BOP Interview:
Dennis Quaid and Ramin Bahrani of At Any Price
By Ryan Mazie
May 6, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com
“This film has a larger scope and story to it,” said Bahrani about this more expansive, yet just as intimate feature starring Quaid as a charismatic seed salesman with a rebellious racecar-driving son (Efron).
In a roundtable interview along with star Dennis Quaid, the director/writer and actor talk about: interviewing farmers, the physicality of acting, surviving the competition, and confronting Dennis Quaid at his hotel room.
How familiar were you with the idea of washing seeds?
Dennis Quaid: Not much, only what I’ve basically seen on the news at that point. I learned a lot from Ramin, who spent a couple of years down there knocking on farmer’s doors and living with them, asking questions where he really got to know their way of life.
Ramin, can you tell me about that experience?
Ramin Bahrani: I like to do that with all of my films; do a lot of research. First it is just interesting. You have a good job with journalism; because you get to meet people and talk to people, and learn things you don’t know. I like to do that too. I like to make stuff up also, so I have a luxury you don’t have as a journalist.
I became interested in where my food was coming from and that sustainability, organic and non-organic, GMOs, and that leads you to corn and that leads you to Iowa... And the thing that I heard from all the farmers was the expression, “Expand or die... Get big or get out.” They all told me this no matter whom I met. And what I realized is that these are all such good hearted people that invited me into their homes and I could tell that they loved their neighbors, but that pressure was the first thing that they wanted to tell me when I met them. And that was what was pitting them against one another, just to keep their family moving ahead. You come to meet a seed salesman and I never knew that there was such an occupation (laughs) and that leads you to Arthur Miller and Death of a Salesman and it seemed like a way to connect all of those things to make a story that could be a personal story about Dennis’ character and his relationship to Zac Efron, his son, and his family, but also to be something much bigger than that.
You just hinted at many of the plot strings that pull together this film. What was the initial thread?
RB: The initial thing was Dennis’ character: the salesman and the seeds. I spent a lot of time with Troy Roush who is in Indiana and featured in the movie. He is in Food, Inc. Monsanto tried to smash him into the dirt. He happened to be innocent... Anyway, I didn’t meet farmers who didn’t have families and family is very important to them. There is still the tradition of passing things on and the land itself. Even though the film is so modern, those traditional aspects are there.
Dennis, people are saying that this is one of the best performances of your career. Do you see that when watching this movie, like, “Wow! I gave such a great performance?”
DQ: I’m immune to myself, to tell you the truth. I don’t think I feel what the audience feels, because when I watch a movie that I am doing, I remember the day we are shooting it (laughs). I remember what was going on that day and so I have a totally different perspective.
RB: I will never understand it the way the audience does, but I watch all of my films a few times, just to get the audience reaction. Usually I will watch the movie in Europe once and once or twice in America to see the reaction it gets from a European, a rural, and a suburban audience.
A great thing about Dennis’ performance is that it doesn’t even feel like it is him on the screen.
DQ: I kind of felt like it wasn’t me, too (laughs). For me, although I took the role about eight months before shooting, I did two other movies. In fact, I finished a film the night before I came to Iowa. But I read the script so many times and just thought about this character and kind of looked around at a few people that were like [the character I play] Henry Whipple in a sense in my real life. So I basically started with his body, what’s going on in the inside of this guy, but how that relates to the outside. How he walked. How he held his body. How he talked. All that stuff. I had little time to do it, but Ramin tried to rehearse us (laughs). Ramin, tell that story.
RB: I usually work with non-actors so we rehearse for months. But Dennis and Zac just came from other films so I had just two days to work with them. I brought them to the location to work on the two father and son scenes so they could get a sense of what was going on and [the farmer owner] could show them how to use some of the equipment at the same time. Zac was gung-ho about it and couldn’t wait to get started. Dennis came from a night shoot and was tired and mumbling and uninterested, I couldn’t get his attention. I said, “This isn’t the guy I met in Austin. That guy was so friendly and so polite.” We spent three days talking about history and politics. Dennis is really smart. … I didn’t know what was going on and I came into a panic. The night before filming I drove to his hotel at 10:30 at night and I decided that I was going to confront him (laughs). I thought he was going to ruin my film and start mumbling.
I had doubt, because I never worked with movie stars before; only non-professional actors... I called Werner Herzog, one of my heroes and favorite filmmakers and a friend and mentor, and he answered the phone. I told him what was happening and Werner chastised me and said, “What’s wrong with you? It’s Dennis Quaid! He is a 30-year professional actor. He doesn’t need to rehearse. You are wasting his time. When you turn the camera on tomorrow he will deliever like a good professional will deliver. Stop annoying him.” (laughs). So Dennis asks me what I want at his hotel and I’m like, “Nothing! Would you like to have a drink?”
Dennis, one thing I noticed about your performance is that a lot of it is in your physicality; how you character changes posture when he meets different people.
DQ: That was the thing, especially in the first part of the movie; it was me playing Henry Whipple playing Henry Whipple "the Salesman." He has this exterior of confidence when he wants to sell you something, he wants to be number one so desperately, and he puts this gregarious exterior on. But on the inside, he is filled with self-loathing, because of the pressures he had. He compromises a lot of his values and morals and has gotten to this deluded thinking that he believes himself.
The character of Henry Whipple works in a very competitive industry and he is on top of his competition. The industry you work in is also very competitive. What have you done to survive the competition and still be here today?
DQ: I think that I am still here today, because of perseverance (laughs). And I still got fire in my belly for it. I’m grateful to still be here and working. I remember a lot of the guys that I started out with and I wonder where they are today.
Do you see that fire with Zac?
DQ: Oh, absolutely. Zac definitely wants to be an actor. The movie star tag is already there and that helps him out in a sense. But what he wants to be is a great actor and he is well on his way. He’s got all of the tools in the toolbox. He came out and dove into the character he is playing and gave me something to play off of, that’s for sure.
Ramin, what was it like directing Zac and Dennis and the other actors?
RB: Working with the professional actors was in many ways easier, because I didn’t have time. So when the actors come in and two days later we start shooting, they are already there. With a nonprofessional actor I have to work a lot with them in advance, but the professional doesn’t require that. Also, they add things you never think about. Dennis’ physicality; the way he holds himself. I would have never asked a nonprofessional actor to do that. So after he did that on the first day, I gave him a huge bear hug (laughs). All of my nerves were relieved and he made the character something much greater than I could have imagined.
I would be often impressed by what Dennis did on set and I would ask him, “How did you know how to do that?” and he would say, “Thirty years, kid.” (laughs). Pretty good answer!