Julie Moran of Entertainment Tonight Interviews David Schwimmer.
David Schwimmer is going with the flow and it's all upstream.
ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT's Julie Moran talks with the television-turned-movie-star about the difference between sitcom and big-screen acting and exactly what it is that makes him sweat on camera.
Julie: You look pretty spiffy today.
David: Why, thank you.
Julie: That's a nice shirt, too.
David: Thank you.
Julie: This is your first big starring role. Are you sleeping nights? Are you sleeping at all?
David: Actually, yes. I'm not that nervous for some reason. I think I will be nervous because I'm going to the premiere with my parents, and my sister, and my grandparents. But I'm already focusing on the next thing that I'm doing. It's weird having made a movie not so long ago, but it's at least eight months ago that 'The Pallbearer' was made.
Julie: And it's just now being released. Have you seen it with an audience yet?
David: No.
Julie: Oh my gosh! You should. They are loving this movie.
David: That's good.
Julie: What's amazing is that your stardom on "Friends" didn't even get you this role.
David: I think it would be foolish to say that I would have been able to have been cast in this role if there wasn't some kind of--
Julie: Buzz?
David: Well, "bankability" really. It's a business like any other, and I think "Friends" was just taking off at the moment that they were deciding. They were going through the 'Well, Matt [Reeves], the director, likes him. But I don't know if we can risk this.' stage. And with "Friends" just coming into the spotlight, I guess they felt more secure--
Julie: That you could carry this film?
David: Well . . .
Julie: How different is it to be in a film from sitcom acting?
David: Wow! It's a whole other ball game. More than anything it's been a great education, and I'm still learning. I was just thinking about this because I've read that some actors don't like to watch the finished product. You know, that 'I don't go see my movies' or something attitude. I'm at the stage where I'm still learning so much that I have to look at what I do. I think the best way to learn is to watch what you've done. I intend to watch it, I guess, every night for quite awhile.
Julie: That's what I'd do. I'd watch it every night for maybe a year or so.
David: Sure. And have big posters of me just over my bed, just so I can think about me a lot.
Julie: That's exactly what I'd do. Just plaster every room with those posters.
David: But seriously, I was trained for the stage for acting for two- to three-hundred people. So it's been the challenge of learning the skill of acting for like a microscope. Matt was very good in helping me to accomplish the shift.
Julie: I heard they kidded you with 'Take it down, Sitcom Boy!'
David: Oh. I don't think they actually said 'Sitcom Boy' to my face, but . . . the important thing Matt was stressing was that I am in every scene in the movie, so I just didn't have to do as much. That was important to know, because by virtue of being in every scene the audience is already experiencing the whole story through the character Tom. So I didn't have to try as hard. I don't know how not trying so hard will translate, but we'll see.
Julie: Oh, it translated believe me. But I heard that Gwyneth [Paltrow] was pretty good at kidding you, too.
David: Yes, she was busting my chops a lot. It was good. It was healthy.
Julie: Did she serenade you with that [Julie singing] 'I'll be there for you,' a lot?
David: Well . . .
Julie: I know that she did. I've heard this story. I'm just asking you about it.
David: She did it once, and I hit her. So that stopped.
Julie: Did Brad [Pitt] find out about this hitting?
David: Yes, and he encouraged it. No! No! This is all fabrication.
Julie: I think everyone will get that. I hope everyone will get that.
David: Gwyneth was great. You spend so much time together working and waiting to act. It was good that we got along so great. I think actually the whole cast really had a good time.
Julie: It seemed like you guys were just like a family in a way. You were really into each other's nuances.
David: Yes, we did get along really well. But it certainly was intimidating at first, you know, meeting and working with Gwyneth, Barbara Hershey, and Carol Kane.
Julie: And not just meeting Barbara Hershey! We're talking about a very hot love scene with Barbara Hershey!
David: What are you saying?
Julie: I'm saying it was very hot!
David:
Julie: Uh-oh, he's speechless.
David: Yes.
Julie: How was that?
David: It was great... what are we referring to exactly?
Julie: How was filming that sexy scene?
David: Filming that was actually difficult only because it was so technical. At the last moment you suddenly have to remind yourself, 'Oh, yeah. I'm supposed to be passionate and all that stuff.' But it was a special shot where it had to be timed just really right, and it was shot in slow motion for slow-motion film. And I had to hit a mark and role over in a very certain way. Seriously. We did several thousand takes of that scene.
Julie: I'm sure you kept deliberately messing up, didn't you?
David: Shhhhh!
Julie: Okay, I'll be quiet. But there was that one point where you and BARBARA had a lot of sweat going on. Was that real sweat or did they spray you down?
David: That was being sprayed down. At least hers was spray.
Julie: You were in bed with two women in this movie, Gwyneth and Barbara. What do you have to say for yourself?
David: Oh, lucky day. What do you say to that? Sex, sex, sex, that's all we were about.
Julie: Now everybody's going to go see this movie thinking it's about that, but it's really not. It's really an incredible story. Were you just totally attracted to Tom, the character you play, right away?
David: Yes. I read the script, and I was like, 'I have to play this part.' It sounds really cliche and cute, saying it now, but yes.
Julie: That happens? It just comes over you, and you're, 'I've got to play this part'?
David: Yes, it does happen, and that's what happened here. I deeply identified with this guy. I think everyone can identify with that time in your life when you don't have a foothold yet in your place in relation to the world and what you're doing. This guy still lives at home with his mother and he doesn't have a girlfriend. He doesn't have a job and he wants to get a job. I remember that time in my life very well. I think everyone can relate. There is an 'every man' quality about Tom that I was definitely attracted to.
Julie: There was definitely a hair thing going on in this movie with your character's hairstyles. Was that in the script or was that your thing?
David: Yes, in the script it said, 'Look like a fool.' No. That was my own thing. I felt when I read the script and in thinking about the character I felt like approaching the hair thing from the character's point of view. It was a story about a boy becoming a man. The script was that journey. He's not only emotionally figuring it out, but also physically finding what I call the spine of this guy. I feel like the hair was just one other aspect. When I was a boy I had a bowl cut. It made me feel young, and when I looked in the mirror after playing with it, I thought, 'Yes, I feel and look young with this cut.' I had kind of mapped him out with the hair as he grows emotionally and becomes a man. By the end of the film that image of him with his hair slicked back and in a tuxedo holding a cocktail at a wedding was for me what I was going for in terms of the beginning and the end of the film. I wanted his look to coincide with his emotional growth.
Julie: You totally pulled it off. It was wonderfully noticeable how he changed.
David: I don't know. Sometimes I think people are just going to laugh like silly and say, 'What's he think he's doing?'
Julie: I was thinking about this because of the movie crushes. In high school was there ever a girl that you were just like, 'Oh my gosh! I'm a wreck around her'?
David: Yes. She still doesn't know it. But yes, there was definitely--
Julie: You want to tell her about it now?
David: No, no, no!
Julie: Okay, okay. We won't go there.
David: But that's one of the secret reasons I went to my ten-year high-school reunion to check her out. She was a no show, so that was a waste of seventy dollars. But it was good to go to my high school reunion.
Julie: I was thinking about this as a girl, watching this film with you guys and all these guy scenes. Do you really borrow shirts from your friends if you really want to impress somebody? Like, is this really your shirt?
David: Now it is.
Julie: Who did you borrow from? Is that a guy thing to go switching shirts to get dates?
David: Wow! You just gave me a flash back from my personal history. My buddy, one of my best friends Louis, and I were going through this rockabilly phase. Remember the Straycats, the Blasters? Well, that was us. We had the hair. We had the clothes, but we really couldn't afford all those really cool shoes. They're called creepers. We actually went in together and split the cost of a pair of blue-suede creepers. We would transport them in a brown paper bag to drop off at each others house three times a week or something.
Julie: So then it was like, 'You can wear the creepers tonight.'
David: Yes. So like in answer to your question, sharing those shoes got me a lot of dates in high school.
Julie: I read some silly quote in some magazine where you said, 'I was a total geek in high school.' You were never a geek! Oh! and you said 'fat geek' or something like that.
David: There's truth to both those statements. The freshman and sophomore years in high school, my self-perception was that I was not in the in-crowd. And by process of deduction, I deduced that I was a loser. By senior year I had a girlfriend and I kind of found my niche in the theater department. I was accepted at college so I felt better. But the freshman and sophomore years were brutal. And I was heavy. I was a big kid. I was ten pounds when I was born and I had all this baby fat until I went to college. I had skipped a year somewhere so I was seventeen when I went away to school.
Julie: Who'd have thunk it? That's pure Tom.
TM & © 1996 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.