SMART PEOPLE FILM

Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Thomas Haden Church On Their Sundance-Friendly Indie

ITTING ACROSS FROM DENNIS QUAID, SARAH Jessica Parker, and Thomas Haden Church, I can’t help but be a little bemused that even though they have the potential blockbusters “ G.I. Joe”, “Sex and the City”, and “ NowhereLand” all on the horizon, we’re speaking them today for their little independent flim, “ Smart People”. Co-starring Ellen Page (“Juno”), “Smart People” follows a morose English professor (Quaid), his charming-but-unreliable adopted brother ( Church), and an ER doctor (Parker) who had her love of English literature destroyed by Quaid when she was an undergraduate. We spoke to them about the differences between working on an indie and the major projects they have coming up. But first, the most important questions: facial hair. BY MATT GOLDBERG S

No more crazy moustache! Thomas Haden Church: No, no.

Was that real? THC: Yeah, it was real. I grew it.

It was amazing. Dennis Quaid: It was good, wasn’t it? You wanted to look like—who isn’t you wanted to look like?

THC : Elliot Gould in MASH . That was my mark.

You had a beard, what was it like having a beard? DQ: It was okay for a while but I prefer not to have a beard.

Dennis, can you talk about the physical aspects of this role, from the beard to the way you walk, there seems to be so much more going on for you than just what your character says. DQ: Yeah, I wanted him to have a look that was very sedentary. Someone who was very emotionally dead in a way and for quite some time. Unkempt. I didn’t have time to gain the weight so I just put on a fat-suit everyday. And putting it on is like having the weight. It’s hard on the back; changes the way you walk. The beard is just kind of a protective defense in the sense that you can hide from the world.

Did you have any professors that influenced your charac ter? DQ: No, not really. I just really went to the script. [Screenwriter] Mark [Poirier] wrote such a great script and drew such a great character that it was just a great springboard for me.

Thomas, can you talk about working with Ellen?

THC : I spent a lot of time with Ellen when we were shooting the picture. I was absolutely as impressed with her off-camera as I was with anything we did in front of the camera. She’s just so self-possessed but in a positive way. Beyond confident. She understands where she is walking the Earth. I think it comes from excellent parenting, a real focus on academics when she was young. One night we were talking, and it was informed by nothing, but one night we were shooting and she talked about living in Toronto and I knew she was from Nova Scotia. She was nineteen when we shot the movie. I said, “Oh really, when did you live in Toronto?” and she said, “Well I was emancipated and living alone when I was fifteen and in Toronto I was going to school…” And I was like, “That’s…fucking…great. I had a lawn-moving business when I was fifteen. Trying to steal pot from my older sister,” I mean she was just so focused but so young. And I have made comparisons even though I don’t personally know him, but I know people that know him, have made comparisons to what they think Leonardo Di Caprio was probably like at that age. When Sarah Jessica Parker was that age! And starring on Broadway! In Annie! I’m amazed and a little bewildered by that early focus; that laser intensity.

Sarah, how did you get involved with the project?

Sarah Jessica Parker: I had very little time with the script but I had worked with Michael London, who produced The Family Stone, and he just asked and I just said yes because it was a great script and he has really great taste.

The film was made over a year and a half ago, but was picked up by Miramax on the basis of ten minutes of foot

age. How are you hoping it will be received by the general public?

THC: Well these movies are very difficult to market. I remember when “Little Miss Sunshine” was going around, I read it and I met with the directors and they were like “We can’t do this without you,” and Steve Carell hadn’t broken and I’d already been cast in Spider-Man, but you’re always wondering “What’s going to happen? What’s going to happen?” Little Miss Sunshine kind of inspired me a bit because it’s like ,“Oh God, if it doesn’t get a distributor…” Then sometimes, the quality of the picture—it has no reference point. It’s like “Oh, it failed because no one saw it!” That doesn’t make it a failure. And failed by whose abacus?

Sarah, what’s the difference between acting in a small, independent film like Smart People as opposed to working on a film like Sex and the City where you’re not only acting but producing as well? DQ: Your trailer is a little bigger. [Laughter]

SJP: The difference is a disadvantage I personally like. We had a less-than-luxurious schedule on this picture (I think it was 29 days), and I actually do like that kind of speed. You know, big movies have very generous schedules and generous budgets and you end up doing things in four days that you know could be done in an afternoon. You just think of all the money flying out the window and all the energy that dissipates over the day while you wait. And then just producing responsibilities, they just change your burden on the set. I love the burden of producing. I love it. But I’m one of eight kids so it’s very much like the chaos of my life. But it’s also very nice to be a hired-actor and have no responsibilities. I like both very, very much. But I will say that I like working on a movie with a schedule that has restraints on it, financially, because you just keep movie. And actually, Sex and the City’s budget wouldn’t really amortize out to what would be a big budget. It’s actually pretty small compared to what we knew would be necessary.

The director told us that you three didn’t get a lot of rehearsal time together and time to prepare. Did that lend itself to some more spontaneous and unexpected moments on set?

SJP: I didn’t get very much time with [Dennis]. He’s really, really quick and has a gift for true improvisation; not what’s tossed around today by those that don’t have the gift. You’ve probably witnessed this in the room and on many other occasions, that he’s extremely fast and it’s very inspir ing to try and keep up. And honestly, what I really loved about Dennis is that he’s just been doing it for so long and he’s so present and happy to be there and never dragging his feet and never seems like he’s punching in and doing perfunctory work. He’s working on it and asking questions and never does something twice the same way and it’s just so exciting to see that at this point in his career because I’ve been on sets with people who have been around as long and they’re simply not happy to be there. It’s mercenary or some kind of pressure and I was so happy to be someone like himself. He’s working hard and he cares.

What do you guys having come up next?

THC: I have a movie coming up with Sandra Bullock. I don’t know what it’s going to be called in September. When we shot it was called “All About Steve”.

Are you Steve? THC : I am not Steve. SJP: Is she Steve?

THC: No, no. An actor named Bradley Cooper is Steve. He was in Sex and the City, wasn’t he? He was Jake the Downtown Smoker or something.

SJP: Yeah, yeah! He’s really sweet. DQ: Um, I have a movie called “The Express” coming out. It’s in competition with [Thomas’] film coming out in the fall.

THC : Oh, nice! SJP: It’s a smackdown!

THC: And we’re both going to be clawing for theatres after the monstrous Sex and the City run throughout the Summer.