COLLIDER: First of all, congrats on the movie.
Playing Marlon Brando’s got to be the dream role for just about anyone.
I’d love to hear more about how you first became involved withWaltzing with Brando.
Image via VMI
BILLY ZANE: Firstly, thank you.
That’s very kind of you.
And itwasthe dream role.
Image via Paramount Pictures
It’s kind of kismet, I should say.
I was an early member, along with [John] Cusack and a young Jack Black coming up.
It was a hotbed of wacky talent.
Image via Columbia Pictures
Well, Billy’s right here.
You should talk to him.
You should play it.
Image via Deano Productions
I said, Play what?
He said, Bills doing a Brando film.
I said, Shut up, Fishman?
Movie star Marlon Brando recruits a Los Angeles architect to build the world’s first ecologically perfect retreat on a small, uninhabited island in Tahiti.
I haven’t spoken to him for 15 years.
He goes, Yeah.
I said, I’d like to do a Brando movie.
Hes always been kind of a specter surrounding me, but I’m really interested in the Tahiti period.
He goes, Thats what I thought this is about!
At this point, I thought, That’s insane.
I read the script, and then we decided to collaborate and co-produce it.
We worked on the script for some months.
I found the financing, and then we started casting, and we took it from there.
It was just this incredible labor of love that developed into what it is today.
You mentioned the Tahitian era, and that leads perfectly to my next question.
This takes place at a very, very specific moment in Brando’s life.
So, that story needed to be told for a variety of reasons.
It was the multiservice kind of aspect of the narrative that became the most intriguing.
ZANE: Well, it is.
I mean, the ancient Greeks celebrated that way, too Aristophanes.
They knew in the 5th century.
What would you say was the biggest challenge of playing Brando?
I mean, youve got to imagine filling the shoes for that must be [daunting].
It had to be just completely relaxed and in flow.
to be him, I had to just slip him on like a coat and just flow.
He was a very funny man, which was nice.
I hope we achieved that.
You mentioned doing it as Brando would do it.
Did you employ any method acting when working on this?
ZANE: I genuinely think that’s a fallacy.
I don’t consider him a method actor.
I think he’s a little more Meisner-esque.
Its not what you lead with.
It’s what you use if you might’t get there in the moment.
But he never left a moment and then changed acting forever because it was so immediate and magnetic.
His knack for improv was so suited and was such an invitation to play as well.
We really found a great chemistry in this friendship on and off-screen.
So not so much method, but more improvization.
ZANE: Yeah, I think he was more improv.
I think it was more Meisner-esque.
I don’t consider myself a method actor.
One last question before I let you go.
Again, Marlon Brando is such a dream and an incredible role for any actor.
I think that would be interesting.
Waltzing with Brandodoes not currently have a wide release date.
Stay tuned to Collider for more PSIFF coverage.
