Most actors will never get a chance to work with legendary director Martin Scorcese, but Curtiss Cook isn’t like most actors. The thespian, who has a role as an orderly in Scorcese’s upcoming thriller Shutter Island (starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo), isn’t just another actor in one of his films – he considers him a buddy (he even calls him “Marty,” after the famed visionary demanded that he address him as such).
Cook might be a friend of Scorcese, but that’s just a footnote in his burgeoning career. The actor has has an extensive resume under his belt, having made numerous appearances on both the small and big screen. On TV, Curtiss has appeared on Rescue Me, The Good Wife, Law & Order and more, while he’s appeared in films like The Interpreter and the upcoming flicks City Island (co-starring Andy Garcia) and Breaking Point (co-starring Tom Berenger and Busta Rhymes).
But it’s Shutter Island that’s going to put this rising star on the map, with the hype machine already kicked into full gear. Taking some time out of his day to chat, Curtiss spoke with Showing Out about what it was like auditioning for Scorcese, whether or not there were any ghost run-ins on the set (it was shot in an abandoned asylum), what we can expect in his upcoming HBO series How to Make It in America (brought to you by the team behind Entourage) and more. Hit the jump to read our exclusive interview.
Let’s start out by talking about Shutter Island, it’s the big movie on the horizon. I’m sure you get this a lot, but what’s it like working with director Martin Scorcese?
Now, Shutter Island, I was on that set for over three months, so I got a really inside look at watching Marty and how he works. Now, I say Marty not to sound like a big shot, but because he said I could call him that. [Laughs] It’s not like he’s my best friend and I have him on speed dial or anything like that, because I don’t. But he was really, really cool. And I don’t say that lightly. I say that because he would come up to me every morning just to say hello, and I’m like the seventh lead on the movie, you know what I mean? There are some major names on this feature film. And everybody has their needs or whatever, but he would make sure every day just to come up and talk to me. Honestly, every day. And when he had directions for whatever, he would sit down and have a nice conversation with you and you would think… A lot of directors just kind of come back and say “OK, let’s start this rehearsal, let’s read it through, OK.” Make sure the stars are catered to and then just move on from there. But I’m telling you, this guy took his time with everyone in the cast and didn’t leave anybody out. And for me, that was the most appreciative thing, and then I would go back and watch some of the dailies of the shots that he had set up. And his camera angles and the lenses that he knew and the history of the cinema that he knew… I mean, one time, it was me, Leo [DiCaprio] and Mark [Ruffalo], actually, and he was talking about all these old movies and then he would just pick out old movies out of the blue and you would just be like “I’ve never even heard of that.” And he would be like, “Oh, it was 1939 and such and such, and they would use such and such lens.” You’re like, oh my God! Did you read this just now? Or is it just in your head? Yeah, he’s an amazing guy.
What was the audition like with him? If it were me, I would not have been able to move, let alone act.
At first, I didn’t believe that I really had a meeting with them coming up. Originally, I had auditioned for the role like maybe three months before, and I go in for a lot of stuff, so I was like OK, that’s gone. So I moved on, and get a call saying, “Martin Scorcese wants to meet you.” And I’m like, “Shut the fuck up! This ain’t the truth, you’re playin’. This is not a good day for that.” He was like, “No seriously.” They set it up and wouldn’t give us the date until the day before. They wouldn’t give us the place until the day of. All of that. So we get there and it was at the Waldorf-Astoria, and I’m down in the lounge area waiting to go up, and I walk in and he’s like, “Hey!” And I was like, “Oh my God.” It’s like these huge windows on the top floor of a huge suite. And he’s just sitting there, and you know how you look at people and you know how you’ve seen them so often on television or whatever, you feel like you kind of know them? But you realize and say to yourself, “I don’t know him!” Although I’m looking at him and he looks exactly how he looks, I don’t know who he is. So I sit down and he starts asking me these questions about the character and what I think about it and how would I like to play it. And I had to take a moment to myself and be like, “You know what? If I don’t get this role right now - and of course I want it - I’m cool. I’m cool because I’m actually sitting here, talking to Martin Scorcese about a movie that he’s directing that he is considering me to play a role in.” He was really relaxed, and we talked over the scene, and he was like, “You know what? Let’s read it once. Let’s read through it.” And I had to say to him, man, I said, “You know what? I’m in heaven right now.” He’s like, “You’re cool, you’re a really nice guy. I like what you did on the tape, and I appreciate that.” And I was like, “Thank you, man!” And it made me relaxed in that sense. We read the scene through, and he was like, “That was great.” He had me make a few quick adjustments, then we went over that. That was really it. And from the gate, he was like, “Call me Marty.” I was like, “Cool, cool. You can call me Curtiss.” He was like, “Oh, OK. Great!” It was pretty amazing.
You probably can’t divulge too much that happens in the film for spoiler’s sake, but I know you play an elderly. Just to reflect on your experience, what would you say was the most demanding scene that you were in?
The most demanding… There were a few that were pretty demanding. I know there’s a really nice scene that happens with Leonardo and Sir Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo and Emily Mortimer. I think it’s actually one of the scenes in the trailer, and I’m there as well. And at one point, the character is under suspicion and for whatever reason, she becomes irate and she begins to attack Leonardo. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Emily Mortimer, but she’s pretty amazing. She’s really there and going, and my job is to bring her down and restrain her from attacking Leonardo. And you know that feeling - I don’t know if you do or not - when you’re in a room with actors and you’re having a sort of combat, and we have our coordinator there making sure that everything’s safe and all that, kind of walk through it blocking-wise. But you know in film, it’s not really like staged for the most part. Because of camera angles and what you have to do, you almost have to let it get to a point where it’s almost no longer acting. But you’re there. So when she attacks him, it’s that feeling where, “OK. I’m a lot bigger than this woman.” And she’s a pretty major name in the business, so I don’t want to be in the tabloids for breaking her arm or something like that for trying to restrain her. So in a sense of trying to keep it within the realm of the acting world and in the reality of the situation, I think that was really difficult for me because she was going forward and I had to restrain her and keep her safe as well. And I’m not a stunt guy, you know what I mean? It’s not like I trained to be a combat fighter or anything like that. So that was kind of difficult for me.
In addition to the film being pretty physically taxing, it seemed very psychologically taxing as well. After all, it takes place in an asylum. Did that have any effect on your psyche? Did you have to force yourself to get a better grip on reality?
Not so much. The beauty of it was that we did the film in a kind of old mental hospital abandoned in the 1950’s up in Massachusetts. So when you walked in there, we had one of the doctors who was one of the specialists from that time helping out on the set, making sure that everything was like how it was in that era. So when you walked into that place, it did kind of give you that creepy feeling of if you go into an old prison and somebody died there, and you look at the beds and you’re like “Oh my God, this is where they lived.” But a big thing for me was I really wanted to make sure that I was portraying an African-American’s perspective during that time period as well, where he would be and how he would be working there, and what his relationship would really be with the patient. Almost in the sense of if somebody there but shouldn’t have been, because they weren’t mentally handicapped or mentally ill of any sort, but they had been forced to be there. You know when you can have a relation with somebody and you realize, “You know what? You’re just as sane as anybody else here.” But because somebody doesn’t like you or whatever or what happens politically, you’re put in a situation, how those relationships would be. So that was a huge undertaking for me, because Marty and the team allowed me to live there as well. Like if I came up with something as well, I would be like, “Well, I don’t know if he would say that to his patient that way, being that it was 1950.” And he’s a black man here, and he’s always trying to keep that in perspective as well. So as far as being mentally bothered by the piece, it wasn’t so much. But the space, I would say would be one of the major things that made me feel a little strange sometimes, a little odd.
Shooting in an abandoned asylum leaves the door open for paranormal encounters. Any stories from the set?
I don’t think so, man. Not while I was there, though I was there for a long time. When I stayed on set, you would be there late at night and very early in the mornings sometimes, and for me personally, I would be like, “You know what? If I have to go in that room one more time… I don’t know if I could make it!” But other than that, I don’t remember hearing any stories of any kind of ghost encounters or any kind of weird happenings because of the space, nah.
To switch gears, let’s talk about your other acting pursuits. You were just on The Good Wife, and you have a lot of TV experience. Tell me about Cop House. What’s the deal with that?
That was a pilot for Fox, and we did a pilot season. So that was cool, Brett Ratner directed it and it was a comedy. It didn’t get picked up, but it had loads of incredibly funny people like Tony Hale and Rachel Harris and Scott Khan. It was really a cool piece, and Fox missed it and didn’t think that anything was going on with that show. That happens all the time in our business. But I just finished a couple of weeks ago, a week and a half ago, so I was shooting How to Make It in America made by the same team behind Entourage. And it’s a new show set here in New York City about some young professional kids who are on their way to making it big. And I play Bryan [Greenberg]’s boss… I can’t remember his character’s name, but it’s Bryan from One Tree Hill. I play his boss, and he’s one of the stars, as is Victor Rasuk [ed: Kid CuDi also stars], and I have a major re-occurrence on there. So that was the third episode that I shot. And they’re shooting eight and I think they’re going to see how those go, and I think those begin airing in January on HBO after Big Love. So that’s going to be one of the major new shows coming out, because as you know, that team is coming off of a very successful show. And the show is funny as hell as well, you’ve got Luis Guzman in there as well. So I just finished shooting that.
What was it like working with Mark Wahlberg on the set?
You know, I work with a lot of folk who have become very popular because of their industry, and when they get with people who are serious about what they’re doing, they begin to relax. So any kind of showmanship or pompous or attitudes kind of go out the window when they realize, “You know what? I’m working with professionals just as much as I’m a professional.” So on the set of How to Make It in America, what was kind of cool for me was that I shot the pilot with them so I was there with all of the major producers, and they were so cool about letting you figure out what this character was going to be. They had it on the paper, they had it written out, they had their guidelines, but they gave you a nice wide margin for you to play in, which is really brave, and I think that comes from people who are really secure in what they’re doing. And so for the most part, the Mark Wahlberg team is really smart, focused and relaxed enough to allow you to have fun, and I think that the more comfortable they’re going to make you, the better your work is going to be at the end. I watched the pilot, and it’s funny as hell. I can’t imagine it not being a huge success.
How was it shooting Breaking Point?
That’s premiering on December 4th, starring Tom Berenger and Armand Assante. I think Busta Rhymes is in there as well, so that premieres in limited opening on December 4th here in New York and L.A. Every time I think of Tom Berenger I think of The Substitute. I’m sitting there and I’m talking to him, and I’m like, “Oh my God! You’re the fucking substitute! Aw, cool!” Breaking Point was really cool, it was a major experience for me. It’s an independent film, obviously, and it has that kind of grind of guerilla film making for the most part. By that, I mean, we were going to get those shots by any means necessary and we’re going to try to keep it as authentic as possible. The story is about Tom Berenger’s character who used to be a huge D.A. attorney, and he gets mixed up with drugs and then when he’s trying to come back, get his life together, he opens his own law firm. That’s where I come in, I’m his partner in the law firm. And his bad ways are kind of creeping up behind him trying to pull him back in. So it’s all about him. It used to be called Order of Redemption. It’s about him not trying to go back to where he was before and trying to keep on the straight and narrow. It was an exciting shoot, man. We shot in a lot of jails. I think we were in Queens for one time, so that was interesting. And Tom Berenger’s a cool motha. And Armand Assante, I can’t say anything bad about that man whatsoever. I mean, he came in and did a scene and he hit him on top, he was a huge inspiration to me.
Now that all these projects are coming out, what’s in the works for you?
Well, everything’s moving, man. It’s going well. I was in meetings all day yesterday for this new series called White Collar, I don’t know if you know about it.
Of course! It has quite the following.
Does it really? I hadn’t heard of it, so I’m sitting there talking to them like, “Maybe I should have watched an episode?” So we met with that, and we’re still on the verge of seeing whether I’m going to do that or not. Ideally, man, I would kind of like to get in a television show here as a regular on this coast as opposed to L.A., and continue to do movies from time to time to keep everything moving, but I have a film that’s probably going to start shooting right after the holidays over in Europe called Vauxhall Crossed, so I’ll be over there for a while. That’s in the near future. And then I have City Island with Andy Garcia that releases in March.
Is there anything else we should be on the lookout for?
Well, of course the first big thing is Breaking Point, which comes out on December 4th, and then after that you have How to Make It in America which comes out on HBO and then, of course, the biggie, which everyone is waiting for including myself, Shutter Island. That’s going to be a spectacle in itself. Check ‘em out and keep an eye out for me, head over to my website to find any up-and-coming things and I’ll kind of keep everyone abreast. A fan page has been built now for me to just kind of keep people up on my career, ’cause it’s moving man. It’s going to be major.
