Sleepwalking star Nick StahlBy Terry Keefe
This article is currently appearing in this month's issue of Venice Magazine.
No one in Hollywood plays a tortured soul better than Nick Stahl. But, thankfully, despite whatever places he needs to go to bring to life the likes of the Yellow Bastard in Sin City, Bobby Kent in Bully, Ben Hawkins in Carnivale, and even John Connor in Terminator 3, Stahl seems to be able to leave them behind at the stage door. Although he’s been in Hollywood since he was a child (starring as an adolescent opposite Mel Gibson in 1993’s The Man Without a Face), the now-28 Stahl has rarely been seen in the tabloids as part of the ever-burgeoning celebrity industrial complex, but he could certainly have been milking that publicity gravy train for all it was worth next to the Lohans and the like, if he chose. He’s been on the verge of major studio film stardom seemingly forever, but appears just as happy playing interesting characters in lower-budget indies. It’s a bit of a cliché to state, but the quality of the work is obviously very important to him. This writer didn’t know what to expect from Stahl in person, when we met for lunch on Abbot Kinney at the end of February. Actors are sometimes very close to the types they specialize in and, just as frequently, couldn’t be more different. To answer my own question here, Stahl comes across as an affable guy, with a lot going on underneath the surface. Speculating on more than that regarding his personality would be useless and presumptuous after just an hour talking together. But what was obvious is the determination that drives his career and that he’s here for the long haul as an actor. When all the current flavors-of-the-month have burned up and disappeared from the covers of gossip magazines, Stahl will likely still be pushing himself to the limits of his considerable talent.
This spring brings us two new Stahl features, Sleepwalking and Quid Pro Quo, which really allow a nice showcase of his range, so far apart are the two stories from each other in terms of plot, although they share some thematic similarities. Sleepwalking was directed by William Maher and produced by Charlize Theron, who also co-stars, but it’s really Stahl’s film to carry as an actor. He plays a very average guy named James Reedy, a fellow who works construction, not very well, and stumbles through a painfully average life. That’s until his much-wilder sister Joleen (Theron) shows up and asks to move in temporarily with her 11-year old daughter Tara (AnnaSophia Robb). Temporarily for Joleen, but more permanently for Tara, as Joleen takes off one night and leaves Tara with her uncle James. While James can barely take care of himself, he slowly rises to the occasion of becoming the father that Tara never had. This is no lighthearted Big Daddy-style surrogate father-kid buddy story though, as James and Tara have to brave a harrowing time with James’ own father, played by Dennis Hopper, before James is able to come to a number of painful realizations which enable him to move his life forward. In Quid Pro Quo, written and directed by Carlos Brooks, Stahl inhabits a character who is ostensibly much more together than James, a successful Public Radio journalist named Isaac Knott, but who is not without his own challenges to overcome, as he is confined to a wheelchair. While James in Sleepwalking has to discover who he is, Isaac seems to know at first, but his sense of self is challenged by the arrival of a mysterious young woman named Fiona (Vera Farmiga), who is part of a bizarre subculture of “Wannabes,” able-bodied people who desperately wish to be paralyzed themselves in order to feel whole. While investigating the Wannabes for a story, Isaac becomes involved with Vera, who will shine light on parts of his past that he has buried deep in his subconscious. There’s a nice, albeit unintended, symmetry to the fact that both of Stahl’s characters, Isaac and James, are sleepwalking through life, and have to essentially wake up and confront demons they’ve long avoided.
Obviously, some of the backstory of James in Sleepwalking is revealed as the story progresses. He’s a complicated guy though, while simple at first glance. Did you create any additional backstory to use in the role?
Nick Stahl: I actually didn’t have to do a lot of that, because I do think it was all on the page. It was a really cool character. If there was any danger, maybe, in how the character read…it was that he might’ve been misunderstood as being kind of slow, or something, which I didn’t want to play. I thought it was more interesting that he was someone who has just been wounded, by life, and as a result of that, kind of retreated from the world a little bit. And settled for a simpler life. Then his niece comes into his life, and that’s when his kind of transformation starts, you know? I think he finally has like some sort of a purpose or something to work towards, something to take responsibility for. He starts to come into his own at that point.
AnnaSophia Robb as your niece has one of the more confident onscreen presences I’ve seen in a child actor. Is this your first time starring opposite a child, other than when you were a child actor yourself?
Yeah, I’ve never really worked with younger kids or anything before, but it was interesting because I myself was acting, you know, when I was around her age also. I was doing movies as well – so it’s funny…it kind of, it mirrored the film’s story in some ways because I just sort of instinctively had this kind of like protectiveness with her, you know? And then when I was young and I was doing films, there are producers and people who, you know, they’re exploitive – they will try to get as much out of you as they can, and they’ll tell you and your parents that working a fifteen-hour day is normal. And if you want the movie to be finished, you need to stay for fifteen hours, or whatever. And just really….I mean, luckily, you know, there was none of that on this movie, and she had a really solid family, and really – and she’s a lot more, I would say, balanced kid than I was, I would say, at that age. And I think she’s more secure and level-headed and confident as well.
No one in Hollywood plays a tortured soul better than Nick Stahl. But, thankfully, despite whatever places he needs to go to bring to life the likes of the Yellow Bastard in Sin City, Bobby Kent in Bully, Ben Hawkins in Carnivale, and even John Connor in Terminator 3, Stahl seems to be able to leave them behind at the stage door. Although he’s been in Hollywood since he was a child (starring as an adolescent opposite Mel Gibson in 1993’s The Man Without a Face), the now-28 Stahl has rarely been seen in the tabloids as part of the ever-burgeoning celebrity industrial complex, but he could certainly have been milking that publicity gravy train for all it was worth next to the Lohans and the like, if he chose. He’s been on the verge of major studio film stardom seemingly forever, but appears just as happy playing interesting characters in lower-budget indies. It’s a bit of a cliché to state, but the quality of the work is obviously very important to him. This writer didn’t know what to expect from Stahl in person, when we met for lunch on Abbot Kinney at the end of February. Actors are sometimes very close to the types they specialize in and, just as frequently, couldn’t be more different. To answer my own question here, Stahl comes across as an affable guy, with a lot going on underneath the surface. Speculating on more than that regarding his personality would be useless and presumptuous after just an hour talking together. But what was obvious is the determination that drives his career and that he’s here for the long haul as an actor. When all the current flavors-of-the-month have burned up and disappeared from the covers of gossip magazines, Stahl will likely still be pushing himself to the limits of his considerable talent.
This spring brings us two new Stahl features, Sleepwalking and Quid Pro Quo, which really allow a nice showcase of his range, so far apart are the two stories from each other in terms of plot, although they share some thematic similarities. Sleepwalking was directed by William Maher and produced by Charlize Theron, who also co-stars, but it’s really Stahl’s film to carry as an actor. He plays a very average guy named James Reedy, a fellow who works construction, not very well, and stumbles through a painfully average life. That’s until his much-wilder sister Joleen (Theron) shows up and asks to move in temporarily with her 11-year old daughter Tara (AnnaSophia Robb). Temporarily for Joleen, but more permanently for Tara, as Joleen takes off one night and leaves Tara with her uncle James. While James can barely take care of himself, he slowly rises to the occasion of becoming the father that Tara never had. This is no lighthearted Big Daddy-style surrogate father-kid buddy story though, as James and Tara have to brave a harrowing time with James’ own father, played by Dennis Hopper, before James is able to come to a number of painful realizations which enable him to move his life forward. In Quid Pro Quo, written and directed by Carlos Brooks, Stahl inhabits a character who is ostensibly much more together than James, a successful Public Radio journalist named Isaac Knott, but who is not without his own challenges to overcome, as he is confined to a wheelchair. While James in Sleepwalking has to discover who he is, Isaac seems to know at first, but his sense of self is challenged by the arrival of a mysterious young woman named Fiona (Vera Farmiga), who is part of a bizarre subculture of “Wannabes,” able-bodied people who desperately wish to be paralyzed themselves in order to feel whole. While investigating the Wannabes for a story, Isaac becomes involved with Vera, who will shine light on parts of his past that he has buried deep in his subconscious. There’s a nice, albeit unintended, symmetry to the fact that both of Stahl’s characters, Isaac and James, are sleepwalking through life, and have to essentially wake up and confront demons they’ve long avoided.
Obviously, some of the backstory of James in Sleepwalking is revealed as the story progresses. He’s a complicated guy though, while simple at first glance. Did you create any additional backstory to use in the role?
Nick Stahl: I actually didn’t have to do a lot of that, because I do think it was all on the page. It was a really cool character. If there was any danger, maybe, in how the character read…it was that he might’ve been misunderstood as being kind of slow, or something, which I didn’t want to play. I thought it was more interesting that he was someone who has just been wounded, by life, and as a result of that, kind of retreated from the world a little bit. And settled for a simpler life. Then his niece comes into his life, and that’s when his kind of transformation starts, you know? I think he finally has like some sort of a purpose or something to work towards, something to take responsibility for. He starts to come into his own at that point.
AnnaSophia Robb as your niece has one of the more confident onscreen presences I’ve seen in a child actor. Is this your first time starring opposite a child, other than when you were a child actor yourself?
Yeah, I’ve never really worked with younger kids or anything before, but it was interesting because I myself was acting, you know, when I was around her age also. I was doing movies as well – so it’s funny…it kind of, it mirrored the film’s story in some ways because I just sort of instinctively had this kind of like protectiveness with her, you know? And then when I was young and I was doing films, there are producers and people who, you know, they’re exploitive – they will try to get as much out of you as they can, and they’ll tell you and your parents that working a fifteen-hour day is normal. And if you want the movie to be finished, you need to stay for fifteen hours, or whatever. And just really….I mean, luckily, you know, there was none of that on this movie, and she had a really solid family, and really – and she’s a lot more, I would say, balanced kid than I was, I would say, at that age. And I think she’s more secure and level-headed and confident as well.
AnnaSophia Robb and Stahl in SLEEPWALKING.
You also got [SPOILER ALERT]...
...to kill Dennis Hopper in this film. He’s usually the one who’s doing the killing onscreen in most films.
I know, and I hated to have to do that. I mean, I was so nervous about it. This was, you know, the legend, Dennis Hopper. And I had to beat him up, and then, you know, do more than that – and I just didn’t want to do it! Plus, I like him so much personally – he’s such an amazing person, but I think he understood that I didn’t have a choice [laughs]. He’s somebody that really cares a lot about what he’s doing, his work -- and that was really cool to see, because I’m sure, you know, once you get to a certain age and you’ve seen so much, and you’ve done so many things—
You could sleepwalk through it if you wanted to.
Right [laughs] – you could. You might not care as much, I would think there’s the potential for just phoning things in. This guy would never do that. I mean, because he just is a real artist and he cares a lot about his performance, and he works….he just constantly is working very hard at it.
I know, and I hated to have to do that. I mean, I was so nervous about it. This was, you know, the legend, Dennis Hopper. And I had to beat him up, and then, you know, do more than that – and I just didn’t want to do it! Plus, I like him so much personally – he’s such an amazing person, but I think he understood that I didn’t have a choice [laughs]. He’s somebody that really cares a lot about what he’s doing, his work -- and that was really cool to see, because I’m sure, you know, once you get to a certain age and you’ve seen so much, and you’ve done so many things—
You could sleepwalk through it if you wanted to.
Right [laughs] – you could. You might not care as much, I would think there’s the potential for just phoning things in. This guy would never do that. I mean, because he just is a real artist and he cares a lot about his performance, and he works….he just constantly is working very hard at it.
Charlize Theron and Stahl in SLEEPWALKING.
How did you get involved in the project?
I was approached by Charlize and Bill Maher, the director. I like to call him William Maher, so people don’t confuse him with the Bill Maher on television. There were actual reports when we started filming that the “Politically Incorrect” Bill Maher was directing this for us. It was literally on CNN or something, that he was directing Charlize Theron in a movie [laughs]. But they approached me about a year before it got its full financing. I was the first one cast. They just saw me in the role, and wanted me to do it, and it was pretty exciting because I’m used to having to fight for things a lot, and this I didn’t have to. I was the guy they wanted from the beginning.
You do still have to fight for things a lot? That’s somewhat surprising.
Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, depending on the movie. Right now, I’ll get offered independent things occasionally – but most of them, I’d say 95% of them, are horrible.
But with something that’s of any kind of quality, I definitely audition – and I like auditioning, I’ve always felt comfortable with doing it. I mean, I’ve always felt more comfortable in an audition than a meeting. I think it’s the same reason why I have such nervousness about public speaking and things like that. But as soon as I’m filming or onstage or something like that, I just never have. I’m kind of in that world, maybe, in character, and so I can do that, no problem. But having to meet some strangers and talk about myself for an hour, it’s a lot more difficult for me. So, I’ve never had a problem with auditioning, and especially if it’s for something that I really like. You know, all that I have ever been frustrated about, or wanted, was just the opportunity to do it, to audition, and actually have a fair competition. Because…it’s taken me a long time to come to terms with the politics of this, of the town, you know, and sometimes, it sucks to have to abandon a movie that you’re really proud of and then go on and have to do something that you don’t really believe in, because you need money. But I’ve also been really fortunate that I’ve never had to have…a job, a real job, in my life. You know, I’m twenty-eight years old, and that’s pretty amazing. And that feels good. What gets really hard to deal with sometimes, when it comes to the politics of the town – and by that, I mean if someone has a lot of popularity in the moment, they’ll just get offered something for that reason. But you know, if that [level of popularity] happens with me [laughs]….I’m obviously gonna have a different take on it [laughs]. But if I’m not able to even read, to even go in on something…that’s hard to deal with. Because if I’m up against someone who’s genuinely better for the role, that’s great, I can totally deal with that, that’s fine. It’s the lack of opportunity that’s really hard to deal with sometimes. It’s just part of the business end of things, which has never been my strength.
Let’s talk a bit about Quid Pro Quo. This must have been an interesting film to do your prep work for.
It was more unusual than Sleepwalking, I would say, sure [laughs].We filmed in New York – which I loved. I’ve worked there a few times, and I just love the city, and I love working there. But I had never worked there in a wheelchair, so that was obviously different. And essentially, as far as that goes, in terms of prep work, I just used a wheelchair for a few weeks and just kind of went everywhere in it and rolled around the city. I just wanted to experience what it was like: people’s reactions, the difficulty of doing it. First of all, physically…I mean, it’s hard, it’s really hard. And you can see I’m not, you know, the biggest – I don’t have the biggest upper body [laughs]. It takes a lot of strength. That was my first discovery. How physically demanding it is. But yeah, it was really interesting just to see people’s reactions to you, and how you’re treated. For the most part, people kind of avoid your gaze.
Just like your character describes in the film.
Yeah, it’s funny. People….I think that wheelchairs scare people. That was my assessment. People don’t want to look at injuries. Most people didn’t recognize me because they didn’t take the time to look into my eyes, or my face, you know? I didn’t really even have to worry about that most of the time, because I just kind of blended in. But then, you know, one day, someone said, “Hey man, aren’t you on that…weren’t you on ‘Carnivale’?” and I was like, “Fuck!” [laughs] So I wheeled away really quickly. I think he was horrified to think that, you know, this actor’s been in an accident. And so I had to watch out for that a little bit.
This the type of material that could be a disaster if the directing was off in any significant way.
Right, and by the way, even after we filmed it and it was done, it took many passes editorially to get it to where it was [quality-wise] in the script. We actually ended up re-shooting some stuff, and adding a couple of scenes. I think it was the kind of thing that, it was so clear on the page…the story, and the tone of it was so clear, but, for whatever reason, it’s such a different process once you actually film it and then you actually go to start editing it. It’s such a different process that it doesn’t always translate well from the script. I saw some early cuts, that actually weren’t all that great. Those cuts didn’t capture what was in the script, and a lot of people had problems with the film. A lot of people didn’t get it, and that was the reason why we had to go back and retool some stuff. [Director] Carlos Brooks worked endlessly for so long. He kept cutting it and working at it. But finally, I think what he got – what we ended up with was pretty close to the script, and I’m actually really proud of it, and I was really happy that it came together like it did.
Carlos mentioned in the press notes that he wanted the tone of the film to exist “somewhere between deep sleep and wakefulness.”
That’s exactly something he would say. Yeah. It does have sort of a dreamlike quality to some of it, and I think that it deals a lot with the subconscious, and the bearing of painful memories. Those are elements which are really intriguing to me. It’s amazing how your subconscious protects you against pain.
Jessica Alba and Stahl in SIN CITY.Let’s talk about a few of your previous films. How did you find the character of Yellow Bastard in Sin City?
Well, first of all, just to give you kind of the back story on getting that role, it was not a role I was supposed to do. I was just supposed to be in the beginning of the film, when it’s me without the make-up, before he later turned into [the Yellow Bastard]. And they had another actor who was set to do the Yellow Bastard role – and he fell out of the movie, he had a conflict or something, so Robert Rodriguez called me to and he just said, “Hey man, maybe you could do both, and maybe we can see that it’s you, kind of, through the makeup, and maybe it’ll be even better.” And I thought it was cool because, it’s a bigger role obviously [laughs], and I got to do more on the film. But I was intimidated by doing this theatrical cartoonish thing. It’s obviously drawn a certain way, and you can get kind of a voice of this crazy character through Frank Miller’s writing, but I was really intimidated because I still didn’t know completely what Frank had in mind. This character…when he actually speaks, and he moves around, and his physicality, and I was like, “I don’t know what to do. I have to – obviously this is really broad, and I have to make this into something big, and something scary.” But really I was kind of in the dark about it. I was just hoping that what I did synched up with what they wanted. They didn’t fire me, so I guess it was okay [laughs]. But I don’t ever want to wear that many prosthetics again in my life!
It must have been insane. It barely looked like you.
It was miserable. Not only grueling time-wise to put it on – but, you know, just sitting there in it. It’s stiflingly hot, you can’t move. You feel like you’re stuck together. Luckily we only did that character….I only had makeup on for, I think, five days. It was shot so fast on video, rapid-fire.
The first film I remember seeing you in as an adult was Bully, where you played the very disturbed teenager Bobby, based on a real-life individual. You weren’t far removed from high school age yourself.
Yeah, and I knew kids like some of the ones in that film. I had friends like that who were just, you know, young and had no sense of consequence and lived dangerously. And I kinda did the same for a while at that age. I mean, I had sort of a dual life in a way – I was going away and doing films, and then coming back, and hanging out with friends, and getting into trouble, and experimenting with drugs, and doing all that stuff, and so my teenage years had some darker times to them, that aren’t the fondest memories for me. So to go back to that world [for Bully], and to - and this obviously was a real extreme, this particular story - but it still really brought back a lot of memories for me, of that time, and that character was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in a movie . You know, Sin City is one thing, when you’re playing someone who’s a ridiculous, over-the-top cartoon character. But if you’re playing, you know, a real guy who’s essentially looked at as kind of a monster…I mean, it was just so far from who I am and I was amazed I was even cast in that role, actually. So I guess I was just so worried all the time that it would not be convincing. That it was beyond my range of who I was and what I could pull off. And Larry Clark, too, the way he works….he’s very visual, and he doesn’t give a lot of direction, acting-wise. That’s kind of his style. He kind of lets people do their own things, and if something’s not working, he’ll tell you, but for the most part, you’re kind of out there on your own. So if he didn’t tell me not to do something, I just had to assume that it was okay. It was one of the most challenging films I’ve done.
Let’s go way back. Your bio says that you started acting when you were four. Was that in the typical manner, via school plays and such?
Yeah, but it wasn’t really school plays, but a children’s theatre group in Dallas. My mom was a seamstress as a side-job for the children’s theatre group, and so I just started auditioning for plays, and I really liked it a lot, and I thought that this was it. I’m talking like four or five years old, really young. I mean, I’m one of those weirdos that knew very early on what I wanted to do. I just always had a certain confidence about it. For whatever reason. I was decent in athletics, but I was not in the elite, and I wanted to do something where I could be. I grew up next to this athlete who was my best friend, and we would constantly compete at whatever sport – basketball or football or whatever. I was always competitive with him, but he would always edge me out at the end of the day. So I think he single-handedly probably turned me away from athletics and is partly responsible for getting me into acting [laughs].
Did a lot of opportunities follow The Man Without a Face?
I did a couple things, and then my next big feature film, when I was fourteen, it was a Disney movie called Tall Tale. It was a big movie, but it actually kind of tanked. I had a real tough period there, in the teenage years, of not working for a long time. It was really hard for me, because at that point I was supporting my family, and I was really dependent on work. And so I went through some really low periods of just not working for a year or two. It was probably two years max that I didn’t work, but that seemed like one of the longest periods of my life.
Okay, last question. Let’s say you’re that four-year old and you’re imagining your acting future, does the career you’ve had look anything like you expected?
I think I’ve been overconfident since a young age, and so I’m actually probably not as far along as I thought I would be [laughs], because I think I had a real inflated ego, as to my abilities [laughs]. I think I still do, sometimes.
Sleepwalking will be released this month by Overture Films. Quid Pro Quo will be released by Magnolia Pictures.
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