By Christina Radish
The new Weinstein Company release Bobby re-imagines one of the most explosively tragic nights in American history. By following the stories of 22 fictional characters in the Ambassador Hotel on the fateful evening that Presidential hopeful Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot, writer/director Emilio Estevez, and an accomplished ensemble cast, forge an intimate view of an America whose idealism was shattered. In exploring the diverse experiences of ordinary people, the film celebrates the spirit of an extraordinary man, as different characters navigate prejudice, injustice, chaos and their own complicated personal lives, as they all intersect on that fateful night.
Playing alcoholic diva singer Virginia Fallon, who is scheduled to introduce Senator Kennedy at his California Primary party, and Miriam Ebbers, the hotel’s hairdresser, respectively, Demi Moore and Sharon Stone talked to MediaBlvd Magazine about the poignant film.
|
|
|
Demi Moore & Ashton Kutcher at the GM "ten" fashion show held in Hollywood, Calif. on February 22, 2005. |
MediaBlvd Magazine> Demi, this is a film reunion for you and Emilio. You used to be engaged, and this the first time you’ve worked together in 20 years. How did you come to this project? Demi Moore> I was still living in Idaho five years ago. Emilio and I had been speaking, and he called me and said, “I’m going to send you something I’ve been working on. Just take a look at it and tell me what you think.’ I don’t think he said anything specific about a role. It was just, “Read this. It’s just something that means a lot. I’m really passionate about it.” And, we continued to talk about it. I feel like I have certainly not been inside it as much as he has, but I have been living with this borrowed passion, until it became part of my own, for some time. What I’ll also share about Emilio is that they say, when you take a flame to light someone else’s candle, that it is the only moment that you give something, that you will not lose anything. I feel like Bobby Kennedy was a light who was holding this flame for us all. Emilio has picked that up and shared all that with all of us. We all did this film for love. It certainly wasn’t the paycheck.
MB> What it was like working with Emilio again?
Demi> There was something just very natural about it. As intense as the scenes were that we had, we were laughing all day. We really just had a great time. And, I think the material was elevating and joyous. I starred in the first film Emilio wrote and directed. I believe if he were making that film as his first film, today, that it would have been received far differently. Back then, it was just considered a B-movie. We didn’t have independents in the way that we have today. Emilio’s been on a long journey to get to this opportunity, but what he’s bringing forth in this is what I saw him believe in from the very early days. I can’t say how proud I am that he trusted in me enough. There’s a lot of people he could have sought to do this role, that I’m sure would have liked to have done it.
MB> Did you suggest Ashton for his role?
Demi> Ashton had read the script separately, and then Emilio and I were on the phone and I was pacing around in my office talking. He said, “Do you think Ashton might do this?,” and I said, “Well, let me just pass him the phone.” So, they began talking. Ashton was starting another movie, at the time, and they reworked the schedule really quickly so he could do Bobby. I think he really did an amazing job in the film.
MB> What did you think of Ashton’s look in the film?
Demi> Well, outside of the tobacco in his teeth and the dirty nails, it was kind of sexy.
MB> Most of the cast is involved in story lines relating to love that audiences can relate to, like infidelity and staying in relationships that don't work. Sharon, what do you think your storyline says about love?
Sharon Stone> I think we've come to a time when people have forgotten that character comes from standing through difficult times and that, when you agree to stand by somebody, a relationship grows and becomes richer and deeper when you grow through people's failures, not just their successes. So often now, people just turn their back and walk away when someone fails or changes. Good relationships -- relationships that are rich and textured and alive -- are the relationships that are built on acceptance and learning. You accept and learn when people fail. Those are the relationships that have quality and dignity and growth.
MB> You worked closely with Lindsay Lohan. How did you inspire each other and learn from each other?
Sharon> I think we have a lot of choices in our lives about what we can do with the power that we have. The reason that we all really admire and love a person like Bobby Kennedy is that he chose to be powerful by example, instead of being an example by flaunting his power. When you look at someone like Lindsay, who’s grown up in the public eye -- and people always want to try to exaggerate anything that anyone does who’s in the public eye -- it’s very hard to go through being a teenager and an adolescent. Lindsay is 20. How would you like to be a teenager in the public eye? I didn’t make my bed when I was 20, not that I always make it now. If you look back into your teenage years, about the choices that you make, it’s really unbelievable to go through that in the public eye. Now Lindsay’s 20, and she’s chosen to make films now about these kind of things that have social and human consciousness. I think that it’s really terrific that she’s chosen to make a picture like Bobby that speaks to her generation about something that’s really, strongly political, in a time when we have a very difficult political situation. Each of us has a real feeling of strength about our own country. Whatever we do, we can no longer neglect the reality that we’re all world citizens. Lindsay has chosen to use her celebrity to speak to the people of her generation about how what you do as a young person can have impact. I really commend her for doing that.
|
|
|
Sharon Stone at the Hollywood Film Festival Movie Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. on October 23, 2006. |
MB> Sharon, we know you are politically active, but your story in Bobby is more of a human-interest story. Do you separate that or is it one in the same?
Sharon> Politics should be a human-interest story. When Emilio called me about this movie, I was just so knocked out by the script and by his dedication to making this movie. I felt so lucky that the part he offered me was the part of the lady who runs the beauty shop and gets to interact with all these different characters, and had such great humanity. Bobby Kennedy had such great humanity. He really engaged himself with the people of the country and the people of the world. During his campaign he went to South Africa, he traveled, he met people, he really understood that he was a world citizen. I believe my character had such a feeling of pride and was so touched by him because she saw his humanity. And when the people came into her place of business, it was an international place of business. They came and went through her salon from all over the world, and they talked to her about their problems and issues. She was someone who was addressing the world. So, when she saw Bobby Kennedy, I think she saw him as a person who touched and saw the people that she touched. She felt like, “This is a real person.” She saw a real bullshitter when she saw one, and saw a real person when she saw one. That was why it was so moving when she saw him, and so heartbreaking when she saw him get gunned down.
MB> With the recent elections, why do you think it’s important for people to get out there and vote?
Sharon> I think we need to not be dissuaded by the things that are being put before us in the press. My father was a man who took his family through the assassination of our president, a spiritual leader like Martin Luther King and the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and held our family together as democrats in a town where the newspaper was called The Tribune Republican. It wasn’t the first time that our family stood through things that looked one way, but were really the other. The rest of my family -- my mother, my sister and our extended family -- work in an organization called Planet Hope. We have been in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working together with Harvard, the Burlington Coat Factory and Stride Rite, to put coats and shoes on people in the projects, people who are homeless, or people who cannot afford a coat, so they are dropping out of school. There are kids who are not going back to finish their senior year of high school because they do not have a coat to wear to school. I have been working with a man at the Burlington Coat Factory and we have been doing these projects all over the Atlantic Northeast. There is so much of this situation where kids are leaving high school because they do not have a coat. When I found out -- through a project that I was working on with my Mom, through Planet Hope -- that kids are leaving high school because they do not have a coat, it broke my heart, and I called the man who is the CEO of Burlington Coat Factory, who found his way to that job because he started as a box-boy there. He was so moved by this concept that he started this project with me. I have also been working with this great lady, named Sharon Barbano, at Stride Rite and we started down in Miami and in Lafayette, just outside of New Orleans, putting shoes on kids because these kids don’t have shoes and they can’t go to school without them. Kids from the same families are taking turns going to school because they only have one pair of shoes. Each kid wears the pair of shoes one day, and then gives the shoes to their brother or sister, and then they go to school one day. This is the real truth of what is happening in our country. So, when you vote you really need to think about what you see on TV and what is really happening. Because my family is putting shoes and coats on these kids because they really don’t have them.
MB> Demi, you play a character who is a big star that can't get her act together, which is very contrary to yourself. How have you kept so disciplined all of these years?
Demi> Well, it's not about always getting it right. Sometimes, it's about getting it wrong so that we have the opportunity to overcome. Those are the better opportunities because, when it all works well, we actually give less thought to it. We really have such an enormous opportunity for growth. In the film, part of the connection that all of the characters share is, whatever levels their lives are at, there's hope because there's a desire. Everybody's soul is striving to rise above. Some of us in the film are conscious of that, and some of us are representing that which is unconscious, but one is not better than the other. As far as personal discipline, I'm grateful for the opportunity to play somebody like Virginia, but I certainly don't want to live it.
MB> How much fun was playing the diva?
Demi> There’s something very liberating about playing a character who takes on zero responsibility for anything, and who is really just looking for everybody else to hold anything outside of what she most selfishly wants in the moment. It was fun and challenging. When I really realized the difficulty of the role was when I had to go in and do ADR and I couldn’t find the same voice. My speaking voice didn’t sound even remotely the same. And, I’ve never had that happen.
MB> Were you actually singing in the film?
Demi> Yes, I did do the singing. In fact, I almost didn't do the role because of the singing. I had so much fear and anxiety. If not for Emilio's steadfast belief in my ability to not just do the singing, but bring life to this woman, I wouldn’t have done the role. I did so, ultimately, because it scared the crap out of me and I figured that means it's exactly what I should be doing. But, let me just say that I play a singer, but I never want to be compared to a real one.
MB> What kind of roles are you looking for at this point in your career?
Demi> Let me just say that, if I could come across roles that are as rich and as complex as Emilio has created, I would be working all the time. The scenes I shared with Sharon, you don't find very often. But, I’m looking for them.
MB> Do you see this as an anti-war film?
Demi> I’ve never wanted it to be looked at as anti-war. Mother Teresa said she would never go to an anti-war rally, but she would happily accept an invitation to a peace rally, any day. I think that this is much more about removing the separation, and creating a unification, amongst us as human beings, more than anything that’s political. Bobby Kennedy was about humanity, and I think he was like a rock star to people.
