Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher features a very different side of Steve Carell and Channing Tatum, forcing both actors to leave their funny bones at home. With the film finally ready to reach a wide audience this weekend, the actors have been talking about that major shift.
In the film, which we reviewed at the Savannah Film Festival last month, Carell plays John du Pont, the paranoid-schizophrenic heir to the du Pont fortune. He recruits wrestling brothers Mark Schultz (Tatum) and David Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) to train at his Foxcatcher estate. But things turn ugly, fast.
While speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Carell admitted that he was suprised to get Miller’s call, even though he has taken dramatic turns in Little Miss Sunshine and The Way, Way Back. “This doesn't seem to be a list that I would be on, in terms of playing this character. I was surprised when [director Bennett Miller] called me,” the former Office star said.
Carell is barely recognizable in the film, but it’s a role that required much more than makeup.
“I just think he was an incredibly lonely guy," Carell explained. "And really sad. So I never approached him like he was a villain."
Tatum told The Hollywood Reporter that he didn’t specifically take his part just because he set out to do a darker film. He gives the film its most emotional, heartfelt performance and often has scenes without dialogue.
“Comedy is just as hard as doing this,” Tatum told THR. “I think people think that doing drama is this fine art or something, and I know a lot of people who can't do what Steve Carell or Jonah [Hill] or some of these other comedic actors can do, because they can do this as well.”
Foxcatcher, which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, has its limited U.S. release this weekend. It was screened last night at New York’s Modern Museum of Art.
image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com