'Last Days' - Michael Pitt Q&A

The 'Last Days' star talks about playing a doomed rocker in Time Out's current film of the week.

Sep  5 2005

Having kicked off his career with a role in teen drama 'Dawson's Creek', Michael Pitt has quickly established himself as a star of the future, with fine turns in 'Bully', 'Murder by Numbers' and 'The Dreamers'. His latest film sees the young actor play a Kurt Cobain-a-like rock star in Gus Van Sant's startling 'Last Days', and Time Out caught up with him to discuss this most difficult of roles.

How did you first become involved with 'Last Days'?

A lot of it was down to me knowing Gus [Van Sant]. He's a good friend of mine, he became my mentor in a lot of ways, he taught me a lot, and it just came up in conversation. And then the conversations grew until we were there – it was very organic.

How do you prepare for a role like this?

It was kind of difficult to prepare, because a lot of it was based on improvisation and it was not really a set character. We were basing it on Kurt Cobain, or a character like that, but it wasn't specifically him. It's kind of difficult therefore, and confusing. I read a lot of books, talked with a lot of musicians and lost some weight, because the character was a junkie. And that was pretty much it. That and countless conversations with Gus.

So you weren't looking specifically into Kurt Cobain's last days then?

No, we didn't. At first Gus was looking into some things, but we would have been doing it an injustice to say it was like this. I don't know if anyone knows anyway as I think he was alone for his last few days.

Was it difficult to say what you wanted to say through a character who doesn't say much?

It was difficult but it was also fun. There wasn't any dialogue scripted, so it really came down to the camera being a fly on the wall. And if the camera really were a fly on the wall when I was alone or in a weird state, most likely there wouldn't be a lot of talking. I was just trying to base it on reality and what really would happen. Whereas in a lot of movies there's talking and that's how they manipulate whatever point they want to make, here, we didn't do that.

Was it nice to have that kind of freedom where you didn't have to worry about trying to push the plot forward?

It's nice, but it's also a big risk. Especially when you are the lead actor. You feel a responsibility to keep everyone involved with the director and the way he’s trying to tell the story. Sometimes you feel like it's up to you to try and keep everyone interested, so its tricky to do that and not do anything that wouldn't necessarily happen. Like not speak if most likely he really wouldn't say anything. It was tricky, but fun.

Did you have a lot of freedom to take the character where you wanted to?

Yeah, I had total freedom.

What did the script consist of then?

It was a 12-13 page outline. Kind of a map of where it started and where it ended. It would read something like 'walks in the forest – 20 minutes' and we would go into the forest with a camera and come back with 20 minutes of the film. And sometimes the DP would have ideas and we'd go with them. Sometimes I'd have ideas, sometimes the grip would have an idea, and Gus kind of tried to orchestrate it. It was amazing to see. Because a lot of directors are very specific – they say 'put this cup there, but you have to put it right there, and like this, to tell the story I want to tell'. And Gus just tells you to put the cup wherever you want. But he's still telling the story. And he does it in such a Zen way it's almost eerie.

What was the atmosphere like onset then?

It was a very peaceful set. There was kind of a wall that I decided the character would have dividing him from the people around him, based on perhaps knowing where he was going to end up, based on the drug use and based on his depression. So I didn't really mingle that much. I just kind of did my work and I had a little house deep in the woods, so I stayed pretty isolated for the shoot.

Was it tough to stay in that mindset for the whole shoot?

Yes, it's difficult, but it's my job and I want to do it well.

Was it tough to confront death like you have to at the end of the film?

It's definitely a challenging thing to keep in your head. To try and ask why.

Was it a film that spoke to you personally about the alienating effects of fame?

Yes, I feel like I’ve learned from a lot of people's mistakes and I've learned from friends of mine who deal with that. The way I played the character was that he was at this level, and then he was all the way up here and he didn't have time to grow with it or accept it or learn how to live with it in a healthy way. And I kind of played that as his biggest demon.

Was it nice to be able to play your own music in the film?

No. It was not something that I wanted to do, because it seemed confusing to me. I'm not that type of musician – I didn't have any training – so it was really difficult for me to play a cover or learn how to play something else. But at the end of the movie there's a song that I wrote a long time ago, and that was pretty scary. I didn't really want to do it because I take it really seriously and that song wasn't written for a film. But I did it on the last take because Gus had asked me. And Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth, who was our music supervisor, said he really thought it should be in. I had Gus and Thurston telling me, so I just trusted them.

Do you think it was the right decision?

I don't know, I guess we'll find out. The lyrics play as the character's monologue, so I think it works for the film. When I was in Cannes and it was playing, I left the film and when I came back it was on that spot in the film. And as I was watching it I kind of felt like it wasn't my song any more. It was strange.

What have you been up to since you made 'Last Days'?

I did a film called 'The Hawk is Dying' with Paul Giamatti. It's basically Paul's film and I play a supporting character. Which I'm happy to do because I think he's great. So that's the other film project that I've done, and aside from that I've been working on my music.

'Last Days' is in cinemas now.

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