Articles & Interviews > Let's talk about the Hollow Man...

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LET'S TALK ABOUT THE HOLLOW MAN...

with director Paul Verhoeven & actor Kevin Bacon

Thanks to ijunkets.com

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Q : Welcome to the Hollow Man round table. We are here with Actor Kevin Bacon and director Paul Verhoeven. Please feel free to send us your questions. Kevin, this is for you.

KB : Bring 'em on.

Q : The new way of having an interactive online junket and the topic of that- - the consequences of technical development, what is your personal view of the internet now and your vision of how you see the web and how we use it in our lives.

KB : Well, you know, I don’t know. It’s really hard to keep up with it. It’s kind of astounding and it seems to be changing all the time. You know, I guess I was a little bit resistant and now I find that I do use it primarily I guess for email and for - - you know, a few sites that I- - that I like. And I like to check out. I think that this kind of a situation is really exciting because I can see, you know something like a junket ending up being mostly, you know, internet driven eventually.

Which could be, would-- could be really cool. I mean, you know, we have to accept the inevitability of technology, becoming such a gigantic part of our lives. And Hollow Man is a perfect example because, I don’t think the Hollow Man could really exist or work without a computer. It’s a very computer driven picture.

Q : It’s a content question. In every invisible man film, it’s easy to recall the invisible man always going insane. After completing a project concerning an invisible man, do you have any insight or idea why a man would be driven to madness from invisibility.

KB : Well, I don’t know. I felt like there was a feeling that I often got of loneliness. Of a really kind of profound separation from the rest of the world. I also think that there is so much power that is- - that is given to you. The power to, you know get away with anything. And, I guess we might differ on our views about the human condition.

Whether or not given that power someone would actually- - everyone would completely abuse it. I kind of felt like this character was- - was a character who was predisposed to that power turning him into a killer and a rapist. Uh, whether every single human being and every single man would- - would fall in that trap, I don’t know.

PV : That was not me really thinking that. That was Plato.

KB : Plato. OK. Yeah. It’s not Paul, it’s Plato

PV : I know a couple of people that wouldn’t go there at all.

Q : In the press material that's been sent out, they use Faustis and Methastopholes as a cipher for your character. Do you agree?

KB : I don’t know anything about those guys. Don’t even know who they are. I barely made it through high school, so you’re barking up the wrong tree with that question.

Q : As a question to Paul here, many films have been based on this story. What distinguishes Hollow Man from previous attempts?

PV : Well, I didn’t look at previous attempts, basically. I felt that it would be wrong to be influenced by that. So I really based- - based my film on the script of Andrew Marlow. I don’t know if he looked at something. But I just took the script and that’s what I shot. So, um, if they are different or not, I don’t know. I know that there is a couple of comedies that were made. And in fact, I saw one- - one comedy what’s called, uh, Invisible Maniac. Uh, which was very funny. Which was a guy that was invisible and basically got a job as a teacher- - a high school.

And they could go back and forward which he can not of course in the movie but- - and it was using that for his sexual, uh, pleasure.

KB : That sounds good.

PV : Yeah. But it was a comedy

KB : I gotta rent that.

PV : It’s very funny.

Q : Kevin, you’ve worked in an amazing range of films from She’s Having a Baby to JFK. What attracts you to the fantastical genre, like, uh, Friday the 13th. Tremors, Stir of Echoes, Hollow Man, uh, that many of your actors of your caliber tend to avoid?

KB : I don’t make decisions really based on genre. I think it’s really more of coincidence that those were films that had, you know, parts in them that I wanted to do and they happen to be in those kind of genre pictures.

Q : Paul, how did the special effects for Hollow Man differ from ones you’ve used in previous films. What new technologies were used?

PV : Well, if you compare to Starship Troopers, I was- - I, started this movie thinking that it would be kind of something similar. That it would be like shooting with the other actors, not with Kevin and then adding something like Kevin later in post production to the shots. Like adding a digital, uh, image. I was not aware when I read the script and started to think about it that Kevin would be always on the set. That was only when we started discussion with the special effects supervisor, Scott Henderson.

That I started to realize that without Kevin, on the set, continuously in the middle of the actors, it would never work. Physically it wouldn’t work because - - because of the contact that he has with them if he violates them basically or he- - or- - or caresses them or whatever. Psychologically it wouldn’t work because you would always have these drifting eyes of the actors. Saying well, he’s there but they wouldn’t see it so you would have always this kind of weird thing. And as the film is really also about psychological terror to a certain degree and deterioration into evil.

I felt that of course Scott Anderson was fully arrived that I discovered that a couple of months later. Now the process of by having Kevin on the set in a green, blue or black suit so that he can paint them out later was much more complex than any of the thousands of spiders or arachnids, uh, that they had to add to the shots in- - in Starship Troopers. I mean, so it was much more difficult than I thought. I wasn’t prepared at all with that.

Q : Kevin. What was it like working with a Dutch opinionated director like Paul and the person says believe me, I’m Dutch myself. I know.

KB : Well you’re right. He is Dutch. And, he is opinionated. You know, I was playing a mad scientist so it helped that my director was one as well cause I had something to base my character on.

PV : You never told me that. You only told me that afterwards.

KB : I didn’t want to tell you. You changed the way you were acting. Paul’s, amazingly passionate about making movies and has incredible- - a credible mind and an incredible ability to control a lot of information. And, uh, there’s a lot of details that were going into what we were doing and it was a very technically painstaking process. And at the same time I felt like as an actor I was, uh, respected.

My opinions were respected. My performance was respected and was important to the process. So, I mean, I couldn’t have asked for anything else.

Q : Somewhere along these same lines. What was the hardest invisibility effect to accomplish in the making of this film?

KB : What was the hardest?

PV : I think we- -well, the hardest for me- - well, you probably, uh, the hardest in general was to make this muscular person. I mean, that certain moment Sebastian starts to lose his skin. Isn’t it when he becomes invisible goes in layers. First the skin disappears. And then the muscles disappear. But, when you take the skin out, you have all the muscles. And, but- - but as he’s moving and sometimes fighting and whatever, you see these old muscular men, running around grabbing people and falling to the ground with all the muscles have to behave like muscles would behalf or you would not see the skin.

So they’re for- - they’re moving around each other. They’re bulging. And the amount of information that you have to put in the computer to make these muscles move. Even see the heart move inside and the lungs thumping to see all that was a gigantic operation. M- - more difficult than expressing him what you see sometimes. In blood there’s a scene where somebody throws blood over him and he’s all- - he’s invisible but then basically his face and part of his body become visible because the blood being over him. But that was less complex than the muscular man.

I think that was a really something that they had to work on for more than a year before they could solve the problems.

Q : When did you start the filming for Hollow Man?

PV : Well, it was about a year ago. Isn’t it?

KB : April, I think we started didn’t we?

PV : Right, right. Yeah. No. Then we stopped in the middle a couple of months because Elizabeth Shue had an accident, uh, uh, when she was on the trampoline. And severed her Achilles tendon, so.

KB : We finished in January.

PV : Yeah. That long- - later than you thought. I think.

Q : Paul, did you know that Kevin would be the person to play Hollow Man?

PV : Yes. When I met him in New York. I’ve being- - I’ve seen his work but I’d never met him. And so basically whenever - - when we were had this conversation in- - in the room not- - I mean, I knew his work and his talent so I didn’t have to convince me of that. But he had to convince me of one other thing basically that he would be willing and able to suffer throughout the movie. Basically. And I think I spent an excessive amount of time to explain that to him but I don’t think it was enough, basically because I think it was still worse than you thought, isn’t it?

KB : It was worse. It was worse than I thought.

Q : Now you mentioned that Elizabeth Shue hurt her foot. And Kevin did a lot of suffering. Did you suffer any physical ailments while you were on filming?

KB : You know, nothing that was really too serious you know. I got banged up and bruised a little bit and- - and there was a certain amount of, uh, wear and tear on my skin just from the glue or the paint. I used to joke and say, you know, I would tell Paul, that I was just happy to have the job. And that’s really the way I felt. I mean, I really knew that it was a good gig.

PV : You would never complain. That was- - I mean, he complained later in his diary apparently. I mean, what I saw and it’s published now. But, um, I- - I never felt- - I mean, I could see it on his face sometimes and I saw that he was really tired and that we had to break off. But he would never say it himself. He would just continue. And- - and he never bothered us in any way with his- - his horrible situation. You know, I think it was great. I mean, because then we would all have felt guilty all day. You know.

Because he must have felt that all throughout the day. And as the- - as the day went on after six, seven hours with the mask on your face that’s glued to your skin, it’s like completely, uh, horrifying nearly.

KB : It’s strange though, you know, I mean there are- - there are elements of having that that actually I think uh, help a performance. Effect performance and, uh, and there- - and there was a kind of feeling that, uh, of- - of isolation and of, um, you know, anger and pain and suffering that is very in line with what’s going on with the character.

Q : Paul did you ever think of using digital film and do you plan to on your next movie?

PV : I don’t know if you’re ready to use that. I think the process of making movies will anyhow within- - be within two years or five years will be completely changed. The cameras will be digital before we- - that we find a nice balance to register reality as precise and as nuance as film can do we’ll solve that but that’s not yet- - dead completely. I think. But the whole process will be more and more digital. I think probably there will be more earlier films, on the digital projectors if you want to use that word.

And then that they will be shot with digital cameras. But I think that will be a difference of a couple of years. And we’ll all be digital. Yeah. There’s nothing we can do about it.

KB : And it’s not gonna save any time either.

PV : Only the quality. Ultimately may be shot all the digital situations. WE will not have to deal anymore with- - let’s say a duplicate- - what you call a duplicate negative. Duplicate positive. The quality will be always similar from the - - from the original - - you know, if your movie goes out and about seven or eight theatres that have a print of your original negative. Because you don’t want to touch the negative. And there’s a scratch on the negative, you can never repair it anymore. If you go digital, the whole negative will be in the computer digitally. And all your prints- - everything you do will be perfect-- as perfect in the best theatre in LA as in the smallest town of India.

Q : If you could both be invisible, what’s the first thing you would do?

KB : Uh, not answer that question.

PV : What I would do, well, that’s a serious question and it has been asked a lot but normally I say I never think about it. And that’s the truth. Probably I- - the first thing I would do is try to find out how to come back. I don’t think it will be a very pleasant situation to be vis- - invisible. But, the- - the character in the movie seems to enjoy it.

Q : Kevin, uh, how did you get involved in Hollow Man. What is the script presentation. Was the fact that Paul was directing a factor?

KB : Yeah, the fact that Paul was directing was a huge factor because I was a fan of his films both his American films and of his- - and his Dutch films. You know, I read the script and it was actually mentioned to me a long time before I finally got a chance to read the script. And then I read the script and I was thrilled at the prospect- - based on the character. I mean, if you look at these kinds of movies, a lot of time the characters are in service of the effect.

In other words, you have a cast that kind of is dealing with whatever it is. The monster or the natural disaster or the weather. And there’s not as much focus given to the- - there’s more focus given to the effect than there is to the characters. In this case, that character is the effect. And- - and it becomes very central to the story. And, uh, the- -the evil nature of the guy. The, uh, the megolamaniacal kind of aside to him is his, uh, voyeuristic sexuality.

His childlike nature. The power that he has. All these things are fascinating things to play whether he’s invisible or not. So, you know, I wanted the part and I wanted it bad.

Q : How important do both of you think that the internet is in regards to a movie's success?

PV : It will be more and more. I would say I don’t know how- - I- - how many- - there is of course is still a limited amount of people that are really connected to the internet, but ultimately everybody will and then I think there might be nothing else in the internet anymore. Everything might be superfluous.

Q : This will be our last question here. Paul, I can imagine he’s quite a unique guy. Talented in making films. Driven in Dutch. Did you have a lot of ideas on how to play an invisible man?

PV : No. No. Uh, he’s come from- - the actor’s that do that. I mean, uh, now, I follow the script really and then- - and then basically I depend a lot on- - on what- - what the characters do. Although I think when a- - I think I’ll try at least to integrate as many ideas that come from the actors as possible. But, I don’t know if you felt that- - perhaps he felt that he could never do anything original.

KB : No, no. I don’t think that at all. I think that, you play an invisible man like you play any other character. And you have to just start with who he is and what he wants and what’s happening to him physically. And who he loves and who turns him on and what he hates and all that kind of stuff. And those were all things that we discussed. Uh, again and again and again. And tried to make sure that there’s certain reality to the invisibility. You know, there was a certain reality to what I wanted as a character and you know, Paul was very sensitive to that.

PV : I don’t think it was really different what can say between sp- - as a director working with an invisible man. That there’s any outplay by Kevin Bacon on the set. Or in- - or- - or a visible character as Kevin Bacon plays on the set and- - and a lot of other movies based - - I think it felt kind of similar because he’s there anyhow. I was talking to him. I was not talking to a computer or something like that. It was really Kevin doing it. Even if he’s late the chains into a digital three dimensional, um, uh, image that is- - for example like Sebastian being expressed in blood when she throws blood over him because he’s invisible. The blood would still stick on him and you would see him. How he stretches out his hands- - murderous hands.

Q : Paul, Kevin. Thank you very much for your time. Thanks to everyone who participated in the first ever I Junket. And Hollow Man opens August fourth in the US and Canada.

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