Guy Pearce Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters

If I'm doing an accent that's unusual,

I have to find a voice that really works,

that I can latch onto.

And then I can sort of develop it from there.

It's tricky with the royal family

because they all do sound sort of terribly, terribly.

Like that, and you think, Is that really how they talked?

They talked like that all the time?

You know?

Apparently they do.

[upbeat music]

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Well, the script was sent to me.

I read it, I absolutely loved it.

I had not long been out of a couple of TV shows.

So, it wasn't that I was looking

specifically for things that were different,

but the idea of something that was quite different

was very appealing to me.

And I then went in and had a meeting with Stephan Elliott,

our director.

It wasn't really an audition.

And he said, How would you feel about doing this,

would you be uncomfortable?

And I went, No, this would be great.

And then I was offered it.

♪ A desert holiday ♪

♪ Let's pack the drag away ♪

♪ You take the lunch and tea ♪

♪ I'll take the ecstasy ♪

There are two characters I suppose.

The character of Adam, he's so sort of over-the-top,

and so kind of pushy, and obnoxious, and irreverent.

That all the energy, in a way, goes into that character.

And then the energy that's in the other character,

in Felicia, the performing drag queen,

is all about the dance moves and the choreography.

♪ Walk out the door ♪

♪ Just turn around now ♪

I was dance captain on the film.

So, I was in charge of rehearsals with Stephan and Hugo.

And they did not learn their steps

as well as they were supposed to have.

I'm not really a dancer so everything I did, I had to learn.

We did a lot of research, we went to a lot of drag shows.

We got introduced to lots of drag queens.

And one of the things that Stephan wanted to do

was on the last day of rehearsal,

we were gonna do our camera tests,

and makeup and wardrobe tests.

And the plan was that at the end of that day,

we were all gonna go out that night

in Sydney to some clubs, in full drag.

And just sort of cast us out into the world of the public.

Which we did.

And that really was a eye-opening experience for everybody.

We didn't perform.

We just got drunk.

Very clever.

Cheers girls.

And congratulations, Mitzi darling.

You did it.

One lap of the Broken Hill main drag, in drag.

The whole thing was a funny story.

It was about turning up in these towns, like Broken Hill,

and King's Canyon, and various towns across Australia,

where certain town's folk were prepped

that a film was coming.

But they didn't really know what it was.

And they wanted to get a lot of reactions from locals.

So, quite often the locals were told,

Okay, our main characters are gonna sort of come walking

down the street and you guys are gonna watch.

And they would sort of put the cameras on them.

And you'd see these people just seeing these drag queens

for the first time.

Country towns that had not seen anything like this before.

And this is in '93, as well, you gotta remember.

So, there's some pretty great, honest reactions [chuckles]

by some locals.

What are you all looking at?

The Village People asked me to go on tour with them in drag.

It was a work opportunity that came up after that film.

I didn't take them up on it, funnily enough.

Of course I was really then keen

to just keeping doing what I wanted to do,

which was to play a lot of different roles.

[upbeat music]

L.A. Confidential.

One of the first films I did after Priscilla was

L.A. Confidential.

And everyone kept saying,

Oh, is it 'cause Curtis saw Priscilla?

And Curtis never saw Priscilla,

he never wanted to see Priscilla.

Even till the day he past away,

he still didn't saw Priscilla.

Which, I was kind of thankful for

'cause he may not have cast me as Ed, actually,

had he seen Felicia Jollygoodfellow.

[Officer] Come on guys, let's get 'em.

[dramatic music]

Hey, Stensland, the party's upstairs.

[dramatic music]

This doesn't concern you.

The great thing about that film, I mean,

obviously the script was really wonderful,

but there was a book that James Ellroy had written,

as we all know, called L.A. Confidential

that covers an eight-year period.

So, there's a whole slew of story,

narrative that doesn't exist in the film,

for me to sort of wade through.

Tons and tons of backstory about the character,

and then also what sort of happens afterward.

And I spent a number of weeks in L.A. preparing.

And we were driving around by a couple of cops.

And taken to some pretty bad areas.

And told lots of stories of being cop in L.A.

And you just slowly sort of immerse yourself in all of that.

This should be it.

[dramatic music]

The character that I played in that film

was a new kind of cop, I guess.

404.

His father had been a world renowned detective and Ed

sort of wanted to follow in his footsteps.

But he came from a more highly-educated background,

and was on some level therefor treated

as a bit of an outcast in the police force.

So, in a way, he was different to the other cops.

I realize this is difficult.

Give your career a rest.

Leave her alone.

A naked guy with a gun.

You expect anyone to believe that?

Get the [beep] away from me.

I always really pleased to be working with Russell.

He's so brilliant and has such a dynamic energy on screen.

And he's a Kiwi and I'm English,

but we both grew up in Australia.

So, there's a sort of a connection there.

He was far more advanced in his career than I was,

but I felt that he was very helpful to me.

And the scenes with Kim, as well,

were really touching 'cause she was so lovely.

But the whole thing was a really wonderful experience

because Curtis, particularly, our director had such a great

ability to sort of communicate differently to each actor,

in relation to how that particular actor needed

to sort of communicate.

So, it really was like

going to film school for me, that film.

He taught me so much about film acting.

[upbeat music]

Memento.

It's a film that obviously comes up with me a lot,

and comes back all the time.

Film students talk about it a lot.

And a lot of people say to me

it really was the first film of its kind.

Funnily enough, people say to me L.A. Confidential

was the last film of its kind.

And Memento was the first film of its kind.

So, I feel really honored to be part of those two films.

But Chris Nolan clearly is a genius.

And his ability to write that story and make the film

that was in his head as it is.

I mean, it's the only film I've ever really done, I think,

where the finished film is exactly as the script was.

[Teddy] Yo, Lenny.

I thought you split for good.

Well, things change.

So, I see.

My name's Teddy.

I guess I've told you about my condition.

Only every time I see ya.

It was just an incredible honor

to be working with somebody who was so clever.

And the great thing about Chris was his ability

to really proficient with the technical side of filmmaking

as well as the emotional journey of each character.

And being able to sort of communicate with us.

So, that was also a real lesson in filmmaking,

working with him.

[dramatic music]

There were 25 or 26 tattoos.

We didn't see all of them all the time.

So, it was only a few times that you actually saw them all.

Applying these tattoos, we sort of had transfers,

essentially, but it took a good hour or so

to get 'em all on [chuckles].

Who's Sammy Jankis?

I guess I tell people about Sammy to help them understand.

Sammy's story helps me understand my own situation.

Sammy wrote himself endless amounts of notes.

We shot the whole film in 26 days

and all that black and white stuff

was scheduled to be the last two days of the shoot.

And I was rehearsing those scenes on my own,

in my motel room, every weekend

when we were having breaks in between filming.

And I kept saying to Aaron Ryder, our producer, I said,

We're not gonna get all that in just two days.

It's a lot of stuff I'm doing, 'cause I'm folding up notes,

and tattooing, and on the phone,

and it's just tons of stuff I had to do.

Writing on Polaroids, et cetera.

And then in the last week, or close to the last week,

Aaron said, We've got our third day.

Oh, it's amazing what a little brain damage

will do for your credibility.

You know the truth about my condition, officer?

You don't know anything.

Thankfully, when Chris, my agent,

sent me the letter and the script, at the bottom of it,

in brackets, he said, By the way, this all goes backwards.

So, I at least was sort of prepared [chuckles] for that.

But the thing was, even though on some level it felt like

gobbledygook as I was reading it, because I got that sense

that things were just all over the place, what I really got,

and what was really clear,

was the emotional journey of the character.

And that, as an actor, that's the only thing I'm really,

not interested in, but that's what I need to latch onto

in order to do my job.

The other stuff sort of began to make sense more

as I then worked with Chris Nolan and rehearsed with him.

And then, funnily enough, once it all made sense to me,

I then had to sort of put it all away, let it all go.

And then just treat every scene

as if it was its own little thing.

'Cause I wasn't really to remember what had happened before

and clearly had no clue what was coming afterwards.

Then, of course, it also made me really question

my own memory.

I think back to experiences in my life

where I look at something, like I look at a photo

and base a memory around that, and go,

I actually don't really know if that memory's really true.

Is it?

So, it really made me question my own memory.

Thanks, Chris Nolan.

[upbeat music]

The Hurt Locker.

Yeah, that was a quick experience, wasn't it?

I was sort of reluctant to take that on at first,

and Kathryn asked me to do it.

And I read it and went, Well.

And I had a few other things going on.

I says, Is it time in my career to start doing cameos?

You know, Have I got to that point?

And she really talked me into it, 'cause she really said,

No, we really want people to believe that you're gonna be

the person we're gonna follow through this film.

And, of course, if we kill you in the first five minutes,

then that'll be great for the movie.

I said, Okay, as long as it's great for the movie,

then that's great.

[Guy laughing]

So, if everything looks okay when I get down there,

I'm just gonna set it up and we'll bip it.

That bomb suit that I wore was so heavy.

And we were in Jordan, of course.

And it was nine million degrees.

So, it was really hot in there.

I remember having a blood squib inside the helmet,

which is obviously meant to go off

as the explosion goes off and I'm running towards camera.

And they're setting it all,

and sort of we're standing there in the searing heat.

And it was taking ages, and they're running wire,

and it's this long, sort of laborious process.

Not complaining.

And then it went off by accident.

In my face.

So, of course, we had to take it all off,

and we had to start all over again.

[Guy laughing]

And then, of course, the second time,

when they're putting it on, I'm like,

Is this gonna go, what's gonna happen?

Didn't go off the second time, but it went off,

obviously, on camera when it was meant to, so.

[explosive blasting]

And then I sprained my ankle.

So, I was only filming for like three days.

And as I finished filming,

they then wanted to get all my dialogue.

So, I put the helmet on, we stuck a microphone

in the helmet.

And I ran down the train track

that I was sort of running on.

And I went over on my ankle, and then they went,

Oh, are you all right?

Well, we got the dialogue, that's great.

That's a wrap on Guy, everyone.

Fantastic Guy, thanks very much.

And I'm on the ground going, Ow.

And I got on a plane and went to Toronto

and started Traitor.

And by that point, my ankle was like this [chuckles].

Everyone's like, How was Hurt Locker?

Yeah, it hurt.

It really hurt a lot.

[upbeat music]

The King's Speech.

Colin and I got on very well.

We've been friends for awhile,

and he's just the most delightful human being.

He's so wonderfully articulate and eloquent,

and has lovely, funny stories.

So, I just love being around him.

Which was great because the dynamic between us is tough,

and it's delicate, and it's quite sort of entangled

in lots of family history.

So, it was a complex relationship to get right, I think.

And, obviously, I'm not carrying the film like he is,

by any means, but it was important

that that relationship was right.

I've been terribly busy.

[King George] Doing what?

King'ing. Really?

King'ing is a precarious business these days.

Where's the Russian Czar, where's Cousin Wilhelm?

You're being dreary.

I always have to start with the voice.

I always feel like I have to find the voice.

And then I'm off and running a little bit.

If I'm doing an accent that's unusual,

I have to find a voice that really works,

that I can latch onto.

And then I can sort of develop it from there.

So, to play a real person,

if you've got an audio recording or something,

it's absolutely priceless.

I played Houdini, I played Andy Warhol,

I played Edward VIII.

I've played other people who were real,

but aren't in the public eye.

So, we don't really know them, per se.

Of course, when you play Andy Warhol,

you've got tons of stuff to view.

When you're playing Houdini,

there's really only audio recordings.

And the sort of slow black and white,

all sort of super-speeded up black and white stuff,

where you're going, Is that him?

I can't really tell.

So, your work's cut out for you a little bit more.

But, obviously, with King Edward, his speech,

his abdication speech is there online.

You can hear it.

So, it's fascinating, it's really fascinating

if ever I delve into someone who's existed before.

[upbeat music]

Mildred Pierce.

Well, I'm about to work with the lovely Kate Winslet again.

Pretty much exactly 10 years on

from doing that wonderful show with Todd Haynes.

That was just a delightful experience.

My agent called me and said,

Todd Haynes and Kate Winslet,

they're doing Mildred Pierce for HBO.

I said, Just say yes.

Just say yes.

They said, Well, they'll send you the scripts.

I'm like, Yeah, yeah, sure, just say yes.

It's gonna be great.

You don't do this very often?

Mrs.?

Pierce, no, I should say I don't.

Oh, I'm honored you made an exception, Mrs. Pierce.

I mean, it was fantastic on a number of reasons.

The script was great, Kate was great.

Todd was fantastic.

HBO were really wonderful.

But I was in a great apartment in New York.

I only worked three days a week.

So, it was in summer, well leading up to summer.

So, everything about it was really a dream job, you know?

I went to work and had sex with Kate Winslet a lot.

Can't complain about that.

I still don't know what you do, Monty?

Oh, I don't know.

Fruit, I guess.

My character was pretty well realized

and developed in the script.

There was no doubt about it, he was quite the charmer,

he was a cad but he didn't come across as a conman, per se.

And there was something sort of gently broken about him.

And it all felt really clear on the page.

If I can get what I need just from the script,

then I sort of don't wanna go too far outside of that.

Obviously, they had made Mildred Pierce as a film,

back in 1930-something or other.

And I had a look at that, but then,

it wasn't helpful.

So, I let it go quite quickly.

I read the book, as well.

If there are historical characters, of course

yes, I'm wanting to listen to recordings,

and look at photos, and this, that, and the other.

But it's also about finding your own truth in it, I think.

Whatever that means.

So, you're not mimicking too much.

[upbeat music]

Prometheus.

It's very cool being part of the Alien world.

It's also even more cool to get to play Peter Weyland.

I mean, the guy who kind of created it all.

It wasn't so cool having to wear five hours

of old age prostetic makeup.

Hello friends.

My name is Peter Weyland.

I am your employer.

You have reached your destination.

And I am long dead.

I would get up at two o'clock in the morning.

I would be driven to work and I would start make up

at three o'clock in the morning.

And I'd be ready by eight.

And they could film with me 'till two in the afternoon.

And then I was done.

And I only did about 15 or 17 days, or something, on that.

The tricky thing about that character was I had to wear

this sort of metal exoskeleton thing, as well.

Which meant I couldn't really sit down properly.

I sort of had to sort of stood this and go,

Mm-hmm, let me know when you're ready, mm-hmm, okay.

I'll just wait here, hold on.

No, I don't want a drink, I'm fine, thanks.

There was one day where I went in,

did all the makeup, got to my room.

And they came in one day and said,

We're just running a bit behind already this morning.

We'll get to you shortly, we'll let you know.

I went, Okay.

Well, an hour went by, and another hour went by,

and they kept popping their head in saying,

We're sure we're gonna get to you.

At about one o'clock, they went, So, it's up to you.

You could probably take all of this off.

Or we might get to you.

What do you think?

And I'm, by this point, I'm atrophied, frozen to the spot.

And I don't think I filmed that day.

What was more difficult was the hour that it took

to get the makeup off.

[dramatic music]

Or have you lost your faith?

The reason why Ridley cast me

was because he wanted to see a younger

Peter Weyland, as well.

There's a scene where Michael Fassbender

puts on the special goggles where he gets to talk

to Peter Weyland, who's sort of cryogenically

sort of having a big rest.

And then through the goggles, we enter the world

that Peter Weyland is dreaming that he's in whilst being

cryogenically frozen, or asleep.

And that world was gonna be young Peter Weyland

on a fabulous yacht with all these lovely ladies

in the Carribean, or something like that.

And Michael Fassbender would appear

and we'd have this conversation.

Ridley couldn't find a yacht that he liked.

And then they wanted to build a yacht.

And they couldn't afford that, or whatever happened.

They said we'll eventually get to that scene, don't worry.

And in the end they went, Well, we probably don't need it.

It's just fine to have Michael with his goggles on

and hearing him talk and you just understand

that he's talking to Peter Weyland.

They could've just cast a 100-year-old guy.

Instead of me.

But I'm very happy to have played Peter Weyland.

And I would do anything for Ridley, so that's okay.

Also, just working in 3D with 3D cameras.

What was funny though was Ridley coming up to,

'cause he would have to wear his 3D glasses at video village

watching playback.

And then he would come up to you and give you direction

with these crazy 3D glasses on.

And then he'd remember, throw them down.

Oh, those bloody things.

[upbeat music]

Iron Man 3.

With any of the sort of villains that you play,

you get to the heart of where it started,

why it's occurring, what the initial intentions were.

And if someone's got a chip on their shoulder,

and then it just sort of develops,

and develops, and develops,

where somebody just needs to get revenge,

or needs to feel like they have a place in the world.

That's great stuff to play because, are they a villain,

or are they just kind of out of kilter

and then just get carried away with themselves?

Oh wow, hey Tony.

Aldrich Killian.

I'm a big fan of your work. My work?

Aldrich Killian's a young man who's quite a science nerd.

But somebody's who's really rejected from society.

And through the brilliance of his innovation and invention,

he's able to create something that enables him

to kind of morph into the most perfect version of himself.

And comes back a kind of a better,

supposedly a better man, you know?

Pepper.

Killian?

You look great, you look really great.

So, we go from one extreme to another.

Which was really quite fascinating and, obviously,

people have seen the film and they know how it turns out.

[dramatic music]

It's not that I actively went,

I'm gonna do my fight scenes in Birkenstocks.

But if my feet on not on camera,

then I wanna be comfortable, okay?

[Guy laughing]

And I remember Robert saying to me,

Are you wearing Birkenstocks?

I said, Yes.

He said, I've never done a scene with anybody

in Birkenstocks, let alone a fight scene.

And I said, Well, it's hot in here.

You know, the boots are uncomfortable and stuff, so yeah.

Thanks to Birkenstock for my comfy acting shoes.

They're my acting shoes.

How dare you suggest they're anything less.

[Guy laughing]

Robert broke his ankle in the middle of that film,

'cause he had to a stunt where he had to jump

from one platform down to another platform,

and be on a cable.

And they wanted to rehearse it and he said,

No, I don't need to rehearse it.

And he jumped and the guy

holding the cable wasn't quite sort of ready or something.

And he landed hard and he broke his ankle.

So, the film sort of shut down for like five or six weeks.

That's actually the second film that I've worked on

where the lead actor's broken their ankle.

Adam Sandler broke his ankle on Bedtime Stories.

But on the weekend, he was playing basketball

with his neices and nephews and broke his ankle.

So, I don't know if it's me.

[upbeat music]

The Innocents.

I've done lots of television when I was in my teens

and in my 20s, I did two television shows in Australia

that both went for four years.

So, long-running TV shows.

I learned a lot and really great to work on.

But not the quality really of the shows

that are being made these days.

But I still, you know I'm an old-fashioned guy.

I still prefer making films just because a one-off thing,

and it's there up on the big screen.

And to be able to encapsulate a story in an hour and a half,

or two hours, feels like a greater feat to me in a way,

then having the luxury of spreading it out

over five or eight episodes.

But that's fine too.

That's the beauty of it, is being able to do that.

But something like The Innocents,

that was fascinating for all sorts of reasons.

We shot in Norway, we were up in the fjords.

And just the most extraordinary landscape around us.

[dramatic music]

Dr. Halvorson was somebody who I think also,

possibly like Aldrich Killian,

started off with good intentions

and things got a little sort of out-of-hand.

He's somebody who's discovered this really rare

genetic condition that only exists in these Nordic women.

When they are faced with a really emotional

or extreme kind of situation,

they as a sort of a defense mechanism,

they morph into the person that they're with.

[dramatic music]

And the doctor that I play is somebody who discovered this

and really wanted to get to the bottom of it.

But, of course, he'd been ostracized

from the British medical community in England

some years before.

So, he felt the pressure from the outside

and I think he was somebody who you felt

was really sort of coming apart at the seems.

Really interesting, odd kind of story.

Yeah, an odd character that I got to play.

[upbeat music]

Bloodshot.

My agent had the script and said,

I thought you might like this.

And I read it and I really did enjoy it.

And I had a great chat with Dave Wilson,

who directed the film.

And Dave, like other directors that I've spoken about,

like Chris Nolan in a way, is able to really straddle

the technical side of things

and the emotional side of things.

Particularly in the visual effects world.

Dave's sort of history with visual effects

is pretty impressive.

But his ability to communicate with us

about what the journey of each character was perfect.

Lovely, lovely guy.

And I just liked the story, I thought it was fascinating.

And this technology, which is seemingly impossible,

but on some level like great science fiction, I suppose,

feels close enough that you kinda go,

Ah, maybe could be real, actually.

That's kind of inspiring and scary at the same time.

At RST, we rebuild the most important assets

in the US military.

Soldiers like yourself.

Dr. Emil Harting runs this organization called RST.

Rising Spirit Technologies.

And he is basically taking wounded soldiers,

injured soldiers, or perhaps even dead soldiers,

and improving them.

Fixing what's not right.

So, if someone's lost a pair of legs through an explosion,

or someone's lost their sight,

or someone's lost their ability to breath,

the breathing apparatus that he then creates

for that person, or the new ocular vision technology

that's implanted into one particular character,

or the new legs that somebody else receives

means that then they're almost bionic.

That they then have additional abilities beyond

what a normal pair of legs or eyes might initially give you.

And, of course, Vin Diesel plays Ray Garrison.

A soldier who has died.

Who has now been brought back to life.

And through this technology that's basically running through

his entire body, he is now essentially a superhuman being.

Do you remember anything?

Vin like Robert Downey, or Adam Sandler,

or any of these kind of guys that are super-famous,

who have an entire sort of industry around them,

I just always find that fascinating.

'Cause I just sneak into work and do my thing,

and then sit in the trailer.

Or whatever and then pop on the set,

and I just do it all on my own.

And there's those guys

who always have a real kind of entourage.

He's really warm-hearted, funny guy.

And he's very aware of the Vin Diesel

sort of franchise, I guess.

So, we had a bit of a laugh about that at times.

Initiate sequence.

[upbeat music]

I always hope whenever I start reading a script

that I'm gonna read something I've not read before.

And if I feel that, then that's always really engaging.

I always just wanna be surprised, I suppose.

Even if I'm playing a character that might be similar

to something that I've done before,

it just needs to feel like

there's a new way in for me, I guess.

Yeah.

[upbeat music]