Ben Foster on The Finest Hours, doing an entire movie while cold and wet, Warcraft and more… Den of Geek: I would describe your character as having a quiet intensity to him.
Would you say thats an apt description for him?
Ben Foster: I suppose theres an economy of language.
I certainly appreciate a sparse script.
I think some of these scripts are overwritten and serve the lowest common denominator emotionally.
So you usually have to go through the script and lose about 40% of the words.
Whereas, in this case maybe it was 10%, 5% of mine.
Its a hell of a script.
I mean with the utmost respect.
The physical actions are very clear.
What these men represent are guys who do their job.
Theyre not looking for a compliment.
Theyre just doing their thing.
I do respond to that quality of person.
Im not thinking about it.
Im not thinking about the moves I make.
I guess the point is stripping it down to its essential.
I dont want to call it psychic.
I dont want to get into the supernatural.
What were you able to learn about the real Livesey?
Was there as much out there about him as there was about Bernie?
Anything you could latch onto?
Most of these guys are gone.
He was a very accomplished Coast Guard member, lived on the sea.
It was suggested that he was a bit salty.
This is not a representation of Richard Livesey.
Its a character called Richard Livesey.
We built these guys a version of them.
How do you answer any potential criticism if someone says, Well, thats not exactly how it happened?
People just get riled up.
At the same time, people can put movies on altars and they become false idols.
The demands are not always so cut and dry.
Youve got to feel your way through making a piece of art with a lot of collaborators.
Ive certainly taken that kind of approach in other ways.
This one felt more like a value system that was important to unpack.
Because, really, theyre reduced to not having any of that equipment.
So if the equipment was needed, we would have learned it.
But these were guys who lose everything.
So just being present with that value system was what fueled me.
What did you know about boats, if anything, before you got involved with this?
Studying how swells work.
But I do enjoy being on boats and I would like to spend more time on them.
This movie just made me want to be on more boats.
Even if youre being doused in ice cold water?
Well, Im not saying thats like an ideal scenario for me being on a boat next.
But, yeah, I like…I was just on a boat recently.
I like being near the water.
How challenging was that after a while to be in that tank and being constantly cold and wet?
Does it settle in your bones for the duration of the shoot?
Cold, after a while, does get in your bones.
It will cool your core temperature.
Thats a basic effect that hits you physiologically.
And the results of that are many.
The thing that warms the heart is that this is what these men do every day.
Somebody right now is being saved by these guys.
And all were doing is making a movie.
Is that a vanishing breed in some ways?
Its alive and well in the world, to my view.
Now, they are not all strong and silent.
Some of them are really mouthy.
But getting the job done, can do people when it counts, it is not a dying breed.
Let me ask you aboutWarcraft.
The ad campaign, the teasers, they are showing some big battle sequences.
The film has a much greater breadth.
Ive never seen anything like the actual physical sets.
So its a real marriage.
Whats going on in the teasers, its not even a fifth of the movie.
Almost 10 years ago you played Angel inX-Men: The Last Stand.
Theyre actually bringing that character back for the next X-Men movie.
I have no unfinished business.
I think we need all kinds of stories.
Its real people doing incredible things.
I think both have a place.
And Im really happy about this one.
The Finest Hoursis out in theaters this Friday (January 29).
