By: debbie lynn elias
With Stephen Dorff’s acclaimed performance in Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere, a starring role in the big budget action-fantasy film “Immortals”, and an eclectic and diverse mixture of upcoming films on the immediate horizon, it may seem to many that Dorff has skyrocketed onto the scene as an “overnight success”. That is far from the truth. His journey has been long and hard fought and it has been my privilege and pleasure, knowing and watching Stephen for some two decades, as he weathered the peaks and valleys of Hollywood to now stand at the top of the mountain as the leading man and true talent that he is.
Dorff himself candidly admits that prior to working with Coppola on Somewhere there were times even he thought his best career days were behind him. “I remember when I did Blade. I thought that was the end of my career. I felt like I was a real sell-out when I did that; playing a vampire. What’s this? This is the end of my career. I’ll never get a serious movie again. And that was the most successful movie I had been in at that time.” And although Dorff continued to work, it wasn’t until Felon that there was a real resurgence and reinvigoration of the man and his craft. With a stellar turn opposite Val Kilmer, Dorff also executive produced Felon. And then, the phone rang.
“[Sofia Coppola] just called me out of nowhere and asked me to become her partner on that movie [Somewhere]. And we took Europe by storm. Didn’t quite go down as big as we’d all hoped in America, but I think Sofia made a very bold kind of movie and it’s kind of a movie maybe not for everyone but a very quiet movie but I think, incredible movie.”
But the critical acclaim finally put Dorff into leading man status. “I was doing well before Somewhere, but as far as a leading man, as far as playing a more sensitive character, not always playing the villain which I don’t really want to do anymore, which I’m veering away from, Sofia opened those doors again. . .So now, great filmmakers and I [are] making good movies that I want to make now. I didn’t have that opportunity before.” And one of those “great movies” is IMMORTALS.
A fantastical blend of action and Greek mythology as seen through the eyes of director Tarsem Singh, in IMMORTALS, Dorff stars alongside Henry Cavill, Luke Evans, Freida Pinto and Mickey Rourke. As the slave Stavros, he teams up with Cavill’s Theseus and Evans’ Zeus to stop the evil King Hyperion (played by Rourke) from releasing the Titans and destroying humanity. Described by Dorff as “Gladiator meets 300″, IMMORTALS “always felt like Star Wars in the template of the movie. I felt like I was kind of Han Solo.”
According to Dorff, “With Stavros, I felt like he was a slave and attracted to [the Oracle]. And he would rather hook up with a team of people than be on his own and drink the water out of the pool and die on his own. He’s kind of like, ‘Let’s team up with this crew.’ But I feel he’s kind of like the ‘everyman’ of the film. So, in a way, I wanted to make it a little more contemporary, a little more human, a little more like the ‘every guy’.”
A more than slightly athletic and scantily clad role, Dorff jokingly recalled it being “miserable” as he lived on the “Immortals Diet” and a strict training regimen. “IMMORTALS actually was quite intense, the training, because we wear no clothes. It’s the one movie, if you don’t put in the work, you’re gonna look really dumb when you’re older and you rent this puppy. Or your little kid goes, ‘Dad! You’re naked in that movie. Why are you fat?’”
“I met some really cool trainers. It was great to work out. It’s kind of cool… my body was pretty clean from the Immortals Diet.” And just what is the Immortals Diet? “No carbs. Literally. To kind of have no body fat you’ve gotta eat pretty ridiculously clean. It’s really boring. No salt. None of the good stuff.” While filming, Dorff, Cavill and Evans ate “little stunt meals which were like this little box of (indicating a 2 x4 inch bar). And you’d be really hungry”, which led Dorff to binge on his days off. “I would go to McDonald’s. I would go to ice cream places. I would go to pizza places. And literally [got] to the point of I was feeling sick because your body, if you’re eating a certain way for a couple months, it just reacts weird.” But being clean and fit has its drawbacks. “I had crazy abs that wouldn’t go away!”
As part and parcel to Dorff’s performance as Stavros came some physically demanding and meticulously choreographed battle sequences. “The stunt team actually worked for a long time. But there wasn’t that many sequences where I actually sword fight. I kind of like to learn that stuff right before I do it. I hate rehearsing months before in some garage somewhere and then when you do the scene you forget everything that we did a month ago. So I’m always about, ‘let’s rehearse like a day before we do it’. And then I’ll learn the moves and go do it. That’s the same thing I did on Blade. I learned it about an hour before. I don’t have a great memory when it comes to fight choreography. I like to keep it fresh. As long as I know to go left and not right or I’ll end up getting stabbed by a plastic sword like [sound effect].”
Some of Dorff’s funniest recollections of the shoot revolve around his sword fighting. “I have this sword at the end and it was such a dangerous sharp-edged sword that you usually have rubbers of the actual weapon so as you’re rehearsing, you have either a rubber or plastic weapon. Every time I did this move I thought I was doing it so good. Every time I would stab this guy, at the end they were ‘Cut’ and Tarsem was, ‘We gotta do it again,’ and I was like, ‘I loved that one.’ [But] I looked and my sword was pfft! [indicating bent and limp], bent in half, and they can’t CGI that out! So every time I would STAB, my sword bent and I’m like, ‘I need the real one! This ****ing thing keeps bending!’ There was a lot of laughter. When you work that long on a movie you’ve gotta, I think, lighten it up a bit.”
While Dorff admits that the overall filming experience of IMMORTALS was fun, four months in Montreal on a big-budget movie with plenty of effects has it’s drawbacks. “It’s kind of boring because it takes a lot of time and a lot of technical stuff. I’m more into character driven movies where you don’t have to wait on all the technical stuff. I’m not a real techie guy myself.”
With the same genuine sincerity that I experience with Dorff every time we speak, he holds nothing back and is effusive in his praise when talking about his IMMORTALS director, Tarsem Singh. “Tarsem is really cool…I knew going in that I [thought] Tarsem was going to make this a little different than what we’ve seen before. He’s got a great energy. Nothing can stop him. Which I think you need on a big one like this where you’re working on 8 stages and you’ve got huge sets and hundreds of people and computer animators. You’ve got so much to think about. The shot is obviously only half completed because you’re shooting all this real stuff but then we’re putting in all this stuff later. He’s a real technician, but very good with performance. . .I think he was born to do this and that was exciting to work with somebody like that on this kind of movie. If your captain was not sure about what he wanted, that could’ve been a nightmare. He definitely knew everything that he wanted so it was just about getting there and shooting it. He was very prepared and I had a good time with him.”
As IMMORTALS gets ready to release, Dorff knows this is a new precipice for him as a man and an actor. “I felt like after the movie I did with Sofia Coppola, I needed to do something that would reach tons of people. I feel like there’s a good balance in my career where I can make films like IMMORTALS and then make a film like Somewhere. . . You know, mix it up, and that makes it more interesting. I wouldn’t want to be in big movie after big movie. . . My whole thing is whatever genre you do in movies, I just want it to work. If I do a big movie, I want it to please the crowd. You don’t want to do the big movie and have it be a dud ‘cause then it’s just embarrassing. I feel like IMMORTALS is on track to deliver and that’s exciting because I think you want to kind of nail it with whatever genre you do.”
Although excited about IMMORTALS, he is equally enthusiastic about other upcoming ventures like The Motel Life, “a very serious drama which I’m very excited about. [It’s] based on a novel. It will probably blast off in Sundance later this year. It’s a movie I did with Emile Hirsch and Dakota Fanning. It’s directed by the Polsky Brothers, the producers. It’s their first film as directors. They’re pretty spectacular. The movie’s exciting. It’s a story about brothers. Kinda like a Midnight Cowboy with me and Emile Hirsch and it’s really good. Emile’s great in it. I saw a rough cut. I don’t like seeing my movies that much but this one I was pretty impressed with so, I’m excited.” Also on the horizon generating a lot of buzz is Brake. Set to make its world premiere at the American Film Market next week, Brake is the story of a Secret Service agent who is held captive by a terrorist group and used as a pawn as the countdown to a catastrophic plot unravels. Directed by Gave Torres, Dorff stars as SSA Jeremy Reins. And releasing in 2012 is Officer Down which pairs Dorff with former fellow vampire, David Boreanaz. Dorff also just wrapped Boot Tracks with Michelle Monaghan whom he describes as “A great lady. A great actress.”
And while the future may be in the hands of the Gods, Dorff is adamant about his path. “I’d like to direct. I just haven’t figured out what I want to make yet. I wouldn’t be in it though. I don’t like when actors are in their movies. I think that’s a mistake. . .you don’t want to have anything that’s kind of vain in the way of your direction. I feel like if an actor’s in their movie then they’re kind of doing shots of themselves. . ..this just doesn’t work. If I direct, I want to direct actors and bring out great performances. I think I could be really good. I’ve been doing this long enough….. And um….I just got a hot date!”
