“The Extra Man,” a charming little film starring Kevin Kline and Paul Dano, directed by “American Splendor” directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini hits theaters this weekend.
We had a quick chance to sit down with the great Mr. Kline last week and the effusive, captivating raconteur went off about a multitude of subjects, including Ivan Reitman’s upcoming Untitled comedy (formerly known as “Friends With Benefits”) starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher as two non-committal daters who try and keep their relationship purely physical, but it’s not long until they both want something more.
Kline talked about his role in the film, plus his love of working with Ivan Reitman who previously directed him in the 1993 Presidential comedy, “Dave.”
“The entitled Ivan Reitman film, I call it. It was really quick. It was a week’s work, and it was fun because we had such a great experience. And I love that he loves actors. I know working with Ivan on ‘Dave,’ he’d say, once he was happy with it, he’d say, ‘Try anything, do something different.’ Sometimes that would lead to a moment where we’d say, ‘Oh, that’s not at all what we were thinking, but seemed to be good.’ But to be afforded the opportunity to play — remember that actors used to be called players — and to play rather extravagantly is fun. I play Ashton Kutcher’s father, who we find out is having an affair with Ashton character’s ex-girlfriend, who’s 23. Sounds like Hollywood. I play a Hollywood actor who had a big hit television series and now he’s taking a lot of drugs.
We’ve written about the cast of Christopher Neil’s coming-of-age tale “Goats,” which at one point tentatively had folks like Josh Brolin, David Duchovny, Robin Wright, Jason Schwartzman and Robert Schwartzman attached. Those names later became folks like Anjelica Huston, Thomas Haden Church and Ty Burrell (ABC’s “Modern Family”). One person rumored to be part of the cast was Kevin Kline and he did confirm his participation in the film, but said the movie lost its funding.
“Yeah. I was supposed to be doing [“Goats”] right now, but one of the backers pulled out at the last minute, so they’re looking elsewhere for the money. This was a film where I have no idea how to play it. But I thought, that’ll be interesting. He’s a goatherd. I’ve never herded goats. They’re raising the money. Whether or not any of the cast will be available next fall or whenever they get the money is a question to be asked.”
Kline also recalled working with the great Robert Altman on “Prairie Home Companion.”
“A really smart director says, ‘Let’s go back and shoot a close-up of that.’ That’s how Bob Altman worked all the time. He’d say, ‘We’re supposed to shoot this scene in the dressing room, but let’s go out into the lobby of the theater.’ This is ‘Prairie Home Companion’. ‘And you and Maya Rudolph, you just improvise a scene, as long as you get that important stuff about the plot point, we’ll make up something.’ Maybe open up a bottle of champagne. And champagne, it doesn’t just open, so I had to make up this whole story to get the cork open. I actually hit Bob who was watching on the monitor. It’s in the movie. I say, ‘Sorry,’ and then go back to the scene. And it was so much fun, because you’re just making it up.”
“The Extra Man” hits theaters next Friday on July 30. – Reporting by Danielle Johnsen
