By Tonisha Johnson

After several years of working on this project, director and co-writer Adam Goldberg talks about his latest film “I Love Your Work”. With plenty of acting experience under his belt, Goldberg takes on many other roles for this film. Writing, directing, and even working on the soundtrack for this psychological ride is just a typical days work in movie making for the multi-talented Goldberg. 

Where did you start, or when would you say you had the idea, or the impulse to start directing? Was it when you were a kid?

Goldberg: Uh, yes it was. I mean I started making little movies I guess, and when I was about fifteen and I really kept making longer movies, you know and lesser grade films, and you know, and video was born, so I did shorts and stuff. I went to college for a year, Sarah Lawrence, and I dropped out, really ‘cause I thought that was something I was going to do, and I didn’t initially, but anyway ended up taking a year off. And I started acting professionally as well as non-professionally, and I don’t mean that in an “unprofessional” manner. I did end up going back to film school for like ten days, but then I realized that I’d just been out of school too long, and I couldn’t handle it, I didn’t want to be there. Um so yeah, that’s what I wanted to do.

How would you say as a director, that you made, or your acting career helped to get this project made?

Goldberg: Um, I don’t know, I suppose there’s always some interest that I was making a movie, you know, I mean I really don’t know, I honestly don’t know how much of it has to do with a script or if people have some, you know, people’s perception of me, or whatever, I mean I really don’t know, I’m not sure…I suppose the practical application of having been an actor was that a lot of people in the film, I worked with, although contrary to popular belief, not in fact all of them, in fact not very many of them…well not hardly any of the main cast, except for Giovanni. But a lot of them, not all.

I’ve read about how you met Christina, and wanted her for the part, that you didn’t really know her, but you met through mutual friends.

Goldberg: Right

How do you see the difference between approaching someone for a project like this with, you know, being an actor and her being an actor, as opposed to some guy who gave you his headshot last night?

Goldberg: Well, it wasn’t like that. I didn’t meet her and hand her a script or anything, she like other people in the film, Franka, Joshua, you know, she was offered the role, conventionally, you know through agents, so yeah, so we knew each other, sort of, I mean we had met, but you know, so she responded the way that Franka responded which was that she read the script, liked it, and then we got together and that’s really, you know, what happened.

But even if you guys were hanging out and you see somebody you know that’s really good…

Goldberg: Well, that’s understandable, it depends, I mean like with Vince, it literally was like a couple of weeks before we were going to shoot, and it was like a nothing two-line part or something, or five-line part, I was like “do you want to do this” , and “yeah-sure”, and that was like that, but not for the main characters. Jared Harris and I had known each other and knew that we, he in fact had asked me to do something in a film that he was I guess attached to act in, and uh, I believe I agreed, but then my film came around and so, I’m sure I have to talk to him about it, but still, it doesn’t always go through with something like that.

As far as your directing career, you said you had always wanted to direct, is that what you concentrate now on?

Goldberg: Well I mean, no, I can’t fully commit myself to that because I’d go broke, I’d have to lower my standard of living

But is it something you think you planned on originally? How did the acting came about?

Goldberg: I always think of them as just kind of being concurrent kind of passions as a youngster, and that one is just more accessible, a more accessible means by which to make a living I guess, and not even just that, I mean you can act in twenty things a year or whatever, I mean twenty movies, television shows or whatever, but when you make a film, assuming that you write it yourself, obviously it takes a whole huge chunk of your life and unless it’s like “Lord of the Rings” or something, then it’s not really a good idea to put all of your eggs in that basket, as much as I would love to do it, be like independently wealthy and make these movies, that’d be great

How long would you say you’ve been sitting on this project, this particular idea?

Goldberg: Well I think the initial idea was in a very, very seed-like state, until probably maybe 1996, I think. I really didn’t think much of it until I started writing it in 2000, but it was just a very basic premise, of like a movie star sucks at fame, you know, I thought that would be an interesting twist on something, but then I had this sort of, you know I didn’t want to, ultimately that just becomes a, this sort of, this seed, or germ whatever, around which I think things that are a lot more emotionally rooted end up forming, but you know that didn’t happen until some years later

How often do you reach back to these old ideas that may have been tossed aside?

Goldberg: I don’t really have that many ideas. That was the thing that struck me, was when I had this idea, I was like “wow, I had an idea!” Usually I just like mood and you know, I like mood and I like structure, and I’m not a huge fan of conventional, I guess narrative or stories, you know, it’s not even that I’m not a fan, it’s just that doesn’t necessarily feel that organic, like I like it in others, like I like seeing movies that have stories or more conventional matter. My mom, but I’m sorry, where were we? I totally lost my train of thought, my mom completely through me off. What was the…?

I had asked you, how often do you reach back to the old ideas…?

Goldberg: Oh right, so yeah, no, that’s just a rare example of having had this kind of very basic idea. There was something not unlike that recently where I had started to write something which had a bit of a slightly high concept to it, and then I read something, a script, that was made into a film, that you would all know, but I really don’t want to mention it, but the point is that it was so similar that I put the script down and so since then, just very recently stared recycling that idea and just kind of turning it around enough times and re-working it and re-working it, so that it no longer resembles that initial idea, or the film that was very similar, you know, that was made. So I guess I’ve done it, so I guess the answer to your question is very simply, once every five years I do that.

When you were thinking about this idea, did you have certain actors in mind? Did you visualized them going through, I mean were you thinking about that?

Goldberg: A couple, well Giovanni, I mean I think I always think of him in a few instances, well actually since I made my first film in which he played a relatively small role. I, we tried to make, I wrote a film specifically for him that we ended up not making and in this case I was more open, but I’m sure that he was floating around in there because I just always, well ever since then I’ve been looking for an opportunity to do something with him where we really, really collaborated, kind of on a level unusual for maybe a director and an actor, you know, these days, or that we’re used to. And so immediately when I finished this or when I finished a version that I felt was readable, I feel like there was an actress for Christina’s part that I had pictured almost all the way along, and it ended up not being her, but there was someone, sort of the visual image in my head. 

Do you feel like when you’re writing, you hear certain people’s voices?

Goldberg: That would be mine, but then you hire good actors and then you change that, thankfully. 

Did you ever have an idea of being the lead in this movie?

Goldberg: No, I mean I never thought, well A, I don’t want to do that, I mean it’s just not, that doesn’t have any like interest to me. I think maybe in some sort of weird last resort way you know, there’s certain points where you feel like you’re not going to get the movie made, you can’t, or schedules aren’t working out or something where I’m sure that probably shot through my mind, but A, I don’t think I’m right for the role, and B, I don’t want to direct myself. So not really, no.

The movie’s not really an attack on the lifestyles of Hollywood I understand.

Goldberg: No, not really. 

But do you have…like the whole first couple of scenes are entourage, like moments…

Goldberg: I haven’t seen it, but I’ll take your word for it.

The opposite side of the spectrum, almost, not regretful of the Hollywood lifestyle, but not that into it at all.

Goldberg: Well, the idea is that it’s a catalyst. I mean there’s a lot of external stock which is stimulating a lot of pre-existing internal things for the guy you know, so, I’m sure it could be interpreted at it’s most basic level as some kind of indictment about shallow Hollywood life, that’s sort of what he thinks is happening, but I think it’s sort of using that as kind of an excuse, but it is what’s meant to be sort of hellish and because I think that it’s in part about this guy’s kind of Faustian view, and he sort of wants out kind of way. 

Do you ever feel regrets of any kind of fame that you have?

Goldberg: No, I wish I was more famous, and then I’d earn a little more money, and then I could make more movies. No, I mean…no.

One of the thoughts I had when I saw the movie, was that it’s like a coke movie without the coke. Do you want to talk about that? Because that’s really I think what I kept expecting to see, that he was all coked up, and then he was going psychotic because of that, but I never saw that.

Goldberg: Yeah, well, because that’s not what it’s really about. Well, I , no, actually certain things that are omitted on purpose, coke is actually one of them because you end up unable, aiming at some pot thing, because you know, whatever it’s a kind of almost obligatory frame of reference, but no, I didn’t want to do that because you end up in sort of …it becomes much more about that than anything else. I mean he’s taking pills and smoking, and he’s obviously trying to feed some, you know fill up the void in some way, but the coke think is really distracting. There’s also no computers, there’s certain things that are just not in the film, because I just felt they would sort of destroy the certain reality, that certain surreality. 

Like with the sycophantic director, the like “yeah, yeah, that’s exactly it, that’s just how I want it”.

Goldberg: Yes, you know I’m sure there were some like that, there’s all kinds, you know, there’s the guys that aren’t sycophantic enough, I mean they just treat you like a piece of shit. So it’s like I don’t know, you sort of can’t win. But yeah, I don’t know, I think it’s like this common thing where I think that people maybe struggle with what it is they’re doing to make a living as an actor. But I mean again, that’s just relative, that’s just kind of window dressing in a movie. 

Would you say though that your experience with talent, as a talent is more, I mean how much more faithful can it be? How often would you say you’ve come close to being driven to this kind of mentality?

Goldberg: Not, never that close…but , no, I mean my sense was that if I took the kind of experience that I have where I felt there was a, I mean I sort of had to observe this bizarre fascination with other people’s lives, ie. celebrities’ lives, and celebrity lifestyles in as much as, well certainly actually far more than I probably perceived it, and whatever experience I’ve had with it, I just sort of completely amped up and exaggerated the hell out of. I find that curious and sort of bizarre and a bit unsettling to be sure, but again, I mean I think that the things that are more meaningful to me about the movie are the ideas that its just about everybody in this world of at least this movie and I think society in general not being happy with sort of what they have, and instead of sort of looking inward, looking outward for answers, you know, looking to films, looking to celebrities, celebrities looking back, you know I mean everybody sort of relying on a lot of external factors to provide a kind of fulfillment, I mean that’s really what to me, it’s about. 

I found it very interesting, the concept of the fact that he had people looking at him, but then he wanted to switch it and go through the rabbit hole.

Goldberg: Right, right.

Do you want to talk about the voyeuristic part about it? In other words that people were so voyeuristic towards him, but he had the same thing, I mean he likes to look too.

Goldberg: Sure, I mean I think it’s fairly, I mean I guess the response is fairly straight forward, which is that he himself was a film fan, and being, I mean we’re all I think affected by movies, I guess or fiction you know, it could be literature, it could be movies, but I think particularly, there’s obviously a generation, several generations now, that have grown up being affected by movies, and that sort of thing, and there’s a book, a great book called “life of a movie” and actually if you look very closely in the movie, it’s in there somewhere. And that’s a form of voyeurism, you know. And this guy was a guy who I think was the Josh Jackson character at some point you know, and now he wants to be that guy again, you know, and it just kind of goes, mirrors reflecting mirrors reflecting mirrors. You know, so you don’t even know anymore who the movie star is, who the fan is, you know, but essentially what he’s peering in to is what he views to be his past, or at least his romanticized past. I don’t know whether that’s real or not. 

There are so many mirrors in the film, in a way there’s a lot of shots that are so kind of obvious that they don’t…how did you, even all the allusions, all the films that are sort of referenced in the movie, with the shots and costumes and everything and somehow like in the last ten years there are so many film references in the movies, but this doesn’t really work that way, because it’s part of his mind. And I was wondering, how early that came about?

Goldberg: Yeah, I don’t know, I’m trying to remember. I mean what was actually in the script, in an obviously if you’re writing it, you sort of kind of know, you get a sense of how it’s going to be shot, and that kind of thing, so I don’t know if I made these things that clear, but they evolved probably over time. I know that there’s a very specific reference that was in the script, that became actually less obvious in the final film, but you know, so certain things weren’t in the script, but sort of came about, yeah and again, I mean the film itself obviously is influenced by a certain number of films which seemed pretty obvious to me, but by the same token, again, this guy’s entire vocabulary seems to exist in that world, so although I don’t think I’m a hypocrite, but it is interesting because I don’t like these narratives that I see a lot of these days that are so kind of tonally feel identical to certain films of let’s say the seventies, you know, and they somehow feel kind of soulless a little bit, like very well made and very smartly directed, but they’re somehow soulless, you know, and this is kind of a slippery slope because it’s sort of an indictment in a sense of experiencing your life that way, just in terms of, you know a referential way, yet at the same time, the film itself is referential, so I don’t know. I mean it’s, that’s why I make the subtlety I guess.

What happened with having “Singin’ in the Rain” in the movie, with the tonal difference between the flashbacks with Christina, and the present which you know has bright colors, like during the musical, and then there’s kind of like a paranoid sequence, where he’s like almost like a Scorsese character.

Goldberg: Yeah, I mean as far as how that was, I mean the flashback stuff is certainly, well it’s meant to reference something within the film, but it certainly was inspired by certain, French new-wave movies, I mean pretty blatant, but as far as the present day stuff, I just sort of just went with my gut in terms of colors and color counting, there’s no real reference there, that’s just, I mean I’m sure a lot of stuff has seeped in over the years, you know. The intentional references are there and then the rest of the stuff is just you know, just how I like them to look and feel, or you know, whether it seems appropriate or whatever.

Because I noticed what you put at the end was just like James Dean, and I thought there was some other stuff where he seemed sort of dressed intentionally to refer to other things I thought maybe it was part of the psychology of him being so obsessed with movies.

Goldberg: Right, some of the idea that there’s this kind of timelessness to it, that it crosses time in terms of design and clothing and that sort of thing was like a big topic, and we definitely looked at lots of pictures of different, really just different kinds of periods of fashion, more than anything and that the guy is this sort of sponge not really quite living in the present tense. But perhaps less referencing film and more just kind of aesthetics, in a way, of all kinds you know, so every kind of certain influence in a way. 

I just read more into it, because I kind of associated it with when Joshua Jackson makes a film reference, and his girlfriend says, oh it’s so obvious you’d make a film reference, and that’s what he knows, and it’s what he talks about and it, that’s how he lives, where as she thinks of, maybe a conceptual artist, but that’s not his world, and maybe like the fact that I saw things is even part of me being…

Goldberg: Well the thing is that the whole thing is so much about various forms of sycophantism including aesthetics, you know, sort of blood-sucking that takes place, I mean you can pretty much go to town, I mean there are certain things that are conscious on my part, certain things I’m sure that are preconscious, other things that are unconscious, you know. 

So would you say though, I mean for a large part, Gray can’t really come to terms with all the trappings of stardom, how would you say that you have come to terms with it?

Goldberg: You keep wanting to ask me about my, I’m telling you it’s not all that, I mean I really, I always just think of myself as a guy who makes a living doing something that seems a little bit odd, but I mean I still do it, and that I think that my experience as being in that world to a certain degree, is that it’s oftentimes painful to see how, reliant people are upon their sort of, the perceptions of them, you know. Just the sort of narcissism that it breeds, is the thing I really tried not to let affect me personally, you know it’s pretty difficult, but I just see it kind of eat away at people, you know. That’s certainly in the film I guess. 

Do you ever get sort of turned off by this kind of, fake world where I mean people just kind of attack you and maybe a person is really trying not to get sucked into that. Do you ever get turned off by seeing what can happen with the fame and things like that?

Goldberg: Yeah.

Does it make you kind of regret, what you do?

Goldberg: I think I just regret, I mean I don’t regret doing what I do, but I, it’s really clear to me how damaging it is you know to people’s sense of themselves and it’s been very important for me to maintain other interests and have a life that has nothing to do with all that stuff because, you know, like I said, it really gives people a fractured sense of who they are and in fact I don’t know how people who really devote everything you know to acting or all this kind of vanity reinforcement stuff and you know, your only means of _expression emotionally is what takes place in front of the camera, like all that stuff is psychological. I mean that’s why you read all these stories about people and all the folklore about famous old crazy movie stars, you know because it’s not real, I mean it’s just not a real world.