At the end of Cannes, everyone’s looking for a little bit of a release from the serious social commentary and inspirational art of some of the films — and this year, they got it with “Drive,” Nicolas Winding Refn’s crime thriller starring Ryan Gosling (“Blue Valentine,” “The Notebook”) as a driver-for-hire in both Hollywood and L.A.’s underworld. Speaking with Gosling the next day beachside, the 30-year-old actor was a little taken aback by the crowd’s reaction to the film the night before. “I was shocked. I didn’t expect people to cheer. They almost started dancing at one point toward the end. I didn’t expect it to be so much … I didn’t expect people to have so much fun. But I think you’re right: It does have a lot to do with the timing.”
I asked Gosling what it was like to do the rehearsals and run-throughs for a Cannes premiere; he smiled. “I had spent the night before — at 2 a.m. we went to the Palais …” — Cannes’ main building — “… just 5 or 6 of us, and we went and sat and watched a little bit of the print to check the color and to check the sound. Apparently they only go to 7, but we made them go up to 7.5. ”
“It was a very special experience to get to be there alone and see the film, walk around in the theatre while it was empty. It made going there the next day less nerve-wracking. Then, of course, REO Speedwagon’s (‘I Can’t Fight this Feeling Anymore’ is) playing when we came down the red carpet. I was wearing a blue tuxedo, and I felt like me and Nic (Refn) were going to prom. Then everyone seemed to have so much fun in the screening. It was a magical night.”
Gosling — who hand-picked Refn to direct “Drive” — feels like the film is both a great action film and a commentary on action films, describing his character Driver as “… someone who’s seen too many movies. It feels to me like he’s someone who had seen so many movies that they began to confuse their own life for one.” At the same time, Driver’s not a traditional action-hero full of one-liners and snappy dialogue. “A lot of action movie heroes are full of bluster. The only time he says he’s going to kick somebody’s ass is when he means it; otherwise he can be a little girl. He doesn’t come on to the girl (Carey Mulligan) very hard. We never really talked about those classic archetypical characters, ‘the strong silent type.’ Every time I started talking — maybe it was just me — but it didn’t feel right.”
I asked Gosling about Driver and how the movie is short on any ‘backstory,’ for Driver, which made me wonder if Gosling thought about the character that way. He smiled. “I’m used to figuring out the minutia of the character, and Nicolas could care less. He wants to think in dream logic. The film was so freeing to think that way — that this movie’s a dream that’s turning into a nightmare, and we’re experiencing this story from inside the driver’s world. This could be his fantasy or his nightmare; it’s not literal, so we didn’t really think about those things.”
–From my article at The Rundown
