Christoph Waltz became a star just when others are going to retire — at 52 years old. And his star was made by a film far from soothing, a director who regularly disturbs public opinion — Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009). For his role, the actor received the highest film awards, including an Oscar.
Waltz’s newest work includes Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers and brutal animal trainer Augustus in Water for Elephants! (both — 2011). And at the Venice Film Festival in September, another picture with his participation was shown — “Massacre” by Roman Polanski. Now, in December, I recall with nostalgia how, melting in the humid heat, I was surprised at the official appearance in which Waltz came to the interview — no flip flops and T-shirts: black shirt, black jacket, black boots. Now I understand that this image of embodied professional discipline already contained the answer to my first question.
Psychologies : Didn’t the rapid international recognition and the opened up prospects come as a shock to you? Was there a fear of mishandling success?
Christoph Waltz : Shock? Fear? You sound like I survived a gang attack, not an Oscar! Although… When I graduated from the Lee Strasberg Institute, I went from New York to Los Angeles in an attempt to find an agent. And I found an honest man who soberly told me: in Hollywood, you will spend the next 20 years playing Nazi officers. I returned to Europe and acted in theater and TV for 20 years. And he got an Oscar anyway for being a Nazi officer! The whole question, it turned out, was as an officer … And quality is achieved, in my experience, by internal discipline and composure. The «officer», so to speak, must be ready for the alarm. You see, becoming an actor — like becoming a father — does not require special stress. Even nice. But to be an actor, to lead the life of an actor … It requires concentration and readiness.
The role in Carnage is different from what you have played in English before. Not only in the circus «Water for Elephants!» — in each of your roles there was a kind of «circus», exaggeration. And here is a modern busy man …
K.V.: But a man who, like the other three participants in the film, appears alone in the film, but turns out to be completely different by the end credits. Two married couples met to discuss in a civilized manner the fight of their teenage sons. But by the end of the evening, they themselves agreed almost to a fight, and within each of the couples. There is a lot of satirical and even grotesque here. All this does not contradict the credibility of relations and dialogue. And the directing here is more in the actor than in the frame — after all, this is a film that the actors «lead». The director went to a certain self-denial: four walls, four characters — you can only «set» us. Whether you like it or not, it turns out that we are the most interesting thing in this film!
«Massacre»
DIRECTOR Roman Polanski.
CAST: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly, Christoph Waltz.