Jon Voight Interview, Transformers

MoviesOnline sat down with Transformers co-stars Jon Voight and John Turturro at the Los Angeles press day to talk about their new film directed by Michael Bay.

For centuries, two races of robotic aliens – the Autobots and the Decepticons – have waged a war, with the fate of the universe at stake. When the battle comes to Earth, Turturro, who plays Agent Simmons, the strange and officious head of a top secret military unit called Sector 7, and Voight, who plays U.S. Secretary of Defense John Keller, must join forces and strategize a plan of attack to save the world from the battling Transformers.

"John and I had a lot of fun fighting against this unknown varmint,” laughs Jon Voight, describing his experience with Turturro. Not a response one imagines when two of the most well-respected actors of our time have the chance to work together, unless it happens to be on the biggest action film of the year.

"I’ve really enjoyed myself because I had the chance to be creative and imaginative,” Turturro says. "Sometimes on big films, you don’t get the chance to do that. It’s been great to be able to turn one of the most famous toys into a mythology, to be a part of something like that. It’s a film that has something for everyone.” Voight agrees, "One of the fun things about working in film is that you get to work with people you’ve admired for so long, which is exciting.” Referring to Turturro, Voight says in all seriousness, "What a delightful, fine actor he is.”

Jon Voight and John Turturro are super nice guys and we really appreciated their time. Here’s what they had to tell us:

MoviesOnline: Turturro, the quirkiness comes from you, not from the script?

Turturro: I deny it. (joking) It was mostly Jon Voight's ideas translated from my body. Michael Bay was a little bit of an inspiration I would say.

MoviesOnline: Jon Voight, you play official figures, and bring humanity. But you also got to shoot at the end.

Voight: Thank God they gave me something. I was so happy to do that, you could tell. So full of enthusiasm.

Turturro: He's good at a lot of things.

Voight: I'm so glad.

MoviesOnline: What was the deciding factor to take this on?

Turturro: I have children. My oldest knows about Transformers. I used  To watch (the cartoon) a little bit with him. He was excited by it. The script was fun and as Jon has said, it's nice to be in touch with what's going on with the younger generation. I thought the story was fun and obviously a lot would hinge on the CGI, which I think is pretty amazing, actually.

MoviesOnline: Jon?

Voight: I always look for the story and I thought the story was pretty good. They came to me with it. I'd worked with Michael before and he thought of me for this and then Steven Spielberg I hadn't worked with before, so that was kind of nice though to work with Steven finally. They gave me this script to read in New York when I was working on "Pride & Glory," and the responsibility was that I would not show it to anybody. Somebody was outside the door waiting for the script. I would read it in one shot and give it back. What the hell is going on? I've been in that spot a little bit before where people are precious about the story because so many people are interested in grabbing it and putting it on the Net. So I read it and thought this is going to work, it's going to be good. The thing I'm dealing with, I've got to bring humanity to it so maybe I can contribute something. But I think it's a good story for kids. That's why I did it.

MoviesOnline: John, you're characters always have been character-driven. This is a summer blast type thing. Was this just something you wanted to get on the resume?

Turturro: I've had an opportunity to do a few things because I've chosen to do something else.

Voight: His son told him to do it. He said don't think too much about  it, just do it.

Turturro: He did say that and my manager told me to do it. Each thing  is its own challenge.

MoviesOnline: How old is your son?

Turturro: He'll be 17 and I have a younger one that's six.

MoviesOnline: John, we've heard both sides: that you did what was on the page and also that you've improved it. What did you do?

Turturro: Michael likes to improvise a little bit. Everyone got a chance to do that in certain situations but he encouraged me to improvise and do different things. Sometimes I'd try things that didn't work at all. (He laughs) But you have to try. He's very child-like himself and had a  good sense of humor and a lot of energy so I kept looking at him and  thinking, I should do it more like Michael Bay -- at least a little bit. I'd tell him sometimes, I was doing you. He's such a narcissist that he was just seeing me through (him). So it's OK.

Voight (to Turturro): You'd better pull that around.

Turturro: No, I'll put it out there. His mother told me he was a very good boy. You have to try to talk to the director's mother. That's my new theory about acting. When she showed up on the set, I talked to her at length. She said he was always good in school. He always drew. He always made these little films and he always loved baseball. But she said he was always a really responsible kid. Of course, he was a nervous wreck that I was talking to his mother, trying to find his weak spot.

MoviesOnline: Did you find one?

Turturro: I think anyone who has that much energy has to have a certain vulnerability too. Otherwise, they wouldn't be that energetic. I really liked working with him. Jon already had worked with him so he had that experience with him.

Voight: He was quite different on this film than Pearl Harbor. On Pearl Harbor, he didn't say one word to me. I just came in and did it. He nodded and that was it. He said nothing to me. In this piece, I liked the way the words were. I didn't have any questions. I just knew I had the responsibility to deliver it. I'd done all my work to get to the set to do it. We just did it and knocked it off. It was very simple. Laughter is necessary when you're working on a film like this but Michael is so active on the set. Some directors sit in front of a monitor and you don't get much interaction. He's in everybody's energy. He'll be painting sometimes. He'll be lifting the camera. He's everywhere. He's quite an amazing persona on a set.

MoviesOnline: How was he different on this one?

Voight: In this one, it was an ensemble and we had to work things out. We were improvising a little bit and adjusting to each other and trying to solve things together. Being an actor who comes from stage and a student of classes and stuff, you want to have time to interact in another way. Talking quietly and (discussing things). Then you get to moviemaking in Hollywood in 2007 and you (animatedly gets up and wipes face, moves around) get up and get out there, the camera comes in here and "let's go!" Oh, ok. It's a little different for me now. I have to adjust to this.

Turturro: That's really well put. Sometimes you think how can anybody  be good. Then you see (the film) and ...

Voight: You do your best to come up to the pressure and prepare  yourself for the pressure and leave yourself open so you can experiment. Offer what you can and get the response and sometimes, you'll get "just say this. Roll em! Action!" Part of that is just a change, but it depends on the piece, the director and a lot of things. In this film there's a lot of pressure to produce a certain energy, style and action that Michael has. He has his own style and movement of the camera. Sometimes he gets an idea; you can see it on his face. (Imitates high energy of Bay) "OK, Jon now you just stand up here." And he's painting and you watch him and see what he needs. And  boom, you knock it off. It's fun, it's dangerous, it's experimental, but it's a style. It's a way he's creative. On this film, he had people who were willing to go into that area with him. That was good, don't you think?

Turturro: I do.

Voight: We were there for him. We were serving him. Trying to  anticipate and keep up.

Turturro: There's a lot of pressure on him. Not only the CGI guys, the producers, then the Hasbro people would come and we'd have to show people certain things, so it was a tremendous amount of pressure.

MoviesOnline: Was that frustrating for you as Academy nominated actors where the special effects are bigger than you?

Turturro: If you're going to do something, you've got to figure this is what it is. This is the landscape we're in. You can't apply another type of approach to that. At the same time, you can still have your approach.

Voight: We worked hard to bring as much as we could to the set so we would be available to the process and go in whatever direction the thing started going in. I think this film's successful in many ways. I'm as dazzled by the CGI work as anybody. It's phenomenal. The dramatic sequences where the robots interact is simply wonderful. I would like to be in the room where you guys address that with (the CGI guys). We saw the sketches. We'd be in the fierce rush of something and Michael would stop shooting and everybody would go around the monitor and we'd see the little sequence. It would give us excitement of what it would be, the developing art of the piece. It's quite something what's been accomplished here. I'm happy to be part of it just so I could tell my kids or grandnieces that are going to ask me about it that I was a participant in it. It's a nice mythology for the kids.

MoviesOnline: John, was your stunning underwear in the script?

Turturro: If anyone else asks about the underwear, I'm outta here. It was Jon Voight's idea. He dared me to wear it. We were just fooling around with the designer. I asked, when I take (off my clothes) should I have something secretive underneath because we have this secret sect. She was laughing. She said, what about this Sector 7 thing. Like Superman. What's going to be beneath it. I said, is it just the shirt and she said, no, you've got to take your pants off too. I said Ok, and showed it to Michael and he liked it. By then, I was having second thoughts.

Voight: What he just described is the interaction and surprise of it. Michael is carrying all of these things in his head and sometimes you're way outside the box like that and he knows it fits. It's right. Boom. Through. Then you go to the movie and everybody cheers and laughs. It works.

Our world will be transformed on July 4th when aliens make Earth their final battleground in "Transformers.”