Interview conducted by Josh Horowitz
January 13, 2004
THE COOLER could have so easily slipped under the radar it’s actually pretty shocking it’s gotten the attention it has. It’s a small film reliant on vivid performances and an odd mix of drama and comedy at times, not to mention a romantic heart at the center. It’s the kind of film that might have gone straight to cable if circumstances hadn’t dictated otherwise.
Lucky for Maria Bello that it turned out the way it did. She’s earned some of the best reviews of her career playing Natalie, a Vegas waitress finding love in the most unlikely of places. Bello, whose most notable credits include roles in PAYBACK, AUTOFOCUS, and a season on ER, forms one third of a much praised acting trio in the film. In a supporting role, Alec Baldwin chews up the scenery as a ball-busting casino director. William H. Macy portrays the title character himself, Bernie Lootz. Macy is Bello’s paramour, a man who has parlayed his “gift” for spreading bad luck into a career at a casino where he turns winners into losers for management.
Early word on THE COOLER centered on some frank sex scenes between Bello and Macy. Only recently has that chatter been usurped by awards talk for the performances in the film. That includes Bello who recently gave me a call just moments after she learned of her Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress and moments before embarking on a mad dash of interviews in New York.
Maria Bello: Is this Josh?
Josh Horowitz: It is.
MB: How are you doing?
JH: Fine but the question is, how are you doing?
MB: I’m doing great, man!
JH: I’m sure you’re doing very well this morning.
MB: I was surprised. What a thrilling wonderful surprise.
JH: I know you already have a Blockbuster entertainment award for COYOTE UGLY so I’m guessing this Golden Globe nomination is not much of a big deal, right?
MB: (LAUGHS) Yeah. It’s a whole different ballgame, isn’t it?
JH: Your co-stars did quite well too.
MB: Yes! Alec [Baldwin] got nominated for Best Supporting and Bill got nominated for SEABISCUIT. [They are] two of the greatest actors in the American cinema today. I really believe that.
JH: Any horrible things to say about your fellow nominees Patricia Clarkson, Holly Hunter, Renee Zellweger, or Hope Davis?
MB: Oh my God. What a group of women to be included in! I feel so honored. Patty Clarkson has been one of my favorite actors for a long time. It’s insane.
JH: Have you ever read a part thinking this could really win somebody an award?
MB: I saw it in this movie. I really thought that about this part. I felt like that when I read MONSTER, the movie Charlize [Theron] was nominated for.
JH: Were you up for that? Did you get an audition?
MB: I got an audition. Yes I did. But they really wanted her and I hear she’s brilliant in it.
JH: What about Natalie resonated with you on the page?
MB: It’s so rare to see a woman’s fully formed journey on the page, not a woman who is just going be arm candy for the main guy in the film. She really
had her own journey going from this woman who’s given up on her dreams and is incredibly hopeless to somebody who finds love and falls in love with herself by falling in love with someone else. It’s almost like she comes to understand and accept her own pieces and then she can dream again. I really related to that and loved her. I just fell in love with the character on the page.
JH: One aspect of Nathalie I enjoyed was that her past isn’t explicitly laid out in the film. There’s some mystery to her.
MB: I think film is all about having mystery to a character. I don’t want to know every single thing about a person. I just saw LOST IN TRANSLATION the other day which I thought was such a brilliant film. What I liked was that [Sofia Coppola] didn't over explain everything. We understood these characters in a very quiet way and I think that’s the same with this particular character in THE COOLER. It’s not like you know so much about her but you understand her and I think that has to do with the direction, the acting and the writing as well, a writer being brave enough to leave breathing space for actors to fill out the soul of somebody without words.
JH: That writing can extend to character’s names. I love Bill Macy’s character’s name, Bernie Lootz. Quite a name for a hero of a film.
MB: (LAUGHS) Isn’t it a great name?
JH: Have you ever fallen in love with a Bernie or anything comparable?
MB: No I haven’t. My man’s name is Dan. I haven’t fallen in love with any Bernie or Hermans or that sort of thing. Except I had an alter ego for a guy I was having an emotional affair with. I would call him Herman for Herman Hess. (LAUGHS)
JH: What do make of all this hullabaloo about the sex in the film? Did it take you by surprise?
MB: I didn’t think while we were shooting the film that it would be such an issue. I’ve always been a fan of European films and the way they’ve handled
adult sexuality on the screen with real bodies and not make such a big deal out of it. We really worked on these love scenes to make them real and to not make them a big deal. So people making it a big deal seems funny to me.
JH: You probably have a little bit more experience filming these sorts of scenes than Bill. Did you help him relax or vice versa?
MB: Bill likes to say that I deflowered him on screen. (LAUGHS) And he likes to say a shot of Jack Daniels helped a lot.
JH: Was that indeed involved in the preparation?
MB: Yeah but more than anything we just had such a soul connection. He has such a great sense of humor. He is such a kind man. We just laughed a lot and we both love acting so we made it about the acting. How can we make this couple more believable and how does it really look when two people fall in love.
JH: You shot this in Reno. How did you like the area?
MB: We actually lived and worked in the same hotel in Reno. We didn’t see the light of day for weeks. We’d just go up and down. What was interesting about Reno was that it’s also right near Tahoe and the mountains and rivers. So besides the gambling community, there’s this whole other community there of outdoors people. I had my son there and we found a really lovely community there of people who like to hike and be in nature.
JH: So your son doesn’t even realize there’s any gambling in Reno?
MB: (LAUGHS) Exactly. He liked the river with the ducks.
JH: Are you much of a gambler? Am I going to see you on a celebrity poker tournament?
MB: No, no celebrity anything for me. Celebrity poker or this or that. No, I’m not a gambler. I’ve played a little blackjack. I don’t like it so much. My grandmother is a huge gambler! (LAUGHTER NEARBY) I’m sitting here with my sister. My grandmother goes on the senior citizens trip down to Atlantic City on the bus trip with ten dollars in quarters a week. Lisa gives her ten dollars a week for babysitting.
JH: I heard you put yourself on tape to lobby for this role. What does that entail exactly? Is it you with a camcorder in your living room?
MB: No there’s a casting director in New York who we begged to put me on tape.
JH: Have you done that a lot before?
MB: I haven’t. This is the first time I’ve ever fought this hard for something because I wanted it that badly, I just knew it was mine. I knew that everything I’ve been working on as an actor creatively to this point I’d be able to express that on the screen. So I put myself on tape and they said, “I don’t know if she’s too pretty or pretty enough.” So then in LA I had to go in and meet them and do it again and I was so nervous that I wouldn’t be able to do the audition I did on tape. And I did I suppose.
JH: In a case like that, are you trying to guess what they’re looking for or are you going with your gut?
MB: I went with my gut. As soon as I read it the accent came out of me. Her shoes, her clothes…From the first moment I read it I felt there was a fully formed character in my body waiting to come out.
JH: You weren’t initially at the top of their list for this part. Does it bother you that sometimes you aren’t listed in the top five people they are looking for?
MB: It didn’t bother me before. I always had to fight for the roles that I got. Now I am pretty much done with it. (LAUGHS) Really, I just feel like now people know my work and if I love something and if they love my work, that’s great. I’d love to work with people I want to work with but I’m tired of fighting for something.
JH: Does that include going in on tons of auditions?
MB: Yeah, I won’t do that anymore. I’ve done it. I have my battle scars.
JH: You just finished SECRET WINDOW with Johnny Depp…
MB: Yeah it was so much fun. He’s such a brilliant actor, such a good man.
JH: Is he indeed the sexiest man alive?
MB: I think besides my man he might be. He’s a wonderfully sexy man. He’s mostly sexy because of his heart and who he is and how he feels about his family. That’s how I find him sexy.
JH: Congratulations again. Have a great day.
MB: Thank you sweetheart. See you later. Bye.
THE COOLER is currently in theaters.
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