The Identical<\/a><\/i>, the latest film to be pitched to the \u201cfaith-based\u201d market.<\/p>\nThe film opens this weekend, and I had a chance to speak to Liotta over the phone. Here is an edited transcript of our interview.<\/p>\n
\u2013<\/p>\n
How did you get involved with this film?<\/b><\/p>\n
Liotta: Actually it simply was offered to me. They sent me the script. It came late, I had fallen asleep, I woke up, remembered the script was out there, went down and got it, couldn\u2019t fall back to sleep, decided to start looking at it, and I couldn\u2019t put it down. I just loved it. I loved everything about it. I loved every character. There are some issues that I related to that made it personal for me, though I don\u2019t usually look for that, but it just so happened that there was.<\/p>\n
Can you talk about what those issues were?<\/b><\/p>\n
Liotta: Yeah, I\u2019m adopted, and in this show, my character \u2014 I\u2019m a preacher \u2014 my wife and myself, played by Ashley Judd, we adopt a kid because a family had twins and they could hardly afford anything, because it starts in the Depression and goes through the \u201970s. So that issue really hit me hard as it does to Blake\u2019s character [Ryan Wade, the adopted son played by Blake Rayne].<\/p>\n
Now the biggest difference is I knew about it \u2014 my parents told me I did a report about it in kindergarten for show and tell \u2014 whereas this character doesn\u2019t realize he\u2019s adopted at all, and finds out about it much, much later in his life. So it was really shocking for him, he really needs to kind of put that together. I\u2019m of the ilk that it\u2019s always good to let a kid know if they are adopted, let them know as soon as they can start understanding it, or even before. So this was very different in that sense.<\/p>\n
This seems like a very different kind of role for you, playing a preacher, and not one of those negative horror-movie preachers, but a guy who seems like a really decent person.<\/b><\/p>\n
Liotta: Oh, that\u2019s one of the reasons why I loved it. No, no, this is a man who is very, very serious about his preaching, his belief in God, his wanting to spread the word, his wanting to help other people. It\u2019s almost to the point where\u2013 Part of the movie is me wanting my son to follow in my footsteps, and I think the one error that he, my character, eventually learns is that everybody needs to find their own way. You can\u2019t make a kid do something that you want to do, and you have to kind of let everybody develop their own interests in their life. You can\u2019t subject yourself on them.<\/p>\n
Was that part of the appeal of the role for you, getting to play somebody who\u2019s kind of different from the Goodfellas<\/i> or Sin City<\/i> kind of characters that you\u2019ve played?<\/b><\/p>\n
Liotta: Yeah, I mean, I\u2019ve done movies like Dominick & Eugene<\/i> and Corinna Corinna<\/i>, just a couple months ago I did a movie with the Muppets. I\u2019ve played my share of nice guys, but the bad guys just seem to stand out in people\u2019s minds! And I think that\u2019s true for most actors who\u2019ve played good guys and bad guys, you usually remember the bad. It\u2019s much more dynamic, sometimes it\u2019s scary. I just finished a western, I\u2019ve been trying to do as many different parts as I can. It\u2019s a very, very hard business, and sometimes it\u2019s hard to stop on a dime and change things, but if you stick to it, eventually it comes about, as long as you\u2019re putting in the work.<\/p>\n
What kind of research did you do for the role? Did you visit any tent evangelists or anything like that?<\/b><\/p>\n
Liotta: Oh yeah. I watched a lot of Billy Graham. On YouTube, there\u2019s just so many of his sermons, when he was younger to how he was older. And like this movie, I age in it \u2014 it covers, like, 40 years \u2014 so to watch Billy Graham, the fiery kind of preaching that he did in the beginning to how he was much more mellower but yet the message was getting across just as strong was very interesting to me.<\/p>\n
And then we shot this down in Nashville, Tennessee, where there\u2019s more churches than people. I mean, there\u2019s just so many churches there in Nashville, and of all the different denominations, and I would go, different days of the week, and listen to mass, and listen to the sermons, and see how they were delivering, some were better than others, just like anything else, and whether it\u2019s actors, or television people, plumbers, there\u2019s good and there\u2019s bad. So sometimes I learned just as much from somebody who wasn\u2019t<\/i> really getting their message across.<\/p>\n
Did anything surprise you in the research? Anything that maybe came into the film that wasn\u2019t there originally?<\/b><\/p>\n
Liotta: Yeah, my faith is starting to come back a little more. I was brought up Catholic, and there were certain dynamics of why I tended to get away from it, and I also read the Bible a lot, New Testament and Old Testament, and a lot of it is eye-opening, and it really is a guide of how to live your life, and you can sometimes have your cake and eat it too. And as I\u2019m getting older\u2013 I know a lot of people find religion as they get older, for their fears alone. \u201cIf there really is a heaven and hell, I\u2019d better hedge my bets!\u201d But this part just opened up some things that were laying dormant.<\/p>\n
How much of a challenge was it, playing someone who ages so much, roughly 40 years?<\/b><\/p>\n
Liotta: I did it once before. I played Frank Sinatra in an HBO series, a movie called The Rat Pack<\/i>, so it started with old Frank and then it went back to when he was beginning. Luckily, we didn\u2019t use as many prosthetics. Personally, I just hate all the glue and the stuff they have to put on your face, but that being said, when it\u2019s the right lighting and the right angles, you really do age. I thought they did a great job in this. It wasn\u2019t over-the-top, it wasn\u2019t too bizarre, it still looked like me, just an older version of me \u2014 which wasn\u2019t fun to see!<\/p>\n
I really loved the scene where your son basically tells you that he quit the seminary, and your acting in that scene in particular was really good. You can feel the frustration but you can also feel the love.<\/b><\/p>\n
Liotta: Oh that\u2019s great. I appreciate that, thank you.<\/p>\n
What was it like working on a scene like that, with an actor like Blake who is brand new at the job?<\/b><\/p>\n
Liotta: He was great. He really held his own. His character is on a journey, so in the beginning, when he\u2019s not sure of himself, and me as his father is harping on what I want him to do, there was a\u2013 We developed a relationship before we started, and the great thing about acting is it\u2019s just playing pretend. And kids do it the best, they do it totally committed to what they\u2019re doing, they don\u2019t care if anyone\u2019s watching, and it\u2019s basically the same thing with acting, and once you understand that mentality, it becomes a lot easier to do, and the more committed that I<\/i> am in the scene, it forces him\u2013 I was listening to a thing about Michael Jordan the other day, there was an interview with him on the NBA network, and he said he became better when there were really good people around him or challenging him. And I think that\u2019s true with acting. It happened for me when I was younger, and my first couple movies, and I think it worked for Blake.<\/p>\n
When I spoke to Blake<\/a>, he talked about how, when he was younger, he wanted to do high school drama and stuff but his parents wouldn\u2019t let him because it wasn\u2019t a job like becoming a doctor or whatever, he had to be on that track instead, and that\u2019s a lot like his character. I\u2019m curious about yourself. How was your own experience with parents either encouraging or discouraging that sort of thing?<\/b><\/p>\nLiotta: Mine were great. The only reason why I became an actor was because of my parents. What happened was, it came time to go to college. I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was an average student. I walked out of my SATs. My dad said go to college, pick whatever you want. I got into the University of Miami because at that time, in the \u201970s, you just needed a pulse to get in there. So I got into that, I was just going to take liberal arts. As I was in line for liberal arts, I finally got to talk to the person at the head of the line, and some of the subjects that I had to take \u2014 like math or history, I\u2019m not sure what it was \u2014 I just didn\u2019t want to do. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I knew I didn\u2019t want to do math and history again.<\/p>\n
Right next to it, in registration, was for the drama department. I took a step over and said, \u201cAll right.\u201d I had a drama class in high school. I just had a blast, and it was easy, and I didn\u2019t take it very serious, and because I didn\u2019t want to go to college but my parents said, \u201cGo, go, take whatever you want,\u201d I said, \u201cFine, I\u2019ll be a drama major,\u201d never thinking at all that I wanted to be an actor.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s a typical story: there\u2019s this cute girl in line, she said, \u201cAre you auditioning for the play,\u201d I said, \u201cNo,\u201d she berated me, and I ended up auditioning and got in. I played a dancing waiter in Cabaret<\/i>. And there was a great acting teacher there. But all of this happened because of my parents and their openness, no question about it. There\u2019s no way this would have happened without my dad saying that.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s awesome.<\/b><\/p>\n
Liotta: Yeah, it\u2019s funny how things work out.<\/p>\n
If there was one thing you wanted someone to take away from this film, what would it be?<\/b><\/p>\n
Liotta: That they were entertained. It\u2019s great if somebody learns something, it\u2019s great if they can look at themselves about maybe being a parent that\u2019s being too didactic in terms of telling their kids what they want them to do and how they should do it, and you just have to let people find themselves. But most of all, you just want people to be entertained. And I think this is a really great movie with a beautiful message.<\/p>\n
This movie goes through a number of musical styles. Do you have a preferred style, or favorite style?<\/b><\/p>\n
Liotta: Of music? I\u2019m across the board. I gravitate more\u2013 I grew up more in the \u201970s, so \u201970s type music and movies. But I remember I was on a soap opera in the late \u201970s, early \u201980s, and I remember going to Studio 54, and sometimes if a good disco song comes on in my car, I\u2019ll just be bopping and dancing along. So I\u2019m pretty much across the board. I like a lot of different\u2013 My iPod is very eclectic.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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<\/a>From Something Wild<\/i> to Goodfellas<\/i> and this year\u2019s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For<\/i>, Ray Liotta has played a lot of crazy, criminal and disreputable characters \u2014 but he\u2019s also played his share of decent characters, too.<\/p>\n