Rian Johnson’s eccentric three character film concerns two shady brothers (Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody) aiming to pull off the perfect, endless con. Their mission takes them around the world, but in a well-constructed bubble. One day a beautiful heiress (Rachel Weisz) enters their lives and stays. Together they embark on mad adventures and ever more elaborate cons.
AB – Writer director Rian Johnson has created an unusual world where it’s hard to know what’s real. How do you step into it?
Adrien Brody - This world is unique. It’s a surreal place, timeless and aesthetically you don’t know where it is, but it has a ‘real’ quality. It’s hard to say how it goes. Things evolve, you show up to work and hustle and then start connecting with elements you didn’t see before, and you’re rolling and your interacting with people and things change. Rachel and Mark may do an original take on something you didn’t see and so you react to that. Things continue to evolve and suddenly you have something that is cohesive.
AB – Basically, it’s a love story about two brothers in which Rachel’s character is a third wheel.
AdB - There is the love story of my character for his brother and for Rachel. And Mark has a great deal of love for Bloom but all these cons he has created have really disturbed my character’s ability to live in the world. It may functionally have been an attempt by Mark’s character to provide some kind of guidance but its self motivated. But my character really doesn’t know himself. Meeting Rachel awakens this desire to see the real world.
AB – It must be thrilling to be an actor and play new people all the time.
AdB - When you have the material it’s great, lovely and complicated and you get opportunities to understand qualities of human nature and yourself. I’ve been very fortunate to find material like this that speaks to me.
Rachel Weisz
AB - It's all about the creation of this three person family – two brothers and a stranger – you and them - against the world. That’s a compelling part of the film.
Rachel Wiesz - It’s very interesting. Families are secret universes and there are two brothers who have two universes. The older brother is writing and creating the cons and then the younger brother’s in there being led along. And my character, Penelope is from a dysfunctional family. She is someone who had a tragic childhood so she stepped out of it by learning hobbies. So she sits at home and does hobbies and then creates a universe with these brothers when their worlds collide.
AB – They travel the world constantly in pursuit of the con. You traveled too. Did you feel that rootlessness they felt?
RW - Definitely! We packed trunks and joined the circus and the characters were the actors, we really were following them around the world. Travel shakes up your world.
AB – The movie’s pretty difficult. Did you at least get some rehearsal time?
RW - No! The script was delivered in this delicious lyrical poetic way and we had two weeks to figure out the con. It’s quite complicated. And the audience is conned. They have to figure it out. But we had a couple of weeks to acclimate to it!
Mark Ruffalo
AB - I watched the cons they pulled and I think, ugh, I’m such a mark. I’d be suckered.
Mark Ruffalo - That’s what’s so great about it. You look at it and say, ‘oh, no, that could be me!’ It’s not a bad way to go down. It’s artwork. The stuff these guys are doing is very high level connery. It’s a big piece of performance art, a play. It’s a modern fable, an eclectic adventure comedy, it has everything in it. It’s a con movie and a love story and a lot of humour and pathos.
AB – You get into a vicious brawl and get the tar knocked out of you. It looks like you got actually hurt.
MR - No, no! One of my fave scenes was when I got beaten up by those two guys! I laughed out loud when I read it. There was no contact whatsoever but the way it was shot it looked like I was brutalised.
AB – What would you say is more important in The Brothers Bloom – the creation of a family or the creation of the con?
MR – Well, let’s just say that in the end, everyone gets what they want, in a strange way.
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