Cannes Film Festival: Bruce Dern and Will Forte on ‘Nebraska\'

Anne-Christine Poujoulat/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images Will Forte, left, and Bruce Dern at the Cannes Film Festival.

CANNES, France - In Alexander Payne's “About Schmidt” (2002), Jack Nicholson returned to form and earned an Oscar nomination for playing an older father on a journey with his daughter. At this year's Cannes Film Festival, Mr. Payne's new film “Nebraska” stars Mr. Nicholson's old pal Bruce Dern as an older father who goes on a journey with his son, played by Will Forte. Mr. Dern is Woody, an alcoholic who is nearing senility and becomes convinced that a sweepstakes pamphlet is an actual guarantee of a million-dollar prize. Mr. Forte, in his first dramatic role, is David, who takes pity on his dad and drives him to Nebraska to claim it.

So far, the film has been playing to positive reviews, particularly for Mr. Dern, who may be a strong contender for the festival's best actor prize, along with Oscar Isaac for “Inside Llewyn Davis” and Michael Douglas for “Behind the Candelabra.” Understandably, Mr. Dern, a ribald storyteller on an average day, was in an irrepressibly good mood when he sat down in the Carlton Hotel here for an interview with his co-star Mr. Forte. These are edited excerpts from that verbose conversation.

Bruce Dern: You're from New York. You cover the runners at the New York Marathon?

New York Times: No. Why, are you athletic?

Dern: I'm a runner. I run every day. According to Runner's World, I've run 106,000 miles. That's four times around the world. I'm a junkie. If I don't do it, I just go crazy. The longest streak I ever had was 17 years, I never missed a day. Early in my life I was an 800-meter runner and I didn't make the team in '56. I was in the trials and did well. You had to be first, second or third, and unfortunately I was 11th in the world, but third in the New York-Philadelphia area.

NYT: I'm sorry, but I have to interrupt. You are known as a storyteller and a talker. Did you go crazy filming “Nebraska”? Your character is a quiet man who rarely speaks.

Dern: Also, we were bottled up in a car for 28 days!

Will Forte: Don't worry, he got it out after they said cut. He's the best.

Dern: Well, one of the great things about it all is that Will and I didn't know each other beforehand, but Alexander had to be good at math in school because he puts arithmetic together and makes it come out as something that works. He took what Will does for a living, which is the “Saturday Night Live” thing - at least up until now - and he takes what I do, which is push too hard, sometimes rightly so, sometimes not. I mean, when you're going to blow up the Super Bowl [in "Black Sunday"], you've got to be a little crazy.

NYT: Especially when you're doing it with a blimp.

Dern: And shooting John Wayne [in "The Cowboys"]. Because when you start out as the fifth cowboy from the right, you'd better be the most unique cowboy from the right. And that was drilled into Jack [Nicholson] and I.

NYT: Will, it looks like you lucked out. You're making this transition from television to film and your first serious drama is with this guy. Was it like film class?

Forte: It truly was like film class. I loved it, because he was a teacher in every aspect. Just listening to these stories was just the most amazing book on tape - and I say that with the most respect possible. He taught me so much about acting.

Dern: I looked upon him not as a student, but as a pest!

NYT: Will plays a son who can't help but tease his father.

Dern: I grew up in a household with a mother and a father who were social alcoholics. I never saw either one of them drunk. I never saw either one nasty. I never saw my dad laugh and I never saw my dad cry. And I remembered that as I started getting into Woody, because I have a lot of alcoholic people in my family. I never drank and I never smoked. And we never talk about our family - [his daughter, the actress Laura Dern] never does that either. But when I got with [Will], he was kind of like a patsy early on, but he was annoying.

NYT: What?

Forte: Annoyingly sweet?

Dern: I mean in real life, he had an annoying life. He had a girlfriend; he didn't have a girlfriend. Should he? Shouldn't he? What's going on? I said, [forget] that, don't lay all that on me. And I was messed up, walking around like a cripple because I have a torn quadriceps. But Jack's the best partner I've ever had, in “Marvin Gardens,” and Will is the best partner I've had since then.

Forte: What?! [Grinning.]

Dern: There's no I in “team,” and movies are teamwork. And we had the best teamwork on this movie we've ever had, and [Alexander Payne] had 61 guys on the crew who have done every one of his movies. When you walk on there, it's a family. You're not afraid to take risks. He says, take risks and I'll catch you. He said the most wonderful thing to me. The very first day, I'd said: “Alexander, I don't want to act in this movie. Jack told you the same thing before ‘About Schmidt.' We are tired of performing. We just want to be people. They want Dernsy and they want ‘Here's Johnny!' ” He said, “Let us do our job and trust it. We will find and see what you're doing. You don't have to show it to us.” And for Will to be able to pick that up? The first few days he was a little leery, a little intimidated. But he was great. He has something that I've rarely seen in this industry. He has a sense of likability about him that people respond to. You belie ved him.

Forte: Wait, you're talking about me?

Dern: Yeah.

Forte: Aw, Bruce.

NYT: Will, how did those first few days feel, filming with a guy like Bruce?

Forte: It was intimidating. To do something with people I admire and respect so much is intimidating no matter what, but to have it be in a different arena than you're used to, it just added to that intimidation. But what he says is true: there was this family atmosphere among the crew, and Alexander has this calming personality that made me feel like I deserved to be there. It meant so much for me that they made me feel like I deserved to be there.

NYT: Obviously, Bruce speaks his mind. Will, was that ever tough in those first few days?

Forte: He doesn't mess around. But anything he said was very fair.

Dern: He can take direction better than any other actor I've ever worked with. And everything was in the script for both of us. We weren't going to do our shtick.

NYT: What did you see in that script?

Dern: For me, it was an opportunity to be someone who never had to smile, who never had to laugh, who never had to get real angry - who was just riding a vibe. He's not thinking about death because he's living in a cemetery. I mean, Nebraska is a cemetery. I mean, it's over. It had to be black and white because Nebraska is black and white. Iowa is black and white. South Dakota is black and white. You don't go through Ohio and Nebraska and see color. The barns are drab. The people are drab. But one thing about them I sensed with Woody is that he is a monument to the pioneer movement of America. When I decided to do it is when [another character] says, “Does he have Alzheimer's or dementia?” And I thought that was the key point. Alexander says that's the key point. But the key point is when Will says, “No, ma'am, he just believes what people say.”

NYT: So the film is about a generational shift away from a certain kind of American promise and a world in which people believe what they're told to something else. Will, I wonder how you identify with that as part of a younger generation. The rap on Gen-X and post-Gen-X people is often that they grow up ironic. Or not? What about you?

Forte: I'm kind of an old-timey person. This is going to sound like I'm complimenting myself, but my parents instilled this kind of belief that you should trust people, and sometimes I can verge on the point of being gullible and naïve. You lose some of that along the way, but I've always connected to that older generation maybe because of that. I was very close to my grandma, and she had that attitude and my mom does too. And they both meant so much and instilled those values in me.

Dern: I think what he just said comes out in the movie. Alexander's a people watcher: you watch the things he picks up. What's the great thing about Alexander? I had it most days with Mr. Hitchcock. Every day you go to work there's a chance you just might do something nobody's ever done. It's the best role I've had and the most exciting experience day to day.