Lou Diamond Phillips Gives Young Guns 3 Update, Talks Great New Horror Movie Et Tu
Lou Diamond Phillips spoke to ComingSoon about his new horror movie Et Tu, which sees him play a theater director gone mad. The actor also gave an update on Young Guns 3 and his thoughts on the La Bamba remake. The great new horror movie from Buffalo 8 is available to rent or buy on all digital platforms.
“Brent is not a happy director. For weeks, he’s had to watch an awful play – his awful play. Adding insult to injury, he’s convinced his wife is having an affair with his idiot leading man. Fortunately for Brent, the theater’s Janitor has been mopping the stage long enough to know a dark secret that may help rid him of his troubles. That is, so long as he’s willing to get some blood on his hands,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Lou, such a pleasure to speak with you, especially about a film as interesting as Et Tu. I was really blown away by it, and particularly your performance. It was such a great surprise. I hadn’t seen the festival buzz, so this just totally took me by surprise and I loved it. There’s so much intensity to your character, and viewers are really on edge, wondering who’s gonna snap initially and where this film’s going. At first, can you speak to the, the elements that you really honed in for in this particular character? Because there’s an electricity in this performance
Lou Diamond Phillips: Thank you, that means a lot to me. I really appreciate it. And I love the fact that you didn’t know what was coming because that was the way it was with the festival audiences. They didn’t know what to expect because the film sort of defies categorization. You know, you don’t know what you’re gonna get.
And there were times during the festivals when the audience finally realized that they had permission to laugh because some of this stuff is dark and funny. And Brent is such an intense character. He’s wound so tight, and he starts at a certain level, and it just escalates from there.
The film itself is very condensed. It takes place mostly in one night. It’s a little bit like Birdman in that respect. I mean, it’s almost real time to a certain degree. And I just loved that. But also, I mean the writing. Max Tzannes’s writing was, was so wonderful. So many monologues, so much verbiage. Such an articulate, literate, intelligent character, you know? I mean yes, pretentious, yes, an elitist and a purist. But there’s something so fun about that.
So, for me it was really getting the language right. Approaching it much like I would approach a theater piece, where the word is sacred and you say it exactly the way he wrote it. So you find a way to make that syntax yours.
I just love the challenge. And then get to set and find out that we’re doing these long takes five or six pages at a time, and only like one or two, three takes max, I think maybe two times, three times during the course of the show. I actually got a third take. A lot of that stuff is, is boom, rehearse it, Max likes it, put it down.
I said he’s like a Steven Soderbergh, this kid, because if he liked it, that’s it. You move on.
That’s high praise. I know you worked with him on Che, and that’s a great film as well.
That’s the same thing. I think I got two takes in every scene I ever did, you know, and that was only, and it’s like, “oh, that was great. You know, let’s move on.” It’s like, “Oh, can I have another, you know?”
This film is very appropriately Shakespearean. Julius Caesar is the backdrop to this whole movie. As you mentioned, it takes a while for the crowd to understand that they can laugh. There’s a real tone shift about halfway through, and it gets darker and much funnier than I was expecting. And Shakespeare’s obviously very funny in his works, even though we know the tragedies best of all. What did you like most about that juxtaposition of having Julius Caesar in the background while all this chaos is happening?
Lou Diamond Phillips: It’s absolutely operatic. The setting and the tone of it is. It’s also the heightened language that Brett uses. I mean, you are immersed in the theater. Isn’t it so funny? I mean, one of the notes that he gives in the beginning, he’s like, “it’s all too casual.”
There’s nothing casual about what he does. It’s all at 11, you know, and so that growing sense of drama – especially in a play like Julius Caesar where everyone knows you’re building to the murder. It is pretty fascinating.
Once again, Max, as a young writer-director, did something that I feel is very classic. I mean, Vincent Price could have played this role back in the seventies. It would’ve been fantastic.
About 50 minutes into the film, Malcolm McDowell comes out and he just commands the scene and the screen. It’s incredible. How is it getting to work with him? Another legend. He’s still firing on all cylinders. It’s a classic performance by him.
A hundred percent. And this role is so tailor-made for him. I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Max told me he actually wrote it for him. I don’t know, man.
It’s just so entertaining to watch, you know? And I had a front row seat being in the scenes with him, and like I said, we would do one rehearsal and then a couple of takes, and it was just like, boom boom, boom, boom, boom. You know? We were ready, man. When it was game on, there we went.
And we had a really fortunate chemistry from the beginning, and a great rhythm. And I mean, that’s why so many of those shots are two shots, and you just see us going back and forth and having a great little tennis match. It’s a joy. I mean, as an actor, that really is kind of the epitome. You’re striving your whole career to have that kind of work on film with that kind of other actor, you know?
You play a stage director in this film. I know you did an acclaimed run of The King and I, but I wasn’t sure how extensive your theater background was. Did you incorporate any facets of directors you’ve worked with into this character, or how was it about finding his quirks? Because Brent has a lot of quirks.
He has got a lot of quirks. Fortunately for me, I’ve never worked with anybody quite like him.
Yes. I played The King in The King and I in a revival. We won Best Revival in 97, directed by Christopher Renshaw, who’s very English, very demanding, and very pointing. So there’s a bit of that there.
Dr. Peter Weller is a really good friend, not only a fantastic actor, Robocop, but a wonderful director. He’s directed me a couple of times, and he has a great presence and a great flair. He will wear a beret without irony, you know, and when I was developing the look for Brent – the glasses and the sort of Tim Burton hair. Just really trying to create an iconic look and feel for this guy.
Luis Valdez is a really strong director. I have a degree in theater, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Arlington. I started off doing a lot of professional theater and do theater whenever I can. I wrote a play that was done at the Seven Angels Theater in Connecticut. A comedy called Burning Desire just about a year and a half ago. I did Miss Saigon at Casana in Fort Worth.
So I try to get back on stage and keep those muscles working. So, yes, I had a lot to pull from.
I’m a huge fan of Westerns, so I have to ask – I’m a big fan of the Young Guns movies. What’s the latest update on Young Guns 3?
Lou Diamond Phillips: I talked to Emilio a couple of weeks ago, and right now we’re on. We hope to shoot in the fall, late September, October, November, somewhere right in there. He’s already location scouted back at some of the original locations in New Mexico. Myself, Christian Slater… Emilio is gonna direct and obviously play Billy, he wrote the script with John Fusco, the original writer. It’s really exciting and it’s really, really solid. The script is fantastic.
I’m a big video game fan, and I always thought it was so cool that you voiced Forge in the X-Men Legends games. What interested you about that role? Because I haven’t seen you do a ton of voice work before then. I’ve seen you do some more recently, but how did that come about?
That one was so bizarre that one just kind of came to me. They offered it to me, and I ended up doing two of those games. I always wished that Forge would show up in the movies because then maybe I could make the jump, like Jeffrey Wright did with The Last of Us.
But I think a lot of people know now that Call of Duty Black Ops 6 where they facial captured me in addition to performance capture. So that is me. They put a full beard on me, though. I look like Ben Affleck in Argo.
I’m also in Diablo. I think it’s a Diablo IV, yes, for the spiritual guide in that. And then a couple of other appearances. Specter in [Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths].
So yeah, I’m doing it and I’ve got a big, big animated voiceover performance coming up soon that I signed an NDA for. So keep your ears open. That’s coming pretty soon.
That’s very exciting. You mentioned you’d hope they would introduce Forge in the movies. X-Men are coming to Marvel in the future. Would you be interested in doing a superhero movie if the role were right?
In a heartbeat. Are you kidding me? You know, it’s so funny. I literally saw Frank Grillo recently, and we did Werewolves together. Which I was thrilled that the, the film came out wonderfully and it got a theatrical release and I think might still be streaming,
But he pops into Superman and has a little role, and it’s like, “Oh, you get into one of these, and you know, you’ve got connective tissue to some of the other films.” So, that’s not a bad gig to have.
It feels like sacrilege to me, but there’s been talk about a remake of La Bamba, and that’s like a perfect movie to me. I just wanted to get your thoughts because that’s one of your most iconic performances. Do you have any mixed feelings about that? Because that is a role you really defined, but it’s also like a great story, and more people will revisit the original if it does happen. So there’s a lot to ponder there.
Lou Diamond Phillips: Yeah, no, that’s happening as well. And it’s interesting, when I first heard about it, and I heard about it from the family it was, it was Irma and Mario, his little brother and little sister who I’ve seen a lot recently, they said they’re gonna remake it. I said, “Why?”
And that’s exactly what Luis Valdez said, but then Luis signed on to be a consultant. So I think that’d be good. My first thought is if it benefits the family, I’m happy, you know that’s great. And I thought, “What is there left to tell?” I mean, it’s interesting because his career was only eight months long. He was 17 years old. We covered a lot of ground focused on the family. It might be interesting, I’ve said this before I actually got approached to do a Buddy Holly project, and I thought “What you should show that nobody’s ever shown was how tough the Winter Party Dance tour was.” 2-3 weeks of sheer hell that led Holly to make that decision to charter the plane. The bus was breaking down. The heater didn’t work. They were sleeping in their clothes. They hadn’t done laundry in weeks. They were burning newspapers in the aisles. I think the drummer of the band got frostbite in his toes. So that in and of itself might be an interesting angle.
Then just some of the adventures that Ritchie had as fame overtook him — the Alan Freed Show in New York, the Dick Clark Show. Those were touched on, but not in a whole lot of depth. So, if somebody is doing their research, there is an interesting angle there depending on what they want to do.
But if they do a straight remake, it’d be like, “Why? Why would you do that?”
Yeah, totally. That’s a great point. It’s been really cool seeing you do more directing in TV lately. Fingers crossed you’ll get to do another movie here. So I would love to see another feature from you.
I appreciate that. Thank you. I also got The Chair Company with Tim Robinson coming on HBO in October. It’s workplace comedy. It’s funny, funny stuff. I get to play Tim Robinson’s boss, and man, that guy’s amazing. Oh yeah, he just goes to 11.
Thanks to Lou Diamond Phillips for taking the time to talk about Et Tu and his career.
Source: Comingsoon.net