 Art & Film
Thomas Jane stays true to
'Punisher's' outlaw spirit
By Ben Nuckols
Thomas Jane may seem an obscure choice to play the latest Marvel Comics hero
to reach the screen, particularly when his flamboyant adversary is none other
than John Travolta.
But a lunchtime chat with Jane reveals
him as something of a kindred spirit to Frank Castle, the gruff vigilante hero
of "The Punisher," which opened Friday. Puffing on a Marlboro, Jane projects a
detached, outlaw attitude, unconcerned with the niceties of Hollywood, the
nagging of critics and comic book fans or the prospect of winning awards for his
work.
The
Punisher
Trailer:  | | | Created
in the 1970s, the Punisher -- who turns into judge, jury and executioner after
his family is wiped out by criminals -- is a product of a paranoid, mistrustful
time, and Jane models himself after the antiheroes of the era: Steve McQueen and
Charles Bronson.
Jane's path to action stardom was a bumpy one. He
is perhaps most admired for his slyly complex portrayal of Mickey Mantle in the
HBO film "61," ' while he honed his action chops in "Deep Blue
Sea" ' and "Dreamcatcher." '
Raised in the Washington suburbs, Jane
dropped out of high school at 16 to study acting, and was quickly cast in a
Hollywood film as an American teen who falls in love with an Indian girl. He
turned 17 in India, and when he returned, he moved to Los Angeles, where he was
homeless for a time before getting roles in commercials, plays and eventually
movies.
Jane has been married to Patricia Arquette since 2002, and they have a 13-month-old
daughter, Harlow.
Q: When you came to Hollywood and were homeless, did
you think about giving up?
A: Yeah. There's always a time when you lay in
your bed at night, or you're in the grass at night, or on your little bench at
night, and you wonder what you're doing out there. But I saw a lot of guys who
were more talented than me who gave it up. I guess they didn't have the tenacity
that I had.
Q: At what point, or after what movie, did you know you'd
have a career?
Boogie
Nights
Trailer: | | | A:
"Boogie Nights." ' I thought after that, I might have a shot at making a career
of being a character actor, and I was really happy with that for a while. Then I
got some lucky breaks and the parts kept getting bigger. Basically, I didn't
know what I was doing. So I took roles just to learn my craft, and I did that
for a couple of years -- just trying to figure out what I was doing and getting
better at my job.
Punisher Cast:
Thomas Jane |
John Travolta |
Rebecca Romijn Stamos |
Q: I saw you quoted as saying that when you gained confidence as a performer,
you "stopped acting." '
A: Yeah. I admire actors where you just don't see
the work. Guys who don't get nominated for Academy Awards. The work is just
seamless and there's an artlessness to it, where, when you're watching it, you
think, "I could do that." '
Q: Is it unfair that that sort of artlessness
is not recognized with awards?
A: No, I don't think it's unfair at all. I
think awards recognize what they're supposed to recognize. And they exist for
reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with the artfulness of an
achievement. They serve an entirely different purpose.
Q: Do you still
hope to win something someday?
A: It's not what interests me. I'm not
interested. I'm sure that I would be appreciative of being honored in some way,
but it certainly wouldn't be for my art and craft. It's a little bit like a
popularity contest in school. It just doesn't have anything to do with anything,
but it's nice, you know, when people smile and clap.
The Punisher
Q: What attracted to you about "The Punisher" '?
A:
Marvel had come to me about a couple other things. I like what they do and I
watch their movies, but I didn't see myself as playing a superhero at all, in
any case, way, shape or form. But Marvel, they explained to me that this wasn't
a comic book superhero, it was a real guy who didn't have super powers, who
dealt with real-world problems, and he had to rely on his God-given talents and
skills to achieve what he needed to do. That was really appealing to
me.
Q: Did it appeal to you as a family man?
A: With a new family,
I can certainly relate to what I would like to do, or the feelings that I would
have if anybody ever, in any way, harmed the people that I loved. That's a
universal theme, that's sort of the primordial juice from which we all spring.
And that's why these kinds of films endure. They tap into a part of us that
we've had to repress, you know? It's not looked kindly on by the eyes of the
law, if you go out and take the law into your own hands, and yet it's certainly
something that we've all entertained.
Q: Doing a comic book movie, do you
feel pressure to satisfy the fans?
A: I feel pressure to satisfy the
original material. Fans will always have their own personal interpretation of
who that is and what that represents to them personally. I can't take into
consideration everybody's opinion about who this guy is. I don't want
everybody's opinion. Trying to please people is not the way to make art or
anything else. I feel very protective of the source material, very protective of
the impetus that originally sparked the idea to create this kind of a character.
Staying true to that, and staying true to the tone of the piece, and staying
true to what's unique and exciting about Frank Castle, is way more important
than trying to please a bunch of people that I'm never going to fully
understand. - APWire - ArtsyStuff Magazine
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