Interview

WILSON: It’s better. I always think it’s hard to read scripts because, first of all, a lot of the time they’re just boring. It’s hard to read a script from start to finish, like a book, and enjoy it just for itself. The script is supposed to be the blueprint for the movie. So you can read a script and be like, Okay, but then it can turn into a good movie. I feel like I’ve only read a couple scripts ever where I thought, Wow. I remember being in Dallas, and one of the guys who helped us with Bottle Rocket [1996] knew Quentin Tarantino when Reservoir Dogs [1992] was happening. He had a copy of True Romance [1993], and I remember he gave that to me and Wes. That script seemed so great, just so exciting and different from everything. It’s nice to read something that has its own voice, and Sofia’s script obviously does.

DORFF: Yeah, It’s an exciting time. I’m getting some great opportunities. I’m growing up. I think that’s the goal to try to keep finding those new things and take those risks,

WILSON: And you just did Public Enemies with Michael Mann.

DORFF: Yeah, Michael Mann has always been one of my favorites. I loved The Insider [1999], I love The Last of the Mohicans [1992], I love Heat [1995]. Public Enemies was the biggest film I’ve ever worked on. I was on set for 70 or 80 days for that movie. It was great to work with Johnny [Depp]. He’s always been an actor I’ve looked up to and respected.

WILSON: When you and I first met, I remember you were living in that house at the top of Mulholland that he had lived in previously.

DORFF: Yeah it was a weird connection. He had rented the house years before.

WILSON: It’s a great house.

DORFF: It was just a cool tree house on top of a mountain with a killer view. But on set he was very generous with the actors. It was an intense shoot. We had a lot of nights. I play Homer Van Meter, one of Dillinger’s crew—kind of the dangerous one—they were together almost all the way up until Dillinger’s death.

WILSON: You play a hothead.

DORFF: His job is basically to control the front of the bank while they’re inside taking care of business. So Homer was documented as having done a lot more of the murders.

WILSON: That’s one of your specialties, playing a hothead. [both laugh]

DORFF: Sometimes the bad guys are the juicier roles. But I definitely wanted to play a gangster. I think the gangsters have more fun, you know?

WILSON: Yeah.

DORFF: We’re being chased by Christian Bale and his team of authorities, but the gangsters had a lot of fun back in 1934. Dillinger busts me out of prison in the opening, and from then on, it’s basically the last year of Dillinger’s life. We go on the tear-up until things start getting ugly.

WILSON: You know, this interview wouldn’t be complete without a mention of . . .

DORFF: Shafrazi?

WILSON: Shafrazi and American—

DORFF: American Greats. [both laugh]

WILSON: My dad always loves seeing you because you always bring up the book he did, and he always gets real excited.

DORFF: I was at the book signing for American Greats. I believe it was at Neiman Marcus or somewhere in Beverly Hills, and I’ve still got that book on my bookshelf, Robert A. Wilson: American Greats. And your interview in the issue of Interview with Tony Shafrazi is great! He was great in Life Aquatic with you. He keeps always telling me, “Get me in some of these movies,” and so I had a part for him at the porno party and he wanted to reschedule—he doesn’t realize when you schedule a certain scene, you have to be in town to shoot it. They’re not going to rearrange a whole film for your travel itinerary, you know?

WILSON: Yeah.