Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: caleb landry jones, DogMan, exclusive, Grace Palma, interview, Jojo T. Gibbs, luc besson

DogMan Star Caleb Landry Jones on Luc Besson's Pacing & Psychology

Caleb Landry Jones (Finch) spoke to Bleeding Cool about his latest psychological thriller in Luc Besson's DogMan, castmates, X-Men & more.

Few actors could have ever dreamed of making their on-screen debut like Caleb Landry Jones, who did so in the 2007 Coen Brothers classic No Country for Old Men. He would find several high-profile projects since from AMC's Breaking Bad, StudioCanal's The Last Exorcism (2010), NBC's Friday Night Lights, and Columbia's The Social Network (2010) before landing his first major franchise role as Cassidy/Banshee in 20th Century Studio's X-Men: First Class in 2011. Sadly, his tenure as a superhero would be short-lived as Banshee would be given an off-screen death in the follow-up to 2014's Days of Future Past. Jones would be a staple in films, making an occasional TV appearance, including Stonewall (2015), Universal's Get Out (2015), Showtime's Twin Peaks revival, and Searchlight's Three Billboards Outside, Ebbing Missouri (2017). Jones's latest is Briarcliff Entertainment's DogMan from writer-director Luc Besson, which tells the story of a man who, following a traumatic childhood, finds salvation and justice through his connection with dogs. The actor spoke to Bleeding Cool about following Besson's work, finding Douglas' voice as a drag performer, his love of theatre and dogs, the director's pacing, co-stars Jojo T. Gibbs and Grace Palma, and if he sees himself back in Marvel in the Disney era given the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine.

DogMan Star Caleb Landry Jones on Developing Douglas's Voice

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Dogman?'
Jones: I've admired Luc's work since I was a kid. On top of that, Luc is much himself, and in what he writes, there's a lot of him in it. It's his imagination, and it feels much so, especially the more you get to know him, the more you see that his movies are so much him. That excited me very much, so I liked the script. I assumed I would like [laughs] but was also nervous. I was anxious and didn't know how we would do it, how we would go about it, how to make it work, how to make folks come with us on it.
The script you go with it. As far as reading it, you go with the story, and you go with the character. How did we do that in real life? Were you going to use CGI dogs and real dogs? He said, "Real dogs," so I was in because he told me it was impossible. He didn't know how we do it, but he thought it'd be great to do it. He read it and told me, "Real dogs." If he believes it's possible, it's probably possible [laughs].

How do you get your headspace with the script? Were there figures you read about or studied that helped prep your character's psychology?
At one point, Luc gave me some of the magazines that [my character] Douglas would have had from the 20s and stuff. They're neat magazines…there was one of Rosa Ponselle. There was an ad for Victrola, and it said "Rosa Ponselle." I remember looking her up, and I found some of her music that helped me because she's got that operatic, high, and old recording. It's eaten up like crazy and is nothing but harsh noise. You can hear this faint bird in the background, and then, long story short, there was a bunch of stuff like that that helped me get to where we were going.
There wasn't a distinct character or person. It was more about the relationship with his animals, which may make you think of this: "If you walk like this, what does that do to time? All right. Oh, things are a little slower. What do you notice?" These kinds of practical things would start if there's any character or anything of a character; it's because of all these things, but not one specific thing.

Was it difficult? It felt like your character was constantly on the brink of breaking. There is a lighter side to Douglas, but also, at the same time, it's like an institutionalized, perhaps some feral characteristics involved. Was it hard or hard for you to pull back on certain scenes?
Luc shoots so fast. He is unbelievably fast. I've never been on a film set and gotten through a scene or seen him switch camera setups so fast. Everything is so fast. Before you know it, the camera's where he wants it. If someone else didn't get it there, he got it there. Your question before Luc is probably the throughline from the beginning to the end of what I was looking at most when it came to something because I was always looking at Luc and his character. How he relates to his animals and his love for… there's a lot of, like I was saying before, Luc in these in his movies, the more you get to know him, the more you find those things. There's a lot of that in Douglas, too.

He was giving as far as takes and things like that and repetitions or anything, we would play around, go one way, and he likes this, and we try it like that, and then we go like this and then another one, and this happens. That's so different than any of the other ones. It was about playing around with this feeling. Most of the time, when making a movie, if things are going right, stuff is implementing the next thing. You're constantly getting told by making it what to do next, if that makes sense. What are your feelings towards something or something else that you didn't know initially? Suddenly, you're there and going, "Of course, I shut the door. They can't come in. I'm busy!" Whatever it is, suddenly it makes sense, and suddenly, if it's going well, you feel immediacy to these choices because they feel right for the character or something like that.

JoJo and Grace, can you speak about what they were like going through your scenes with them and how they contrast?
With Grace, we got to walk around Paris twice. We got to…I wouldn't say we know each other, but we got to spend time together before we started filming. Shooting her scene where she comes out and bows, and I'm applauding for her. That was the first thing we shot in the movie. The stuff with JoJo at the very end was the stuff before I fell over before I went to the church. In between the two, we had the whole movie that happened. I'm sure that change things. Jojo, we didn't meet each other until we shot the scene. That was the first time we met in the actual scene that you see in the movie, and then we met after the cut. We shot very fast, and the same thing with Grace. We shot that very fast as well. It almost felt like something that was found and happened with Grace. Then it was gone for had been gone for years. At the time, I was telling JoJo or [her character] Evelyn about it, and then I had real memories to say to them about it. I could think back on our walk, I think back on something she said, or how when we shot that scene and how that felt [laughs] where we ended up getting to with the scene, but very different actresses, and different characters. Both ended up helping Douglas immensely.

You were in X-Men First Class, and with alum, questions about a possible Marvel return. Do you see yourself in the MCU, or is it a distant memory now?
I don't know. There was a six-picture deal once upon a time, and then they blew me up. So, as far as I'm concerned, no. I might be singing another tune some other day.

DogMan is available in select theaters on March 29th and expands on April 5th.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!