Showing posts with label Interviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interviews. Show all posts
'The Walking Dead' cast compares upcoming season to 'Three's Company'
The Walking Dead might seem like a serious show, but it’s getting a sitcom makeover next season: “It has like a Martin slash Three’s Company feel,” star Danai Gurira deadpanned to EW at Comic-Con.
As you can probably guess, The Walking Dead is most likely not getting a laugh track anytime soon, but the cast was happy to elaborate on some rumors that the show would become more light-hearted when they stopped by the EW Hideout. Lauren Cohan, Norman Reedus, Michael Cudlitz, Steven Yeun, and Gurira also joked about potential Comic-Con disguises and more unlikely Walking Dead scenarios—like picnics.
Watch the recently released season-five trailer for yourself, then watch their interview to compare notes. Moral of the story: Don’t trust anything the cast says.
Entertainment Weekly: We are here with the Beatles of Comic-Con, the cast of The Walking Dead. Hello, everybody. You just came from your panel, right?
Lauren Cohan: Yesterday, we were at the panel.
How’s it felt this year compared to previous years?
LC: The panel we did this morning actually was awesome. It was a really small panel, it was really [unintelligible] and directive. They’re always great, but that was a new addition. We felt so much closer to the fans this year. I think we’ve had a lot more, I don’t know, a lot more direct…
Norman Reedus: We went casual this year too. We decided to have fun and be ourselves. It’s been a blast, this one.
The other half of the cast was in here earlier, and I asked them the same question. The rumors going around the Con are that this is the most light-hearted, feel-good season of the Walking Dead yet.
LC: [Laughs]
It’s been described as a light-hearted romp. That’s what the rumor is. Can you guys confirm?
Danai Gurira: Yes, we’ll go with that.
Michael Cudlitz: It’s definitely the funniest season that I’ve been a part of. [Laughs]
DG: It has like a Martin slash Three’s Company feel.
Steven Yeun: You know that Rosesanne, like season 8 or something?
Where she won the lottery?
SY: Yeah. [unintelligible]
I think the laugh track’s going to be a little weird, but I think you guys will be able to work with it.
LC: There’s so many more picnics. We don’t have a blanket for every picnic, but we definitely found some great picnic baskets and we have like just some really cute recipes we hadn’t brought to the…
Cute survivalist recipes?
LC: It’s tasty.
DG: Squirrel phallus. Really good.
LC: How’s that one? With the balsamic glaze.
DG: And a little bit of cilantro.
How do you guys walk around here? You don’t, right?
LC: I just do one leg. I usually alternate them. [Laughs]
Now we’ve got the literal way you’re walking . You’ve gotta get swarmed everywhere you go, right?
NR: We haven’t really walked around here. We haven’t really done it this year. We did it last year. Let’s do it again.
SY: Get some masks going.
DG: These two do the masks and do their thing.
And you just go out, al fresco?
NR: In the nude?
LC: Yeah, in picnic…
SY: Yeah, I guess that’s the best way they wouldn’t know us is if we’re all ass-naked, but… with the masks. There seems to be a lot more people kind of just around where we’re headed, and it’s really cool. Like last year, we saw some people waiting out for autographs and this year there’s a lot of people waiting out for autographs. and it’s cool because it just means that fans are jumping onto the show more and more and it’s progressing.
And next season, there’s no time jump, we’re just starting right up…
LC: No, it’s 45 seconds.
45 seconds? So not too much time has elapsed then, so we won’t be that confused.
MC: A lot can happen in 45 seconds.
That’s true, that’s true. You come back in October? October 12.
SY: Is that right, October 12?
DG: That’s what it says in the trailer.
SY: Oh. I didn’t watch that.
Source: EntertainmentWeekly
The Reedus at Variety Studios Event - Emmy Conversation – Supporting Actor, Drama
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NORMAN REEDUS INTERVIEW FOR HOBO MAGAZINE BY SHAWN DOGIMONT
"My buddy Norman Reedus makes his show The Walking Dead in the woods of Georgia, away from Hollywood. He’s had a unique career path and life in general. With his son Mingus, he sometimes makes me think of Ugami Itto in the manga The Lone Wolf and Cub. If you look, there’s even a theme of apocalyptic justice running through his work. He’s a longtime cult favourite, a really nice guy, and you just root for him in life and on screen. He’s poised for a massive breakout now but still lives in Chinatown. As he says here : « if it’s ever slow acting I’ll just do more art shows. » At the moment he’s doing less."
Shawn Dogimont : I’ve got some questions prepared, should I just start ?
Norman Reedus : Throw it at me, let’s see what you’ve got.
Shawn Dogimont : You were born in Florida but you didn’t grow up there, you moved away quite young.
Norman Reedus : Yeah, I moved from there very young. I don’t remember anything, I was just a baby when I left there. I lived in a few different places, Texas, Florida, California, Colorado, Tokyo for a little while, Motookubo in Chiba. London, at the end of the Northern line. I was in Spain in Sitges, for a little bit and moved to Los Angeles. I followed a girl basically, I went with a girl there.
Shawn Dogimont : How come you lived in all these different places, throughout your teens and twenties ?
Norman Reedus : I just bounced around a lot.
Shawn Dogimont : So, at one point you ended up in L.A. How did acting come into your life, how did that thing happen to you ?
Norman Reedus : I got a job fixing motorcycles at a motorcycle place, they call it Dr Carl’s Hog Hospital. I went to work one day and something happened with my boss, we got into a little argument over one of his animals and I went to a party up in the hills that night. I met people there and they asked me to be in a play and I did the play. A lady who’s casting agent from William Morris started side pocketting me, which mean they don’t sign you but they send you out on stuff and that play, I was an understudy in that play, the first day, the dude that was supposed to play the part didn’t show up so I did it and she started sending me out and I started booking films.
Shawn Dogimont : Was that something you wanted to do, that you were curious about or did it just land in your lap and you went with it ?
Norman Reedus : I think at the time I didn’t take it very seriously and I just thought : Oh I’m going to get paid to do this. I was still kinda figuring it out, but I didn’t really think much of it to be honest. I did that and the first film that I got was by Guillermo del Toro who cast me in Mimic and gave me my SAG card.
Shawn Dogimont : And that was the mid to late 90’s ?
Norman Reedus : Yeah.
Shawn Dogimont : Have things changed since then ? It’s funny, I got onto this Youtube thread last night watching Jim Carrey doing stand up. I was watching him present the Awards shows and realized that this was already quite a while ago. Have you noticed changes in independent cinema and even from your memories of L.A fifteen years ago ?
Norman Reedus : Oh God, everything had changed so much, I mean Los Angeles has changed so much just from when I lived there to now. I go back to Los Angeles and It’s completely different. That was the time when Jane’s Addiction was coming out you know, they had Alice in Chains and Nirvana, and I remember going to a party Downtown L.A to some friends of mine, this guy Tarsem [Singh] who’s a director -he directed The Cell and a bunch of amazing music videos. Tarsem and his girlfriend Fatima, at the time, they had a loft downtown and I lived downtown. Back then nobody lived downtown, I mean there were like eight of us who lived downtown. There were trash cans on fire under bridges, homeless people walking around and it was completely different. Now it’s like condos, the hip place to live. I remember they had a party for Halloween and there were all these crazy people there and downtown, which is already the end of the world back then, I remember hearing this old lady on a microphone and she’s going : I see you, you mother fuckers ! I was dressed as a blue horse, or something really weird like that, so I wandered over to where the noise was and all of a sudden Jane’s Addiction comes out singing, and people were like:Who the hell is this band ? They were amazing, the energy from that band was what L.A felt like back then. It was just so raw and dangerous, and on the edge, such a cool vibe. Now all the artists from NY have moved to L.A, it’s a completely different vibe. It kind of seems like Westwood just got bigger and engulfed Los Angeles.
Shawn Dogimont : I remember it was twelve years ago when we met up in NY and it was probably my first or second time there. Walking around the Lower East Side at night. Max Fish and the Pink Pony on Ludlow… And then coming back, and moving there a couple years ago and walking arounf those neighbourhoods, even in that short span this city’s also changed so much.
Norman Reedus : I’ve been in Chinatown for twelve or thirteen years now, because Chinatown sort of stays the same. Everything changed all around Chinatown but Chinatown seems like the same place it was back then. The stores change but the energy in Chinatown always stays the same. Same with that little strip of Little Italy. Soho seems to be squeezing more towards us, and NoHo and all this other stuff. It didn’t feel like that before, everything’s changing, it’s crazy. Talking about Jim Carey, I was with a friend who knows him and he was saying that Jim grew up on movies with actors like Humphrey Bogart, when you didn’t know anything about the actors and now it seems like everybody knows everything about everybody. Everyone’s doing interviews and asking your lives, who you’re dating and what your favourite color is. Back then, when he was a kid watching these movies, he didn’t know anything about them. I think that thing is kind of lost and I wish it was more like it was then, to be honest with you.
Shawn Dogimont : I agree. Let’s backtrack a little bit. You’ve always taken photos and continue to. That’s how we first met actually. I did this story with Asia [Argento] and she had these ideas for self-portraits channeling Anita Berber. I remember you showed up, grabbed a camera for a few rolls and got the most beautiful shots of her. I should send you the negs because really, they’re yours.
Norman Reedus : Oh my God ! Would you please send me those negatives, I would love that.
Shawn Dogimont : I also have high res scans of them here somewhere, I feel like you should have them, put them in your next book or something.
Norman Reedus : Please send them to me. I’ve always tried to use those photos and put them in places and played with them. But I don’t have them in high res. Yeah, please. That shoot, using the flash of the camera and turning off all the lights and just not knowing what she was going to do and snapping the pictures and getting all personal with her. That was a great day !
Shawn Dogimont : I always kept a good memory of that afternoon, it felt like there was a spontaneous energy with things coming together in an unplanned way. I’ve really trusted your tastes and ideas from that day on when it came to creating images and situations.
Norman Reedus : Thank you. You know Asia and I did a lot of little weird things like that, we made these little films from the beach. She put on this crazy American flag bathing suit and did her hair up all blond, put on this wig and went on Venice Beach, jumping in the middle of people’s volley ball games, flirting with cholos on bicycles. I would hide behind people and follow twenty paces back and video tape people’s reactions to her. She did a boxing routine back at the house. We did a lot of fun stuff. She’s such a cool girl.
Shawn Dogimont : She is yeah. I don’t even know if it could happen again like that today. It was all pretty new to us, it was a lot of fun and the photos are rad.
Norman Reedus :We co-directed a Trash Palace video together. I was supposed to be in her film The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things. I remember the whole JT Leroy thing, when that first happened. [laughs] Asia was the first person to figure out that JT wasn’t a boy and that JT wasn’t the person doing it. She was like « Come here ! I gotta tell you something. » So we found out about JT before everyone else did and to watch that onslaught of all those celebrities come out of nowhere to promote JT. And JT wasn’t really JT… It was like a whole thing and Speedy, that girl Laura that goes by Speedy, she was the writer of all that and all these get togethers and stuff and more celebrities and more celebrities coming out of the woodwork, supporters. It was kinda insane to watch that whole thing go down. And Asia was the first person to get in there and figure it out, she’s a smart girl.
Shawn Dogimont : Have you ever met her dad ?
Norman Reedus : I’ve never met her dad. I’m huge fan of Dario but I’ve never met him.
Shawn Dogimont : I wanted to ask you, how similar do you think acting is to being an artist. Take photography for example. Is one more personal for you ?
Norman Reedus : Yeah well, there are things about them that might be the same but which is completely different than being an observer. Let’s put it this way, if you did an art show, you could take a bunch of pictures, you can sit back and you’re removed from the things hanging on the wall. But when you’re acting, you’re not really removed from the thing hanging on the wall, you are the thing hanging on the wall, which also goes back to Jim carrey comment I was making which is that now you’re that thing on the wall. I guess if there wasn’t social media and there wasn’t such an interest in celebrities, and it was more of an artist thing Jim would probably be happier with the way things are nowadays. The celebrity thing sometimes overshadows the artist thing, and you try to hold ont othe artist thing and it’s weird. People have known me for a long time but not like they know me now, so it’s a whole other animal. I think sometimes it gets confusing holding on to one or the other, one instead of the other it that makes sense.
Shawn Dogimont : At the same time, everyone knows acting is a collaboration effort. As an actor you must let go and trust director, or the editors…but if you’re a photographer, when you show your work, that’s it, you’re completely responsible.
Norman Reedus : Fashion photography, a lot of time, with Terry [Richardson] or somebody, there’s a crew, it’s a collaborative thing too. Unless you walk around like you’re in high school and you just take photography of graveyards and clouds, then it’s just you. People judge you rather than judge the character. I was watching True Detective the other night and I was talking to somebody about Woody Harrelson’s performance. I think he’s so good in that, and I know Matthew [McConaughey] is just killing it right now but Woody is very good.
Shawn Dogimont : He is very good.
Norman Reedus : Woody is awesome. I was watching the show with somebody who was saying : Man, he’s such a bad husband and how can he do that ? And I’m thinking: You’re confusing Woody with the character on the show. The reason why he’s so good is because he has all these flaws. I mean flaws are interesting to watch. If he didn’t have any flaws he would be just modeling.
Shawn Dogimont : Maybe even more interesting to watch Matthew’s performance in a sense because the character Matthew plays goes the other way and to me becomes a fantasy object for the viewers.
Norman Reedus : Yeah and it’s interesting to think that Matthew did Mud and he did that and then he did the Wolf of Wall Street and then he did Dallas Buyers Club. He knows that he has to lose a lot of weight for Dallas Buyers Club so he starts losing it while he’s doing True Detective and you see like when the clothes are tighter here and baggier there. They’re selling a before and after on that TV show but watch his body change down to Dallas Buyers Club ; he’s on a mission for those three project ahead of time. At least physically, it’s on the back of his mind.
Shawn Dogimont : Do you admire that ?
Norman Reedus : Well you know, it’s cool when you can do that, when you have the time to lose weight for a project or get buffed, or get fat or whatever you’re going to do. A lot of times it doesn’t work like that. You can’t lose that much weight in four weeks or build that much muscle. That’s what I like about television. It would look ridiculous if I took off my shirt on The Walking Dead and had a six pack. I would look like a vain actor trying to look good on a TV show. But if you have four years to do a character you get to sort of drop little seeds behind you and they turn into trees and turn into story lines over the course of four years. That’s really interesting.
Shawn Dogimont : The character you’ve grown into on your show – was he created for you by the writers or did you invent him as you went along ?
Norman Reedus : It was a collaboration as well. I have really good writers on this show, really good cinematographers, really good directors, producters with really good ideas. It’s interesting too because we are so close and we’re all such good friends. You know I can call Gale [Annd Hurd] and ask for advice on something totally unrelated, I feel like she’s protecting me, she’s my friend you know. The directors on this show I go out with and we’ll go out on the town. I was with Ernest Dickerson in New Orleans, he’s one of our big directors. Greg Nicotero is one of my best friends now. It’s like that for all of us. We’re really tight on the show so I go to them for help, and they come to me and we bounce ideas back and forth, so it’s always a collaborative thing. I would never want to have all the pressure of doing everything by myself. I don’t even know how actors direct episodes they’re in and direct their friends while they’re acting. I don’t even know how they do that. That would be so difficult for me.
Shawn Dogimont : At what point do you abandon your own sense of self and entertain someone else’s. I mean, is it a mix ?
Norman Reedus : Yeah well you definitely pout yourself into it, you relate things to your own life you know, you have to make it real for yourself. If I was going do to a movie about John Denver and I was going to to play John Denver, I would be doing John Denver things thinking of Norman things. All the moments and all the personal pieces of those moment would be things that happen to Norman. I don’t know what goes on in John Denver’s head, I can try to figure him out but it’s still my interpretation of what John Denver would be thinking.
Shawn Dogimont : That makes sense. Had it taught you anything, being on this ride, anything about life ? I’m thinking about your show because everyone is fighting for their lives. Had it taught you anything about why we swin upstream and fight for things ?
Norman Reedus: Well, this job has definitely been a blessing and I’m super pleased that I got this opportunity. I’m really enjoying it. It makes me excited to go back to work. I can’t wait to go back to Georgia right now. It’s all I think about all day. I’m ready to go back !
Shawn Dogimont : Wow !
Norman Reedus : The life there, making this with my friends…It’s fun. And we don’t do it like in Holywood. We don’t make this show around Starbucks and agents, and people and an abundance of fans and other shoot and it’s our thing that we make out there. Then we throw it out to the world and hope people like it. It’s like any other job, If you like your job and are excited to go to work. That’s something that I’ve learned on this more than anything.
Shawn Dogimont : Was there a point in your life, in your career, where you thought you wanted to do something else, when you were thinking of quitting or just going in another direction, maybe shooting more ?
Norman Reedus: Well, I’ve always done multiple things ; If It was ever slow acting. I did more art shows, and If it was ever busy acting, I did less art shows. I’ve said no to jobs, I’ve said yes to jobs maybe I should have said no to, but I’m never like : Ah man, what am I going to do with my life ? I’m always doing stuff.
Shawn Dogimont : That’s good, I like that.
Norman Reedus : I’ve gone through years and years of doing lots and lots of stuff and making like, a dollar. It wasn’t really about a certain lifestyle, I must have this, I must have that. I’ve never been a shopper, I just like doing stuff so it wasn’t really the driving force. I didn’t get a real estate license on the side. I just lived a cheaper lifestyle when I needed to.
Shawn Dogimont : What do you think it is about the premise of the show, maybe even the treatment, that has captured the interest and the imagination of so many people ?
Norman Reedus : The title The Walking Dead isn’t referring to zombies. It’s referring to us, we’re the walking dead. So if you think about it like that, everyone’s infected and everyone’s clock is ticking and everyone has to man up, it’s your two feet on the ground, your words are important, what you do is important, you have to decide who you want to be and what you’re willing to do and what you’re not willing to do, and hold on to some shred of humanity that you had before this all happened. As you can see from the show, it usually seems like it’s the bad people out there that are surviving and they are doing bad things to survive and we end up doing a lot of things that we would never do or ever thought that we would do to survive. So it’s kind of a play on words, The Walking Dead. It’s your two feet on the ground and what you’re willing to fight for and that means fight against and also fight to hold on to. It’s a really clever play on words what Robert [Kirkman] did.
Shawn Dogimont : Do you know what will happen in the story, you or the other characters’ arcs or is it just one episode at a time ? How does it work ?
Norman Reedus : Well, I know how the rest of the season plays out obviously. Next season, I have no idea. I have a little idea how it’s going to start, like maybe the first couple of episodes but Scott Gimple and his team are really clever at throwing at us, they throw all the time, we think it’s going in a direction and then we read and go:Wow ! We’re all super excited to find out, that’s the show !
Shawn Dogimont : That’s so exciting. You know, I was just reading that you used to play tennis ?
Norman Reedus: I did yeah.
Shawn Dogimont: [laughs] We have to go out and hit some balls together.
Norman Reedus : When we were shooting The Boondock Saints II, I tore my right shoulder because they had these giant desert eagles made, with these giant oversized siliencers on them, these guns were like thirty pounds each crazy so to hold those two guns side by side straight arm and shoot while swinging all the time, I tore my rotator cuff in my shoulder. I still need surgery and it takes six weeks to recover. I haven’t had six weeks to do that yet. It really fucks with my serve to be honest.
Shawn Dogimont : Ok last question. I ordered the book The Sun is Coming up like a Big Bald Head.
Norman Reedus : Oh cool.
Shawn Dogimont : I don’t have it yet and I was hoping you could comment on a couple of your favorite photos from the book and tell me how they came about but I don’t have it in front of me.
Norman Reedus : Oh no it’s fine actually. Some of my favorite photos that I shot were during a film in Moscow with Andrei Koutchalovski who’s a director out there and this guy Chris Solimine. We were down in the sub basement of a maximum security prison and the walls were these crazy colours of green which was rotting and the smell down there was insane. We were shooting in one of the jail cells there, in one of the corridors, and right around the corner were these prisoners that were in their prisoner’s outfits. They were working in the kitchen and every once in a while they would peek their heads around and the guards would hit the bars with the stick and yell and rush in and make them like hide themselves. At one point that guard walked by me and he got out of sight I went [whistles] and these two guys leaned their heads out perfectly and right when they leaned their heads out a little kitten came running out towards me and there’s all these cigarette buts on the ground and the kitten running around the cigarette buts and these two guys looking like super models, perfectly posed.
Shawn Dogimont : I know the photo ! That’s a good one. Well man, thank you so much for doing this thing, and for meeting up in NY and taking those photos with me.
Norman Reedus: Oh dude, it was a pleasure. How did the photos turn out ?
Shawn Dogimont : They’re good I think. I hope. I’ll email them to you.
Norman Reedus: Send me some, I want to see what they look like, I’m excited !
Shawn Dogimont: And yeah, that’s it I guess. I hope to run into you again soon and congratulations on all your sucess.
Norman Reedus : Aw thanks man, I would love that, hit me up when you come to NY.
Shawn Dogimont : I will.
Norman Reedus : Bye buddy.
Transcript by: Reedusfamily
Source: Hobo magazine issue 16
Under The Radar Magazine Norman Reedus vs. J Mascis
Full Interview:
He fearlessly stares down sociopathic killers and hordes of zombies every week as the crossbow-wielding, motorcycle-riding Daryl Dixon on The Walking Dead, but Norman Reedus readily admits that what really makes him nervous is the idea of talking to legendary Dinosaur Jr. frontman J Mascis. In truth, Reedus has a reason to be nervous; Mascis is a notoriously difficult interview, typically speaking slowly and with little enthusiasm, elaborating very little in his answers, and giving every indication that he'd rather be doing anything but talking to you. But if Mascis is hard to impress, he quickly warms to Reedus, even asking himquestions by the end of the interview.
Though they've never met, Reedus and Mascis have already worked together, in a sense: Reedus stars as an abusive drug dealer in 2013 indie drama Sunlight Jr., a film for which Mascis did the soundtrack. But even though Reedus and Mascis are just now becoming personally acquainted, Reedus has been living with Mascis' music for most of his life. As an insecure 20-something, Reedus found comfort in playing Dinosaur Jr.'s classic "Feel the Pain" on repeat, just as today he uses tracks from Mascis' 2011 solo album Several Shades of Why—"Very Nervous and Love," in particular—to prepare for emotionally raw scenes on The Walking Dead. But if Reedus uses Mascis' music to get into character, does that mean Daryl Dixon would be a J Mascis fan? Probably not, Reedus admits, explaining that he pegs Daryl as more of a Motörhead kind of guy. "He's probably listening to whatever his brother was listening to, like heavy metal," he says. "But sometimes I do Daryl, and sometimes I do me."
The Walking Dead will return to AMC this fall and Reedus' photo book, The Sun's Coming Up... Like a Big Bald Head, is out now. Mascis' new solo album, Tied to a Star, is due out this summer on Sub Pop.
[Note: A shorter version of this interview first appeared in Under the Radar's February/March/April print issue (Issue 49). This is the full interview.]
Norman Reedus: Hey, J. How's it going?
J Mascis: Pretty good. How about you?
Norman: I'm doing good. I'm in Georgia, out here in the woods. It's nice.
J: Oh yeah?
Norman: Yeah, it's beautiful out here. Where are you?
J: I'm at home. Amherst, Massachusetts.
Norman: Oh, cool. Well, I know you worked on Sunlight Jr. with [director] Laurie [Collyer]. What was that like?
J: Oh, it was cool. I've known her for a little bit, and she just asked me to do it. Luckily, she liked most of the stuff I would do, so I didn't have to keep going back and try to fix stuff.
Norman: I thought it was great. It was such a new, refreshing musical approach. How does that work for you? Do you watch scenes and then come up with songs? Or did you read a script and have songs already made?
J: I just watched the movie and would write to the scenes. That's the easiest way, I think.
Norman: Nice. Did you and Laurie collaborate with stuff? Or did she just say, "go for it?"
J: No. She had some other guy in there who wanted me to do a few things over again or something. But it was pretty good.
Norman: Oh, wow. Hey, I wanted to ask you about your meditation process, and I know you have a guru that you work with. I was talking to Kim Gordon, and I was saying, "Hey, I know you know J. What are some good questions I can ask him? I'm a big fan of his." And she brought up your guru, which I find really fascinating.
J: Oh, yeah. I haven't meditated too much since I had a kid. That has taken a lot of my spare time. But, yeah, I still go see [Mata Amritanandamayi, aka Amma] and she just had a 60th birthday—a big thing in India that I went and played at. That was cool. There were all these different musicians and dance troupes who are big in India, so it was really interesting to see that. I had to follow this circus act where a guy had a pot on his head and he was blindfolded, and he had a machete and he chopped a coconut in half that was sitting on some other guy's head. So that was kind of hard to follow.
Norman: That is awesome! [Laughs] The other guy had a coconut on his neck and he took the machete and cut the coconut?
J: Yeah, the blindfolded guy chopped the coconut in half while it was sitting on the other guy's neck. And he chopped some other stuff, some other fruits that were near his genital region. They did a lot of crazy stuff. That was a weird act to follow.
Norman: And then what? You just plugged in and played?
J: Yeah. I have a few friends who are also into Amma—a drummer from L.A., Herb [Graham, Jr.], and this guy [Mikko von Hertzen], who is actually a rock star in Finland, he played bass. I was surprised that they had a Marshall [amplifier] in India, so they just cranked it up. And we were right next to Amma while she was hugging people. That's her main thing. She hugs people. So thousands of people line up, and she had already been up for 22 hours straight, doing this on her birthday. And then we plug in and starting blasting away a few feet from her head. It was kind of weird, but she seemed into it.
Norman: When are you doing that again, and how do I get there?
J: I don't know [Laughs]. Yeah, it was a pretty wild trip. I only went to India for three days and came home, so I was on the plane most of the time.
Norman: Wow. I've been to India one time, and it wasn't exactly what I expected. It was beautiful, but it left me with this sad feeling, to be honest. Do you go to India a lot?
J: I've been there about six times. I definitely didn't feel sad about it. I definitely felt good when I came home. It seemed like people seemed happier, in a way, where I was. Even though they're pretty poor and everything, the vibe seemed a little happier somehow.
Norman: I went over with an ex-girlfriend, so maybe that had something to do with it.
J: Oh, yeah.
Norman: You've studied with [Amma] for how long?
J: I started in '95.
Norman: Oh, wow. This is one of my questions: why do you think it's important to have a quiet mind? At the same time, your guitars and everything are so loud. Does [meditation] help you get into that? Is it part of the same equation?
J: It can be similar. I can definitely get into a zone, playing that loud. It envelops you, and you're in a certain space. That's pretty cool.
Norman: I was doing all this research on you and stuff, and I found this interview that you did in 1993 with Kennedy from MTV.
J: Oh, yeah. [Laughs]
Norman: Fucking brilliant. She was sitting there blowing bubbles in pajamas with cowboys on them. You looked like you wanted to strangle her.
J: Yeah, I watched that a few years ago when YouTube started posting all that stuff. It seems like I was harder on her maybe than I should have been, but I don't remember what I was thinking. Actually, I remember I ended up going to a party at her house around that time, and that was pretty funny. [It was] when Marilyn Manson... [when] Trent Reznor was bringing him around all these places as his new signing or whatever.
Norman: I remember watching you on [Late Night with] David Letterman and you were playing "Feel the Pain," and you had this guitar strap with the lightning bolts on it and this glittery blue guitar. And I was watching it thinking, "This is probably the coolest motherfucker on the planet." What bands do you like now that are up and coming? I can make a playlist.
J: I don't know... jeez. I've just been listening to Canned Heat lately. I bought this biography of the drummer from Canned Heat. Somehow I'm fascinated by them right now, so I've been listening to them a lot. The guitar player [Alan Wilson] who sang the hits, he died when he was 27. He killed himself, but you don't hear about that as much as, of course, Jimi and Janis.
Norman: Kurt Cobain—was he 27, too?
J: Yeah, I think so.
Norman: Why do you think 27 is the number [when people die]?
J: I guess that's when you...I don't know. I guess that's a depressing year. I understand it. It seems like the point where you just have to turn the corner and do something else than you had been doing. That's probably around the time I was probably the most famous and most depressed. I'm not sure what it is.
Norman: Do you plan on doing more music for films?
J: Yeah, I actually did three things this year. I did a soundtrack for this guy, Krishna Das. He's a big singer for yoga places. He does all this chanting. He's like the biggest guy on the yoga chanting scene. There was a movie about his life, and I did the soundtrack with a friend of mine. And then another Allison Anders movie I did also this year.
Norman: What movie is that?
J: Oh, shit. What was it called? I'm spacing on it now. I forget the title of the movie right now. [It appears that the movie is titled Strutter—Ed.]
Norman: Do you ride motorcycles at all?
J: No.
Norman: I totally picture you on a motorcycle.
J: Yeah. I know I'd kill myself, so I never got on one.
Norman: Everyone says that, but I bet you wouldn't. I can totally picture you on one. So, I know you played in Williamsburg not too long ago, and the cops shut it down. Is that what happened?
J: Yeah, it was an outside show, and the cops shut it down in like 10 minutes, which was pretty funny, because that was about as long as we wanted to play anyway. It was good timing. We were just jamming, and we ran out of solos to play, and the cops were just like, "Stop! Now!" [Laughs]
Norman: Was it just a noise complaint?
J: Yeah, I guess it was many noise complaints. I was surprised by how fast they got there. Usually, in New York a noise complaint or something, I can't imagine it turning around in like 10 minutes. But they'd had so many complaints that they couldn't tell us to turn it down. We had to stop.
Norman: Have you heard Kim's new band [Body/Head] that she's got going? What do you think of those guys? I keep trying to see them live. I know they just came to Georgia, but I was actually in New York.
J: They're pretty cool. They play around here a lot, and we live in the same town. They'll play in a record store for 20 people. There's a lot of shows like that around here.
Norman: Do you collaborate with a lot of other bands and other artists?
J: Oh, sometimes. If somebody asks me.
Norman: Are there ones that you like best?
J: Well, my favorite album that I've been on is called Upsidedown Cross. That was the band, and I played drums on it. I really liked that album. Those guys are all really twisted—like old punk rock dudes.
Norman: What's your favorite movie?
J: Oh, shit. I don't know. That's a tough one. I guess Harold and Maude and A Clockwork Orange were big when I was 12 or 13. Beyond that, I'm not sure that I have a favorite movie. I liked Evil Dead a lot. And Basket Case.
Norman: I saw Basket Case! I love that you just referenced that. Do you watch our show, by any chance? Do you watch The Walking Dead?
J: Yeah, I've been watching it.
Norman: Are you caught up and stuff?
J: I'm not caught up. I'm on Netflix. I'm not sure where I am on it. What season is it now?
Norman: We just started season four. The premiere was Sunday. Now I'm back in Georgia, and we have three more episodes [to shoot]. It's going great. Would you ever do music for a TV show?
J: Oh, yeah. That would be awesome.
Norman: Really? If I could pull that off, that'd be great. I'd love to have you do that.
J: I'd definitely be into doing some zombie-slaying music. That'd be cool.
Norman: Well, I want to make this brief. I'm a huge fan of yours and I met your wife with Kim at theSunlight Jr. premiere, and she was so sweet...
J: How did you like Sunlight Jr.?
Norman: I loved it, man. It felt like a slice of real life. It felt like you were a fly on the wall of this relationship that was so doomed. And there was beauty in the sadness from time to time, and it just felt so real. And the music that you put to it added to that so much. So many times you watch a film, and someone's asked to do music for it, and they basically just pick songs. It felt like it was your music and your guitar. It felt like you were a part of the film. It felt like it never took you out of the lives of these people—it was so beautifully done. I really loved it. Laurie did such a good job—she's such a good storyteller. And the acting was great. I was just happy to work with all of those people.
J: Yeah, I hope it gets put out or whatever.
Norman: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's getting a lot of buzz right now. But, yeah, I was asking all of my friends, because I get nervous. I've never really done this [interviewing a musician] before. But I was asking my friend, [The Walking Dead co-star] Alanna Masterson, "What kind of questions should I ask? Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" We made this list of questions. They're fucking ridiculous, but I feel like I have to ask.
J: All right. Cool.
Norman: Okay. This is one of those "would you rather" games. I'm going to throw a couple of these at you. Would you rather have vagina on your forehead or a row of penises down your back like a stegosaurus?
J: Oh...I think I'd have the penises on my back.
Norman: That's what I said, too. Okay, here's another one: would you rather fart popcorn or have your past and future web browsing history available to everyone?
J: What was the first one?
Norman: Fart popcorn.
J: Art popcorn?
Norman: No, fart.
J: Oh. Fart popcorn. I'll fart popcorn, I guess.
Norman: Yeah. Me, too. One more: would you rather have sex with a goat and no one knows you did it ornot have sex with a goat and everyone thinks you did it?
J: Oh, definitely have sex with a goat.
Norman: We had all the same answers. Well, J, it was a pleasure. I hope I meet you one day. Like I said, I've been a huge admirer of yours for a long time.
J: Oh, thanks a lot.
Norman: Yeah, "Feel the Pain" was my anthem for a long, long time. I'm a huge fan, and I hope to meet you. I really do. If you ever run into Laurie or any of those people, give them a big hug for me. I'd love to hang out sometime.
J: Yeah, I thought you and Matt Dillon were pretty believable in that movie [Sunlight Jr.]. I was having a little trouble with Naomi Watts as a white trash person, but I thought she did pretty good.
Norman: Oh, really? Yeah, that was such a weird movie, for certain reasons. I'm such a fan of hers, and my first line in that film was "I can smell your pussy through this glass." So every day I was like, "I'm sorry about what I did to you today, and I don't know what I'm going to do to you tomorrow." It was very strange. Matt, I've worked with before on a couple things, and I'm a big fan of his. But dumping garbage on his head while he's in a wheelchair...I felt like I was not the most-liked person on set, though Laurie was loving it.
J: Does that rub off? People on movies think you're an asshole on set just because [your character is]?
Norman: Well, no. Before going in the scene where I first come up to [Naomi Watts] when she's working in the convenience store, I come in, and I was mic'd. So Laurie and the producers were listening on the mic, and I didn't realize they were listening. You kind of forget sometimes. So I was walking around talking to myself going, "pussy, pussy, pussy, pussy," trying to be this white trash asshole.
J: [Laughs]
Norman: And I looked over and realized Laurie was listening, and she has this big smile on her face, like "Thumbs up!" And I was just like "Oh, God. Fuck." Then we did one scene with Matt, where he's in his wheelchair and in his home, coming to get the rent money. And he goes to strangle me, and there was a big trashcan full of garbage next to him, so I adlibbed and grabbed the trash and dumped it all over his head after our little fight, before I left. I don't think he was very happy about that, but we're friends. It was definitely a fun movie. White trash Florida.
J: That's dark, yeah.
Norman: Cool, man. I don't want to take up too much of your time. It was nice to talk to you, and like I said, I would love to meet you sometime. I'm a big fan.
J: Oh, thanks a lot. Good luck with the zombies.
Norman: Thanks, man. I may be trying to track you down.
J: All right. Cool.
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