Q+A: Edward Norton
Hot Dog, October 2001
Like De Niro and Brando, Ed Norton is considered to be the best actor of his generation. Judge for yourself as they team up in The Score
After a groundbreaking debut in Primal Fear, Edward Norton cemented his reputation as America's best new actor with outstanding performances in Fight Club and American History X. In Frank Oz's The Score, he plays Jackie Teller, an aggressive crim who proved to be more than a match for two ageing thieves... even though they're played by Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando.
What research did you do for The Score?
I found two detectives in the LAPD burglary and auto-theft unit who were willing to have me shadow them for a month. They spent a lot of time with me with things like old safes - breaking down safe doors, letting me drill unsuccessfully, and laughing at me. They took me on some search warrants. Like, they'll go into a drug dealer's house and these guys will break into his safe, so they'll do the work as well as solve the crimes. Bob (De Niro) has a friend who's a security systems expert who taught us more of the electronic type things.
To play Jackie as a disabled guy, I found a terrific programme in a school for physically handicapped adults in Montreal - I went and spent time.
What was it like working with Brando?
Well, it was terrific. Marlon's got such a great sense of humour. I thought he was just perfectly cast for that kind of gentleman thief/ Truman Capote character that he was pulling off. His lightness was a great foil to the heavy seriousness of me and Bob. I've known Marlon for a couple of years, so it was a kick to actually work with him. I didn't think I would ever get to do that. Marlon's like a... like Puck, you know? He's got a really wicked sense of humour.
He has this electronic fart device and he spends as much time... you know, for him the scenes are almost second nature. He spends more time figuring out where Bob is gonna be during the scene, so that he can tape it up under the chair that he's gonna land on at the most serious moment and fire it off in the middle of a take. That's what working with him is like. And it's a pleasure. It was obviously one of the main, compelling reasons for me to do this.
How did you come to know him?
We had mutual friends. He called and said: "You know, why don't you come over sometime?" I went over to his house and met him. And then, over time, I just got to know him better. We had some things we were both interested in, we were just sort of chatting about for a while. He's a terrific person to have gotten to know because he's so interested. He's just this very engaged person. He's got a totally inquisitive mind - and I like that.
Is there something of a pinch-me moment being in scenes with De Niro and Brando?
Well, yeah. When we first got going, the script was very different to the way it is now. I remember a friend of mine asked, "What's the script about?" And I said, it needs some work, but how are you not gonna do this one? It's like, I'd do this one for the poster, you know. Put it straight to video, just give me the poster. But I guess the first scene we did, all the three of us together, was in a jazz club when we're sort of laying it out in front of Bob. We had all been together, but we were sitting there and they were setting up this three-shot. And I was going, "OK, this is it."
I kind of had a nice little moment of shaking my head, but you have to kind of put it to the side. I made very sure that the stills photographer captured that moment for posterity. It was great, it was really great. I have, as had everybody else, admired both of them my entire life, so it was a huge thrill.
Was working with them intimidating at all?
Well, no, like I said, I knew Marlon and I felt comfortable with him, and the nature of my stuff with Marlon was pretty easy going. Maybe more with Bob, but I don't know. There are people you've admired for a long time and longed to work with, but the truth is you have to be broad-minded enough, to step into those situations and recognise the fact that somebody that good is gonna make it easier for you, as opposed to harder for you.
It's like getting a pure dose of oxygen. You're getting the best stuff. When you hit with a good tennis player, it pushes your game up. I think good actors feed good actors. It makes the whole process easier. So once you're into it and rolling, I find that that's the way it goes. Bob is about as pure as they come. He does not force a scene. I actually felt that, to a degree, some of that potency Bob has actually fed the dynamics of this particular film very well. Because, you know, we weren't playing father and son; we were playing two people with a certain friction between them. And I thought the dynamics were kind of perfectly analogous to where we all are in our respective careers.
When [De Niro] sits down in the jazz club at the end and gives me that advice about the importance of marrying, discipline about your choices, I thought that was perfect. That, to me, could've been an older actor talking to a younger actor, because I think it's the exact piece of advice they'd give. So it was a treat to work with both of them.
Jordan Riefe
The Score is out September 14 (UK release date)
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