Deja Vu
Interview: Washington and Patton on Deja Vu
“I met Denzel when I had to do my last, final read for the movie,” said Patton. “That was the first time I met him. And then after that, we did talk a little bit, but we didn't talk about our characters. He's not a rehearsal guy. He prepares on his own, and I prepared on my own, and he likes to then get into the scene and see what happens. You work hard in a movie, you know where your characters have been, where it's going, and what needs to be accomplished in that scene. But then it leaves it open for whatever you feel, so there's no ‘I'm going to cry at this moment,’ or ‘I'm going to do this now.’ It allows you to be sort of like a vessel and what you're feeling at that time, and it comes through. And so in that scene that maybe seems like you should cry, you laugh. But it feels natural. And I think that's why he's such a captivating actor, Denzel, is because he's always in the moment, and he always believes whatever he's doing, and that's why we believe it with him, because he just is in the moment and feels it. I tried to learn from him.”
The veteran Oscar winner was just happy to see a fresh vitality in his costar. “As you know in any profession, it can get to be one junket too many sometimes, and then some young girl, fresher journalist, comes along, so excited, and you're probably pissed off at them,” related Washington. “No, it is refreshing and it is a reminder of what a privilege it is to be in this industry and to be able to do what you like and to be compensated in an amazing and ridiculous way for doing something that you want to do. And in those days where you just don't feel like coming out of the trailer and then you meet this young person, it's all fresh and new. It reminds you. It takes you back. It's like, ‘Hey, be thankful for what you got.”
Producer Bruckheimer explained how he and Scott came to cast the leads. “I was a big supporter of Paula,” said Bruckheimer. “Everybody that’s on screen is somebody that Tony and I both fell in love with. It was a collaborative effort. Tony had his favorites, I had mine. We fought it out and those people are in the movie. The movie won.”
There is also a certain chemistry between Washington and the film’s villain, played by Jim Caviezel. “Yeah, he doesn’t rehearse,” said Caviezel. “We actually began a rehearsal and Tony said it was against Denzel’s nature to do that and felt like we shouldn’t have done it. I thought maybe it was significant to go through it but it ended up working wonderfully. We kind of got an idea where we might want to go with it. Originally, the scene was at the beginning of the film. Then, it got moved to the end, thank goodness. A film should have a feeling of grapes that have been around for fifty years. If you can do that, the better you get in this business you can grab a role and quickly become that character. It’s very, very difficult when you don’t have that much time. You go from one film to the next and, all of a sudden, you go into this critical scene and don’t have time to explore all the possibilities.”
Deja Vu opens to theatres on November 22nd.
For the trailers, one-sheet, stills, synopsis and more movie info,
go to the Deja Vu
Movie Page.
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