Interviews: ‘The Book Thief’ Red Carpet at 2013 Chicago International Film Festival

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CHICAGO – On November 27th, “The Book Thief” opened everywhere across the country. The film was adapted from a popular novel by Markus Zusak, and involves a book loving girl navigating the horrors of the Holocaust during World War II, living in a foster home in Berlin. Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush portrays her foster parent, Sophie Nélisse is the girl and Brian Percival (“Downton Abbey”) directed the film.

Last month, the trio came to Chicago to walk the Red Carpet before the film’s debut at the 49th Chicago International Film Festival. HollywoodChicago.com was there, and captured the images and interviews that night.

StarGeoffrey Rush, Portrays Hans in “The Book Thief”

Geoffrey Rush is one of the most recognizable and popular character actors of the current film era. After a distinguished stage career, he broke through in 1996, winning the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in “Shine.” He solidified his credentials as Captain Hector Barbossa in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series of films, and had the title role in HBO network’s “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers” in 2004. His most recent triumph was as therapist Lionel Logue opposite Colin Firth in “The Kings Speech” (2010). In “The Book Thief,” Rush portrays Hans Hubermann, the foster parent for the title character.

Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Rush on the Red Carpet at last month’s Chicago International Film Festival
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com: As an actor, are you cognizant that your manner must be different and era appropriate when playing a character in another time, like the 1940s in ‘The Book Thief, or is that not as important as the spirit of the character?

Geoffrey Rush: It’s a bit of both. I love peripheral reading and finding the context of the character. I will give you an example. The ‘Pirates’ movies initially received a lot of backlash because everyone said, ‘oh my god, Hollywood is going down the toilet, they are now making films about a theme park ride.’ And I’m thinking, between the years 1660 and 1700 there was an imperial colonial age, when lots of treasure was sailing around – the Spanish Catholics were fighting the English Protestants – and this is the roots of piracy. Hang on, the pirates were saying, we don’t have to do anything legally, we can just kill people and take their gold.

On ‘The Book Thief,’ I found this fantastic book, which was about the ‘Day in the Life of Nazi Germany,’ which covered the years 1933 – when Hitler became Chancellor – to the end of World War II. It had all the significant historical spikes, but it also has what was happening to the ‘man on the street,’ their families and the communities. It was good to get in touch with that feeling.

HollywoodChicago.com: When you did the Peter Sellers biography film, did you find yourself picking up that strange schizophrenia and psychosis that Mr. Seller’s possessed?

Rush: I tried not to, but it was very hard. I like to hang the character up at the end of the day, which is part of my theater background. The curtain comes down, you go to the bar for a few drinks and you go home and have supper. I just shed the character afterward.

However, I did come to make me realize, by the end of that shoot, that as an actor it had me confront my own relationships with my children, my own neurosis and pressures of the career. My conclusion was I’m very boring – and very sane.

HollywoodChicago.com: What you talk about your love for acting, what is the first thing you talk about?

Rush: The pleasure of the team. And I’ve been on films were that team is big. When I did ‘Shakespeare in Love,’ I’m the theater owner, with 20 other guys who are my acting troupe, and we hung out everyday. And for me, as an Australian, I was meeting these funky young guys who were five years out of drama school and were proudly regional at this point. They were proud to be from all over the world, and we were all doing 17th Century London accents. [laughs]

Star Sophie Nélisse, Portrays Liesel in “The Book Thief”

The 13 year old French-Canadian actress had her first major role in an American motion picture in “The Book Thief.”

Sophie Nélisse
Sophie Nélisse on the Red Carpet at last month’s Chicago International Film Festival
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the key emotion you had to find in understanding Liesel as a character?

Sophie Nélisse: I think I had to base the character within what happened during the Holocaust. I read a lot and watched different films, to understand what people at that time thought and what their feelings were. And also when I had emotional scenes when I had to cry, I tried to make it as natural as possible.

In the beginning, I didn’t know how to cry. So I went to talk to Brian [Percival, the director] and I told him I didn’t know what he was going to do, because I can’t cry. He assured me that they could make it work, with drops or something, but when we filmed that first crying scene, I actually cried! I was so happy, jumping around, saying ‘I can cry.’ If I’m doing it, I wanted it to be natural.

HollywoodChicago.com: Beyond the historically difficult setting, what did you appreciate and what did you hate about being a girl in the 1940s?

Nélisse: I didn’t dislike anything, it was all so amazing. It was like stepping into a time machine and coming out the other side. When I saw the sets, they were so true, especially during the end when everything was bombed out. It was devastating to me. Another thing I loved, we were filming in Berlin, and I would go from the Second World War to ‘new’ Berlin, all modern and alive.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you about acting?

Nélisse: Like I said, stay natural. My acting coach on ‘Monsieur Lazhar’ [2011], my first movie, told me to seek being natural and not to overact. Even if I was just standing in a scene, and reacting to other characters, just do it as if the camera wasn’t on. That was the best advice for me.

StarBrian Percival, Director of “The Book Thief” and “Downton Abbey”

Besides getting a shot at “The Book Thief,” British director Brian Percival has steered seven episodes of the popular BBC series “Downton Abbey.” Working mostly in television since 2001, “The Book Thief” is his first major film.

Brian Percival
Director Brian Percival on the Red Carpet at last month’s Chicago International Film Festival
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com: How did the scope of a historical drama like ‘Downton Abbey’ prepare you for the grand opera of ‘The Book Thief’?

Brian Percival: Even before ‘Downton,’ I’d done a number of historic adaptations, even indulging in the Victorian era in England. I love working in that context, because I love taking the audience there, and getting them lost in that time and place. I’m happy working with period and costume pieces.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is the strangest moment of ‘Downton Abbey-mania’ that you’ve either been exposed to or have observed?

Percival: It’s so bizarre, really. I guess the strangest is when the show first came to America, and we got a lot of interest from the Emmys. I was fortunate enough to have a meeting with Stacey Snyder, who is Steven Spielberg’s second-in-command. I went into these marvelous offices in Hollywood, and after Stacey greeted me, the first thing she said was ‘what happens to Mr. Bates in series three’? [laughs]

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, what is the first thing you talk about when you talk about your love for film?

Percival: When I went to college, a really good friend of mine and I got together and formed a cinema club, and we used to watch indie and art house films. We’d get one a week, and they were still all in film cans. And that’s when I fell in love with the art of film. I also loved the mainstream stuff, but it wasn’t until those cinema club films that I became interested in a different form of film, and it was that time that defined what I do today.

“The Book Thief” opened everywhere on November 27th. Featuring Geoffrey Rush, Sophie Nélisse, Emily Watson and Roger Allam. Screenplay adapted by Michael Petroni. Directed by Brian Percival. Rated “PG-13”

HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Patrick McDonald

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2013 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

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