Between DeLeon Tequila cocktails at the Mondrian Soho on Monday night, at the premiere after-party for Sympathy for Delicious, everyone was talking about religion and rock and roll.
It makes sense: the film, which stars and was written by Christopher Thornton and marks the directorial debut of crowd-pleasing actor Mark Ruffalo, deals equally (and surprisingly) in both topics. Thornton, who lost the use of his legs in a climbing accident two decades ago, plays a homeless, wheelchair-bound DJ, Delicious D, who discovers he has the power to heal others' infirmities. While at first he takes his talent to LA's Skid Row in exchange for a motel room funded by a local mission, his fortunes change when he joins a band and heals audience members live onstage. PHOTO OF ORLANDO BLOOM, LEFT, COURTESY OF MARION CURTIS/STARPIX
First, the religion! We chatted with Noah Emmerich (Beautiful Girls, The Truman Show), who plays Rene Faubacher, a local man of God who tries in vain to convert Delicious in his pre-band life. Did playing Rene, a relentlessly positive character, have an effect on Emmerich? "I do find that there's a bleedover between the mental state of the characters you're playing and what you take home with you," he said. "Obviously, there's a separation—it's not who you are—but there's definitely a residual. I've played a lot of sort of heavier, darker characters; it was great to be filled with joy and faith and hope and bliss, and the future was bright. There was something about that that was really quite pleasant."
Emmerich has good reason to be optimistic, with two high-profile projects coming up: the hotly anticipated new J.J. Abrams film, Super 8, and a television pilot written and directed by Oscar winner Stephen Gagan. "Sort of in the vein of Traffic, it's kind of a pastiche mosaic about life in Los Angeles. I'm a New York detective that comes out to LA to make amends with his ex-wife and 15-year-old estranged daughter. He couldn't be more anti-LA," he said.
Second, the rock and roll! We asked Orlando Bloom, who plays the hilarious, preening frontman of the band Delicious joins, whether he studied any old Iggy Pop videos to get into character. "Actually, you know, I was a bit more of the Ian Brown, from The Stone Roses, school of thought; and also the Gallagher brothers, Liam and Noel, from Oasis," he said. "I just thought that Northern—I mean, I didn't do a Manchester accent, I did a broad Northern, because a lot of the great British bands, even the Beatles, they all came from the north of England. But I just thought that lent itself really well to the attitude of the character, like, ‘We're the best fooking band in the world and fook you if you don't believe it!' You know what I mean? Also, a little bit of Joe Strummer goes a long way in that respect."
What else has Bloom been up to recently? "The Good Doctor just played in Tribeca, which is a movie that I produced with my partner, Sharon Miller. And it's an interesting little film that I'm really proud of. It was all part of this opportunity to start shifting perceptions, to show that there's more than just a pirate in me."
We assured him we've never thought of him as just a pirate. "Well, I appreciate that. I have never thought of myself as that either," he replied. "But I think a lot of other people might have."
Finally, we warned that our next question might be inappropriate—his wife, model Miranda Kerr, was lounging on a couch nearby, and we wanted to talk about how good she looked a scant four and a half months after giving birth. "That's not inappropriate at all! She looks fantastic! How does she do it?! I think it's genetic," he said proudly, dashing any hopes that we might learn her trick.
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