Michael Douglas' latest tour de force as Ben Kalmen in Solitary Man is reminiscent of another previous role for which he is known: that of Gordon Gecko in Oliver Stone's Wall Street. The similarity is lost neither on Douglas nor on directors Brian Koppelman, who also wrote the screenplay, and David Levien—in fact, speaking them reveals that there is a degree of deliberateness in that. Douglas and the directors speak about the film; enjoy the conversation.So, Michael, this was originally going to come out the same time as Wall Street 2.
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: Yes, we were going to come out pretty much when we’re coming out now with Solitary Man. Then Wall Street got pushed to September.
Do you see Gordon Gecko and Ben Kalmen as sort of cousins, in a way?
MD: You know, I was arguing the differences before I’d heard my writer-director had sort of made the comparison! [laughter] So—I don’t know, two urban guys; probably both of them came on Long Island. One of them’s world’s a little bigger, probably a little bigger stage, Gordon, and Ben’s probably a little bit more of a big fish in a little pond… or a little fish in a big pond.
DAVID LEVIEN: We actually said that the real-life prototypes for Ben that you see kind of model themselves after Gecko.
BRIAN KOPPELMAN: Right. Not that the characters themselves are similar, but those guys were all influenced by Michael [as Gecko] and to us Michael has really portrayed the American businessman. To guys our age, the iconography of his performance is—he is the stand-in for us, the avatar of the American business success. So in that way they’re related.
MD: That’s what you were thinking about when you asked me to play the part? Not the sleazeball?
[laughter]
DL and BK: No! NO! No, no, no! Noooo! None of that!
Ben is so self-destructive. Do you think it’s because he’s in this panic over the idea his life could be ending? A midlife crisis, if you will.
MD: I mean, to me, it’s a third act, a mortality issue, yeah. And he’s running on empty and just living for the moment, thinking that this is his last. There’s a certain desperation, but he’s a car dealer, so he’s a motormouth. [laughter] He doesn’t necessarily think really about what he’s saying or about the repercussions of his actions, and I think this experience sobers him up.
You embody characters like this so well. What’s your process?
MD: Well, without blowing smoke up Mr. Koppelman’s butt… [laughter] It doesn’t hurt, you know, that you’ve got a really good screenplay. And Steven Soderbergh, who’s worked with David and Brian on other things, first introduced me to this project. I read it through just once and it was like, “This is great writing, it’s wonderful, this is really a chance.” So I think I just always go with the script and don’t worry so much about the part. I mean, sometimes you get a really good part, like this, but if you think it’s a really good story—and the unpredictability. I think if you’re going to do these kinds of characters you’ve really got to be unsure of where you’re going, as opposed to most movies where you can kind of guess the ending.
Do you think the character mimics what we’re seeing in society today?—A lot of men in high positions going down in destructive spirals.
MD: You know, that’s a good question. I selfishly tend to just think about the project, rather than… that’s almost your job, to give it some resonance as to how it reflects… [laughter] I think we all read the papers and keep in touch with what’s going on; it probably strikes us. I know Brian has talked about how he saw this character—you know, he actually saw him in real life—I think it was toward the beginning of the picture, and I was like, “You know, the guys with the black and the black and the black [shirts and jackets and pants], I don’t see anybody in New York like this.”—Of course, I’m not actually checking out guys in black shirts and black pants and black jackets. [laughter] The next thing I know, I go to a restaurant and there is like three of them, just like Brian said: you know, black on black, checking themselves in the mirror, and all of that.
D’you think there’s some added sympathy to this character? Because he operates almost like “seize the day” after he goes to the doctor and finds this out. “Seize the day, coz I don’t know if I’ll be here.”
MD: Well, I think that was a good excuse for him on the part of the screenplay to possibly get away with his behavior and to spend close to two hours with this guy as your protagonist without wanting to let him have it. So I think that was a good device Brian came up with in the screenplay.
Your father was famous for playing this sort of role—basically, an unlikable, cynical, aggressive guy—and you haven’t done that many.
MD: Well, Wall Street kind of was… and my dad did the sensitive young man for about six or seven pictures before he did a movie called Champion, which he got nominated for in I think it has to be 1950. And probably, other than like Romancing the Stone, I did the same sort of thing until Wall Street. Then all of a sudden I’m playing these darker, edgier sorts of guys. But the fun part of this one was the tragicomedy, and I thought it went really well. Both David and Brian did a really great job of keeping that balance. And I was just so happy to see Imogen Poots, who… played the poor young lady… [laughter] I don’t know what Brian and David thought of the casting, but I thought it was interesting that we could not find a sophisticated New Yorker.
BK: Yeah. I mean, it’s a very particular thing; the Upper East Side private school high school senior is certainly way more sophisticated than I am at my current age. Like, right now. And it was very hard to find that when we auditioned young women who were actresses; a lot of them had a lot of craft, but there was something about the way those girls carried themselves, a kind of sophisticated confidence, that we couldn’t really find. A few of the actresses—I’m sure there are some actresses who actually go to those schools, but their parents might have thought this was a little too edgy. [laughs] A lot of those girls are very wealthy, and their parents were like, “This isn’t gonna be the first one.” And Imogen came in and she just blew our minds. She had that bearing and that understanding. I remember we sent Michael a tape of her audition and he immediately called us and said “She’s fantastic; where’d you find her?”
DL: I feel a lot of the girls we saw who were playing it strong and had the sophistication really were coming off like they were 25 years old, for some reason. And Immy was just really youthful but at the same time had that maturity.
At the end of the film, when Ben stands up from the bench, it stops right there… so you never really see whether he continues skirt-chasing or goes back to Susan Sarandon’s car. Which do you think he does?
MD: I think you’ve gotta ask each of us individually. [laughter]
DL: I think that the character’s just come to a decision point, and when he stands up he knows what he’s gonna do, but from the first time that I read the script I loved the uninflected ending that allowed the viewer to see it one way or the other way or probably a third way, even. So for me that’s the way it always existed and that’s what I was always interested in capturing in the movie.
Solitary Man is playing in select theatres.
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