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It’s tough being Matt Damon
The “Ocean’s Thirteen” cast brought a lot of star power to the Croisette on Thursday, but most of the questions at a press conference were fended off with jokes.
Poor Matt Damon ended up being the butt of most of the joking, and you have to wonder whether he was the guy most picked on during the filming.
When an Australian reporter tried to ask Damon a question about doing so many sequels, Damon couldn’t figure out where the reporter was standing and started mumbling. So the reporter kept saying, “Matt, over here; Matt, over here.”
This brought a bunch of catcalls from the rest of the cast, namely from Don Cheadle, who started rolling in laughter.
Damon eventually responded that he felt a bit “like a prostitute because I’ve done two number threes this year,” referring to the third part of the Ocean’s series and the upcoming third part of the Bourne series.
This prompted fellow cast member George Clooney to jokingly interject, “He’s also done three number twos.”
And when director Steven Soderbergh was asked about the difficulties of trying to herd such an all-star cast, including Clooney, Cheadle, Damon, Brad Pitt and Elliott Gould, Soderbergh said the biggest problem was getting them to stand on their marks.
This prompted yet another round from Cheadle, who kept saying, “Matt, over here! Matt, over here!”
Damon took the joking in stride and said he was open to doing yet a fourth Ocean’s movie, but Clooney sounded more pessimistic: “I think we have sapped this tree.”
Damon also confirmed that the upcoming Bourne movie will be his last in the series.
Clooney fielded most of the questions and set the tone when he announced that “Ocean’s Thirteen” is “basically a cry for peace.”
Notably absent from the press conference was Al Pacino, who plays an evil casino operator who double-crosses Elliott Gould’s character, Reuben. This prompts the Danny Ocean group to set up a robbery to punish Pacino.
Jerry Weintraub, the producer, said Pacino couldn’t make it because he was doing an American Film Institute tribute.
The most surprising moment of the press conference came when a Hong Kong reporter questioned whether the movie was stereotyping Chinese with the portrayal of acrobat Yen, played by Shaobao Qin. The actor responded that he didn’t view his character as “clownish,” and that “Ocean’s Thirteen” was “just entertainment.”
Elsewhere …
James Gray has directed a conventional crime drama in “We Own the Night.” Despite high hopes among most critics, the screening prompted widespread boos on Thursday night.
The movie focuses on Joaquin Phoenix, a nightclub manager whose father (Robert Duvall) and brother (Mark Wahlberg) are top police officers in Brooklyn. The trouble arises from the discovery that the nightclub is the center for a Russian drug ring.
Phoenix’s character, Bobby, resists cooperating with the police, only to discover that he’s going to have to choose between his career and his family.
It’s a formula for tragedy, and Bobby eventually decides to seek vengeance. Perhaps that’s why the European audience was offended. America is generally seen as having a predisposition toward vengeance, and that’s not at all a popular stance in the context of the Iraq war. The only way vengeance plays well over here is when it’s ironic, as is Quentin Tarantino’s “Death Proof.”
Still, Gray’s movie is tautly directed and well-acted. It’ll probably do well in the States, the European reaction notwithstanding.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Cannes
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By Seldon L Harp
May 26, 2007 1:24 AM | Link to this
If you are going to bother to send someone to Cannes you might make it a little easier to find the coverage. Austin is a college town aside from a very indedpendent newspaper. Cannes is a precursor to the Ocsars. Perhaps Austin is just line dancing and the State Capitol which have very little in common. As far as we know?