NOTICE
Question Answer
with Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly
The Day The Earth Stood Still is a reimagining of the original 1951 sci-fi classic, in which advanced alien lifeforms come to Earth to intervene in the growing militarism of mankind during the Cold War. To retell this story in the present, a new aspect was needed to keep the film relevant for a new audience, Director Scott Derrickson accomplished this by replacing man's inhumanity toward man with man's destructiveness toward our planet as the catalyst that has brought Klaatu (Reeves) and Gort, a robot capable of destroying all mankind, to Earth.
The Day The Earth Stood Still opens in theaters tomorrow.Joyplay had the opportunity to participate in a conference call with the movie's stars, Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly.
Q: Keanu, you've done a lot of action/sci-fi movies. What is it about these types of movies that keeps you coming back for more?
Reeves:Well, I love the genre. I grew up reading science fiction and watching science fiction films. I think it's a wonderful genre in the sense that it's a bit of a Trojan horse. Bit of drama, adventure—it's also a great way to take a look at ourselves. It's a genre that beautifully talks about our hopes, our fears and our anxieties, utilizing allegory and metaphor in such a fantastic way.
Q: Jennifer, throughout your career, you have played roles that have an element of self-sufficiency and independence. What draws you to these strong female characters?
Connelly: I have played a few women who are really a mess, as well. I also found the character I played in a film called House of Sand and Fog to be interesting. She was all sorts of bent-out-of-shape, that woman. I think those characters are interesting, as well. Personally, it's just as fun to play, whether they're well put-together humans or falling apart. I'm interested in human nature, all different kinds of people.
Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly star in the re-imagining of the 1951 movie, "The Day The Earth Stood Still."
Connelly: I hadn't seen it prior to reading the script. Soon after reading the script, I watched it, and subsequently watched it many times. I'm a big fan of it. I think it's a really great film. I think I'm not alone in
Q: Had you seen the original 1951 version of this film prior to reading the script?
Contributed photo
feeling that; I think everyone involved in making the film really likes the original
Reeves: I saw the film actually when I was probably like nine or 10.When I was a kid, I saw it on a black-and-white television. How about that? And, I kind of remembered the spaceship, Gort, the alien coming to Earth, and the score. The score of the film was very striking. It really had this kind of anxiety, this impending doom.And then when I saw the film later in life, some of its political context, some of its humor and irony, became much more apparent to me. I saw the film before I started production, and if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.What we tried to do with this film, Scott Derrickson, the director, was really kind of taking what was great about the first film, the original, and then updating it to our time.
Q: What was the most difficult aspect about this movie?
Connelly: I think the things that are always difficult for me—just having expectations and feeling the pressure of wanting to serve the story well and fulfill my obligations as well as I possibly can. I feel that on everything that I do. Specific challenges to this film? It was kind of nice, actually. There were no big personality clashes. I liked everyone, had respect for everyone I was working with. So, it was kind of weirdly pleasant and without controversy. The worst thing I had to deal with was a green screen, where you're trying to pretend you're having this really frightening experience, but you're just looking at a green curtain with some pink tape on it. That was really the worst there was to deal with.
Connelly: It didn't really affect my thoughts on it. But, looking at the scale of the universe, it makes sense to me that there is probably something out there. I think it's become common thinking,and even my son was saying that astrobiology is something they're now studying in school, and they're looking at Jupiter's moons and what may be under the ice.
Reeves: I think in terms of the challenges of this film probably would go mostly to the director, Scott Derrickson. He had decided to make a remake of an American classic. He, as a person and as a director, was very practical, very open, very collaborative. So, he kind of set the tone for everyone in terms of being able to do their best and to have a positive experience. He really showed up and created a great place for all of us to do the best that we can. It doesn't always go like that, so it was kind of cool that it did.
Q: Do any of you believe there are aliens or any other lifeform out there after doing this film?
Q: What do you think will attract audiences to see this film, as opposed to other similar films or other films out at this time?
Reeves: Where do I begin? Personally, I've seen the film, and to me, it's come to turn out how I hoped. It hopes to be enjoyable on a lot of different levels. I think it's a film you can take your kids to. It's a film that has something to think about. There are some great visuals, but it's also got some real, at the heart of it, personal relationships. Jennifer Connelly is playing a scientist and also a mother, a stepmother, to a young boy, and they have their relationship. She's lost a husband, he's lost his father. You kind of see this relationship. So, the film is trying to work on a bunch of different levels. It's kind of got big ideas, but it's also got smaller kind of human stories to it.
Connelly: I don't know of any other movies out there that are really like it, to tell you the truth. I think it brings more of the character of the original film, which was made in 1951. I think there is something special about it in the way that it is a big, exciting spectacle of a movie. But also, it's really responsible. I think it's also really resonant with things that are going on in the world today that people are talking about and are concerned about and maybe anxious about. I think it's a really nice balance, a really nice combination of elements.
Q: Keanu, you refer to this film as a re-imagining, rather than a remake. What drew you to this film?
Reeves: In general, with any film, you have to ask why. And with a remake, especially a remake of a classic, that question might be in bolder letters. Scott Derrickson, the director, had a real line, and I think the story is a very contemporary story. It's about our relationship to each other. It's our relationship to the planet. And it's a film that has a real positive message about the human character, that in crisis, at a
crossroads, we have the ability to change,
and that the best of us can come out. That was kind of answering why to make this remake. I think the film itself, The Day The Earth Stood Still, does lend itself to that opportunity because of its timeliness, and because of how that could be translated to present day.
Connelly: I think it depends on the film. I think this is a film that the people who know it tend to really love. There are also a lot of people who have never seen the film, which is different from a film like Wizard of Oz. But I think it was just a really great story,and I think it was very much a movie of its time.I think that no one was trying to fix that version.Everyone who worked on the movie loves the original version of it. We find ourselves in a different place.Film-making has come a long way in 57 years. It seemed like there was an opportunity to re-imagine it in a way that would have merit.
Q: What do you hope audiences will take away from the film?
Reeves:Well, we hope that people, obviously, enjoy the film. It hopes to entertain, but also to leave you with something to think about, and I think it's a film that has a real positive message and in these times that we're facing so many hardships and crisis, that there is a kind of hope.
Connelly: I felt that it was really uplifting as a film. It gives this truthful view of what we're doing and how we're living and how we're treating each other and what's going on with the planet. But I think at the end of the day, at the end of the film, I felt it was empowering in a way. I liked the way I felt when I finished watching the film.
Matt Bechtold
4
December 11,2008