LoganMarshall-Green’sLifelongEducationinFilmmaking

On acting, writing, directing and always doing something new.

 

WORDS Julia Novis

 

Interview taken from IMAGINE Magazine Issue Three Order here

 

With a role in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey, as well as in the hit TV Series Marshall and acting alongside Al Pacino in Killing Castro, Logan Marshall-Green has been keeping busy. In a conversation with IMAGINE, the actor opened up about his idols and the people who have influenced his work, his process for getting into character and his growth throughout his career.

 

Logan is down to earth, and “normal” in the best sense of the word. His passion for acting, and storytelling in general, was evident throughout our conversation. “I think acting is about giving yourself permission to be playful,” he says, and reveals that he is truly a people-person. He makes a point of highlighting all the people that come together to work on a project and describes the experience of being on set as “something to behold.” He continues to expand in his career, having made his writing and directorial debut with Adopt a Highway in 2019, and is always looking for characters he still hasn’t played. When asked about what draws him to a project, he talked about what is gained through collaboration, “So many stories have been told and characters played, but the experience of working with directors, that’s a huge part of what draws me.”

 

He revealed he almost didn’t make it on set for The Odyssey, “My dog ate my passport, and my partner pieced it together whilst I fell apart,” and how he felt once he arrived “I knew that what I was going to be walking into, which was going to be the height of filmmaking, with one of the greatest storytellers, and surrounded by incredible artists.” Looking back over the course of his career, and how he has grown as an actor, his definition of success has evolved, and he feels lucky to continue to be invited to work with incredible artists. If he could give one piece of advice to his younger self, he would tell him the importance of saying yes to the jobs you’re afraid of.

 

Julia Novis: You have lots of exciting projects coming out this year, but before we get into that, I wanted to ask, growing up, were there any films or shows that you can remember made you want to become an actor?

 

Logan Marshall-Green: The thing that made me really want to become an actor, or at least perform, was seeing Angelo Moore from Fishbone perform on stage. He was a musician, but he had such a stage presence and control over a very unruly audience. My mum and dad were both theatre people, and I didn’t want to do that in my unruly teenage years, but seeing Angelo play and perform, as well as some other musical folk, it drew me closer to the stage. I didn’t know about TV and film, that didn’t even really seem like an option for me, even in theatre school, until it really started to happen.

 

JN: And once you started working, were there any actors or directors that really influenced you throughout your career?

 

LMG: Gary Oldman for sure. His work, especially early in his career, he was that kind of a character actor trapped in a leading man’s body, and you know, Paul Newman and also Anthony Cher on stage, there were definitely a lot of actors who I really admired, but most of them are character actors, so that’s kind of what I’ve always sought is character and trying not to play the same man twice.

 

JN: You have a role in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey. I feel like this is very anticipated, what was it like getting the news of being cast on that project?

 

LMG: It was shocking. It was shocking for a few reasons, to say that I was excited about getting calls would be a total understatement. I thought I had maybe buried that opportunity in January of last year. I had put myself on tape in December, and I got the call to do callbacks in LA, and I was living in Charleston, and LA at that moment was burning.

 

JN: That was the time when all the fires were going on!

 

LMG: Yes, it was the first week in LA, and I had some reps who were dealing with it themselves, and some friends, and I couldn’t bring myself to ask people to think about anything else. To be completely honest, it just felt wrong, and I didn’t want to fly into a burning city. My priorities just told me that I should let this go and I didn’t do the callback. About two or three months later, I got a call saying that someone had dropped out and that Chris wanted me to play this role, and they were like “Can you be in Italy or an island off of Sicily in 48 hours?” and I was like “Absolutely!”

 

“My priorities just told me that I should let this go and I didn’t do the callback. About two or three months later, I got a call saying that someone had dropped out and that Chris wanted me to play this role”

 

JN: What was the island?

 

LMG: Favignana, it’s in the Tunisian Strait, like a kind of 24 hour hike out there from Charleston. And my dog ate my passport as I was walking in to get my bags. I’m not kidding! My dog ate my passport, and my partner pieced it together whilst I fell apart. She was like, “You’re going, you’re doing this!”

 

JN: She figured it out.

 

LMG: Yes! she figured it out. I mean, the only reason you and I are talking about The Odyssey right now, truly, is Monica, my partner, who scotch taped these three pieces at the bottom. I knew I was going to get yanked at every portal, which I did, but it was still good enough, where they were like, I guess you’re good, you know?

 

JN: You’re like “I’m getting into character you know, it’s a very rugged thing.”

 

LMG: I was getting into character, I was showing my character, and which is weak (laughs). I really, truly, was like, “I’m not going,” and my partner was like, “No, you are going to do this.”

 

JN: I think it was meant to be, you know, like things kept falling into place.

 

LMG: Yeah, I agree. Yeah, and the dog is right there, she’s a sweetie. We didn’t get rid of her.

 

JN: Has she eaten anything else, any other important documents?

 

LMG: She’s eating something right now, which I’m guessing is a treat, because the other dog is looking at her. I’m trying to think if she’s eaten anything else.

JN: What was the experience of shooting something of that scale? I guess Christopher Nolan productions are always massive, but you guys were also adapting a story that is such a huge part of the Western canon, so what was your experience like stepping into that world?

 

LMG: Well, you know, I accepted the job very quickly, and I had to understand [the role] very quickly. I was reading about Melanthius, who I play, on the plane over. I knew that what I was going to be walking into, which was going to be the height of filmmaking, with one of the greatest storytellers, and surrounded by incredible artists and department heads, and I just knew that I needed to be malleable. I was aware of the story we were telling, but the second you get there, it feels very small in a grand place. It feels like you’re shooting an independent film, but in these insane locations and sets. Everyone is just so focused, so it’s easy to focus and stay focused all day. I was really lucky, I got to work with Tom [Holland], whom I’ve worked with before, and John Leguizamo, who is a huge idol of mine, and another reason why I act, to answer your first question.

 

JN: And was there anything from working with Christopher Nolan that you think will influence how you direct going forward

 

LMG: That’s a good question. I think lowering expectations. After you’ve been on a Chris Nolan set, the sentence “It can’t be done,” it’s just not going to jive anymore, but in some way, you still have to set your expectations. So, I think in a way, it’s lowering those expectations to kind of exist on other sets, which don’t run the same and don’t have the same view of creativity and collaboration, and the demand for excellence out of yourself and everybody.

 

JN: On the topic of big names, for Killing Castro, you’re acting alongside Al Pacino. What was that like, was there anything you picked up from him?

 

LMG: I love Eif [Rivera], the director, but when I got the script and I saw that I had scenes with Al, that was really why I wanted to do it, just to be around him again. I had worked on a play in a workshop with him over the course of a week, and he’s lovely, and the actor’s actor you expect him to be. I didn’t really understand how we’d fit on an independent budget. A lot like Chris Nolan, they just kind of move all the ducks off the pond and focus and invite the crew in when they’re ready. They both bring it down to the scene, the sentence, the relationships, what is going on.

 

“[Al Pacino and Eif Rivera]… like Chris Nolan, just kind of move all the ducks off the pond and focus and invite the crew in when they’re ready. They both bring it down to the scene, the sentence, the relationships, what is going on.”

 

JN: Killing Castro premiered at the start of June at Tribeca Film Festival. What was the audience reception like? When you get to see first-hand how people react to your work, what is that like for you? Are you watching the audience or your performance?

 

LMG: I don’t know. That’s a hard question to answer, because when it comes to premieres, or opening nights on stage, those are the worst nights to gauge the audience’s relationship to the film or the play. I’m always a little scrutinous over the applause. To be completely honest, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a premiere where they didn’t love it. I think it was a long time coming, though, for the film. It went through some iterations, I thought it was pretty streamlined, and not trying to over explain or indict or be too political, and I thought Diego Boneta did a great job. He was very watchable, and I was very happy to see this story that I had no idea about come to life.

 

JN: On to Marshalls, which is a spinoff of Yellowstone. Were you familiar with that universe before signing on to the project? Were you a fan of the show or was it something you became aware of once you got the script?

 

LMG: No, I still haven’t seen the show (laughs). I decided to stay ignorant, because my character was just not a part of that universe, and to be completely honest, I didn’t have the time. It was also far easier for me to do my job, and to not compare, because we’re not shooting Yellowstone, we are shooting something in the same universe, but it’s a very different way of storytelling that universe. It’s a procedural, it’s for a very similar audience, but a different audience. I’ve seen enough of Taylor [Sheridan’s] films to know what it was going to be great storytelling, and I’m sure one day I’ll go back and watch Luke [Grimes] do his thing.

 

JN: And did you feel any pressure going into a universe that already had an existing fanbase, or did you approach it like its own project, and independent of Yellowstone?

 

LMG: I never really felt any pressure, to be completely honest. I think in that ignorance that I was just speaking about, there was a little bit of bliss there. For me, it was just, show up, and make sure I try to make this guy as three dimensional as possible. It doesn’t matter if it’s The Odyssey or Marshalls, that’s just how I show up and keep my process.

 

JN: You had your debut writing and directing with Adopt a Highway, but prior to that you had a lot of experience in front of cameras. What was the shift like going from acting to writing and directing? Do you think your experience as an actor informed how you went on to do both of those things?

 

LMG: Yeah, no doubt. I had been acting for about under ten years and I decided to start writing a script that I would take hiking, and it’s about this guy who gets lost in the woods, and my team was like “You need to be directing as well,” so in a way, it was my reps who were really pushing me to direct, because they knew that I had been writing. But when we were shopping this first script around, everybody was saying to me “You’ve never directed before, what else do you have?” Because it was a pretty ambitious script. I knew I could direct it; I knew what I wanted, but I also knew very quickly that I needed to get a more manageable, makeable script that didn’t command a lot of financing, so I wrote Adopt a Highway in about three months. I needed to write a script that didn’t command a lot of money, so I just took out all those things like violence and drugs and action, and just honed it down to what I know, which is a character piece. I also knew I could only use what I know, and at that moment I had become a father, kind of overnight, and I was really lost, to be completely honest. So, I wrote it as a little Valentine to my daughter, and immediately we got a lot of traction on it, and I shot for the moon and won the lottery with Ethan Hawke, who taught me so much about how to be an actor. He has just directed Blaze and been to Sundance and then took that hat off and came on to my set, which was this little independent [set], and really taught me so much. Especially in post[-production], that was the part I didn’t know. I knew photography and I knew the script because I had written it, but most of my learning happened in post.

JN: Acting, writing and directing are all very different sides of storytelling. You’ve mentioned an interest in character-driven stories, but what would say you look for when looking at potential projects?

 

LMG: It’s what I haven’t done. This career for me nowadays is more about experience than telling a story. I mean, so many stories have been told and characters played, but the experience of working with directors, that’s a huge part of what draws me. It’s about the experience, and the experience within the man, and that could be a therapeutic experience that could be just something exciting or a physical experience. Usually it’s the ones that I’m like, “I don’t want to do this guy,” as long as it’s not, I don’t want to do this guy, because I’ve played him before, it probably means I’m afraid of some aspect of the man, and I’m drawn to him in a way. I think more than anything nowadays, especially with the advent of AI, the experience of being on set is something to behold, and the experience of a great crew, the synchronisation with just that energy of storytelling, you know, it’s just it’s a great thing that you will never get in an algorithm.

 

“I think acting is about giving yourself permission to let go and be playful.”

 

JN: So how do you prepare for a character? You’ve done period pieces and more contemporary things, but also with films and shows where you’re spending different amounts of time with a character, does your process change at all?

 

LMG: Not at all. I do a lot of research, especially if it’s a non-fictional character. It’s reading the script, reading the scene, reading so that you’re taking in not just your lines but gaining an understanding [of the character]. I think acting is about giving yourself permission to let go and be playful.

 

JN: You’ve been doing this for a pretty long time, how would you define success now, and how has that definition evolved throughout the course of your career?

 

LMG: I guess I would say that my definition of success when I started out was employment. And that’s just natural, but now I would say that it’s not that you are employed, but who you are employed with, and that means giving young independent filmmakers a chance. That means trying to work with the best of the best. Success is again that moment of playfulness, and it took me a long time to get to that moment. I’ve been doing this for almost twenty-five years, and for the first ten years of my career, you were seeing a very taut actor, who is having a lot of imposter syndrome running through his body, before this was even a term. Major imposter syndrome, and afraid of who I was going to be working with. Now I would say that the measure of success for me is more about being invited to play in playgrounds with artists that I love. And nowadays, I look back and I would say to my younger self, as much as it’s important to say no to the right jobs, it’s also important to say yes to the jobs that you’re afraid of, and work begets work. I’d say to my very young, don’t be afraid to take the dive for character. And don’t play you, and don’t try to look too cool, and don’t be afraid of looking ugly and being unliked. It took me a while to figure that out, and once I did my shoulders kind of dropped and I looked around and felt like I belonged.