Benjamin Walker and Teresa Palmer, the two lead actors in the new Nicholas Sparks movie adaptation “The Choice,” were in town recently to promote the film, which opens on February 5th, and I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with them.
“EDITOR’S NOTE*
I had been scheduled to host this interview as I had seen a press screening of the movie several weeks prior and I absolutely fell in love with the film. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend on the day and my reviewer and interviewer James Land stepped in and did a terrific job. He started the interview by so graciously telling both actors that I loved the movie and that I personally felt out of all the onscreen couples that have appeared in the various big-screen adaptations of Nicholas Sparks books, these guys were the most believable and had the best chemistry.
Teresa Palmer
YEAH! (laughs) That was our goal. We didn’t have to fabricate it, it was natural, it was all organic, and real. We are similar, we have a similar sense of humor, we make each other laugh, and we were having fun.
Benjamin Walker
Yeah. We’d go home at the end of the day and my cheeks would hurt because we smiled and laughed all day. (laughs). It’s also lucky, lucky that I got to live with her.
Teresa Palmer
And, we should give some credit to Ross Katz, our director, because we didn’t have a chemistry read so nobody knew what that was going to be like but he selected both of us and thought, “These two together, they’re going to be good together,” so that was just some intuitive hit that he had and he was right.
James Land
You mentioned Ross Katz, the film’s director, he’s known primarily as a producer and has produced some fantastic films such as “Marie Antoinette,” “Lost in Translation,” and “In The Bedroom.” How would you describe his directing style?
Benjamin Walker
What he does that’s so, rare, and brilliant, is that he creates an environment on set of collaboration, often times you work with directors and it’s “This is my vision, and this is how it’s going to go,” and your job is to make that as realistic and believable as possible. What he does, is more like, one of the metaphors we used was “We built a playground for you,” and the only structure he gives you is “Okay, in this scene, you can play on the slide and you can play on the swings, now what you do on the slide or the swings, that’s up to you and your scene partner.” So in that sense, he gives you freedom within a structure and that’s really rare.
Teresa Palmer
Yeah, he just absolutely gave us the reins, and trusted in our instincts, and our ideas, and something that I’ve learned on this movie, and why I think the chemistry is great, is that we had a group of people, who had said yes to each other’s ideas, the notion of “yes and…,” so that’s what Ross did and he said, “I trust you guys, I love the way that you understand these characters, you know these people more than I do so go have fun with them,” and every now and then, he’d tweak and say “I love that, keep heading in that direction” but it was just so liberating, as a performer, to know that you really had the trust of your director.
Benjamin Walker
And also, he’s a romantic man, he believes in love and passion and that the clichés of it, he wasn’t interested in. He wanted to be specific to how life is, and therefore we could play.
James Land
And, if he’s chosen the right people to begin with, obviously he’s going to trust the chemistry that you have and it shows on screen.
Teresa Palmer
Thanks, I’m proud of it, I had the biggest heart for this movie because I think these films can live and die by chemistry and, I was like, “I just hoping it feels organic and real and that it’s believable that these guys are supposed to be together.” And it was really easy to do that.
James Land
Given the success of “The Notebook,” were you at all worried that you might be unfairly compared to the characters of Noah and Allie from that story?
Benjamin Walker
There are worse things to be compared to (laughs). I’ve been compared to some pretty horrible things in my life so something I enjoy is fine by me (laughs). To me, that’s just complimentary.
Teresa Palmer
Yeah they’re naturally going to draw comparisons, I mean, I did myself, I found so many similarities in Gabby’s spirit and persona as I did in Allie Hamilton, Rachel’s character, and I was constantly watching scenes of her as I wanted to embody that same sort of spirit and it’s a different time, that’s a period film but we made it our own too.
Benjamin Walker
Comparisons aren’t necessarily bad things, like all’s fair in love and war, so all’s fair in love movies and war movies.
James Land
You mentioned how you wanted to get back to the feel of “The Notebook,” the same atmosphere, and one thing we noticed, is that the last few Nicholas Sparks film adaptations, haven’t done too well at the box office. Do you kind of feel that people are getting tired of the romantic film, or do you think that his fans, the hopeless romantics out there, will continue to keep these movies alive and keep them going?
Benjamin Walker
I mean, who doesn’t love a love story? Deep down, we all have the fantasy of finding the perfect person, or we found the perfect person, and want a gentle reminder to protect that relationship. Each movie, is a unique circumstance, and it’s not really, probably healthy, to compare in that way because movies do well based on a million different circumstances…
Teresa Palmer
…even a release date, is a huge thing. So, it’s not just Nicholas Sparks and the creatives making decisions on the movie, it’s also all the higher-ups at the studio, and everyone has a say and so it might not end up, it might not be, what the script was, or what the book was, or what the actors thought they were going to be getting in to, and that has happened to me on many movies, before you sign up to do a film, you think it’s going to turn out a certain way, and the people at the studios all have their opinions, there are so many cooks in the kitchen, and it turns out, sort of a mess of what you thought it was going to be and that’s okay, that’s just what happens but that’s why I’m excited that this one, is outside of the studio system, so what you see, is coming directly from the director and the producers and Nicholas Sparks. And that’s nice.
Benjamin Walker
Also, the vision that I feel like we had on the first day, is pretty damn close to the movie we made.
Teresa Palmer
Exactly!
“The Choice” arrives in theaters February 5th
