Lili Taylor Interview, Factotum

Lili Taylor is a superb actress who has made a career out of playing an amazingly wide range of diverse roles since she began acting professionally at age 17. The Chicago native is well known for bringing both an edge and a surprising humanity to the characters she plays, and her most recent turn as Jan opposite Matt Dillon in "Factotum" is no different.

Taylor has starred in such critically acclaimed films as "I Shot Andy Warhol," "Girl’s Town," "Short Cuts," "Dogfight," "Illtown," "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle," "Pecker," and "The Addiction," as well as such popular films as "Mystic Pizza," "High Fidelity," "Born on the Fourth of July," "Ransom," and "The Haunting." Her recent films include Vincent Perez's "The Secret," Mary Harron's "The Notorious Bettie Page" which opened earlier this year, and Andrew Wagner’s "Starting Out in the Evening." Just last week, she completed shooting "Quebec," a comedy directed by Steve Conrad.

Taylor received an Emmy nomination for her roles on "The X-Files" and HBO's "Six Feet Under." She also won an Independent Spirit Award for "Household Saints" and a Special Jury Prize for Acting at the Sundance Film Festival.

Movies Online recently sat down with Lili Taylor to talk about her latest film, "Factotum," adapted from the acclaimed second novel by the iconoclastic street poet Charles Bukowski. The film, helmed by Norwegian new wave director Bent Hamer, features exceptional performances by Taylor and Matt Dillon. The story follows Henry (Hank) Chinaski, a low life character widely known to be Bukowski’s fictional alter ego, through a series of dead end jobs sandwiched between days and nights of drinking, women, and his ongoing effort to capture it in his writing. Taylor plays the character of Jan who represents the big love of Chinaski’s life.

Ms. Taylor appeared relaxed, friendly, and enthusiastic about her new film. Speaking in her trademark husky voice with characteristic grace and a fascinating combination of intensity, honesty, and vulnerability, here’s what she had to say:

Q: Good job with Jan.

LT: Thank you.

Q: Pretty out there?

LT: Yeah.

Q: Did you talk with the Bukowski family about your role?

LT: Not really. Matt talked a lot. It was almost like he had done a lot of the work so I didn’t …I could get a lot of information from him. I didn’t want to do too much research. I wanted to be a little bit more instinctual instead of intellectual for Jan.

Q: How about the book? Did you read the book before?

LT: I did. I hadn’t read "Factotum" but I had read other stuff of Bukowski’s so I read the book, but I didn’t use the book a lot during the filming.

Q: Did you read the book a long time ago? Or just before you shot the film?

LT: I read the book a month before we started shooting.

Q: Just the one? Any poems or anything?

LT: Before, you mean? Yeah, I read Bukowski when I was seventeen. I was more familiar with his poetry.

Q: Do you have a favorite poem or anything?

LT: No, I don’t have a favorite. I just actually got into his poetry again because I read some of it for some live thing and I think I found the middle period to have some really interesting stuff because I was reading from an anthology.

Q: What was your relationship with Bukowski’s writing to begin with? Was it just that stuff that you read when you were 17 or 18 and a large lag until this project came back around?

LT: Yes. It felt like a lot of other people, you know, who read some of those…mostly guys…at a certain time and they’re sort of helpful and then I feel like they got me to where I needed to be and then I was able to put them down for awhile. So it’s nice to be able to pick them back up and I think other people might too because I think there is something. He’s worth looking at.

Q: The last time I talked to you, you were getting ready to do a play. How did that play go?

LT: That play went well and I’ve done a few thereafter.

Q: What else? Tell me.

LT: I’ve done "Aunt Dan and Lemon," a play written by Wally Shawn in New York a few years ago and then I just finished a John Guare play called "Landscape of the Body." I just finished that this Spring.

Q: How was it working with Wallace Shawn?

LT: Amazing and he was there for rehearsal and the play is really interesting. So it was pretty timely because it was about fascism and stuff so it was very timely.

Q: What are you doing movie-wise? What else beside "Factotum?" I know you did the play, "Factotum," anything else?

LT: I just finished "Quebec" a few nights ago, a movie directed and written by Steve Conrad. John C. Reilly’s in that and Seann William Scott and then another independent called "Starting Out in the Evening." I did that in the winter. So it’s been nice. I’ve been doing some independents which is really nice.

Q: Not like the Hughes blockbusters. You like the smaller ones?

LT: Yeah. I do.

Q: How did you go about getting to the character in this, especially you contrast it against Hank’s character? He has those elements of lucidity to him with that sort of spark of hope in there. How did you go about coming up with your character to contrast against that?

LT: Well, I’ve know women like that and I felt like I understood her and I just felt that I wanted to be as kind of just as open as possible which is hard. I mean that takes its own preparation in a way. And to be as instinctual as possible. And so it was sort of clearing stuff away and trusting which is hard. Trusting that the choice that’s coming up or the instinct that’s arising is to be trusted. And I don’t have this ‘work’ to back it up. Sometimes all that work can sort of feel like… can help kind of keep the judgers at bay. But I kind of was just jumping in empty handed and so it was a little scarier in a way.

Q: What kind of emotional toll does playing something like this…like shooting it for few months take on you?

LT: We only shot it for 24 days.

Q: 24 days straight? But what kind of emotional toll does that take on you coming home? Are you able to slip back into reality? Because it’s a very intense performance and you go to a very dark place and it’s a very depressing character so to come home and just be yourself afterwards, how does that work?

LT: Well, I find that with movies because there is such emotion just filming, you’re just moving through scenes all day, and in this case, 24 days, it’s very fast, and Bent was working so much with fighting against the heaviness of the life style that all that combined, it never got stagnant or too heavy. Because it was in motion all the time and because she was in a lot of denial and on some levels it was still working. I was playing it when it was still working so, you know, instead of maybe 10 years later if I was going to play her, it might be a little bit harder to keep up a front.

Q: Could you talk about the atmosphere on location and on the set? This is (inaudible) directors and there was a small budget so there was no gorgeous trailer. But there’s kind of a funny humor in the script. Was the location and atmosphere fun?

LT: It was actually the perfect atmosphere for this type of movie because there was very little money and very little time and so there was a great spirit, you know, of everyone who was there was working really hard and wanted to be there which you want. You want that on a movie and it had a rawness to it that’s sort of similar to one of the essences of Bukowski. And it had a fly-by-your-pants, an impulsive, extemporaneous feeling as opposed to thought out, corporate, any of that stuff would just not have been appropriate for that kind of him. So it suited him, his essence.

Q: How does Lili Taylor pick her roles? Because actors always talk about it. They want a varied career, but you really do have a very wide ranging career. How do you pick your roles? How do you go to them? What makes you…?

LT: The director. The director’s the main thing. And maybe that’s helped make it so varied because I didn’t… I haven’t really had a plan per se. For me, those plans don’t turn out how I was hoping. You know what I mean? And they can get a little bit narrow or close off other options, but a director … Because the first and most important thing has been the director that from that I’ve had some really varied, rich, deep experiences beyond what I could have probably imagined for myself.

Q: Is there someone you would like to work with that you haven’t as a director then?

LT: Yeah, there’s a lot of directors that I’d like to work with. I’d love to work with Mike Lee. I think that would be great. He comes to mind today.

Q: How was it like working with Matt Dillon?

LT: It was great. I mean I’ve known Matt a long time so he felt very familiar to me. But it’s neat being with him right now because he’s just coming into himself so much as a man and as an actor and so it was really neat to be apart of that and to witness it first hand.

Q: At some point you were going to do a Janis Joplin thing? Is that still…?

LT: We lost the rights, our little group, so because of that I would have to go in like another actress and just audition, you know a cold audition and seeing how things are changing so much, I’m sure they’re going to want someone who’s not necessarily right for the role but who can make money for them or something. So I don’t know if they’d let me in.

Q: So you’ve closed the door on doing that?

LT: I’m open. I don’t know if they’d open the door. You know, I’d walk in, but I don’t know if they’d open the door because especially if those rights cost a lot and they’ve got a lot of investment pressures which is a shame because it should really…not that I’m the right one, but it should be the persons…

Q: For people of my generation, if you’re in it and they see you in the credits, at least it will happen a little bit like with this one, but that being said, this one ends like kind of … I looked at Jan as that chick in "High Fidelity" when you close the door and [he] walks away from her. That’s who she turned into.

LT: Yeah.

Q: What do you think the message of this particular one is for people? Like this movie? Like what is it? Because it just ends.

LT: It just ends. Yeah, I know. Which I like. I like those endings that are sort of suspended in a way and you’re left to kind of imagine. Anytime imagination is encouraged, I think, is a good thing. I think that there doesn’t even have to be a message. I just think one thing, just sitting back and letting something wash over you. Or just seeing something kind of authentic or emotional or some true feeling, you know, that can be enough. That’s all we need.

Q: Art for art’s sake?

LT: Yeah, yeah.

Q: Is there a reason your character is so taken with this guy? He’s such a loser. Why is she staying with this guy?

LT: Well, I think that there is something to be said for [the fact] that he drinks the way that she drinks, so that’s a plus. They drink the same amount and that’s not always easy to find, particularly with people who drink that amount. That’s a big thing that’s keeping them together is that they love to drink together.

Q: Good old Jan.

LT: Yeah.

Q: No redemption at all. They weren’t looking for it. That’s what I’m saying.

LT: Right. And I like that too. I like the lack of redemption. I find that interesting too.

Q: So anymore plays? Out here (Los Angeles)?

LT: I don’t know about out here. I’m not close to it. It just doesn’t feel like it happens as much out here. A little bit more anemic the theater scene.

Q: Understood.

LT: Well, I just finished something a couple nights ago so I’m kind of just going to rest a little bit and then figure out what’s next. I just want to enjoy the rest of August. The little that’s left.

Q: You talked about reading Bukowski at 17? Where were you at that time that led you to this career? Did you come to acting before that or after?

LT: I always wanted to act but I was already by 17 professional. I’d done my first play. And then I did a couple TV shows and things and stuff so I was already starting to act professionally at 17. So like a lot of my friends then, we were reading Bukowski and Kerouac and all those guys and stuff. I think a big part of them it’s is about giving permission and throwing caution to the wind.

Q: So you pretty much kept everything open as you said. Just mostly the director and just keeping things open rather than having a strict plan?

LT: Exactly.

Q: Did you come to that realization right away? Or did it take awhile?

LT: It took a few years because, you know, I was young and not sure because I didn’t have a lot of experience to back it up so it took kind of a risk of starting to say no and then realizing that ‘no’ is a complete sentence and that it can… By saying no enough, then your actions are going to just speak loudly and people won’t be coming to you with stuff that you’re going to have to constantly keep saying ‘no’ to, so it kind of started to work itself out.

Q: Did you ever have any issues with getting down to nothing in this film? Like in this one, you have practically no clothes on in some scenes. Was that, as an actress, hard to deal with or did you just do it?

LT: No, it was OK on this and it didn’t feel extraneous. It felt honest and that’s the thing. If it’s not honest, then I don’t want to do it, but this felt OK.

Q: What did you enjoy most about this role?

LT: I think the contradictions and the surprises. I just love when, you know, the more kind of complexities there are in a character, the more that interests me. And that was another thing I really appreciated about Bukowski was his ability to capture contradictions in the human experience.

Q: Like when she gets the job as the maid? You wouldn’t have expected her to do that. It was different.

LT: Exactly. That’s one reason I love documentaries is they’re always surprising me and I realize I’m usually expecting, I’m underestimating or I’m expecting something that’s not as interesting and more general. And the human being usually does something that’s sort of like, "Oh, my God! How interesting!"

Q: Have you seen similarities to writing and acting, like looking at it from his standpoint? Is there a similarity that you see, that you can draw on, with the writing process and the acting process or is it just for you totally different because some people don’t always go about approaching it the same way?

LT: Sure. I think that they’re all very different and they can all draw from each other. But at some points there’s going to be departures with the ‘how to get in there’ and ‘how to kind of dance with it.’ Whereas I would imagine …whereas the writing can be so isolating and whereas at least with theater I’m with people all the time, experiencing the feelings and working it through with people, so that’s one point of departure. But I think all artists could kind of exchange stuff with each other and we could all take something from each other.

Q: Besides Mike Lee, is there a project or a story or one thing, in terms of your career, something that you definitely want to do, that you’ve always wanted to do, that you want to do before you’re 80 years old, something that really means a lot to you creatively?

LT: Not one thing in particular. But I think it would all be going towards creating a really complex woman, one that we haven’t gotten a chance to see and that’s what I’d probably be going towards.

Q: One of the publications that I write for is music. Are there five bands or five genres that you listen to? Just off the top of your head?

LT: Five?

Q: Bands or genres. Anything. It doesn’t have to be five.

LT: Oh, OK. Well, like lately it’s been Clem Snide and Patrick Kovitch and Architecture in Helsinki. Those three.

Q: There you go.

LT: OK. Cool.

Q: Thank you.

LT: Alright. Great. Thank you!