Staci Layne Wilson reporting
Q: There is, I guess, the truism about acting the bad guy that he doesn’t necessarily think of himself as the bad guy. So do you try to find a humanity in Krug?
Garret Dillahunt: Oh, absolutely. I think it’s very necessary. We’ll see if it succeeded or not, but that’s certainly what I was trying to do. I think it makes it much more interesting and much scarier because it seems like that could actually happen in real life. It’s not some supernatural cartoon.
Q: Is it a little scary to you when you’re seeing through his eyes and you can say, “Yeah, I understand. I might do the same thing.”
Dillahunt: It’s funny because I feel like that’s a more romantic answer, but it really wasn’t scary. It’s such a process. I wouldn’t like this guy if I met him. He’s a bully. I feel like I understand why these people have sympathy for him, but I think he deserves to suffer the consequences for his actions.
Q: How far did you have to go to find this side of you?
Dillahunt: Gosh, I better say pretty far, huh? [Laughter] Not far at all! I barely scratched the skin! [Laughter] …Is your daughter home? No, I’m just kidding.
Q: Where did you look for him?
Dillahunt: I don’t know. I’m a big believer in the script. I think you run into trouble when you try to stick out, I guess is a good way to say it. I don’t know why I feel like it’s better for every body if we’re all trying to tell the same story. My part in this story is this guy. You just have to not be afraid to go where you’re supposed to go for him. If he’s going to be bad, then he better be really bad.
Q: And the beard for you, was that the director’s idea?
Dillahunt: Well, I had a beard coming on. You can’t look too iconic. You don’t want it to be this sort of brand name Krug thing. I don’t think David had had a beard. He has cool hair. I don’t know. I just had fun. It made me feel kind of dirty and a little trapped in time. I think he looks a little 70s-ish, almost. My hair kept feathering.
Q: Deliverance-like.
Dillahunt: Yeah, I guess.
Q: Did you go back and look at the original?
Dillahunt: I saw it after we shot. I actually wasn’t familiar with it which bugged me because I feel like I never stop seeing movies, and it’s weird to me. It’s like my library at home. There’re these great gaps. I don’t have much Faulkner or I don’t have any Who albums, you know. [I only have] one Rolling Stones [album]. It’s like, I like the Rolling Stones, but I don’t have many albums of theirs. That’s what it felt like to me. It’s like, how did I miss this movie? I like Electra Glide in Blue and Badlands. I like lots of movies from the 70s.
Q: They’re totally different.
Dillahunt: Totally different, but still a great era for movies.
Q: Badlands was one of the best movies.
Dillahunt: Yeah, there’s a complex bad guy/serial killer.
Q: How did you feel about the first movie?
Dillahunt: The original?
Q: After you saw the original.
Dillahunt: Well, I didn’t want to see it during [filming] because sometimes that can influence you in a bad way. I felt like that was respectful for David. David and the rest of the group, it was their thing. It’s from another time. It’s really gritty, and a really impressive first picture. Ours couldn’t be the same. If we tried to do it shot for shot, it would still feel different. We’re different actors. There’s no way we could ever do things exactly the same, so then you could make the case, well why do it all? I think the fact that I hadn’t heard of it and so many people I know hadn’t [heard of it], it seemed like if there was a candidate for a remake, this might be one if for no other reason than to draw more attention to the original.
Q: Don’t you think that the American new horror movies are going too far? Too much violence?
Dillahunt: Well, yeah. A lot of them are not my particular taste. I don’t like a lot of splatter fests where it’s like these big bags of blood are just thrown [everywhere]. It just doesn’t seem realistic to me. I feel like I can watch it very casually. I certainly prefer a little more realistic approach, and that’s what we tried to do here. I think it’s more disturbing. I don’t know if it has anymore value. Maybe I’m part of the problem.
Q: In the type of script that is a horror movie, it’s difficult to believe that it is really dramatic and realistic.
Dillahunt: Right, right which is probably damaging.
Q: When you got the script, did you think twice about getting involved in this project?
Dillahunt: I did. Like I said, I didn’t know about the original. I started researching it and hearing how they were blackballed and how it was banned from different countries. Stunning. It was like what is this? I just didn’t want to embarrass anybody. If we’re going to do this, then we want to do it well. I’d like Wes to be proud of it and the original cast to not be upset. [That] would be great. [I want them to say], “You know what? They did a good job.” I think it’s timely, again, this movie. The original was a response, I guess, to the Vietnam War. It’s certainly a time now, in our country, where people are angry. People feel powerless. People feel like they’ve worked hard and didn’t ask for this invasion, economy, whatever. Fill in the blank. I think the response has been so good from the test audiences because they like seeing someone take some power back.
Q: Even if taking the power back he becomes as bad as…
Dillahunt: There are consequences, right? There’s cost, absolutely, but I don’t know. I guess they’d be no lesson otherwise, right? There’d just be catharsis.
Q: You are working in very different movies, one from another. Which type of movies generally do you prefer or you dream to do?
Dillahunt: I just like a good story. I have eclectic taste. I like one role to be different from the last as much as I can. Even though I play a lot of bad guys, I like them to be different. I think there’s skill required for that and a test, and I want to see if I’m up to it.
Q: [What is] one of the movies that you did that you really loved? Are you satisfied completely with your role and your actions?
Dillahunt: Well, I’m pretty new to the movies, but I loved being a part of No Country for Old Men.
Q: The violence, it is ironic.
Dillahunt: Or symbolic. I don’t know if that guy’s real. He might be deaf or a time that’s represented. That’s what it seems like in the book. He’s supposed to not have an identifiable accent. You don’t know where he’s from. Strange name, but I was proud to be a part of that. I’m pretty proud of Jesse James. I thought it was beautiful and underrated and under promoted. I wish it was longer.
Q: You mentioned the book in No Country for Old Men, but you’ve done another Cormac McCarthy…
Dillahunt: Right, The Road.
Q: Did you read that first, and also, are there certain expectations now because of how well No Country was received?
Dillahunt: There might be. I’ve been reading Cormac since college, and I’ve also been reading Ron Hansen. I don’t think it’s coincidence. It’s funny how you sort of decide the kind of material you like or the kind of literature [you like] that some of those opportunities start presenting themselves. I was a big fan of Ron Hansen’s novel before filming that. I actually thought when I was reading it in college, some day I’m going to make this movie. Of course, I thought I’d be Jesse James. Then I remember walking through New York and seeing on the scroll-by that Brad Pitt had bought the rights, and I was just like, “What! I gotta get in on that.” I just love a good story. I love the notion that if we all want to tell the same story well, it will elevate the whole thing. The Road was the same thing. I just decided I was going to try to be another Cormac McCarthy adaptation so I could keep a monitor on it and make sure it’s done right.
Q: Now with Sara, you worked with her before. Was that in Mr. Ed?
[Laughter]
Dillahunt: Yes, our last remake. [Laughs]
Q: Because at the last Q&A for the screening the other night, you were talking about how you worked together before. I was like this doesn’t really set them up for a brutal rape scene.
Q: No, it doesn’t.
Wilson: What kind of trust do you need to have with an actor because you all worked together, lived together, ate together. You did everything together. And then at other times, horror movie actors will say, “No, we wanted to separate the bad people from the good people.” So, how does that work as far as putting yourself into the mind set because you like her and you know her?
Dillahunt: Yeah, I like her, and I feel very protective of her oddly. [Laughs] What do I do with my enemies, right? [Laughs] It’s so weird to say. It sounds so unromantic in a way, but it’s a scene that we knew we had to do. I think I was more nervous about it than she was. I was nervous about it in the sense that I hoped she would like me when were done because I knew it was going to be brutal and we both wanted that because we knew it should be a horrifying thing. It shouldn’t be sexy at all.
Q: Was it?
Dillahunt: No, no. There’s a bit of denial going on, I think, by all involved as to how much should be in a movie. Do we need to show that? We were going to, so we decided to do it well, and in that case, we just needed to focus on her cause she’s the one who’s in the vulnerable position here. I just tried to stay focused all day. No goofing around. Tried to do this in as few takes as possible and so when we go, we’ll go hard, and when we’re done, I’ll make sure she’s covered and warm and safe and wherever she needs to be and don’t mess up any lines. It becomes a numbers game. I love working with and for friends. It makes me motivated because I don’t want them to be embarrassed. It’s like it gives me a job like now I won’t let you down. In this situation, I wasn’t going to let her down, you know what I mean? It’s a twisted little process.
Q: I’ve talked to many, many actors, and some of them say, “I don’t want to know the person that I’m going to be violating,” and others do, so I was curious to know what you think being her friend.
Dillahunt: Yeah, I think it allowed her to trust me. I wasn’t going to take advantage of the situation which I think must happen to women a lot in this business like, “Whoops! Sorry. I didn’t mean to touch you there.” It’s not really necessary. We’re just telling the story. I certainly went back and forth about it. It certainly didn’t have to do with Sara being cast. It was pure coincidence. I sometimes thought, “Oh, it’s great. We know each other. Wait, this is terrible. We know each other.”
Q: How about shooting in South Africa other than maybe developing a taste for grilled tongue…
Dillahunt: Spring buck and king tip.
Q: Was that part of what was just on the set, or did you get a chance to get away from the set?
Dillahunt: I think you get as much as most. I was working almost everyday which I enjoyed, but I did get to look around Cape Town a bit on the weekends. I know some of the people got to go on safari. There’s a safari like a day’s drive away, but I didn’t want to feel too much like I was on vacation. I wanted to try and stay focused.
Q: Your character is like Ted Bundy with his charm and social amenities or like Charles Manson with his little fairy around him. Did you do some study or research?
Dillahunt: I did. I got one of those Kindles, you know, those Amazon things that hold all the books because it’s so great for traveling, and I carried a bunch of books with me that I had started to read. There was one in particular, I’m sorry I can’t remember the name of it, but it was very specific cases by this FBI guy. I took a lot from those two, actually, because he should be intelligent and charming like when he’s amusing the family at the house with stories just to put them at ease or he thinks he’s putting them at ease anyway. He’s got his moments, but I also stole a lot from Andrew Cunanan, if you remember him. He’s the guy who killed Versace which really surprised me. Really surprised me cause he’s really nothing like Krug, but there was one killing he had done that I had forgotten about or never heard about on his cross country trip where he really just brutalized this older man in his home. They were remarking on it because the brutality was strange. That kind of brutality is usually reserved for someone that knows the victim. It’s something personal. The extent he went to – running him over with the car; setting him on fire. He would not stop with the strange. They surmised that he reminded him of his own father. He personalizes everything so much that this boundless rage would come out, and that what I wanted for Krug. I thought he was a rage-o-holic.
Q: Do you like to write?
Dillahunt: I love to write. I don’t know if I’m very good at it. I thought I would be a writer. When I was in high school, I worked for a newspaper, a small town newspaper called the Valley Optimist. Good name for a newspaper, huh? You get good news! [Laughs]
Q: What made you change your mind?
Dillahunt: I just stopped. I didn’t intend to change. This is how green I was. It was my last year of school. I was about to get out with my degree and I just thought it was hard to make a living as a journalist. I better write plays, as well, because I thought that was lucrative, so I went over and took a play writing course. Part of that requirement was an acting class so that you’d know what to do, and then that was that.
Q: Do you still love to write?
Dillahunt: I still like to write. I feel like a similar itch is being scratched with the acting. We’re actually quite similar, I think, us at this table. I hope to someday write something, but at the moment, I just do pale imitations of whoever I’m reading at the moment.
Q: Is there also something akin when you’re writing when get to return to a character like in The Sarah Connor Chronicles? In the case of a film, literally in this film, the Krug character is over when the film is over, but in the case of a character where you can develop them from week to week, is there something attractive about that?
Dillahunt: Well, it is certainly a plus for television, an under-valued thing. There’s a lot of great opportunity on television for that very reason, I think. Like if you go on some of those sets where they’ve been going for years and years, they know those characters so well. They’re so detailed by now. You don’t really need to direct them.
Q: Are you fooling with wild animals in the next thing we see you in?
Dillahunt: Burning Bright. I forgot about Burning Bright. Yes, there’re tigers. I deal with a tiger.
Q: Are you worried about your career in the way of the bad guys and the good guys because the people have a tendency to project your character on you personally?
Dillahunt: I started out worrying about that, but I’ve actually played a lot of good guys [like] Jesus and No Country, very recently, and this movie I’m doing now called Winter’s Dawn. I’m a cop again. The memories are so short anyway. I remember I was on a sitcom once, and I couldn’t get an audition for Deadwood at the time, and they said, “Oh, he’s that sitcom guy,” and then you do Deadwood and you try to audition for a comedy, and they’re like, “Wow, he’s serious. He’s the killer guy.” So you can’t win. I think it would be a waste of energy to worry.
Q: I guess you go with the good stories.
Dillahunt: Yeah. Pick the story you like.
Q: Are you a good guy or a bad guy?
Dillahunt: In real life?
[Laughter]
Q: No, in the role. This is a mysterious movie. Six months ago it disappeared from all the festivals, so I am curious.
Dillahunt: It’s coming up. I’ve seen the final cut. It’s pretty harrowing, but good. I think it’s more hopeful than No Country.
Q: But you are a good guy or a bad guy?
Dillahunt: Bad, yes.
Q: Do you know what happened with The 4000?
Dillahunt: I don’t. I think I was gone before that final season, so they didn’t keep me in the loop.
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