Robbery and heist movies have their fair share of villains. Giovanni Ribisi in “Contraband” plays a good, slimy one.
In his recent interview with HitFix, the actor described what it was like to live in the tattoo-covered skin of Tim Briggs, who plays opposite of Mark Wahlberg’s recovering and torn thief Chris Farraday. To take on the character, Ribisi learned to wear his own “prison face,” going through the “daily process of being in the makeup chair and trying to embrace that transformation.
“It was an education,” the actor said, an “undertaking of what prison life was like.”
He said he was in on designing the tattoos and, as a part of that, making up his own back-story of a life of a criminal. It segued a little into real life: Ribisi revealed that he even got a couple tats of his own after the movie was done shooting.
The 38-year-old actor also clued us in to his short film project with The Berrics, an online destination for skateboard enthusiasts. In “The Wake Up,” Ribisi is directed by skate photographer Giovanni Reda to actually — well — wake up. Don’t miss out on some of the very funny “making-of” and the sheer number of decks gracing the walls of the apartment.
Watch the interview above for more on Ribisi’s acting process and his personal draw to the role.