Following last week's press screening of
Drive Angry 3D at London's swanky Charlotte Street Hotel,
William Fichtner joined the crowd of competition winners and critics for a Q&A about not only the film, but his career so far, his love for cars, the differences between TV and film (having worked extensively in both) and any future work in the pipeline. While a February 21st embargo means we can't talk about the film just yet, here is a summary of Fichtner's discussion with the crowd. Fichtner began by saying he had not actually seen the finished film yet; he had a chance to recently but decided to go the gym instead!
On Drive Angry
Fichtner was eager to praise screenwriters Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier for a script that he pretty much fell in love with; he admired their invention and also their refusal to change the tone of the film to something more commercial, such that it could be edited down to a PG-13. Fichtner seemed to revel in the fact it's a "hard R", as Americans say. He also found a huge appeal in the fact that there is very little point of reference for a guy who works in Hell; you can't just shadow somebody for a day or ask someone about it, so he had to carve out his own niche. As a result he thinks he was probably working on a different rhythm somewhat to Nicolas Cage and Amber Heard, who were more archetypes as it were. Being a car lover, Fichtner was of course drawn to the huge number of sexy cars on display, and went into brief detail about his own collection of cars, remembering that when he was a young boy, his parents sold his prized car as they feared for his life, and tried to convince him to buy something a lot safer. He also seemed pretty knowledgeable about the automotive industry in general, branching off to briefly discuss America's oil crisis in the 1970s, and the tangential nature of this seemed to demonstrate his clear passion for the subject. He then told a brief anecdote of when him and Nicolas Cage were on the film's set sitting in one of the lovely cars, and Cage considered buying it, remarking that it cost $25,000 last week, it's $35,000 now, and when the film wraps, if it's a hit, it'll be worth $100,000. An audience member asked whether he considered trying to outbid Cage, and Bill remarked that he thinks Cage's considerable wealth would make that a foolish move. He added that soon after this, one of the knobs on the car's dashboard fell off, indicating it probably wasn't a good idea to buy it.
On Improv and Los Angeles
Fichtner was then asked whether any of his schtick in the film was improvised, to which he quickly answered no. The audience member continued that he seemed very relaxed in the most positive way, but he assured her that he felt the script was strong enough that he didn't need or even want to change a single thing. Interestingly, he went on to say how this is an easy way to differentiate between actors from L.A. and New York (Fichtner is himself from NY); the ego-centric, Hollywood types try to impart their own vision onto a product, while he says that New York actors are more likely to, coming from the world of playwrights, have a greater regard for the role of the writer, and simply try to find a way to interpret the material that best works for them. He continues that this doesn't mean he won't object to certain things; an episode of Prison Break he recalls as not at all representing the character of Mahone, so he got the scribe to re-write it to fit properly.
On His Work
An audience member asked what his favourite projects to work on were. He said he really enjoyed Go and Drive Angry, but in terms of having fun on set, his favourite was The Amateurs (released as The Moguls in the UK). He noted that it had a tiny release for about 4 and a half minutes, and was happy that it received some more airtime last year after one of its stars, Jeff Bridges, won an Oscar.
On Future Projects
He begins by saying that his next project is going to be tough and take about 3 months; cleaning out his garage, as his wife has been shouting at him to do so for a while! In seriousness, he says that he hasn't really got anything lined up and is basically just enjoying life at the moment, though if something leaps out at him he will go for it. He did open up somewhat on his own writing project, though; him and character actor Kim Coates (a good friend of Fichtner's) have been slowly crafting a screenplay over the last 4 or 5 years, doing so on weekends over glasses of wine and pay-per-view boxing. He joked that the wine usually means they write about 4 lines a week, hence the time it's taken to write it! He says that it hasn't felt quite there the last few years but he feels that in the last year everything has pretty much slotted into place, and he feels that this is a story he would like to tell, perhaps as a director. The moderator of the Q&A, Empire magazine's Chris Hewitt, probed Fichtner for more information - a title or a premise - but he remained cagey, joking that he'd only talk about it if Hewitt left the room first!
On TV vs Film
He was then asked which he preferred out of TV and film, and seemed to unequivocally prefer working in films, as it allows a greater expression and isn't as locked-down as a more contracted, concise, 42-minute TV episode. He said that he was very happy with his work on Prison Break and tried to keep the character fresh, but he has seen good actors just phone it in on TV after they get comfortable in a role, whereas that isn't as easily possible in films. He continued that he for the most part had positive experiences on Prison Break, though thought that they ran out of ideas for the last 10 or 11 episodes. In the most interesting part of the Q&A, he spoke at some length on his cancelled TV show Invasion, remarking that he was very glad when it got cancelled. He tells a story that the night it got cancelled, he recalls his wife shouting to him at four in the morning to turn Lynyrd Skynyrd down; he had consumed several bottles of wine by this point and was apparently happy to be done with it. He closed by thanking everyone for coming. As an actor, he seemed surprisingly relaxed in the best way (the free wine on offer probably helped); not too serious about his work but studied enough to still care. As a person, he seemed friendly and happy to be there, a class act; what more can you ask for?
Drive Angry 3D opens February 25th, and will be reviewed by OWF on the week of release.