations for Best Film by numerous film associations, including the 2002 Golden Globes.

In the Bedroom gave Tomei a chance to work with Sissy Spacek, one of her favorite actresses, as well as an entire cast of experienced actors.

“I was blown away (by each actor),” Tomei said. “It was like a certain trust that we had with each other. We knew we all cared very much about our craft.”

Spacek, who plays Frank’s emotionally-charged mother, has also been nominated for several awards.

Spacek was voted Best Actress by the 2001 American Film Institute, 2001 Los Angeles Film Critics Association, 2001 New York Film Critics Circle and 2002 Broadcast Film Critics Association.

It’s a classic Twist

It’s a classic Twist
What the Dickens! Dodger steals lead role from Oliver
By JIM SLOTEK
January 15, 2003
Canoe.ca

TORONTO — In a west-end warehouse/studio, I’m standing to the side as Gary Farmer and Nick Stahl rehearse a scene from Twist. Stahl is made up to look as if he’s beaten to a pulp. Gary Farmer, twice his size and age, is dabbing at him, treating “cuts and bruises.”

As director/writer Jacob Tierney stops to assess the scene, I realize there’s something squishy on the floor beneath my foot. It’s a still-wrapped condom.

“Well what do you expect?” says Cynthia Amsden, the unit publicist. “It’s a movie about male hustlers.”

Truly, this is not your father’s Charles Dickens.

Yes, this is that Twist. Stahl — best known as the murdered son in In The Bedroom — is “Dodge,” an updated version of The Artful Dodger, and the protagonist in the 23-year-old Tierney’s gritty update of the dark Victorian novel that earlier became a jolly musical. (That Oliver guy, played here by Joshua Close, has been reduced to the status of key supporting player).

And Farmer? The veteran Canadian aboriginal actor is Fagin, no longer a Jewish caricature or the mentor to mischievous pickpockets. Large and malevolent, with almost incongruous attacks of compassion, he’s the pimp and protector for a pack of young adults who make their living servicing the rich — including a repeat client known only as The Senator.

“I came up with the idea watching a production of Oliver the musical a few years ago,” the Montreal-born Tierney (TekWar, This Is My Father) said just before the feature production wrapped at Christmas. It was a longish writing process, but I decided I wanted to tell the story from the point of view of The Artful Dodger. He’s a mysterious character in the book. He doesn’t come from anywhere and he doesn’t go anywhere. He’s kind of abandoned in the novel.

“In the book, the central character (Oliver Twist) was the character who never belongs with this working-class crowd, and he gets out and gets the life he deserves, which is kind of a fallacy. Our Artful Dodger is the rich kid who’s slumming it, if you will, and Oliver is the kid who grew up in foster care.

“Beyond that, it’s still the same themes as the book, the exploitation of children and the commodity of youth. I wanted to explore themes of sexual abuse, that’s pretty well what this is about. This man, Fagin, runs a brothel of young boys, sends them to work and brings them home and takes care of them. It’s an identical structure, except they’re hustlers.”

As he was banging out the script, Tierney was rooming with Stahl, who, as luck would have it, is now on the cusp of becoming a big enough star to sell a movie. Following the Oscar fuss of In The Bedroom (for which Tom Wilkinson won best supporting actor), this year moviegoers will see Stahl as the older John Conner in Terminator 3: The Rise Of The Machines.

“We were roommates in L.A.,” Stahl says of Tierney. “We had a friend in common and we all ended up living in this house in Santa Monica with a bunch of guys for two and a half years. It was like a big actor frat house.” (Castmate Tygh Runyan is also an erstwhile member of the “actor frat house.”)

It’s an interesting experience for Farmer, who is so much bigger and older than his fellow cast, that he looks like he was dropped in from another planet. Farmer sees the movie — particularly the off-camera Senator and the mysterious “Bill” to whom Fagin answers — as a metaphor for an upper class that commits crimes without getting its hands dirty.

“Bill, who we never see, represents that mysterious corporate world that we’re all supposed to respect for some reason,” says Farmer, who also just finished filming Deepa Mehta’s The Republic Of Love.

“The whole theme of the corruption of innocence is very timely. Stories like the abuse at Maple Leaf Gardens, the underworld and the corporate world, it kind of mirrors what’s happening to us as a society.”

Get into Dodge

Nick Stahl puts new Twist on popular Dickens character
CANOE.CA

By JANE STEVENSON

The transition from fighting alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in a big Hollywood action flick, to street hustling and shooting heroin in a small Canadian independent film posed no problem for actor Nick Stahl.

A good role is a good role.

“I feel like the roles that I play are separate from the commercial aspects of movies,” said Stahl, 24, during an interview at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

“And that’s why to me, the budget of a movie has always been sort of secondary, I guess. Really, I just look for good stories and good characters, because that’s what I feel I can do.”

The Texas-born, L.A.-based Stahl, best known for playing John Connor in 2003’s Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines and the tragic murder victim in 2001’s In The Bedroom, currently stars in Twist, a modern retelling of Oliver Twist, which opened yesterday.

Stahl plays Dodge, a.k.a. The Artful Dodger, a Toronto rent-boy and junkie who takes the innocent runaway Oliver (newcomer Joshua Close) under his wing.

“I read the book when I was a kid, and so I remembered the character, and there were certain elements from the book that remained true in this adaptation,” Stahl said.

“Just his sense of sort of being the ultimate kind of hustler, the ultimate shifty character guy that keeps moving. Once the script was done it was like a new story to me and I made it my own as much as I could.”

Stahl and Montreal-born director/writer Jacob Tierney — real-life best friends who met in L.A., where they were housemates for three years — observed male prostitutes in Toronto.

But they never spoke to them or asked any questions. Stahl also didn’t go “method” and live on the streets or stop showering.

“Like the prostitution and the drugs, I didn’t feel like that was what the movie was,” he said. “It’s no big deal to him, to the character. The prostitution, the selling sex as a commodity, it’s become a small thing. Sex is not an intimate thing to the character. There’s nothing special about it or sexy. So to try to get to the root of that was really what I wanted to do — the reasons why that happened.”

Stahl, who’ll admit to reading what is written about him in the press, says he tries to not place too much importance on reviews. But getting positive feedback is often necessary to keep going.

“Sometimes you need affirmation, maybe, that you’re in the right business or you’re doing kind of the right thing, ’cause sometimes it’s hard to know or be objective,” he said.

Nick Stahl now the ‘old’ guy

March 14, 2008
By KEVIN WILLIAMSON – Canoe – Sun Media

Nick Stahl won’t be back for more Terminators, and at age 28 suspects he’s already yesterday’s model.

“I’m not a studio poster kid, you know. Studios want the popular actor of the moment. That’s all there is to it, regardless of what you’ve done in the past,” says the Texas-born Stahl, who starred in 2003’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines a decade after his breakthrough role in Mel Gibson’s Man Without A Face.

“Maybe in the long run the fact I’ve done it so long is good, but in the day to day, I’d say it’s a hindrance I’ve been around so long. I’m not the newest thing. I’m not the new guy on the block.”

So with the role of futuristic messiah John Connor in next summer’s fourth Terminator out of the question — Christian Bale will star instead — Stahl is focusing on Sleepwalking, an indie drama with a budget that probably couldn’t pay T4’s catering tab.

Shot in Saskatchewan, which convincingly doubles for Utah and California, it stars Stahl as the dysfunctional uncle of a recently abandoned 11-year-old girl played by AnnaSophia Robb. Dennis Hopper turns up as a monstrous figure from Stahl’s past while Charlize Theron portrays Robb’s deadbeat mother.

The Oscar-winning actress, who is one of Sleepwalking’s producers, was the driving force behind the no-frills project and, from all accounts, the talent magnet.

“I just got a call from Charlize and she said, ‘I have a part for you’ and I said, ‘Great, I’ll do it,’ ” Hopper tells Sun Media. “She said, ‘You have to read the script first.’ And I said, ‘No, if you’re doing it, I’ll do it.’ It didn’t matter. She has integrity. Especially after seeing her performance in Monster I knew she was willing to go the distance.”

And going the distance for the cast and crew meant traveling to Regina and surrounding outskirts in the dead of winter for the story’s harrowing farm-based scenes.

“Charlize always made sure we had on extra, extra long underwear,” Hopper says.

“She was a great producer. She was there every day for us. It was extreme conditions. We did our scenes in 25 degrees below zero.”

Adds Stahl, “I don’t think a lot of producers are qualified to put creative input forward. The best kind of producer can deal with schedules and money and time, but also is creatively invested and has something creative to say … Charlize being an actress herself, she had to balance a lot.”

As for filming on a farm, Hopper enjoyed the return to his rural roots.

“I was raised on a wheat farm in Kansas — so it was like going home for me.”

Less so for Stahl.

“I had to learn to ride the tractors. That was hard. I’m not very good, so luckily they only show it for five seconds. But I’ve been around horses on sets before. You know, any extracurricular skill I know is because of a movie.”

Which brings us, full circle, back to Stahl’s already-lengthy career and its placement in the Hollywood food chain.

“I’ve been lucky to get to do good films. That’s all I’ve ever asked for. Acting is the only thing I’ve ever done. A studio film would be great to do. I’m not opposed to any genre or budget. A lot of times the smaller films happen to be the better ones — that’s just the way it is. But I’m not opposed to doing bigger films, as long as they’re not god-awful.”

Then again, he can always look to the enduring example set by his legendary co-star.

Notes the 71-year-old Hopper, “Most of my life I haven’t been bankable.”

Eyes Wide Open

By Terry Keefe
VENICE MAGAZINE – MARCH 2008 (Source)

No one in Hollywood plays a tortured soul better than Nick Stahl. But, thankfully, despite whatever places he needs to go to bring to life the likes of the Yellow Bastard in Sin City, Bobby Kent in Bully, Ben Hawkins in Carnivale, and even John Connor in Terminator 3, Stahl seems to be able to leave them behind at the stage door. Although he’s been in Hollywood since he was a child (starring as an adolescent opposite Mel Gibson in 1993’s The Man Without a Face), the now-28 Stahl has rarely been seen in the tabloids as part of the ever-burgeoning celebrity industrial complex, but he could certainly have been milking that publicity gravy train for all it was worth next to the Lohans and the like, if he chose. He’s been on the verge of major studio film stardom seemingly forever, but appears just as happy playing interesting characters in lower-budget indies. It’s a bit of a cliché to state, but the quality of the work is obviously very important to him. This writer didn’t know what to expect from Stahl in person, when we met for lunch on Abbot Kinney at the end of February. Actors are sometimes very close to the types they specialize in and, just as frequently, couldn’t be more different. To answer my own question here, Stahl comes across as an affable guy, with a lot going on underneath the surface. Speculating on more than that regarding his personality would be useless and presumptuous after just an hour talking together. But what was obvious is the determination that drives his career and that he’s here for the long haul as an actor. When all the current flavors-of-the-month have burned up and disappeared from the covers of gossip magazines, Stahl will likely still be pushing himself to the limits of his considerable talent.

This spring brings us two new Stahl features, Sleepwalking and Quid Pro Quo, which really allow a nice showcase of his range, so far apart are the two stories from each other in terms of plot, although they share some thematic similarities. Sleepwalking was directed by William Maher and produced by Charlize Theron, who also co-stars, but it’s really Stahl’s film to carry as an actor. He plays a very average guy named James Reedy, a fellow who works construction, not very well, and stumbles through a painfully average life. That’s until his much-wilder sister Joleen (Theron) shows up and asks to move in temporarily with her 11-year old daughter Tara (AnnaSophia Robb). Temporarily for Joleen, but more permanently for Tara, as Joleen takes off one night and leaves Tara with her uncle James. While James can barely take care of himself, he slowly rises to the occasion of becoming the father that Tara never had. This is no lighthearted Big Daddy-style surrogate father-kid buddy story though, as James and Tara have to brave a harrowing time with James’ own father, played by Dennis Hopper, before James is able to come to a number of painful realizations which enable him to move his life forward. In Quid Pro Quo, written and directed by Carlos Brooks, Stahl inhabits a character who is ostensibly much more together than James, a successful Public Radio journalist named Isaac Knott, but who is not without his own challenges to overcome, as he is confined to a wheelchair. While James in Sleepwalking has to discover who he is, Isaac seems to know at first, but his sense of self is challenged by the arrival of a mysterious young woman named Fiona (Vera Farmiga), who is part of a bizarre subculture of “Wannabes,” able-bodied people who desperately wish to be paralyzed themselves in order to feel whole. While investigating the Wannabes for a story, Isaac becomes involved with Vera, who will shine light on parts of his past that he has buried deep in his subconscious. There’s a nice, albeit unintended, symmetry to the fact that both of Stahl’s characters, Isaac and James, are sleepwalking through life, and have to essentially wake up and confront demons they’ve long avoided.

Obviously, some of the backstory of James in Sleepwalking is revealed as the story progresses. He’s a complicated guy though, while simple at first glance. Did you create any additional backstory to use in the role?

Nick Stahl: I actually didn’t have to do a lot of that, because I do think it was all on the page. It was a really cool character. If there was any danger, maybe, in how the character read…it was that he might’ve been misunderstood as being kind of slow, or something, which I didn’t want to play. I thought it was more interesting that he was someone who has just been wounded, by life, and as a result of that, kind of retreated from the world a little bit. And settled for a simpler life. Then his niece comes into his life, and that’s when his kind of transformation starts, you know? I think he finally has like some sort of a purpose or something to work towards, something to take responsibility for. He starts to come into his own at that point.

AnnaSophia Robb as your niece has one of the more confident onscreen presences I’ve seen in a child actor. Is this your first time starring opposite a child, other than when you were a child actor yourself?

Yeah, I’ve never really worked with younger kids or anything before, but it was interesting because I myself was acting, you know, when I was around her age also. I was doing movies as well – so it’s funny…it kind of, it mirrored the film’s story in some ways because I just sort of instinctively had this kind of like protectiveness with her, you know? And then when I was young and I was doing films, there are producers and people who, you know, they’re exploitive – they will try to get as much out of you as they can, and they’ll tell you and your parents that working a fifteen-hour day is normal. And if you want the movie to be finished, you need to stay for fifteen hours, or whatever. And just really….I mean, luckily, you know, there was none of that on this movie, and she had a really solid family, and really – and she’s a lot more, I would say, balanced kid than I was, I would say, at that age. And I think she’s more secure and level-headed and confident as well.

You also got [SPOILER ALERT]…

…to kill Dennis Hopper in this film. He’s usually the one who’s doing the killing onscreen in most films.

I know, and I hated to have to do that. I mean, I was so nervous about it. This was, you know, the legend, Dennis Hopper. And I had to beat him up, and then, you know, do more than that – and I just didn’t want to do it! Plus, I like him so much personally – he’s such an amazing person, but I think he understood that I didn’t have a choice [laughs]. He’s somebody that really cares a lot about what he’s doing, his work — and that was really cool to see, because I’m sure, you know, once you get to a certain age and you’ve seen so much, and you’ve done so many things—

You could sleepwalk through it if you wanted to.

Right [laughs] – you could. You might not care as much, I would think there’s the potential for just phoning things in. This guy would never do that. I mean, because he just is a real artist and he cares a lot about his performance, and he works….he just constantly is working very hard at it.
Charlize Theron and Stahl in SLEEPWALKING.

How did you get involved in the project?

I was approached by Charlize and Bill Maher, the director. I like to call him William Maher, so people don’t confuse him with the Bill Maher on television. There were actual reports when we started filming that the “Politically Incorrect” Bill Maher was directing this for us. It was literally on CNN or something, that he was directing Charlize Theron in a movie [laughs]. But they approached me about a year before it got its full financing. I was the first one cast. They just saw me in the role, and wanted me to do it, and it was pretty exciting because I’m used to having to fight for things a lot, and this I didn’t have to. I was the guy they wanted from the beginning.

You do still have to fight for things a lot? That’s somewhat surprising.

Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, depending on the movie. Right now, I’ll get offered independent things occasionally – but most of them, I’d say 95% of them, are horrible.But with something that’s of any kind of quality, I definitely audition – and I like auditioning, I’ve always felt comfortable with doing it. I mean, I’ve always felt more comfortable in an audition than a meeting. I think it’s the same reason why I have such nervousness about public speaking and things like that. But as soon as I’m filming or onstage or something like that, I just never have. I’m kind of in that world, maybe, in character, and so I can do that, no problem. But having to meet some strangers and talk about myself for an hour, it’s a lot more difficult for me. So, I’ve never had a problem with auditioning, and especially if it’s for something that I really like. You know, all that I have ever been frustrated about, or wanted, was just the opportunity to do it, to audition, and actually have a fair competition. Because…it’s taken me a long time to come to terms with the politics of this, of the town, you know, and sometimes, it sucks to have to abandon a movie that you’re really proud of and then go on and have to do something that you don’t really believe in, because you need money. But I’ve also been really fortunate that I’ve never had to have…a job, a real job, in my life. You know, I’m twenty-eight years old, and that’s pretty amazing. And that feels good. What gets really hard to deal with sometimes, when it comes to the politics of the town – and by that, I mean if someone has a lot of popularity in the moment, they’ll just get offered something for that reason. But you know, if that [level of popularity] happens with me [laughs]….I’m obviously gonna have a different take on it [laughs]. But if I’m not able to even read, to even go in on something…that’s hard to deal with. Because if I’m up against someone who’s genuinely better for the role, that’s great, I can totally deal with that, that’s fine. It’s the lack of opportunity that’s really hard to deal with sometimes. It’s just part of the business end of things, which has never been my strength.

Let’s talk a bit about Quid Pro Quo. This must have been an interesting film to do your prep work for.

It was more unusual than Sleepwalking, I would say, sure [laughs].We filmed in New York – which I loved. I’ve worked there a few times, and I just love the city, and I love working there. But I had never worked there in a wheelchair, so that was obviously different. And essentially, as far as that goes, in terms of prep work, I just used a wheelchair for a few weeks and just kind of went everywhere in it and rolled around the city. I just wanted to experience what it was like: people’s reactions, the difficulty of doing it. First of all, physically…I mean, it’s hard, it’s really hard. And you can see I’m not, you know, the biggest – I don’t have the biggest upper body [laughs]. It takes a lot of strength. That was my first discovery. How physically demanding it is. But yeah, it was really interesting just to see people’s reactions to you, and how you’re treated. For the most part, people kind of avoid your gaze.

Just like your character describes in the film.

Yeah, it’s funny. People….I think that wheelchairs scare people. That was my assessment. People don’t want to look at injuries. Most people didn’t recognize me because they didn’t take the time to look into my eyes, or my face, you know? I didn’t really even have to worry about that most of the time, because I just kind of blended in. But then, you know, one day, someone said, “Hey man, aren’t you on that…weren’t you on ‘Carnivale’?” and I was like, “Fuck!” [laughs] So I wheeled away really quickly. I think he was horrified to think that, you know, this actor’s been in an accident. And so I had to watch out for that a little bit.

This the type of material that could be a disaster if the directing was off in any significant way.

Right, and by the way, even after we filmed it and it was done, it took many passes editorially to get it to where it was [quality-wise] in the script. We actually ended up re-shooting some stuff, and adding a couple of scenes. I think it was the kind of thing that, it was so clear on the page…the story, and the tone of it was so clear, but, for whatever reason, it’s such a different process once you actually film it and then you actually go to start editing it. It’s such a different process that it doesn’t always translate well from the script. I saw some early cuts, that actually weren’t all that great. Those cuts didn’t capture what was in the script, and a lot of people had problems with the film. A lot of people didn’t get it, and that was the reason why we had to go back and retool some stuff. [Director] Carlos Brooks worked endlessly for so long. He kept cutting it and working at it. But finally, I think what he got – what we ended up with was pretty close to the script, and I’m actually really proud of it, and I was really happy that it came together like it did.

Carlos mentioned in the press notes that he wanted the tone of the film to exist “somewhere between deep sleep and wakefulness.”

That’s exactly something he would say. Yeah. It does have sort of a dreamlike quality to some of it, and I think that it deals a lot with the subconscious, and the bearing of painful memories. Those are elements which are really intriguing to me. It’s amazing how your subconscious protects you against pain.

Let’s talk about a few of your previous films. How did you find the character of Yellow Bastard in Sin City?

Well, first of all, just to give you kind of the back story on getting that role, it was not a role I was supposed to do. I was just supposed to be in the beginning of the film, when it’s me without the make-up, before he later turned into [the Yellow Bastard]. And they had another actor who was set to do the Yellow Bastard role – and he fell out of the movie, he had a conflict or something, so Robert Rodriguez called me to and he just said, “Hey man, maybe you could do both, and maybe we can see that it’s you, kind of, through the makeup, and maybe it’ll be even better.” And I thought it was cool because, it’s a bigger role obviously [laughs], and I got to do more on the film. But I was intimidated by doing this theatrical cartoonish thing. It’s obviously drawn a certain way, and you can get kind of a voice of this crazy character through Frank Miller’s writing, but I was really intimidated because I still didn’t know completely what Frank had in mind. This character…when he actually speaks, and he moves around, and his physicality, and I was like, “I don’t know what to do. I have to – obviously this is really broad, and I have to make this into something big, and something scary.” But really I was kind of in the dark about it. I was just hoping that what I did synched up with what they wanted. They didn’t fire me, so I guess it was okay [laughs]. But I don’t ever want to wear that many prosthetics again in my life!

It must have been insane. It barely looked like you.

It was miserable. Not only grueling time-wise to put it on – but, you know, just sitting there in it. It’s stiflingly hot, you can’t move. You feel like you’re stuck together. Luckily we only did that character….I only had makeup on for, I think, five days. It was shot so fast on video, rapid-fire.

The first film I remember seeing you in as an adult was Bully, where you played the very disturbed teenager Bobby, based on a real-life individual. You weren’t far removed from high school age yourself.

Yeah, and I knew kids like some of the ones in that film. I had friends like that who were just, you know, young and had no sense of consequence and lived dangerously. And I kinda did the same for a while at that age. I mean, I had sort of a dual life in a way – I was going away and doing films, and then coming back, and hanging out with friends, and getting into trouble, and experimenting with drugs, and doing all that stuff, and so my teenage years had some darker times to them, that aren’t the fondest memories for me. So to go back to that world [for Bully], and to – and this obviously was a real extreme, this particular story – but it still really brought back a lot of memories for me, of that time, and that character was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in a movie . You know, Sin City is one thing, when you’re playing someone who’s a ridiculous, over-the-top cartoon character. But if you’re playing, you know, a real guy who’s essentially looked at as kind of a monster…I mean, it was just so far from who I am and I was amazed I was even cast in that role, actually. So I guess I was just so worried all the time that it would not be convincing. That it was beyond my range of who I was and what I could pull off. And Larry Clark, too, the way he works….he’s very visual, and he doesn’t give a lot of direction, acting-wise. That’s kind of his style. He kind of lets people do their own things, and if something’s not working, he’ll tell you, but for the most part, you’re kind of out there on your own. So if he didn’t tell me not to do something, I just had to assume that it was okay. It was one of the most challenging films I’ve done.

Let’s go way back. Your bio says that you started acting when you were four. Was that in the typical manner, via school plays and such?

Yeah, but it wasn’t really school plays, but a children’s theatre group in Dallas. My mom was a seamstress as a side-job for the children’s theatre group, and so I just started auditioning for plays, and I really liked it a lot, and I thought that this was it. I’m talking like four or five years old, really young. I mean, I’m one of those weirdos that knew very early on what I wanted to do. I just always had a certain confidence about it. For whatever reason. I was decent in athletics, but I was not in the elite, and I wanted to do something where I could be. I grew up next to this athlete who was my best friend, and we would constantly compete at whatever sport – basketball or football or whatever. I was always competitive with him, but he would always edge me out at the end of the day. So I think he single-handedly probably turned me away from athletics and is partly responsible for getting me into acting [laughs].

Did a lot of opportunities follow The Man Without a Face?

I did a couple things, and then my next big feature film, when I was fourteen, it was a Disney movie called Tall Tale. It was a big movie, but it actually kind of tanked. I had a real tough period there, in the teenage years, of not working for a long time. It was really hard for me, because at that point I was supporting my family, and I was really dependent on work. And so I went through some really low periods of just not working for a year or two. It was probably two years max that I didn’t work, but that seemed like one of the longest periods of my life.

Okay, last question. Let’s say you’re that four-year old and you’re imagining your acting future, does the career you’ve had look anything like you expected?

I think I’ve been overconfident since a young age, and so I’m actually probably not as far along as I thought I would be [laughs], because I think I had a real inflated ego, as to my abilities [laughs]. I think I still do, sometimes.

Sleepwalking will be released this month by Overture Films. Quid Pro Quo will be released by Magnolia Pictures.

Nick Stahl peels back dark layers in Sleepwalking

STRAIGHT.COM – MARCH 13, 2008

By Ken Eisner
Source: Straight.com

Some of the most impressive actors have qualities seasoned over the years in quiet, low-profile movies, although that’s not always by choice. After Nick Stahl got raves for 2001’s Oscar-winning In the Bedroom, it seemed likely that the young actor would move up to big roles in A-list movies. That hasn’t really happened. Instead, he has continued to take larger parts in offbeat, little-seen movies, such as How to Rob a Bank and The Night of the White Pants.

The 28-year-old Texan, first noticed as the boy playing opposite Mel Gibson in The Man Without a Face, did get supporting work this decade in big-ticket items like Terminator 3, as Sarah Connor’s grown son, and Sin City, in which he was the biliously memorable Yellow Bastard.

More often, he has helped anchor grittier indie items like Sleepwalking, opening here on Friday (March 14), in which he plays a rural drifter forced to grow up when his ditzy sister dumps her precocious daughter on him and then takes off. The sibling is played by Charlize Theron, who also produced and helped assemble a cast that includes Dennis Hopper, Woody Harrelson, and AnnaSophia Robb as the daughter.

“We worked Nick pretty hard,” says Rob Merilees, a Vancouver-based producer also aboard the film, which is having its Los Angeles premiere when he calls. For the Canadian veteran of flicks like The Snow Walker, Air Bud 2, and Just Friends, it was a chance to work with Theron, who easily attached whomever she wanted to play the major roles in the tale, directed by film newbie Bill Maher (not the comic). Merilees helped secure the Saskatchewan locations, doubling for unstated U.S. locations, to provide Sleepwalking with its bleakly beautiful backgrounds.

“There’s an excellent tax rebate there. The only catch is that you have to shoot in Saskatchewan. It was cold out there! I think it hit minus 40 or less. We absolutely killed Nick, man. It’s 7 o’clock in the morning and, ‘Here, put your hands in this freezing water.’ He really brought it, too, I can tell you that.”

For his effort, the rangy actor is still shaking off the subzero experience.

“It was more chill than I’ve ever experienced in my life,” a shuddering Stahl recalls from L.A. “The temperatures were absurd. It was also a very tight shooting schedule. We did it in 30 days, and each day’s workload was pretty daunting. But that’s what you do when you’re making these smaller stories.”

On top of everything else, he spent almost the entire month in a light army coat.

“Oh, there were many layers under that thing,” he says, not necessarily implying anything metaphorical. And yet, any critic would, at some point, need to use onionlike images to describe the subtlety of his work.

When pressed, Merilees (who moves from the depths of Prairie winter to sets in Borneo and Colombia for his next projects) wonders if Stahl’s strength has also somehow limited his career.

“The thing about Nick is that even when he’s surrounded by people on the level of Charlize and Dennis Hopper, he’s so into it you almost don’t notice he’s acting. He sort of flies under the radar, and you need to pay really close attention to notice just how good he is. He really does pick off-the-wall pictures to do and just gravitates towards these meatier, more difficult roles. This part is particularly understated, too. There’s a lot going on, but it’s all internalized.”

The actor agrees that he’s inclined toward recessive parts, and that this one—an emotionally paralyzed abuse victim learning to nurture himself while caring for a thorny child—is exceptionally introspective. For many viewers, Zac Stanford’s script raises more character questions than it answers. For Stahl, this kind of sketchiness is an invitation to be even more creative.

“I’ve always been a less-is-more kind of guy. If something is kind of apparent to the audience and doesn’t need to be spelled out, I prefer that. I’m wary of scripts that are more about a writer showing off his skills as opposed to letting a character live and breathe.”

Which is not to say that Stahl would balk at romantic comedies or wisecracking action flicks.

“It’s not that I’m at all opposed to doing bigger, more mainstream movies—if they’re good,” the actor declares. “People see you in a certain type of films, and those are the parts that come to you. I think if there’s one thread that connects my work is that they tend towards the darker side. I’m often cast in heavier material, and that doesn’t tend to translate to bigger budgets.”

Next up, he’s already completed The Speed of Thought, a thriller shot in Uruguay. It’s a drama, but at least the shoot was warm.

“From now on,” he concludes with a laugh, “I’m picking films based solely on location.

The Performance: Nick Stahl

LOS ANGELES TIMES – MARCH 13, 2008

Source: LA Times

At first glance, Nick Stahl’s James Reedy – an aimless 30-year-old who serves as the central character of William Maher’s “Sleepwalking,” out in limited release Friday – doesn’t seem to do much of anything. He lives in a bleak industrial Northern California town, toils at a menial job and keeps his words to a minimum.

But Stahl says there’s more to James than meets the eye. “Some people read the character as being kind of slow or mentally deficient, but to me, he was someone who was really damaged, a victim of abuse,” says Stahl. “James ended up retreating from the world and was just kind of beaten down, learned to settle for things and accept a very simple role in life.”

That role changes after his tempestuous sister Joleen (Charlize Theron) blows into town and holes up in his apartment, 11-year-old daughter Tara (AnnaSophia Robb) in tow. Before long, Joleen takes off, abandoning Tara, and James has no choice but to care for his niece and come to terms with his own haunted past in the process.

Stahl says it was the realism in Zac Stanford’s screenplay that attracted him to the part. “I liked the idea of the family dynamic, that things weren’t black and white,” he says. “There was an opportunity to really comb through the layers of the character and expand what was on the page.”

A former child actor who appeared in his first film at 10 and moved from the Dallas area to L.A. at 16, Stahl credits a supportive mother and an intense acting focus for getting him through his more impressionable years. But he speaks with the wariness of someone who’s grown up in a sometimes harsh limelight.

“It was just very weird for me,” he recalls. “I never really had a stable group of friends, and then [in Hollywood], you’re around all these adults, and you can’t really be a part of that, either. It makes perfect sense to me why a lot of people who start out as kids in this business tend to have problems in their life. I mean, it’s a really unusual way to grow up.”

He admits that his own experience made him very protective toward his young “Sleepwalking” costar, Robb, during last winter’s shoot in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan: “I felt I could relate to Anna in a lot of ways.”

Now 28, Stahl has made the transition into adult roles, specializing in brooding, conflicted types, but he does have a lighter side.

“I’ve always done heavier roles; that tends to be what I’m cast in,” he says, adding that he’d jump at the chance to work with Paul Thomas Anderson. That said, “I’m not nearly as serious as a lot of the roles I play … . I would love to do comedy, just continue to do a variety of movies, to kind of switch things up.

Nick Stahl Talks About “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”

ABOUT.COM – JUNE, 2003

By Rebecca Murray
Source: About.com

Stepping into a role created by another actor is never an easy task. In “Terminator 3,” Nick Stahl fills the role Edward Furlong occupied in “T2.” Questions about the casting change are inevitable but one look at Nick Stahl’s performance in the critically acclaimed relationship drama, “In the Bedroom,” put aside any doubts the filmmakers had about his ability to express Connor’s internal battle.

“Connor is very preoccupied with the existential dilemma in which he finds himself, so I needed an actor who could convey all that pathos, that emotion, that gravitas. It’s difficult to find an actor who is 22 or 23 years old, and yet feels in some sense they’re carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. That’s what I thought was so compelling about Nick Stahl. He gives you that sense,” explains director Jonathan Mostow.

NICK STAHL (’John Connor’)

What is one little tidbit or surprise about your character that you can give away, without giving away too much?
I would say that John Connor is a little bit more hardened by his experiences and he’s a little more cynical now. So he’s coming from a different place than he did in the second movie. When he was a kid, the world was a little more wide open and now he’s a little more grounded and a little more closer to reality.

Did you ever meet with Edward Furlong?
I actually never did. I watched the second movie a lot – and the first movie for that matter – but I think he did a great job with the role in the second movie. I didn’t nessarily emulate but certain qualities you naturally pick up from a performance.

Are you feeling any pressure?
Tonight I’m just trying to have fun. I’m trying to rub the pressure off a bit. This is exhilarating, you know? I didn’t expect this big of an event. Now I just want to have fun and see the movie and see the crowd’s reaction. It’s going to be fun.

Have you seen the movie yet?
I have actually seen it once but not with a crowd. I want to see it with a whole crowd.

What’s happening with your movie, “Bookies?”
I don’t know. I know it went to Sundance Film Festival and hopefully it will be distributed. I don’t know but we’ll see.