Snatch
Reality is Looking Back at You
Interview
with Dennis Farina
interview by
Cynthia Fuchs, 19 January
2001
Former Chicago cop Dennis Farina still lives on theWindy City's North Side, because, he says, there's noother place like it. It's clear, though, from hisrelaxed posture in a sitting room at the Beverly HillsFour Seasons, that he also doesn't mind traveling,especially when it has to do with movies, the careerhe didn't even consider until age thirty-seven, when directorMichael Mann tapped him to appear in Thief, withJames Caan and Willie Nelson. From there, Farinapicked up more tough-guy parts, and then, in 1986,Mann made him the cop-star of the critically acclaimedTV series, Crime Story. Since then, Farina hasworked steadily, as the title character in TV's BuddyFaro, and in films as different from one another asBarry Sonnenfeld's Get Shorty, Steven Spielberg'sSaving Private Ryan, John Frankenheimer's ReindeerGames, and Ed Burns' Sidewalks of New York (openinglater this year).
Right now, Farina is talking about his latest film,Guy Ritchie's Snatch, currently being advertised as"the coolest movie" of the year. Depending on how youdefine "cool," there may be something to thisdescription, given that Snatch not only featurescool returnees from Ritchie's Lock, Stock and TwoSmoking Barrels (including Jason Statham and VinnieJones), but also cool U.S. actors (Benicio del Toroand Brad Pitt), a loony-tunes editing rhythm, and acompletely insane pit bull, who, Farina says, "wentnuts" in one scene and attacked everyone while Ritchielet the camera roll, resulting in one of the funniestscenes in the film. And of course, it features thefifty-six-year-old Farina as Cousin Avi, a Manhattan gangster(he keeps an "I [HEART] NY" coffee cup on his desk)who deals in stolen "ice." When he hears that aneighty-six-carat diamond he has commissioned to have stolenhas ended up somewhere other than his hands, he hops aplane to London to get back what he feels is"rightfully" his. Echoing the style and themes ofLock, Stock, Ritchie's new film focuses on thesundry blunders committed by separate groups of Londonthieves and thugs, as they all try to get hold of thisdiamond.
Farina is at that point in his career when cooldirectors like Ritchie and Soderbergh ask him to be in their movies. I asked him how he responded to the Snatch script when Ritchie sent it to him.
Dennis Farina: I had seen Lock, Stock and Two SmokingBarrels and I thought that was a different kind offilm than I'd seen before, with that kind of editingand slick camera movements. So when they sent me thescript and asked me to do it, I looked at Lock,Stockagain and said, yeah I think I'd like to dothis. I think he's a good director. I think [mycharacter, Avi] is very funny. I think he takeshimself very seriously but I think everyone else islaughing behind his back. I think he was in a way themost honest guy in the movie, because he just wantedthat diamond and that's all he wanted. And when hesent other people to get it and they didn't get it, hegot his hump up a little and decided to go get ithimself.
Cynthia Fuchs:What is it like to act for that kind of rhythm ina film?
DF: You can't act for the editing. You have to leavethat to him. So you just go in and do the scene theway you think is right or whatever you're directed todo, and leave the rest of that technical stuff up tothe director. I saw a version of this, and I've neverbeen in a movie that quite looked like this, you know.Usually you're in movies with a lot of dissolves andthings but this was kind of quick, more jarring thanusual. That's what I thought about Lock, Stock, andI thought it would be fun to be in a movie that'sunconventional. And then I talked to [producer]Matthew Vaughan on the phone, and met Guy and I likedhim. I think he's a good man.
CF:Are there generational differences betweenfilmmakers you've worked with?
DF: You know, I'm guilty sometimes, of thinking, "Ohthis young director, oh my god." But so many of theseguys -- Guy Ritchie, Soderbergh, Sonnenfeld, EddieBurns -- they know what they're doing. So I'm notafraid anymore, if someone says to me, "This is ayoung director and this is his first film," because ofthe track record of the people I've been fortunateenough to work with. These guys have already madetheir bones. Now that probably happened in the 'twenties andthe 'thirties and throughout time, too, but this generationof filmmakers is very good. They're seasoned, for somereason.
CF:You're happy with your work in the Burns movie?
DF: I don't know.
CF:You don't like to watch yourself?
DF: I really don't. I'm more comfortable now with itthan I was for years, but I still don't like it. Andsometimes you're forced to do it, for sound orediting, but I'm not comfortable with it. I knowpeople who can go back and check themselves, but itdrives me crazy. You looks in a mirror and sees onething, but reality is looking back at you. Everybodywants to look in the mirror and see Cary Grant lookingback at them, but that's just not the case.
CF:Do you think that you bring a kind of "copness"and that's why you keep getting these roles?
DF: No, I think that's a dangerous thing to do.Michael Mann a long, long time ago told me, this isreality and this is the movie business, and don'tconfuse the two. What you might do as a policemanmight be the right thing to do but it's notentertaining. So I left that behind me. Maybe it'sbecause I was too much reality, but I'm not interestedin seeing too much reality anymore. I'd rather watch aDean Martin concert and let the world go by.
CF:How for real are those ridiculous criminals inSnatch?
DF: You see it all the time. When you read aboutsomeone who does something, for instance, a jewelryrobbery or a fine art robbery that goes offsuccessfully, you have to remember there are many morethat don't go off. But these guys, they think they'regood. Avi thinks that this is life: "That's mydiamond, I'm going to go over there and get it andcome back." The thought process of a thief or a bankrobber is pretty much the same everywhere -- thoseguys are a certain breed.
CF:Have you come up with a technique for acting, inspeech or behaviors?
DF: I've learned that it's a pretty collaborativething. I read the script and try not to bring anythingpersonal into it. I make notes, and I talk to thedirector and we decide what kinds of shades should bein the character. I don't know if I have a technique.I'm just trying to remember the words, mostly. I don'tget up and say, "I'm going to live in the other roomfor a day and discover myself." I've worked withpeople who are very process-oriented, and sometimes Ithink it works and sometimes I don't. And it's thesame thing with me -- what I do works sometimes andsometimes it doesn't. I don't think there's a formulato do it. If there was, everybody would be real goodall the time, but it's a hit-and-miss process.
CF:For script choices, you've had more hits thanmisses. Do you look for anything particular?
DF: If I read it and I like it, I want to do it. Idon't like to be talked into anything. Sometimes amanager or an agent will say, "You should do this,"but I don't want to be cajoled. If I like it and thinkI can have some fun with it and there's nice peopleinvolved and there's not going to be a lot of angstfor three months, dealing with all kinds ofpersonalities, I'll do it. I think first impressionsare important when you pick up a script.
CF:How hard was it to adjust to the slang used on theset?
DF: I had no idea what they were saying. I'd just go,"Yeah, okay." I think it was George Bernard Shaw whosaid that the British and the Americans are two peopleseparated by a common language. I had sometimes a verydifficult time understanding what was going on, andthe first AD [assistant director] would explain it tome, speaking very slowly: "We. Want. You. To. Stand.Over. There." And they have slang words, as we do, fordifferent kinds of people and like that, but it wasfun. I had a hard time crossing the street and gettinginto cars. So I didn't do any driving. And I hardlydid any walking. I remember one day running for a caband almost got killed, because the traffic was comingfrom the other way. I was all screwed up. Theyprovided a driver for me.
CF:But Ritchie's regular crew were welcoming to you?
DF: They were very welcoming. I think he's got a nicestock company, Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones, that hecan call on and say, "This is what we're doing," andthey can fit right in.
CF:How did you like working overseas?
DF: This is my first experience working in a foreignmovie, but the mechanics, I think, are pretty much thesame all over; you still have to wait in the trailerand that kind of stuff. The trick is deciding whereyou're going to put the camera, and that's Guy'sdifference, not the fact that he's British.
CF:What do you think of Ritchie casting first-timeactors?
DF: I think that's great because that's what happenedto me. Bring 'em in! It's great, you can change aperson's life in an instant; he taps someone and putshim in a movie, and you start thinking differently,you want to be in another movie. It's like anaddiction almost.
CF:And how was it working with that crazy dog?
DF: That dog was nuts, I'm telling you! He had a mind,he wasn't listening to anyone. That scene where heattacks everyone, Guy just said, "Keep rolling, keeprolling." I know there's more footage of that sceneand it's going to pop up somewhere. I was afraid to bearound that dog.
Click here to read Gregory Avery's review.