Joshua Stern – Bright Young Thing

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By IFQ Critic Todd Konrad

Writer/director Joshua Stern is a young filmmaker with a passion to create and a list of credits to die for in a still-burgeoning career. With two films already in the can, Neverwas (2005) and Swing Vote (2008), Stern has distinguished himself with intelligent writing and collaborations with the highest echelons of the acting community. IFQ recently spoke with Stern regarding his directing experiences thus far, his unique show business background, the strange timing and premise of his neo Capra-esque comedy Swing Vote (starring Kevin Costner, Kelsey Grammer, and Dennis Hopper among others), and his forthcoming adaptation of William Shakespeare’s King Lear with Anthony Hopkins, Keira Knightley, and Gwyneth Paltrow tipped to star.

IFQ: With both your first film NEVERWAS and now SWING VOTE, you’ve been able to bring together a wide range of talented and famous actors that is almost unheard of for a young director. Could you share your thoughts on how you attracted such talents and what it is like directing actors of such caliber?

JS: I think for me I have always felt and feel comfortable around actors and my goal in bringing them onto these projects is to really convince them that we will create an environment that is conducive to the characters and their process. I think the reality is a lot of filmmaking is counter to an actor’s process, the time it takes to rehearse and to figure out where they are and I was always very open to that. I feel that really it is their presence on that screen that’s selling the words I write no matter how or where that camera is pointed.

So I think they feel pretty much from the get go that I have their interests at heart and it doesn’t really matter in essence how famous or successful an actor has been. In the end, it’s a very anxiety-ridden profession. You wake up one morning and you’re supposed to do a hugely emotional scene, can you make it? Will you be able to hit it? And if you don’t, you know that forever [that scene] will not live in film so they just want assurance and someone who can work with them to help them work through the characters and that’s what hopefully I do.

IFQ: Looking at your background, you come from an interesting show business pedigree with your grandmother being one of David O Selznick’s top executives and your grandfather being Executive Producer on the original Tonight Show. My question is how do you think coming from a show business background like this influenced your decision to enter filmmaking if at all and has it aided you in any way with your work thus far?

JS: Absolutely, my grandmother was a huge influence on me; she took me to the theater when I was very young and she was friends with a lot of British actors like Alec Guinness, Jessica Tandy, and all the Redgraves. So I remember growing up around all that and marveling and listening to them, absorbing all of their stories and I grew comfortable around that. And I think in many ways you’re right, it influenced and affected how I was to later be able to talk to actors about something like the performance or the character’s arc or what one needs to do to get to this point in the story. I do think my background really helped me and I’m hugely influenced by both my grandfather and my grandmother.

Interestingly, the biggest lesson they ever imparted on me was very much more to do with the script, which I think is another reason I’ve been able to attract these actors. My grandfather used to say “if it’s not on the page, it’s not on the screen”. And in many ways, that’s right because these are good parts; I hopefully try to create good parts for these actors and I’m very collaborative. So when I meet an actor, if there’s an issue the actor has with some of the arc or if they feel something is missing in the role, it’s not well-defined enough I very much am someone who sits down and helps them rewrite, chip away, and sculpt the role so it fits. Not only the original intention of the part but what it is they want to bring to it because you have to be open to their collaboration and input. And when an actor knows you’re willing to do that for them, you’re willing to take a role and tailor fit it, it really empowers them.

IFQ: The latest project you have now is Swing Vote, starring Kevin Costner, Kelsey Grammer, and Dennis Hopper among others, could you briefly discuss the film and your thoughts on its timing given the current political season?

JS: Well the film really is about the general election coming down to one man’s vote. He happens to be a recluse who lives in a trailer park with his young daughter, who is very bright and precocious. And it’s about the two candidates who come to this town and have to in essence campaign to an electorate of one, this guy Bud who’s completely on the outside of society and isn’t hooked in, doesn’t know any of the issues. It’s about how his words could influence both sides to switch positions, to create commercials and advertisements towards him that goes counter to their political and philosophical beliefs. It’s kind of a Capra-esque movie, but it’s mostly about a father and daughter becoming closer and finding their relationship through this ordeal that descends upon this small town of Texaco, New Mexico, which is where they live.

My writing partner and I felt about a year and a half to two years ago that we were so disenfranchised; we just felt that we were usually so politically hooked in but were disillusioned. So we wrote a movie about how important it is, not only to be involved in the process but how important we felt the next election would be. It would probably be the most important one in the last twenty years. We were not and could not have been aware at how close the race would be, how empowered people would start to become in this election and the turnout that would have had occurred in the last primary, that we could not have guessed. There’s polls out right now that are saying that McCain and Obama are within four points and that’s exactly what our movie’s about. It’s about a fifty-fifty country and this one guy, in our movie the tiebreaker, but it’s really just a device to illuminate what the real issues of the campaign, especially this election, are.

IFQ: We recently interviewed Dennis Hopper at the CineVegas Film Festival and we’re curious to know your experience of working with him on this film, given his history and extensive career going back to the Fifties.

JS: He was amazing; I really wanted to cast Dennis because he was such a counterculture icon for so long and now he’s such a gentleman, a refined statesman-like presence. I thought that would be very interesting for the Democrat and I thought that he had a lot of life and experience that just exists behind his eyes so it was wonderful working with him. He was a really interesting counter to Kelsey Grammer who plays the Republican, because they came from such different worlds with Kelsey coming from the comedy, TV world and Dennis from the indie film world. And then of course, Costner from the Hollywood leading-man world.

IFQ: In addition, we’ve heard that you’re producing and preparing to direct a big screen adaptation of King Lear, could you briefly discuss that project, i.e. ideas on interpreting the material for film plus any pleasures or challenges you’ve faced thus far in tackling Shakespeare as subject matter?

JS: You know, I’ve always had this play in me; I’ve always loved this material. I think most artists have a story or two in the mythologies of literature, poetry, or short stories that they just feel they need to tell. And I did this adaptation that was pre-Roman, it’s very Celtic, intense, bloody and very interesting. It’s this world right before Rome landed where the Celts had tattooed faces and were living in these fortresses. It’s really the period that J.R.R Tolkien took a lot of his visual inspiration from with the thatched round houses, and the fortress-like castles. It was really after Rome that the medieval castles were brought up, and I just love this period and the story.

It’s about a father, his daughters and the desperation of the time. Anthony Hopkins read it and just fell in love with it. We had always meant it to be for him and the fact that he wanted to do it so passionately was huge for me, and bringing on Keira Knighley, Gwyneth Paltrow, and the other actors who have come on, it has been unbelievable. I think setting it in the period it was meant to be in, this pre-Roman Britain is for me, the only way to interpret it. I’m not as much a fan of taking Shakespeare out of its period and setting it in the modern Twenties or something like that because then there’s a real wall that develops between the audience. This way you really expect there to be amplified language and so I’m really excited about shooting this. We’re probably going to be in preproduction this October and it’s hopefully going to be the definitive King Lear.