Talking to Seth Rogen is about as relaxed and informal as it gets in terms of doing publicity with actors or writers or directors. At this point, we’ve spoken so many times, in so many different contexts, on so many different projects, that it just feels like we’re picking up in mid-conversation each time now.
With Cameron Diaz, it’s totally different. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a reason or opportunity to interview her before, and anytime you put two people together for an interview where there’s a totally different comfort level with one or the other, it’s going to leave things a little unbalanced.
Thankfully, she seemed easy to chat with, and I think they’re all fairly pleased with the way “The Green Hornet” came together. And they should be. It’s a film that certainly feels like it’s of a piece with the general superhero movie mainstream, but that also does things I’ve never seen in one of these movies. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were writers and producers here, and they anchor the film in one sensibility, while Michel Gondry adds another distinct voice, and then the other performers bring particular qualities that pull the film this way and that, out of that original shape somewhat, but not so much that we can’t still recognize it. For a film based on a character as second-tier as “The Green Hornet,” there’s has to be a strong take on the material, or it’s not worth doing at all.
Over the weekend, I sat down with some of the cast of the film on the Sony Lot. Michel Gondry and I had a twenty-minute conversation that you’ll hear on this week’s Motion/Captured Podcast, and that went incredibly well. It relaxed me, and then I did a couple of other quick interviews and finally walked into this two-person interview at the end of my day. Seems to me like it went well, but I’ll let you check it out for yourself and tell me.
I’ll let you know as we get each of our “Green Hornet” pieces up between now and the release of the film, and I’ll also have my full-review of the film very soon.
“The Green Hornet” opens in theaters on Friday, January 14, in IMAX 3D, regular 3D, and good ol’ fashioned 2D.