'LIFE': Rob Talks Photography, Bad Fathers & Frostbite in New Interview with Szene-Hamburg

'LIFE': Rob Parle de Photographie, de Mauvais Pères & de Gelures dans une Nouvelle Interview avec Szene-Hamburg

Via Szene-Hamburg:

(... Rob parle de 'Life', de Dennis Stock, d'Anton Corbijn et de photographie. Les premières questions et réponses ont déjà été vues lors d'interviews précédentes ...)

Est ce que ce rôle change votre vision concernant les photographes qui vous suivent tout le temps?
Pas vraiment. Même si un photographe voulait être un paparazzi à l'époque, ça n'aurait pas été facile sans beaucoup d'informations et d'habileté surtout en essayant  d'utiliser le flash (rires) Mais à part ça, les personnes comme Dennis Stock ont une aspiration différente concernant la photographie. Il cherchaient une nouvelle imagerie et ils voulaient montrer les gens sous un nouveau jour. Ils voulaient les voir vibrer et se découvrir de nouveaux aspects et le lecteur voulait ça également. De nos jours ils n'ont pas beaucoup à insister pour être publié et les paparazzi essaient en quelques sortes d'humilier les gens. C'est comme si ils n'aimaient pas vraiment ce qu'ils font eux même et alors ils cherchent les mauvais aspects chez les autres. Je ne comprends pas vraiment et c'est agaçant.

Est ce que c'est vraiment Anton Corbijn que l'ont voit sur le tapis rouge jouant un photographe dans le film?
Oui, c'est lui et on a refait plus de fois cette scène que n'importe quelle autre dans le film (rires) Il disait ‘Oh non je n'ai pas fait ça comme il faut’ et on a tourné jusqu'à 10h du mat. C'était dingue.

Est ce que James Dean est toujours important pour les jeunes acteurs de nos jours? Est il toujours un modèle?
je me souviens encore quand j'avais 16 ans et il était un de mes idoles. Tout le monde connait la photo de Times Square et il était clairement le modèle idéal. Quand j'ai commencé à travailler en tant qu'acteur j'étais très timide et je ne voulais pas surjouer. Je voulais que mon jeu soit plus comme le sien: calme et plein et plein de sensations qu'il était capable d’intérioriser.

Est ce qu'il y a eu un scène à la James Dean pour vous dans le film?
Oui, spécialement quand rester calme fait parti du jeu (rires) nous avons tourné les scènes dans la ferme de Dean à  Toronto et il faisait -40 degrés et je n'arrivais pas à comprendre comment on allait pouvoir tourner dehors par ce froid. L'appareil photo gelait sur mes doigts et j'ai dû les tenir face à un radiateur pour les décoller. On était pas loin d'avoir des gelures et ça a commencé à me contrarier, mais je me suis maitrisé et j'ai retrouvé mon calme.

Traduction Pattinson Art Work

English version after the cut





From Szene-Hamburg:

What was it like to play a photographer under the direction of a legendary photographer like Anton Corbijn?
(laughs) Luckily I didn’t really see Dennis Stock as a photographer in the beginning. For me he was someone who wanted to be an artist but wasn’t sure if he had what it takes to be an artist. I had the feeling that the camera was a means for him to express himself.

How did you work with the camera? Did you only pose with it or did you really use it?
The great thing was that I got the camera a couple of months before we started shooting. It was loaned to us from the Leica museum and it’s the same camera Dennis Stock used. There aren’t many original old cameras left, but they are great and I used mine extensively.

What did you photograph?
I started doing the Werner Herzog film 'Queen of the Desert' right after that and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the location. I took hundreds of pics of the sets and Marrakesh. I didn’t really do it seriously or because of the movie, but more because it was fun. I figured I could ask Anton how to use the Leica correctly later, but he couldn’t really help me with that (laughs)

But he did show you some tricks, didn’t he? I mean he has to be the best teacher for that.
That’s what I thought, that he would show me how to hold the camera and move it, but Anton told me that I needed to understand the camera myself. Eventually I understood him because he is a different photographer than Dennis Stock was. Anton loves photography, he likes moving on the sidelines and observe everything as oppose to Dennis Stock, who acted more like a painter. Stock wasn’t only focused on his counterpart but also on himself and he was looking for validation. He didn’t really enjoy his role as a photographer because he wanted to be more extravagant.

Is that the reason you were interested in the role?
To be honest the first thing that interested me was that he was a bad father. Usually at my age there aren’t many father roles to play and in this one the father doesn’t love his kid and doesn’t understand why. There is this beautiful scene where James Dean is playing with his nephew and Stock is watching them and wracking his brains how Dean can be so natural and loving with a child. That broke my heart. Another thing is, that everybody thinks that someone like that is an asshole and I thought it was exciting to present him more likable despite of that. 

Contrary to that Dennis Stock’s pictures are full of feeling.
You can really see that, in his own way, he really loved James Dean. He couldn’t really tell him that but it seems like Stock put a crown on James with the pictures. At the same time bitterness and jealousy also shine through those pictures and one could also see the influence James had on him. I love Stock’s pictures from that era, the jazz musicians whose pictures showed how much he admired them. I think photography was a way for him to show his love for others.

Did the role change your view of photographers that follow you all the time?
Not really. Even if a photographer wanted to be paparazzi back then, it wouldn’t have been easy without a lot of knowledge and skills, especially trying to use the flash (laughs) Apart from that people like Dennis Stock had a different aspiration to photography. They were searching for a new imagery and they wanted to present people in a different light. They want them to vibrate and discover new sides of them and the reader’s wanted that as well. Today one doesn’t really need to do a lot to push the release and paparazzi are kind of trying to humiliate people. It’s as if they don’t really like what they are doing themselves and so they look for the bad things in others. I don’t really understand it and it’s annoying.

Is that really Anton Corbijn standing on the red carpet playing a photographer in the movie?
Yes, that’s him and he used more takes for his scene than any other in the movie (laughs) He would say ‘Oh I didn’t do that right’ and we shot until 10 am. It was crazy.

Is James Dean still important for young actors today? Is he still a role model?
I still remember when I was 16 and he was one of my idols. Everyone knows the picture on Times Square and he was the ideal model of understatement. When I started acting I was very timid and I didn’t want to overact. I wanted my acting to be more like his: calm and full of feelings that he was able to internalize.

Was there a James Dean scene for you in the movie?
Yes, especially where the staying calm is concerned (laughs) we shot the scenes on Dean’s farm in Toronto and it was -40 degrees and I really couldn’t understand how one can shoot outside in that cold. The camera froze to my fingers and I had to stand in front of a heater to get it off my fingers. We were really close to getting frostbite and I started to get annoyed, but then I was over that and I got really calm.

Via / Translation thanks to @Inthejungle / Thanks to Nancy for the tip!