You live in New York, right? What do you think is great about shooting a film in New York?
Well, it’s great if the movie takes place in New York. I like shooting in New York because it’s close to where I live in New York. And I guess a more serious answer would be that it is an incomparably special, beautiful location. There are so many cultures and subcultures here that are valid subject material for cinema. Always has been, always will be. New York films are a subgenre of cinema itself. I think that there are either people from New York or not from New York that would just gravitate towards a New York film because they’re interested in New York cinema as a subject and as an idea. As a New Yorker, I’m thrilled to be a part of it any time I can be.
I also thought you were really good on Love Life which also takes place in New York.
Very different character.
YES! That was just what I was about to say! Because I saw PVT CHAT first and then I saw Love Life and I was like “Oh my God, Jim is so wholesome compared to Jack.”
HAHA! I know! I’ve said this before but I joke that—it’s something that’s so strange about being an actor. You invest yourself at the moment in somebody who’s not you but then you have these two people, these two offshoots of you in the world, and those guys would avoid each other at a party. It’s just so funny to think that I did happen to play both characters because if they were actual people, they wouldn’t even wind up at the same party.
“I relate to his romantic optimism…”
How much time did you get to spend with Julia Fox before shooting the film?
A little bit. I was cast first and then Julia was recommended to Ben by her manager. I had known of her but more as like a personality. She was a big personality here in New York. I didn’t know she could act. Then, we went to read with her. I’m not exaggerating, there are only a couple of moments that I can think of where I was chemistry reading with an actor that went as well. It was like, whatever just happened here could really be in the movie. It was very exciting. I remember taking the part but going, “Well this role might be hard to cast.” If it all felt like someone you wouldn’t believe, it would have failed. Julia is someone who has a deep inner life and has lived a life outside of just being an actor. Sometimes people who come to it from an acting background, not from a having-lived-a-life background, can sometimes be slightly underdeveloped and Julia has none of that. So it was just like, okay, she’s great. She can totally be herself. She knows how to say lines like a human. She’s funny. She’s bringing her own material to already good material. It was great. It was really magical and I remember thinking, “this movie will be fun.” Then when Julia read I was like, “This will actually be a good, good movie.” So, we were very lucky.
You’re welcome. I just want to know, is there something within you that you share with Jack? What connected you to Jack?
I relate to his romantic optimism. Even though he spouts this cynical. alienated man rhetoric in the movie, I always understood that to be an armor that he had constructed around his optimism. I have noticed this in myself at times, and others, that I’m always sort of skeptical of deep cynics. Sometimes I think these cynics are actually optimists in cynic drag. It really was this boyish, romantic, obsessive energy that’s all through the character. That, I relate to. That is a very cool thing to get to play.
