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Rachel Weisz and Darren Aronofsky at the premiere of "The Fountain" held at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, Calif. on November 11, 2006. | Ultimately a story about love, loss and coping with mortality, the new Warner Bros. film The Fountain is a sweeping, intimate tale that unfolds over three vastly different time periods. Written and directed by Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Pi), the film is an odyssey about one man’s eternal struggle to save the woman he loves.
The epic journey begins in 16th-century Spain, where conquistador Tomas (Hugh Jackman) commences his search for the Fountain of Youth, the legendary entity believed to grant immortality. As modern-day scientist Tommy Creo, he desperately struggles to find a cure for the cancer that is killing his beloved wife, Isabel (Rachel Weisz). Traveling through deep space as a 26th-century astronaut, Tom begins to grasp the mysteries that have consumed him for a millennium. The three stories converge into one truth, as the Thomas of all periods -- warrior, scientist and explorer -- comes to terms with life, love, death and rebirth.
Getting The Fountain made was a six year process that included everything from budget constraints to casting changes (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, who were originally cast in the lead roles, ended up dropping out of the production before filming began). “All of my projects have been really challenging,” Aronofsky tells MediaBlvd Magazine. “No one wanted to make a black and white movie about God and math. And then, after Pi, everyone asked, ‘What do you want to do next?,’ and I sent them a copy of Requiem for a Dream, and there was just silence. Barely anyone called me back. We just choose films that we think are interesting and cool, and that are just a little bit outside the box, so it’s always a big challenge.”
{quote_top}“At the beginning, Brad Pitt got really interested in The Fountain, and that gave it a lot of fuel,” continues Aronofsky. “I always wanted a big movie star for it because I was really inspired by science fiction novels and graphic novels, in the sense that you’ll be reading and, for the first 100 pages, you don’t really know what the hell is going on. And then, suddenly, a few words show up, and all these clues, and the world opens up, and it suddenly all makes sense. I wanted to give that similar experience with The Fountain, so the first 20 minutes of the film, you’re afloat, and then, suddenly, you meet Rachel’s character and the world starts to come together, and you realize that all those scenes actually do mean something, and add up to something. My hope was that, by putting a movie star in it, it could hook the audience and help them get through that 20 minutes. When Brad Pitt expressed interest, it was great. And then, we got really close to starting production, and it fell apart. There was really no chance that anything would ever happen. But then, one night, I just couldn’t get it out of my system, and I started to write again. Not having to write for a studio, or for an actor, freed me up to return to what was really important.”
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Rachel Weisz at the 2005 San Diego Comic Convention in San Diego, Calif. | In what is the most emotionally vulnerable performance of his career, X-Men star Hugh Jackman signed onto the project, once Pitt left The Fountain. “A lot of women have said to me, ‘I’ve never seen a man that vulnerable, on or off screen,’” says Aronofsky. “When I first started this, he wasn’t on my list because he had just done Wolverine, which he was fantastic as and became a star off of. Just to step into that role, out of nowhere, and actually pull it off, was a big accomplishment. Then, when I saw him on Broadway in The Boy from Oz, I saw an incredible amount of talent. What he did in this movie is remarkable. Outside of the fact that he did his own stunts, emotionally, he just unleashed. His faucets started to open, and he would go until he was dry. We would take a 10-minute break, and then go again, until he was dry. It was a bit abusive, but he loved it.”
{quote_middle}Once Jackman was set, Aronofsky struggled with who to cast as his leading lady, eventually giving in to his suggestion of Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz. “I wasn’t into the idea of casting Rachel because I had a personal relationship with her, and that’s a gamble,” says Aronofsky, of his fiancée and the mother of his six-month-old son. “Either the relationship was going to be over, or the relationship would be fine, so why risk something like that. Hugh said, ‘Well, let’s at least meet,’ and so, we had dinner and they just completely connected. It was electric. It was one of those things, as a director, that you hope happens in a casting room, that rarely ever happens, where you see two actors look at each other and understand each other.”
Weisz was not so reluctant about working with Aronofsky. “I really wanted to do it, but never told him that,” she admits to MediaBlvd. “I didn’t bring it up because I didn’t think it was right to do, but I wasn’t reluctant at all. Darren is one of the greatest young directors around. Who we are in our work lives and who we are in our private lives is very different. I got to meet the director, and he got to meet the actress. And, working with him definitely exceeded my expectations. It was an amazing collaboration and, as a director, he really pushes his actors and challenges them, which is what you want. You want to be pushed out to the edge where you’re out of your comfort zone, you’re very raw and vulnerable, and you’re exposed. It was a really great experience.”
“I describe her as a cauldron of emotions,” says Aronofsky about Weisz. “You just turn up the heat and things start boiling over. She’s one of those actors that you can get four or five different emotions from, in one scene. To me, that’s amazing. You’ve got to let an actor shine when they do something like that.”
{quote_bottom}To convincingly play a cancer patient, Weisz reveals that she spent time in hospices, talking to real people whose lives mirrored that of her character. “Hospitals are places we go where the doctors are trying to save our lives, and they operate and medicate,” she explains. “People go to hospices when there’s nothing medicine can do for them anymore. The most inspiring thing was meeting the people who work there because they get up every day to help people die. It’s the most mind-boggling job, but such an important and brave one. They help people die with grace, dignity and nobility. They hold people as they’re dying. It was very inspiring.”
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Darren Aronofsky at the 2005 San Diego Comic Convention in San Diego, Calif. |
Previously known for having long locks, Weisz had to cut her hair because Aronofsky was adamant that she not wear a wig, when playing Isabel. “She had been through chemo and lost her hair, and it was growing back in an uneven way,” says Weisz. “Most actresses today have really long hair, so Darren made it very clear that he wanted the actress to not have a wig. He thought it was an important thing for the transformation of what the character had been through. I thought it was kind of cool. It definitely had a starkness to it, but I think it told a lot of story without me having to work harder to tell that part of the story.”
Although her character accepts her own mortality, Weisz believes The Fountain is not only about death, but that it is also a celebration of life. “This film shows that, on our death bed, we’re going to regret the little things. It’s going to be the moments that we didn’t spend with our loved ones, and that we didn’t smell the roses, and didn’t live as fully, as presently, as openly and as lovingly with those around us as we could have. I don’t know what I think about death and the afterlife, but I do know that life is finite and short, so we have to try and celebrate being alive, as much as we can.” |
