Things are obviously going really well for you. Did you ever think,
when 24 first went on the air, that people would take to it like they
have?
K.S. We did the pilot and then there
was a writer's strike coming and a director's strike coming, so I just
thought that it would never get picked up. Then it got picked up and we
did the first 13 episodes. It was one of those fantastic snowballs that
got bigger and bigger and bigger. But no, you can never figure out why
something works on that kind of a level and you are just grateful to be a
part of it, and we've had so much fun.
Moving on to Phone Booth, even
though we don't see you in the film your presence is definitely felt.
K.S. It was a fantastic opportunity. Joel
Schumacher had asked me to do the picture and I agreed immediately. We
have now officially done four films together. I walked in and we talked
about the voice and I said, "Why don't you put up the first couple of
cues and I'll have a look at it and I'll try them out." I ended up
sitting there and I just watched the whole movie.
Could you explain the process a little
bit? Did you have a full script or did you ad-lib at all?
K.S. It was already scripted.
Basically, there was a voice that they used as a guide, so they had cut
the film with certain spaces allotted for my dialogue. I would put on the
headphones and listen to a scene then I would go over it a few times and
get used to Colin's rhythm and sometimes Forest's rhythm and then start
speaking back to them.
As you mentioned earlier, this is your
fourth picture with Joel Schumacher dating back to The Lost Boys.
What in your opinion makes him such a special director?
K.S. I trust him. When I was younger I
was trying very hard to be serious about my craft and what I did. I look
back and laugh now. We were doing a film called Flatliners and I
thought that we were going to do a medical version of The Paper Chase.
I thought that it was going to be a very serious movie. I remember running
down the hallway of what was supposed to be a university and I passed the
Statue of Liberty's head in the hall. Joel has a fantastic sense of
production
design, and I guess I was not mature enough to get it. So I passed it and
I freaked. I said, "This is like a music video," and I was in a
panic. He put his arm around me and said, "I know that your career is
in my hands and I respect that, but you are going to have to trust
me." I went to the screening and I phoned him immediately after I saw
the film. I certainly would not have seen it that way but when I saw the
movie I was very happy with it. So for me, as an actor, what I find so
special about Joel is that I wholly trust him.
- Bonnie Laufer-Krebs
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