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Here is the transcript from the Q&A after the March 10 World Premiere at SXSW in Austin, Texas. I excised a couple of questions which would be spoilers.
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This is Part One
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Eric Allen Bell: I guess this is the Q&A, so I have a lot of questions for you guys (laughter). Does anybody have any questions? Okay, let’s go to lunch. Oh, question?
Q: What did you shoot in on and how long was production?
Eric: Production was 4 weeks long. We shot it at Super 16 not only to save money, but because the institutions looked better in Super 16. Then we went to match frame it in Burbank and did a very bad HD transfer, and I don’t recommend them. So when we release it in theatres it will be released on film, where it won’t be as dark. So it was about 4 weeks.
Q: [About the budget]
Eric: It was way way way obscenely over budget, and if I told you we’d all start vomiting. So it was really a lot more than we expected to spend. Not more than Titanic but…
Philey: Do you want to talk about the music a bit? Your selection of music and how that worked out?
Eric: Mostly we looked for music that helped tell the story and helped modulate in terms of what characters are feeling. I’ve watched so many movies and very very rarely do I see a movie where they get into the psyche of characters. I noticed a lot on “Six Feet Under” they’ll take a moment and show you what the character’s actually thinking, or in “Pink Floyd The Wall” who he is, more what the character’s thinking than what’s going on in reality, and here we went ahead and blurred that line in the narrative. And so with music, the selection really was just, “what is Charlie feeling?” and we chose music accordingly.
Q: [About what happened to the characters next]
Eric: It’s a true story. I can tell you what happened to his brother, because he’s my brother. He’s been to prison about 30 times. I haven’t spoken to him in many many years, but he’s definitely more hardened than anybody portrayed in the movie at this time. I mean, he’s completely gone.
Q: Did you grow up in Southern California? Because I’m from Los Angeles and I have a lot of friends from Orange County who really strikingly, kind of scarily had similar family-type situations…people.
Eric: Yeah, I grew up in Fountain Valley. I changed the names, obviously, so my parents don’t sue me…but yeah, I did, and I went to Orange County Juvenile Hall, and I went to a psychiatric facility there that’s…Newport Beach Psychiatric [pictured in the film] doesn’t exist because if they did they’d sue us, so we had to invent them. But yeah, I did.
Eric: Does anybody have questions for the cast too? Yes, question?
Q: Was it hard playing the director?
Eric:Was it hard playing Eric Allen Bell, Michael?
Michael Angarano: He’s a very complex man, Eric Allen Bell. I didn’t really want to try and do an imitation of him as much as I did want to just try and capture the essence of the man. Because if you try and do an imitation, I mean, Eric Allen Bell. No, it was weird at times because some of the scenes are pretty dead on exactly what happened to him, and others scenes are different, but we would kind of go in and out of it after a take after it’s all said and done. We’d check the gates, I’d go “alright, was that really what it was like at all?” and sometimes you’d go, “[expletive] yeah,” or sometimes you’d go, “uhh…no, not really.” It was pretty awesome actually, so it was weird at times but we were really creating this character Charlie and were really collaborating on that and using his psyche as the foundation. But other than that it wasn’t too bad, it was fine.
Q: Excellent acting! (big ovation)
Philey: I know you said in a chat on your website that you had only had, was it a couple of weeks to prepare for the role when you found out you had it?
Michael: Actually 2 days.
Philey: 2 days! Alright, a couple of days…how did you do it?
Michael: It was pretty interesting because about 2 days before, I found out I got the part and I was pretty scared because it was like, “I really don’t know what you want me to do in 2 days” but a lot of the time it was just jumping into the scene and figuring out what came out and not…it was different because a lot of roles you want to take the time to prepare for, and you want to think about them, but this one was really, “let’s just go in there and see what comes out.” And we did all the juvie stuff in the first week and I think we did all the stuff at home the next week and then we did the psychiatric hospital the last week so a lot of it was just going in there and seeing what happens, what came out and that’s really all.
Philey: How much fun was it to trash the house?
Michael: It was a lot of fun. It was cool. It was a dream come true. Not to trash my house…not mine.
Q: [What's next for everybody?]
Michael: I just finished a movie that David Gordon Green wrote and directed called “Snow Angels” with Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell that should be out sometime next year. And after “Bondage” I did a movie called “Man in the Chair” with Christopher Plummer that should be coming out. “One Last Thing,” another movie I did before “Bondage,” with Cynthia Nixon and Ethan Hawke that went to Toronto and should be coming out. And “Dear Wendy” DVD that’s coming out next week.
Mae Whitman: I’m on a show called “Thief” that’s going to be premiering on FX on March 28 with Andre Braugher and Clifton Collins Jr. so go check it out!
Eric: I’m going to get some sleep, and stay out of jail pretty much, and possibly make another movie.
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This is Part Two
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Q: It seems like this would be a good film to force the people who run those kinds of institutions to see how things should be. It would be nice if some accountability came from this film.
Eric: Well, that is part of the objective. There is a website that’s easy to remember. It’s [url]booksnotbars.org[/url] and it’s really pretty mind-blowing because the statistics they quote about California alone – the juvenile justice system has a 75% recidivism rate. Missouri it’s 15%. In 2 years 5 kids were killed in institutions like this in Missouri. The difference is in Missouri they have this crazy idea called rehabilitation for kids instead of punishment. And the focus on the website is these kids graduating from rehabilitation and then they’re proud of themselves, and they look like they’ve accomplished something, and they feel good. And those institutions are giving something to society, and there are kids that have been rehabilitated that may help other kids, and in California it’s just completely corrupt.
Most correctional facilities are run for profit by private corporations. I can tell you from living it that, separate from the statistics, there is really a sense that they’re just storing your body for the period of time you’re there. And if you go to a mental health facility – I don’t know how many of you are aware of this but doctors are rewarded for how much Prozac they give out. They’re not allowed – Eli Lilly is not allowed to just pay them bribes, but doctors have to be relicensed, and they can pay for their relicensing cruise to the Bahamas or wherever so that’s one of the reasons why everybody’s on Prozac. And in order to get people on Prozac or the competing drugs you have to come up with these words like ADD and chemical imbalance. To the best of my understanding and research there is no evidence – you can’t prove a chemical imbalance in the brain, so it’s a great marketing tool but I don’t think – I don’t know how many people it’s really helping.
Philey: They also can’t prove that the meds do anything and if they do why they do anything.
Eric: Well, they do a lot of things. They made it impossible for me to eat because I was drooling and I pissed all over myself so they were very effective in those two areas. Other than that I don’t know.
Q: [How did the writing of the film come about?]
Eric: I’ve made my living these past few years as a screenwriter and I was skimming through a book called “Toxic Parents,” which was recommended to me, and it was just so hardcore I couldn’t read it. I read the Table of Contents and the back, and I put it down, and that day I wrote the first 50 pages of “Bondage.” I just wrote “fade in,” the name of my real family and exterior home, and just wrote 50 pages and within a week I had a rough draft and I sent it to the Executive VP of Fox. He gave me some notes that I thought were really easy notes, and those took about six months and I had a script and it got made. So I guess the short answer is it wasn’t based on knowledge, it was just based on my life. But I never knew that I was going to – I mean it just wanted to pour out of me, it just wanted to come out I think.
Q: Have your parents seen it or have they heard of it?
Eric: My mother passed away five years ago. You know, ever since I put all those posters in my brother’s neighborhood with his picture saying “pedophile,” things have not been the same between us. I think the fact that it included his address and phone number and email address and contacting all his former employers and all the churches where he’s headed the church children’s choir – you know, I don’t see him on holidays the way I used to and he doesn’t call me on my birthdays so I don’t think he’s seen it. I don’t think I sent him an invitation but I will send him a DVD I think.
Q: Do you know if he has heard of it?
Eric: Oh yeah. Yeah, he’s aware of it.
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More to come...
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