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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 21 September 2014

I saw The Little Death in a packed cinema and the audience was laughing both often and loudly.  On the flip side, I’ve had two friends express their strong dislike for the film.  It’s an audience-divider and so I spoke to writer-director Josh Lawson about it…

Matt:  The intricacies of sex are something that isn’t discussed a lot in today’s movies.  Why is that?  Where did the original idea come from for this film?

Josh:  It really came about because it isn’t discussed a lot.  I felt there was a gap in the content we were making in Australia and I just find the subject really interesting.  It’s a subject that can provide all sorts of things – comedy, drama, tragedy, romance, intimacy, shock, danger, discomfort, nervousness and all of that stuff.   It’s one of the last great taboos.  It takes a lot to surprise us these days because we’ve seen so much and audiences are so savvy and so I thought that sex might be the place where you could find a few more surprises.

Matt:  Specifically it’s talking about fetishes which are something that’s definitely not spoken about a lot.  How did you settle on these particular five fetishes as part of your script?

Josh:  There’s an endless list from which you can choose but for the film, I really wanted fetishes that required planning and forethought.  That’s sort of why it’s called The Little Death.  I was curious to see how far a person might go in order to get this fleeting moment of ecstasy.  What’s the emotional cost that comes with finding a specific kind of pleasure?

Matt:  So how do you research something like that?  I’m guessing these aren’t all your own fantasies.

Josh:  I’d be exhausted if they were!  The internet makes things very easy now.  Not just for me as a researcher but also for people with fetishes.  Likeminded people can find a community whereas a long time ago, people with fetishes may have felt a lot more shame.  I read books and case studies but I also checked out online chat forums where people spoke about these fetishes and their own experiences. 

Matt:  As the writer-director of the film, you can cast yourself wherever you want so how did you settle in particular on the role of Paul?  Were there other roles you were thinking about playing?

Josh:  No.  In fact, I never wrote the film with me in mind for any role.  It came out of necessity truth be told.  Someone else was in the role and there was a last minute scheduling problem and so I stepped in.  I’m glad I did in the end because the film is so personal to me and it was nice to be able to spin those three plates.  I’m proud of the work we did.  Also, Bojana and I have known each other for a long time because we went to drama school together in Sydney.  We had good chemistry because of that history and I think things worked out for the best.

Matt:  What was your approach to the casting?  Do you pick friends of yours?  Do you a do a lot of auditioning?  Do you go with people you’d rather work with? 

Josh:  Casting for this film was really crucial because it’s an actor’s piece.  There’s a lot of dialogue and a lot of tricky material.  It required the actors to be fearless given the nature of the subject.  I got to cast friends but I didn’t cast them because they were friends.  I went with who I thought the best people for job were.  One of the reasons I wanted to make this film here in Australia because I felt there was so much talent in actors who weren’t necessarily stars.

I also didn’t want the film to feel unbalanced by having a really big name.  I wanted it to feel very real, very natural.  I wanted the couples to feel believable.  It made sense to cast those who aren’t known globally and in some cases, not even known nationally.  I have a feeling that for a few of them, the film will really showcase their talents.

Matt:  Without giving everything away, the film doesn’t wrap up all the short stories with a nice, neat happy ending.  What was your approach to working out when each story would end?

Josh:  Someone asked me the other day as to why some of the stories didn’t have resolutions and my answer was “when does any story have a resolution?”  Tomorrow is another day and who knows what’s going to change.  Maybe you get back together and then tomorrow you have another fight and break up. 

For me, the moral of the stories are that those who are dishonest with each other are probably more doomed than those who are honest with each other.  Those who are transparent and communicate a little more with their partner have more hope I think.

Matt:  I was going to ask about the tone.  You could do this as a straight out raunchy comedy or it could be a really heavy serious drama.  When you’re writing the script, how do you balance that up?  How do you know you’ve got the right amount of humour while also treating the subject respectfully?

Josh:  It’s a good question and it was obviously really tricky.  The film is primarily a comedy but it’s other things as well.  Each story served a different purpose when trying to solicit a certain reactions and emotions from people.  I wanted the film to feel like a ride.  One minute you’re feeling one emotion and then the next minute you’re feeling something completely different.  Because sex can be so many different things, I wanted the film to be able to cover a lot of things under the umbrella of comedy.

To come back to your question about finding balance, it was important that the character’s intentions are ultimately good and not malicious.  While some of the characters do horrible things, it never comes from a place of malice.  As misguided as they may be, they’re actually trying to connect and find intimacy together.  If those intentions are clear, you can go to a darker place I think.

Matt:  My favourite story is the one that’s covered last – the deaf man and the phone operator.  The audience was laughing hysterically at the preview screening.  I’d love to know if there was something in particular that inspired that story?

Josh:  My uncle is deaf and my cousin is fluent in sign language.  She worked in one of those translating call centres.  I was thinking one day how funny it would be if someone called and had phone sex.  Their job is to interpret exactly and they can’t interfere with that as the whole idea is for a deaf person to call up and have a regular phone call.

I came to one of the services here in Brisbane to research it.  They showed me around and as I was leaving, I said to the manager “this is going to sound crazy but have you ever had guys call this place and try to have phone sex?” and she goes “yeah, most of them.”  That just goes to show you that people are sexual creatures.  Our instincts are there.  No matter how nice we dress or how articulate we sound, we’re all mammals. 

Matt:  You were able to screen the film at the Toronto Film Festival which is about as big as it gets in terms of the film festival circuit.  What was that like and what reactions did you get from North American audiences there?

Josh:  It was really special.  Like you say, it’s a real honour and a privilege to make it to a film festival like that.  I think that we get stuck a lot in this country to fill a mandate of telling “Australian stories”.  What we should be telling are human stories.  They can be set in Australia of course to let people know that we are here.  However, when you make a film that is quintessentially Australian, you a run a risk that you’ve going to make it so assertoric that it doesn’t travel.

We found the Canadians were loving this film because who can’t relate to being in a relationship, to having sex, to being embarrassed?  All of these are such human things and so we found the film travelled really well and the Canadians were reacting in the exact same way that Australians seemed to.

Matt:  When you write and direct a film it takes up a huge chunk of your time.  What happens now after this?  What have you got planned?  Will you be directing other stuff?

Josh:  I feel like I should hibernate for six months.  You’re right in that it really swallows up every chunk of time that you have.  I’m going back to acting and will be shooting series 4 of House Of Lies in the United States.  I’m keen to write and direct again.  I enjoyed the experience even though it was taxing.  Perhaps that’s because I enjoy a challenge.  I want to tell different stories and I’m looking forward to the next one being really different to The Little Death.  I wouldn’t mind tackling a different time and place.  I hope that I’ve learned so much from this film that I can make the next one even better.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 04 September 2014

I remember him from the Fox8 television series Slide (shot here in Brisbane) and since that time, Brenton Thwaites has launched himself in Hollywood with a string of big roles.  In the past 12 months he’s worked alongside Angelina Jolie, Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor, Laurence Fishburne, Gerard Butler and Geoffrey Rush.  I caught up with Brenton while he was recently back in Brisbane to chat about his leading performance in The Giver. You can listen to the full interview by clicking here.

Matt:  We bat above our average in terms of Aussie actors working in Hollywood.  Tell us a little about yourself.  Where did you grow up?

Brenton:  I grew up in Cairns and then I moved down here to Brisbane to study fine arts majoring in acting at QUT. 

Matt:  A lot of people when they see someone acting on screen go “yeah, look, that’s so easy, I could easily do that.”  How much work did you have to put in at QUT to get to the level that you’re at today?

Brenton:  After three years of learning how to act, you realise that it’s not about the acting.  They teach you how to relax.  I was lucky enough to be blessed with a teacher named Charles Allen who taught me for my three years.  He also taught me how to find certain emotions within yourself.

All of that training aside, sometimes you don’t know what to do.  Shows like Home & Away, Slide and Sea Patrol shoot using a pretty hectic schedule.  They’re great because you learn confidence and how to relax in front of a camera.

Matt:  I remember the TV series Slide and then your short stint on Home & Away.  What happened in between?  Next minute I saw you alongside Angelina Jolie in Maleficent and now here in The Giver?  Were you doing a lot of auditions?  Trying to make it in Hollywood?

Brenton:  Yeah, I was.  I was putting everything down on tape.  I would audition wherever in the world I was.  For example,  I auditioned from India for a few things such as Blue Lagoon.  The tape that I used had this guy wheeling a dog across a park in the background.  It was the craziest audition and somehow I got the part.

Matt:  You’re working here with Jeff Bridges – a six-time Academy Award nominee.  I remember him as The Dude in The Big Lebowski.  Was there a lot that you could learn from him on set?

Brenton:  Yeah, there is.  I’ve watched him since I was a kid.  I loved The Big Lebowski and I loved one of his first movies, The Last Picture Show.  Crazy Heart was also amazing.  I was as big a fan as anyone else going in to meet Jeff and so it was a dream to be part of this movie with him.

Matt:  Meryl Streep is in the movie as well but we see a lot of her as a hologram.  Were there any scenes were you acting alongside each other?

Brenton:  We shared a few.  The process is quite technical.  They shoot with me in the shot and they shoot with Meryl in front of a green screen later and they connect it using computers in post- production.  We’d reach together off screen and few had a few scenes together but like you said, she shot a lot of that stuff on her own.

Matt:  Did you get the chance to spend a lot of time with Jeff and Meryl Streep off the set?  I can imagine they’d have some amazing stories and wealth of knowledge to share. 

Brenton:  The truth is that there was only on set for this movie.  I didn’t have much time to walk off set.  Everyone was working so hard on this for so long.  In the snippets of spare time that we had, we’d grab a guitar, strum for 5 minutes and then go back to the scene.  I also took a few photos with Jeff.  He’s a great photographer and he takes beautiful photos on set so he would teach me a little about cameras and shooting on film.

Matt:  And you’re working here with Phillip Noyce who’s done everything from Newsfront and Rabbit Proof Fence to The Quiet American and Salt).  It’s such a varied career.  How does he work on set?

Brenton:  He’s one of the best directors that I’ve worked with and maybe will ever work with.  He’s so passionate, energetic, and he’s full of love.  What I mean by that is that he knows how to extract a real performance out of you.  I felt like he already knew me.  The director of photography, Ross Emery, myself and Phillip Noyce are all Australian and so we know how daunting it can be to enter a big Hollywood movie.  It was good having him on my side in a way.

Matt:  During the early scenes of this film I was reminded of The Hunger Games and Divergent.  These are all films based on novels set in some kind of dystopian future with super-controlling governments and told from the perspective of rebellious teenagers.  Just a coincidence? 

Brenton:  They’re becoming quite popular.  There are more books and films being produced on this genre.  I don’t know the answer as to why we’re seeing more than that but I think young people today are quite aware of the world.  We can research anything at any time we want using our phones.  The connection with The Giver is that it’s funny to imagine what life would be like without a phone and without the freedom to know what is going on with the world.   

Matt:  So where are you living these days?  Do you have to make a permanent home for yourself in Los Angeles?

Brenton:  Back and forth.  I’m kind of the road at the moment.

Matt:  Has your life changed a lot over the past few months in Hollywood?  Do you get more scripts being sent your way?  Do you get noticed in the street?

Brenton:  When I first came to Hollywood, I said to my agents – “send me everything whether they be good scripts, bad scripts, half-written scripts.”  It gave me a great idea of what was in the town at the time.  Now, I think they’re saying “we’ll just send you a few scripts” because there’s a lot more coming which is great.

Matt:  And as someone who has studied acting and clearly has a love for film, what are your favourite movies?  Which directors would you love to work with?

Brenton:  Phillip Noyce was one.  I saw a movie recently called Boyhood and it’s my favourite film of the year and I’d love to work with Richard Linklater on something somewhere.  At the time of watching the movie, I was frustrated and tired but it brought me out of my own world and I learned to love those characters.  That’s the magic of cinema.

Matt:  I’ll finish up by asking what you’re currently working on?  When are we going to see you next on screen?

Brenton:  October 16 is the release of Son Of A Gun, a movie I shot with Ewan McGregor in Perth.  I’m really excited and proud of that.  At the beginning of next year, Helen Hunt is releasing her new film, Ride, which she wrote, directed and starred in.  That was a dream come true.  It was amazing to make.  Sometime in 2016 you’ll see Gods Of Egypt.  We finished shooting about a month ago in Sydney and there’s a huge CGI element to the film and they’re in post production right now trying to create a lot of the backdrops and a lot of the action sequences.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 25 August 2014

Boyhood is one of the best films of the year for a number of reasons and so I was thrilled to speak with star Ellar Coltrane about his unique leading role. You can listen to the full interview by clicking here.

Matt:  How old were you when filming commenced?

Ellar:  I was 7 when we first started filming.

Matt:  Can you remember a lot of the casting process?  How did director Richard Linklater find you in the first place?

Ellar:  Yeah, a little bit.  I went to an audition and I was auditioning a lot at the time.  He knew very much what the film was going to be but he didn’t have a script written so it was kind of just a conversation.  He just wanted to get to know kids I guess and so he asked me about my art and my parents and my family and what I was interested in.  It was pretty lengthy process.  I think there were 7 or 8 call backs and then eventually he chose me.

Matt:  Was there a broad script that stayed the same through the filming process or were changes made as you all got older and the story developed?

Ellar:  It’s a mix of both.  Richard had a very specific structure for the film and the changes that the family would go through.  However, the dialogue and the more specific situational elements of each year were constantly being invented as we went along through a workshop process.

Matt:  I’ve said this about Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise trilogy and I can say the same thing here – the dialogue seems so natural between the characters – such as the interaction between you and your father, mother and sister.  Was it all scripted or was it a little looser?

Ellar:  It was definitely always scripted on camera… but the dialogue was built through a very organic, collaborative and spontaneous process.  He would come to us with an outline of the scene and some dialogue written.  We would then kind of talk about it, improvise bits of dialogue, share our experiences and put some of our words in.  Richard would then take all of that and turn it into a final draft which in some cases, was only being typed up a few hours before filming.

Matt:  How long did it take to film each “year” of footage so to speak?

Ellar:  Filming would be 3-4 days usually.  The rehearsal and writing would be about a week before that. 

Matt:  It’s a long film at 2 hours, 45 minutes but like a few fellow critics have said, I could easily watch another 3 hours because I was so interested in the characters.  Was there a lot of stuff left on the cutting room floor?  Subplots that were deliberately left out of the final film?

Ellar:  No, there isn’t much.  There are a couple of scenes here and there but the reality is that we didn’t have a lot of time and so everything we shot is pretty much up there.

Matt:  Were you able to talk to anyone about the project across the 12 years or did you have to keep it a secret?

Ellar:  No, I wasn’t sworn to secrecy.  They wouldn’t have wanted me to talk to a magazine about it but I was allowed to tell my friends and everything.  There was a point when I stopped talking about it because it’s hard to describe and people didn’t really care.

Matt:  One of the nice touches in the film is how it uses events to get a perspective of time – like when you’re buying a copy of the Harry Potter book and when you’re posting vote for Obama signs.  How much thought when into picking just the right event for each time frame?

Ellar:  That would be more a question for Rick I guess.  I think it just happened naturally and they were things that were going on when Richard was writing the story for that year.  Harry Potter was a huge deal at that point in time and it just seemed like something very specific.  There hadn’t been anything like that before around a novel series.  The same thing applied to the Obama election which is what was in the air at that point and something that you would remember.

Matt:  Your hairstyle changes a lot in the film too to help let us know when we’ve skipped forward in time.  Was that your own hairstyle or did you have to have it a certain way for Richard Linklater?

Ellar:  No, most of those are just my haircuts. 

Matt:  The soundtrack is so diverse too!  Did you get a lot of say in the songs your character would be listening to?

Ellar:  No actually.  The soundtrack is similar to what we were just talking about.  It’s a time stamp to bring you back to that period of time.  We used the songs that were in the air and were on the radio as things to remind you of that year.  I never really listened to much current music as a kid and so I wasn’t much help on that front.

Matt:  Did you get to see any of the film as it was being shot or did not really get a chance to see it until the very end?

Ellar:  I didn’t see any of it until it was done. 

Matt:  Wow.  What was your first reaction?

Ellar:  It was intense and very emotional.  It was a lot to take in at once but I thought it was really beautiful and comforting to be seeing yourself in that way.  I felt vulnerable but seeing it all together in context like that made it very easier. 

Matt:  Most films take 1-2 months to shoot but spread over 12 years, what was it like when you shot the final scenes?  Is there a tinge of sadness because it’s all over or is it something that you’re kind of relieved to finally complete?

Ellar:  Both I think.  It was a huge sense of relief but it was also quite sad.  It was a very tender and dear process that we’d all come to enjoy and we also really cared about each other so there was a bittersweet-ness to realising that that would be the last time.

Matt:  What’s it been like since the film’s release?  Have you had a lot of reactions from friends and family?  People actually recognising you on the street?

Ellar:  Yeah.  I have had a lot of people recognising me on the street over the past few weeks.  Most of my friends and family have seen it and they all appreciate it and like it.  But having people recognise me is kind of surreal.

Matt:  The film premiered at Sundance but has since gone around the world.  Have you had a chance to do a lot of travel with the film thus far?

Ellar:  I’ve been travelling quite a bit.  I went to London after I was in Sydney and other than that, I’ve been all around the United States.  I also went to the Berlin Film Festival earlier in the year.

Matt:  I guess the promotion of the film has been taking up a fair chunk of your time since the January premiere.  Have you had to put your regular life on hold so to speak?

Ellar:  Yeah, I definitely have.  I don’t have much of a regular life right now.  My whole life is promoting the film which is great.  It’s incredible to be able to share it with people.  It’s really inspiring to see people connect with it in such a genuine way.  I feel comfortable expressing that so it’s been really great.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 21 August 2014

Felony debuted at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival and is now finally getting a release here in Australia.  I spoke to the writer-star of the film, Joel Edgerton. You can listen to the full interview by clicking here.

Matt:  How’s it going?

Joel:  So far, so good.  I’m personally well but we just had the Australian premiere at the closing night of the Melbourne Film Festival so the film is off to a lovely start.

Matt:  Well I know it screened at the Toronto Film Festival last year.  Did you get a different response from the Aussie audience as opposed to what you got overseas?

Joel:  I think I was in no fit state to gauge what the audience response was in Toronto.  The first viewing for any film that I’m involved with is always so terrifying.  The film was very well received in Toronto though.  We got some amazing write ups from the New York Times, Variety and some other publications that made me think that it must have gone down well. 

There was something wonderful about the Melbourne screening the other night because it was a home audience and I could get rid of my initial anxiety and enjoy the film for what it was.  It’s a great film that I’m very proud of.  I felt very lucky.

Matt:  Felony is a film that asks moral questions of a lot of its characters.  Where did the idea come from?  Was there a particular event that inspired it?

Joel:  I remember a particular conversation years ago before I wrote this movie about trying to cast your mind forward into a scenario where you’ve done something wrong and wondering if you would then do the right or wrong thing in the aftermath.  As much as I love to think that I’m a good person, I can’t promise you that I would do the right thing if I was in this character’s shoes until I’ve actually been through that experience.  Thankfully I haven’t and hopefully I won’t.

The real interesting crime in this film is not only does my character hit this child and cause an accident under the influence of alcohol… but in the aftermath he chooses to lie about it.  Being no witnesses, he decides to say that he came across the accident rather than him causing it.  That to me is the part of the film that fascinates me.  What drives humans that we keep reading about in the newspaper doing these hit and run accidents?  What causes us to tell these lies or to choose to run away?  Yes, it’s fear but what are the ramifications for that person and those around them?

Matt:  One part of the film I found particularly intriguing is the accident itself.  We only see things from your perspective and it all happens rather innocuously.  We’re not even sure if it’s the car that veered into the boy or the boy that veered into the car.  The fact that he’s not wearing a helmet and there’s fog on the windscreen adds a further layer.  Did a lot of thought go into shooting it that particular way?

Joel:  Yeah.  We were shooting that scene with the mindset that we wanted to see it from the perspective of three different characters – myself and then the older and younger detective when they arrive.  What’s interesting to me is that I’ve seen movies before where a character kills someone and then runs home and essentially hides under their bed.  What we were looking to do was something more subtle.  Malcolm isn’t sure how intoxicated he is and when he hits the child, it’s just a kind of nudge.  He performs his duty of care and sticks around until there’s an ambulance, which is a good act, but then finds himself wittingly or unwittingly saying that he’s not sure how the child came to harm.  That’s where the real drama starts.  The subtlety is that it’s not a definite action where you go “oh, he’s killed a kid, this is bad.”  There’s more to it than that.

Matt:  It’s a very complex issue – this idea if a good person does a bad thing, is there more room for forgiveness?   It’s a film that asks questions but is there a particular response you’re hoping to see from audiences?  Or are you leaving it open ended and letting people come up with their own conclusions?

Joel:  I want this to be a crowd participation movie.  I joke that in the old days when you leave a kid’s party you used to get a bag of lollies to take home.  There’s something in this movie that I want the discussion to continue after the credits roll.  You bring your moral code and your experience in life up until this point and tell me whether you think this man deserves to go to jail… or whether this man should let his punishment exist in his own conscience. 

There’s also this grand idea in the film that it asks questions about guilt and remorse.  Do they become intensified when you realize that you may be caught or there maybe witnesses?  As Tom’s character says – “is it easier for time and the world to swallow events if you’re not being judged?”  To me, this has been a lament to get to the bottom of something for me which is that I believe the reason people tell lies is because we’re scared of not being liked and loved.  We don’t want people to think that we’re bad.

Matt:  There are so many ways that you can end a story like this.  How easy was it to come up with the finale that we see on screen?

Joel:  I’ve seen so many thrillers in my life and it’s one of my favourite genres and yes, we wanted to make a tense thriller… but in a different way, I didn’t want characters to be running around with guns at the end of this movie.  I wanted it to be a climax of ideas and emotions and yet still feel like great entertainment.  So I knew where I wanted that character to end up. 

Matt:  When you wrote the screenplay, did you always see yourself in the role of Malcolm Toohey?

Joel:  Yeah, it was my way of ensuring that I have a job (laughs).  It was always something that I wanted to explore and that’s why I started writing the screenplay.  Funnily enough, when you see the movie, you’ll realize that the greatest role in the film has been written for Tom Wilkinson.  His character is so interesting and so dangerous and so funny.  He becomes a delectable part of the film. 

Matt:  Well how did you get Tom on board?  He’s such a fantastic actor and I remember him from such films as In The Bedroom and Michael Clayton.

Joel:  He was the person who was most on my mind when I wrote the film.  I crossed my fingers and sent him the script through his manager and hoped that (A) he would read it, and (B) that he liked it.  We got such a quick response from him.  Tom actually loves staying home in London and the last thing he wanted to do was travel all the way to Australia… but he said this is one of the best scripts that I’ve ever read and that he couldn’t not do it.  I was so flattered.  He was such a great person on set from start to finish because he loved the material so much.

Matt:  This is the second time this year we’ve seen you credited as a writer – first with David Michod’s The Rover and now here with Felony.  Are there other writing projects that you’re currently trying to get funding for?

Joel:  David and I are collaborating on something at the moment that we’ll hopefully make next year.  I’ve also written a project that I want to direct which will hopefully be the next thing that I do.  So yeah, I’m always writing something and that’s as much a part of my life now as all the acting stuff. The acting stuff beats a louder drum and gets more attention but back in my room in the evenings and in between takes, I’m back in my room tapping away on my computer hoping to create the next thing.

Matt:  I was going to lead into that – making the transition to directing.  I’ve spoken to a lot of actors who just don’t really want to do it because there’s so much time and effort that is required to direct as opposed to just acting.  But it’s clearly something that you want to do?

Joel:  A part of me wants to experiment with it to see if it is something that I want to keep doing in the future.  I may do it and find it all to be too much responsibility and hate it but at least I would have answered that question for myself.  I suspect, as I have when I’ve directed shorter films, that I’m really going to take to it and love it.  It just engages you so much more than being an actor can.  As an actor, you’re often just waiting around on set for hours waiting for lights to be set up.  There’s a responsibility on yourself to fill that time somehow.

Matt:  And when are we going to see you next on screen?  What acting projects have you got coming up?

Joel:  The next thing you’ll see me in is Exodus which is coming out around Christmas.  It’s a Ridley Scott movie with Christian Bale.  After that I’ve got a western called Jane Got A Gun which is another outing with the director who made Warrior, Gavin O’Connor, and also stars Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor.  It’s an old school western which comes out in February or March.

Matt:  Well it sounds like they both have a fantastic cast so I’m extremely jealous!

Joel:  (laughs)  Yeah, when I was on set doing Jane Got A Gun, I was playing Natalie’s ex-boyfriend and there’s a bit of romance.  I was doing some texting back to friends at home saying “just thought I’d let you know what I’m doing today…” 

Matt:  (laughs)  Thanks Joel for speaking with us this morning.