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 Chapter 4 - A Civilized Façade |
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 "Mort is a guy whose life, work and even his wife, have been taken from him, and to a certain extent he feels that everyone around him is responsible," Hutton continues. "As the story progresses the characters' lives and emotions become increasingly interwoven, and you're not quite sure who is interfering with whom. It could be Ted. It could be Shooter. It could even be Amy. It's a wonderfully paranoid thriller with the suspense playing out until the very end."Charles S. Dutton assumed the role of Ken Karsch, the urbane New York detective who is a friend of Mort's and is hired to make sense of the increasingly disturbing and perilous events that ensue after Shooter first appears. With his sleek, tailor-made suits and strategic jewelry, coupled with the understated yet undeniable grit, cleverness and street smarts of an ex-cop, Karsch is a unique and indomitable force - who, ironically, proves to be as vulnerable as Mort.
"Charles is an extremely authoritative actor," says Koepp. "His voice, his bearing, his whole presence, convey a strength and a sort of effortless certainty," Koepp says. "I liked that Ken was exactly the kind of person Mort would turn to in this situation. Mort is frightened and feels unsafe, so he reaches out to someone he thinks can protect him the best."
Interestingly, the man Mort hires Karsch to trail is someone Dutton has known in real life for quite some time. "I've known John for 20 years," he says. "We went to school together, but we've never had the opportunity to work together in a film.
Even though we didn't have any scenes together, at least we're in the same film," Dutton laughs.
Secret Window marks the second time Dutton has worked with Depp. "It's always a gas working with Johnny. He's an old pro and has a certain kind of automatic coolness he brings to all of his roles. The mystery of the story was great.
It taps into that little dark side in all of us."
Dutton was particularly impressed by Koepp's abilities as a director. "David is not an intrusive director. He's been doing this long enough to know that casting is 80% of the job. He basically let us do what we do, though he was fast, witty, intelligent and knew what he wanted - which is extremely helpful in a movie like this. To give you an example, I had a pretty good idea of how I wanted to play Ken, but David was good at offering the little nuances. After a couple of notes, the tendency as an actor is to do the obvious unless you have a good director who can say, "No back off here and there.' My first instinct was to act the tough guy, but after a few discussions with David we decided to hold the tough guy stuff for later in the performance."
Dutton adds that, contrary to popular belief, it was a boon to have the writer on the set at all times. "I imagined it might be a headache to have a director who is also the writer.
It could have been, 'Hey, listen, I wrote this. I know exactly what I want, and you're not doing it the way I envisioned it.' But it was the exact opposite with David.
He'd let you change the dialogue if it was appropriate.
He would ask, 'What do you think?
Is this too wordy?
Is there too much there? Is it too corny?'
So, in that regard, it was very pleasant, because he was so open to new ideas."
"During the course of shooting a movie, the days become long and we all become a little anesthetized," Koepp explains. "So, anytime you can do something unexpected, I think it helps the actors. There is a scene at the beginning of the movie where Mort bursts into a motel room and finds Amy and Ted in bed together and realizes she's been cheating on him. I wanted Maria and Tim to really be startled.
Since we shot the scene at night, we rigged the lights so that they would all be out until the moment Johnny opened the door and then we hit Maria and Tim with a huge amount of light. We also hid some huge stereo speakers behind various objects, and I cranked up some really nasty acid rock. It produced quite a nice reaction. They had literally been in the dark while we were setting up the shot, so they had no idea what was coming."
Bello recalls that the tactic was extremely effective. "Tim and I had no idea what was going on outside our little motel room set. We must have been in that bed for 20 minutes in the dark. We didn't even hear David call action and we weren't sure when Johnny was going to come through the door.
So, when the door burst open and this crazy loud music came on, we freaked. It was so real we couldn't help but react. Most directors would have said, 'OK, sit here with the camera, pretend he is coming through the door, ready, go.'
But David gave us so much to work with. He has this amazing sense of humor, and he's incredibly smart. He really let us play and explore. I'm so impressed with him as a director. He and Johnny really set such a nice tone on the set. They're both very easygoing."
Sometimes, Koepp admits, his surprises didn't always work according to plan. There was another scene with Bello that required her to be terrified the entire day, while Koepp shot her from a variety of angles. About midway through, Koepp attempted to shake things up a bit by rigging another shock. "I asked the prop guy for a gun because I wanted to shoot a starter pistol on the third or fourth take, when Maria had become complacent. I was all excited about it and passed the word to the crew to wear earplugs. When I fired it, it turned out to be a cap gun, only slightly louder than my 6-year-old's toy gun. It actually made her laugh. The good news is that the actors are all so good that they didn't really need that sort of thing."
For Koepp, Secret Window is very much in keeping with his body of work. He has considerable experience in the thriller genre. All the films he has directed fall into this category, as have several of the scripts he's written. 'I don't know why I am drawn to thrillers. I'm from Wisconsin and we're very nice people.
But, you know, everyone has some sort of nasty impulse inside them and it has to come out somewhere. Fortunately, I work in a field where I can express that in a legal manner," Koepp deadpans.
Beyond that, Koepp admits that he is fascinated by exploring the surface people present and what's below it. "Everyone has their pleasant, civilized façade, but what are the instincts and impulses that lurk below that? Who acts on them and who doesn't? Those are the kind of questions I'm drawn to. In terms of the movie-going experience of a thriller, I think that it's quite compelling, especially when we watch it as a group in a theater. There is a communal pull that both suspense movies and comedies have in common."
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 Next Page: A Nod to Kubrick |
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