Spenser Confidential' Cast Interview
Mark Wahlberg, Winston Duke and Iliza Shlesinger, the stars of Netflix’s new film ‘Spenser Confidential’ sit down with CinemaBlend’s Eric Eisenberg to discuss working with Peter Berg, their favorite buddy cop films, the freedom to improvise on set and more.
Transcript
00:00 So what's the plan?
00:02 We're gonna blow this wide open.
00:04 You want in?
00:06 No, no, no, no. You don't get the cool gun.
00:08 Hawk is the name of a man with a shotgun.
00:10 Spencer does your taxes.
00:12 That was good. I'm gonna let you have your little gun.
00:14 This very much fits in with a long legacy of buddy movies.
00:19 I'm curious if you were watching any during the making of it, and if you just have any of your favorites.
00:23 I haven't, but I mean, I've always loved it.
00:26 You go back to any time we reference any buddy movie, we're always trying to come up with our own lethal weapon.
00:31 Our own midnight run. Our own Butch Cassidy and Sundance.
00:34 I mean, we just talk about it all the time.
00:36 But, you know, I think I've had two of the best Boston buddy movies for sure.
00:42 Between Ted...
00:43 You can't get me thunder 'cause you're just God's fat.
00:46 And now this.
00:48 And it's a great odd pairing between me and Winston.
00:51 He's a mountain of a guy.
00:53 And, you know, he can throw people through walls, and I'm usually getting thrown through walls.
00:57 But yet, there we are right there side by side.
01:00 Like, especially thinking about Gabe from Us versus this role.
01:06 Very different characters. So I'm kind of curious how you kind of approach that.
01:09 Ah, man. So I always think about essentially what could my body lend to the script that's nonverbal.
01:17 What exactly is it gonna do and what difference is it gonna make if I play this role
01:23 rather than anyone else of a different ethnic background, size, gender playing the role.
01:30 And what is it adding? I always want to be able to add something.
01:33 If I ever see a role and I'm like...
01:36 And I do. I see it all the time.
01:38 I'm like, this doesn't do anything for this story to have me in particular play this role.
01:43 So that's a big part.
01:45 I also love when the characters that I'm doing change.
01:48 I have to see that they start off someplace, and by the end of the movie,
01:52 they're someplace completely different and have had some sort of growth.
01:55 And I imagine just show the levels of actually humanity.
01:58 Yeah, and essentially, this one was so interesting,
02:02 because I literally started shooting this movie about two and a half weeks after Gabe.
02:06 Oh, wow.
02:07 So playing this dad and having changed my body shape for Us.
02:12 If y'all are out here trying to scare people, I think you picked the wrong house for that.
02:17 And then getting this phone call, like one of the last two days of shooting Us,
02:22 from Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg saying, "Hey, we'd love to work with you. Please come on.
02:28 We're doing something really cool. We'd love to have you in there in the mix."
02:33 So I was like, "Yeah, of course." But then I was like, "Shit.
02:37 I don't really look like this action dude anymore."
02:40 So I got in the gym and started going back to doing that,
02:43 and that was a whole thing for that three-month shooting process.
02:47 This is Batman business all the way.
02:49 Got you and big boy over here running through Boston all Robined up.
02:52 I am not Robin.
02:54 The process of making a movie versus stand-up is interesting,
02:57 because stand-up is such a solo sport, and everything is dependent on you
03:00 and your own motivation and your material.
03:02 And in movies, it's a collaborative effort, and you get to lean on.
03:06 You get the privilege of leaning on people who know better than you,
03:09 like other actors who are more seasoned and directors like Peter Berg.
03:12 So that opportunity, it's exciting and it's humbling,
03:15 and it feels nice to be able to trust other people.
03:19 It's not just me alone up there.
03:20 Was it helpful just having the experience of working with Mark Wahlberg before?
03:24 Being 100% candid, no.
03:26 I was like 10th on the call sheet in Instant Family,
03:28 which was a major motion picture, but there was no intimacy between he and I.
03:34 All my scenes were in a large group.
03:36 I wasn't as starstruck as when I saw him on the second film,
03:40 but he's still Mark Wahlberg.
03:41 Actually, one scene that stands out is the dog attack scene,
03:43 which is just crazy.
03:45 What was the experience filming that, and how much of that was you?
03:48 More than I wanted it to be, that's for sure.
03:51 But I'm like, "Pete, this dog is vicious, bro.
03:54 This is like a trained killer here."
03:57 And then they also came up with an animatronic head for the close-ups and stuff.
04:02 But no, I got dinged up pretty good.
04:05 I think everybody was secretly loving it.
04:08 Not only did I get attacked by the dog, but I get beat up every 10 minutes in this movie.
04:13 And I think everybody was secretly enjoying that.
04:16 It's probably good for the ego, just to calm down a little bit.
04:19 Yeah, but it's also good for the audience.
04:21 I mean, seeing the guy who's just relatable.
04:24 He's willing to go through anything to accomplish the mission,
04:29 and he can't stand by to see injustice.
04:31 So I think that's why audiences are enjoying it so much.
04:34 I feel like every movie has its own perks,
04:36 and this one certainly must have been just getting to hang out with a bunch of dogs.
04:39 Am I wrong?
04:40 Oh, right. Yes, it was cool.
04:42 That scene was added a little later, and those were very big dogs,
04:45 and so not as squeezable.
04:46 And they were all very focused on being working dogs.
04:49 So as much as I tried to mouth-kiss them, the Great Danes weren't having it.
04:52 But it was cool that Sissy is a dog groomer.
04:55 Your conversation with Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg,
04:58 this movie very much had that classic buddy-to-be energy.
05:01 So what were you talking about just as far as the dynamic between Hawk and Spencer?
05:04 Well, we spent a good amount of time figuring out the genre,
05:09 the genre and the tone of the film.
05:12 And then once we found that, we just leaned into it.
05:14 And we did a lot of improv.
05:16 We did a lot of improv-ing in the scenes.
05:18 The scenes were written, but then Peter's style is a lot of coverage.
05:23 But it's not a lot of coverage as in takes after takes after takes.
05:27 It's a lot of coverage as in four cameras at once going.
05:30 So you're always getting an angle.
05:33 So we could do a lot of different things and feel like we have the safety of being covered.
05:38 Peter Berg is an incredibly accomplished director.
05:40 As we all know, he's Peter Berg, who did not have to let me be as--
05:44 did not have to allow as much creativity from me as he did.
05:47 And he did not have to be as collaborative as he was.
05:49 From day one, he allowed me to make Sissy my own.
05:52 I mean, even letting me do the accent.
05:54 But he allowed me to improvise lines.
05:56 Mark and I improvised a ton of stuff.
05:58 And Mark was very open to it.
05:59 I got to write some of my own lines.
06:01 And he let me make her funny and bring some facets to her.
06:07 Because I wanted to represent for a multifaceted woman, not just a screaming lunatic.
06:11 Get that fucking sod out of my face.
06:12 What, do you work at a Brazilian steakhouse?
06:14 I mean, we were really--
06:15 I mean, the most appealing thing about it was that it was just kind of light and fun.
06:19 I mean, after making three movies all based on true stories and tragic events,
06:23 that was really heavy, especially the last one being the heaviest.
06:27 And then Mile 22 still kind of was serious in tone.
06:31 But some days Pete was trying to make a comedy.
06:33 Some day he was trying to make a drama.
06:35 And I was like, I'm super focused on exactly what we're doing.
06:38 But I think he realized that the last pass of the script for him was going to be in the editing room.
06:44 And it was just fun.
06:46 We didn't have the pressure of dealing with people who had suffered loss and loved ones and family members.
06:56 We were just able to kind of cut up and have fun, shooting in my neighborhood, all that stuff.
07:00 There was a lot of pros to this one.
07:02 Did it influence your character work?
07:04 Well, you know, grew up loving the books, saw the series.
07:09 But the series is not the genesis of this.
07:12 We kind of wanted to make it our own, but still also kind of staying true to who Spencer was.
07:17 I mean, it was the only time I had seen Boston on film or on television other than the Brinks job.
07:22 So I loved it.
07:23 You never learn your lesson, do you?
07:25 You were going to do what was right with your strong moral code.
07:30 This isn't a bar for Boy Scouts.
07:32 I thought you knew how to punch.
07:36 There were five of them.
07:37 (roars)
07:39 ♪ Bring 'em out ♪