Billy Crudup might not actually appear in Watchmen. Dr. Manhattan is a major special effect, but Crudup still gave a performance on the set. Though it was quite different from his more real world grounded dramatic work, Crudup took it all in stride.
Billy Crudup is Dr. Manhattan
"[It was] not physically challenging at all," said Crudup. "I was basically in pajamas. There was the occasional fear that I was going to catch on fire, but big deal. These guys were in rubber suits, they had to work out, blah blah, blah. I was eating donuts ready to be sculpted."
Perhaps that left Crudup open to think about more complicated issues involving Manhattan. "Essentially he’s somebody who is preoccupied by something that is incomprehensible to people. He no longer has any of the practical needs that make up our entire days, like eating, sleeping, using the bathroom. He is not in the world in a social way. I spent a lot of my times in scenes trying to imagine what sort of problems he would be trying to solve. Right now I’m just listening to the wind in my head."
Crudup gets shocked into becoming Dr. Manhattan
While he might not be the obvious choice for a comic book movie, Watchmen is not your average comic book anyway. "You read one chapter of Watchmen and if you are interested in pop culture at all, it’s just so obvious that it approaches it with a different interest and a different level of sophistication than almost anything else out there. Immediately you begin to imagine that there are other things to cultivate as well. I was thrilled by it. It’s one of those discoveries you have as an adult where you go ‘I get to feel like a kid again and I learned something.’"
Not that all childhood memories are good for Crudup. "It definitely reminds me of what it feels like to be 14 and humiliated at a Halloween party. I thought it was a cool suit. Usually I end up feeling a little snappier on set. You get to pretend you are cool because a lot of people dress you up to be very cool. Sometimes you think it’s you. To not have any of that and just look like a guy who is trying to make a living dressing up, that was a pretty humbling experience. It was good."
Watchmen opens to theaters March 6th, 2009.
For the poster, trailer, stills and more info on the film, go to the Watchmen
Movie Page.
Add to Heffee!
