Video:Edge of Darkness - Ray Winstone and Jay O Sanders Interviews
with Rebecca MurrayRay Winstone plays a 'cleaner' in the thriller 'Edge of Darkness' and at the film's premiere, Winstone explained what that means. Joining him on the red carpet were co-stars Jay O Sanders and David Aaron Baker.See Transcript
Transcript:Edge of Darkness - Ray Winstone and Jay O Sanders Interviews
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the LA Premiere of Warner Bros Pictures' Edge of Darkness.
Ray Winstone – 'Darius Jedburg' in Edge of Darkness
What is exactly is a cleaner?Ray Winstone: "He cleans up, you know, governments' messes. When the government is in trouble, he goes around and gets rid of the problem."
Is that a fun guy to play?
Ray Winstone: "Yeah, I think so. Yeah, a bit dark and mysterious, like a lot of people you won't necessarily like in life but he was fun to play."
So Edge of Darkness, is it political, a thriller, what is it?
Ray Winstone: "It's all. I think it's all of that. I think mostly it's a story about a man who loses his daughter and really wants to find out what happened, you know? And then the rest of it is really just in the background. It comes into play to make a great story. So, yeah, I think it's everything. It's the sort of thriller I like to watch anyway."
Did you watch the miniseries?
Ray Winstone: "Yeah. I was very young then, obviously. But yeah I did, and it was a great series. Martin Campbell's obviously done that one as well. But yeah, it was something very special, that series, when we were making really good TV in Britain."
Are you saying you're not making really good TV anymore?
Ray Winstone: "Not as much. We're making it, but it's very far and few between."
What was it like working with Martin Campbell?
Ray Winstone: "Well, the last time I worked with Martin would have been about 34 years ago and he was on the production side of a film called Scum that I did. And Phil Meheux was the [director of photography] on that. So it was very weird for me to actually sit on this golf course at the time and watch two guys and think, 'God, this has come full circle.' We're all here working in American now on a big Hollywood blockbuster, hopefully."
And the script by William Monahan…
Ray Winstone: "I worked with Will before.
And aren't you working with him again?
Ray Winstone: "Yeah, London Boulevard we've done. So I know Bill's writing – he's fantastic."
You can't really complain about anybody in this film.
Ray Winstone: "It's great."
Jay O Sanders – 'Whitehouse' in Edge of Darkness
Tell me all about Edge of Darkness. I want to know everything.Jay O Sanders: "All 'about' it. First of all, it's not Edge of Darkness it's Edge of Darkness [said with a Boston accent]. We spent all of our time in Boston enjoying the atmosphere. It's edgy, it's dark, it's Mel, it's Ray, it's Martin Campbell. It's just wonderful."
What's the appeal of doing something like this?
Jay O Sanders: "Well, I'd worked with Martin before over 20 years ago in a film and we had a great time. And I liked the script – I like Bill Monahan's writing. I was going to say I would have done it to work with Ray Winstone, but he wasn't attached when I agreed to do it. It used to be Robert De Niro. But I'm excited to be in with him because he's a terrific, terrific actor."
How is Martin Campbell as a director? Is he real collaborative?
Jay O Sanders: "Wonderful. Collaborative, but also very clear on what he wants, and then playful about what else you can get. And he's one of those guys who digs in and gets something special. I mean he won't stop filming until he feels he's really got it, which is a great thing."
Is that something you run into very often?
Jay O Sanders: "You run into the full gamut. But I haven't run into many people who are as exacting as he is, but in a good way, you know? I really feel he's really going to keep going until you've got what you're looking for."
David Aaron Baker – 'Millroy' in Edge of Darkness
What grabbed you about the script?David Aaron Baker: "Well there was something sort of cryptic about it at first. You know, where you know that there's a whole lot going on that you can't quite figure out, and it sort of reveals itself slowly throughout the film. And so I thought it was one of the best written scripts I'd read in many, many years. It's a really phenomenal script."
Well, [William Monahan's] a good screenwriter.
David Aaron Baker: "He's a great screenwriter. It's adapted from an old BBC miniseries that I had a chance to watch most of. It was quite good, as well. I don't know if it…I think we might have surpassed it maybe, just a touch. We'll see."
How close in tone is the film to the series?
David Aaron Baker: "The tone is fairly close. I think it was a four, five part miniseries, so obviously things are condensed. The miniseries took place in England, so some of the things are sort of reversed. Some of the characters in that script were American, and they're sort of British in this script. We're American. It sort of got switched around. The plot is actually fairly close."
And who do you play?
David Aaron Baker: "I play a government guy who is sort of cryptic, but I work for the NSA. And I'm a bureaucrat, basically, one of these desk people who makes all sorts of very important decisions but never really gets his hands all that dirty."
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