Video:Jeffrey Dean Morgan Interview - Watchmen at Comic Con 2008
with Rebecca MurrayJeffrey Dean Morgan transformed into The Comedian, probably the most difficult character to tackle, in Warner Bros Pictures' feature film 'Watchmen' based on the classic graphic novel. At Comic Con, Morgan talked about bringing the character to life.See Transcript
Transcript:Jeffrey Dean Morgan Interview - Watchmen at Comic Con 2008
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan – 'Edward Blake' / 'The Comedian' in Watchmen
Did you take him home at the end of the day or could you actually leave this guy behind?
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: "For probably the first time in my life, I did. Yeah. There was a couple scenes, if you read the novel you probably know what they are, that were hard. They were hard to film. And I made the mistake one day of, I was working with Carla [Gugino] and I went back and looked at a little bit of playback. I couldn't process what I was seeing. It was heavy. I mean, I knew when we were shooting it because I was having issues, but when you see it – when you see the viciousness of what this guy was capable of – it was crazy."
Having gone through that, is it a character you would tackle again knowing now what you know?
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: "Well, the odd thing is I loved playing him. As an actor there's nothing better. That challenge is such a cool deal. Well, I mean every character is different. The Comedian, for me, was such kind of a departure from what I've done before so I found it just kind of an amazing experience to go through. Would I revisit it? If it was done right, yeah. Yeah."
How important was that costume so that at least you were behind something?
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: "It was hugely important. I mean, for anything that we did in this movie I think the minute we put on those costumes…for me, I became The Comedian. As soon as that cigar was in my mouth, that's when I felt comfortable. That's when I knew everything was going to be okay. So, yeah, it was crazy. Literally, I would put on the costume and as soon as the cigar was in my mouth, that was it. I was good to go."
And when you hear Dave Gibbons say that seeing you in the costume made it all come true to him, was that something you ever expected to hear from the guy who helped create it?
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: "No. No, not at all. I remember that day very, very well and we were shooting that scene and him there because we were all very nervous about Dave being there, you know? This is kind of his – it's Dave Gibbons, for God's sake – this is his vision. And seeing him and how he reacted to what he was seeing, it's pretty awesome. I've heard him tell that story before and I'll never get sick of hearing it. It was great."
So at that point you guys knew that you were absolutely doing things right?
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: "We knew we were on the right track, for sure. I can't tell you how much care kind of went into making sure that we were making this as true as we could to the novel. I've never quite experienced anything…well, I've never experienced anything like it and I don't know that I ever would again. I don't remember ever seeing scripts on the set but the graphic novel was everywhere. Zack had one in his hands at all times. We had one in our little rooms. If there was ever a question, any questions we had as actors, always our frame of reference was the graphic novel."
Did you add more of a backstory, at least in your own mind, to why he is the way he is?
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: "As much as I can. I mean, it's amazing there's a lot of… Absolute Watchmen kind of gave me some insight. You can find research on Wikipedia, and I did a lot of online research and I did find out a lot. You get as much as you can. You can kind of overload yourself with as much information as you can, and then you show up and you do your job. And all that stuff, it all helps. It all helps and I took everything to heart. For a year of my life, it was the life I lived was sort of Eddie Blake."
It's got to be pretty gratifying now to hear the audience reaction.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: "Yeah, it's awesome. I mean, I got chills, what I just saw and everyone's excitement. 'Screw your excitement, I'm so frigging excited!' I'm a huge fan of this now. I can step away as an actor and go, 'Holy God, I'm just a fan of this.' I'm so happy with what I'm seeing now."
Have you seen the 3 hour cut that Zack's made?
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: "No, no, no. I sure would hope to see it. All I've seen is was you've seen today. I just got in town. I saw the trailer on my little computer in Thailand. I got here today and saw what you just saw."
And got blown away.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: "Blown away."