WARNING: ARTICLE MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Like a lot of Hollywood actors, Alessandro Nivola alternates between big-budget spectacles and smaller indies. Thus, while he?s won praise for his work in films like Laurel Canyon and Junebug, genre fans continue to know him best for his turns in Jurassic Park III and Face/Off (in which he played Pollux Troy, brother to Nicholas Cage?s Castor). Nivola?s latest effort, however, blends both kinds of films, for he stars in The Eye, the upcoming remake of the Pang Brothers? Hong Kong horror hit. The film looks to be a mildly highbrow take on the original, seeing as how it?s directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud, the French duo responsible for the arthouse horrors of Ils. But lest audiences fear something may be lost in the American translation of a Chinese-language movie by two Frenchman, take note: Ils was one of the scariest damn movies in recent years, immediately marking its makers as names to watch.

Unfortunately, word on the streets is that the two directors were recently replaced, for two weeks of reshoots, by Patrick Lussier (who helmed Dracula 2000). Earlier this year, however, FEARnet was invited to speak with the cast and crew during the film?s initial shoot. So we had an opportunity to join a group of journos in chatting with Nivola. Here?s the conversation that followed, giving a glimpse into Moreau and Palud?s vision for The Eye. Only time will tell how much of their vision makes it to the screen for the film?s February release?

So you play Jessica?s character?s doctor in The Eye?

I play a neuro-psychologist. He was a neuro-ophthalmologist and now he?s a neuron-psychologist, because we realized that ophthalmologists don?t do any of the things that this guy?s doing. [Laughs.] I went around meeting neuro-ophthalmologists when we first got to Albuquerque [where we shot on location], and nothing that they said about their job bore any resemblance to the script.

No investigating of supernatural phenomenon?

The nice thing about the character is that he?s the most skeptical of everyone in the film, in terms of any kind of supernatural phenomenon. He refuses to accept its existence at all, from start to finish.

It sounds like they combined the original film?s character?who believes?with the uncle, who doesn?t.

Yeah, I watched that film and used that character as a model for everything I didn?t want to be in this one. [Laughs.] So there?s not too much resemblance between my character and the one that was in the original. But, yeah, he is somebody who is very confident in his work setting, and socially quite uncomfortable out of his work setting. Much like Gene Hackman in The Conversation?who has a very clear set of boundaries in his professional life; when that gets upset it?s confusing to him. Of course this girl comes into his office and he starts to fall in love with her and risks jeopardizing his career for that.

What kind of chemistry did you have with Jessica on this film?

We knew we?d get along pretty quickly after I arrived because we both like to drink Scotch, so that was a good start. [Laughs.] She?s been incredibly easy to work with. She?s very humble, and she has real ambitions to prove herself as an actress. I think that this film is proving an important step in that direction, because those directors are trying to bring a reality to the world of the film that sometimes these kinds of movies don?t really have; and they feel that scary movies are scarier when it?s harder to dissociate yourself from the world of the film. So she?s very unadorned?she?s not caked in makeup and there?s a sort of natural feel about the way she looks and acts in the movie. I think she?s hugely relieved that she?s not in a spandex suit and everything. In terms of our relationship in the movie, it?s been a tricky thing to pull off, just because there is sexual tension between the characters from start to finish. Yet the focus of the movie has to be?in the last third of the movie, actually?just the sort of mayhem that the two characters are put through. So it wasn?t gonna be the kind of thing where we were rolling around in bed every second scene. So we?ve been trying to kind of lace through, as subtle as we can, the slow development of the way that they feel about each other from the first scene to the last without it ever crossing into something that?s so overt that it distracts from the driving story of the movie.

This is adapted from a pretty subtle horror film. Why do you think it can be a success in this current blood-and-guts marketplace?

Well, my feeling is actually the opposite: that movies that rely solely on that tend to have big opening weekends and then drop off pretty quickly, just because there?s not enough to sustain them. If you can make a movie that?s scary but also has believable relationships and characters in it, then that hopefully makes the difference in terms of making it something that appeals on many different levels at once. Obviously I don?t know how the thing is gonna come together in the editing, and as an actor you?re so sort of clueless in terms of how the film is gonna turn out. You?re totally powerless to affect it, except for your own performance. But I think that if they achieve what they?ve set out to do, that it will be scary but also that you?ll be invested in the people?s lives and the story of their lives and the film.

What does Parker Posey?s character have to do with yours, and how involved have producers Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise been?

Well, Parker is an old friend of mine. My wife [English actress Emily Mortimer] was in Scream 3 with her, which was my wife?s first movie in LA when she moved here. So we?ve known each other for a long time, and it was nice to have her in town. She plays Jessica?s sister, who is guilt-ridden about the way in which Jessica?s character lost her eyesight. She feels somehow responsible for it. She?s very involved with encouraging her to get the operation, to begin with. My interaction with her is fairly minimal because the more I get involved with Jessica?s character, the more sheepish I become in terms of wanting to deal with her sister; because I?m embarrassed that there?s some kind of romantic element between the two of us. Because it?s completely off limits really. I think initially there was some sense that the sister encouraged me to take her down to Mexico to track down this donor. But we?ve really kind of veered away from that and played the opposite, which is that I don?t even want her to know that I?ve done it.

And then Paula and Tom? Tom is filming a movie right now with Robert Redford, so he?s totally busy with that. He was very involved with the early stages of setting the movie up, and choosing the directors and the casting. But since we?ve started, he?s been filming himself. Paula?s been very involved. She is very hands-on in terms of all the decisions that are made for the film. She obviously knows what she?s doing, so it?s kind of comforting to know she hasn?t left us to our own devices.

Does the film take place in L.A.?

It does, yeah. And Mexico obviously.

What?s it like to work with two directors?

It?s something that we all better get used to, right? [Laughs.] Because it?s all the rage. But yeah, I had never done it before. I didn?t know how it was gonna work, and I kept asking them to explain it to me when I first met them, and they didn?t seem to have an answer. But once we started it became obvious that they have sort of opposite and balancing personalities. David is very extroverted and charismatic in terms of corralling lots of people, and talking to the actors. Xavier is much shyer and quiet and more visually minded. They play off each other sort of perfectly that way. They?re both on set all the time, they talk to each other constantly. I don?t know why everybody?s doing it. I suppose it?s just such a hard job, it?s easier to do it with somebody on your side. But they?ve grown up together and have known each other for a very long time, and they?ve obviously done it once before. They have very similar tastes. When I?ve hung out with them and watched movies with them, they?ve both tended to point to the same kinds of shots, the shots that they like. They have a similar sensibility, which is one that doesn?t involve overediting a film. They?re really determined to hold shots longer than is in fashion right now. Now it?s like if you get through two seconds without a cut you can?t believe what?s happened. So yeah, the only time I saw them nearly come to blows after a week of night shoots is when Xavier refused to let David drive him home. Because apparently he?s almost crashed the car the night before. [Laughs.] So that?s the extent of it.

Are you towards the end of the shoot right now?

Yeah, we?re in the last week? I?m not filming today. I?m filming tomorrow. I don?t even know what they?re filming today. Tomorrow we?re filming a big important scene where I?having told her that I refuse to give her the donor information, because I?d lose my license?I then show up as she?s about to get in a cab to go ask the other doctor if he?ll do it; show up and get in the cab with her, and basically tell her that not only am I gonna give her the information, I?m gonna take her down to Mexico myself. So it?s probably the first moment where she realizes that I?ve done it for personal reasons, as opposed to purely professional.

The original Eye ends on a big explosion. Is this one heading for a similar downbeat finale?

Yes, I mean the biggest set piece of the movie happens? I didn?t actually see that; it?s in the original. But the big set piece of the movie does involve this kind of Armageddon. I don?t even know how the original ends.

She?s blinded again, and told there will be a car wreck.

Yeah, well that is mirrored in this film. I mean the one thing that I hope doesn?t become a theme? I didn?t read the movie as a morality tale about the perils of science coming up against nature in terms of organ transplants and things. I don?t think it?s gonna play like that, but I hope it doesn?t. But Parker would disagree with me, because she came back from having met a guru in Albuquerque who told her a story about a liver transplant that had gone wrong because the guy who?d given the organ didn?t get along with the guy who took it. So I think she would like this to tell that kind of story. [Laughs.] But I?m appropriately playing the sort of cynical doctor in the movie, which is probably pretty close to my own sensibilities.

Ever since The Ring, there?s been a lot of ghost stories in films. How do you think this is a cut above?

Well, I think that if it?s successful, what will set the movie apart is the reality of the characters and the storytelling. It being not trying to just purely jolt your senses in a sort of videogame style. Hopefully that?s what will sustain it.

Does it have enough twists and turns? Have they made it fresh enough to skew expectations?

I don?t know? As an actor you go into these things and it?s such a myopic job. All I?m really thinking about is what my character is trying to do in every scene. In terms of how the scares of the movie are gonna play, what the pacing of the movie is gonna be, how many moments of surprise they?re going to be, I just have no idea. On the one hand, they know the language of horror films very well. I?m not sure how, because they?ve only done one film, but I do get the sense that it?s a director?s language you just have to know going into making this kind of movie. But then on top of that I think they?re really insightful about the way that people interact and human behavior and all the things that go into directing another kind of movie. So hopefully those two things combined?
What you?re always trying to do in every scene as an actor and hopefully as a director is to get specific enough about the character that unexpected things happen just by virtue of the specificity of the reality, of the person. Just to give you an example? When I went to meet all these different psychologists, I went to this place in Albuquerque called The Mind Center. [Laughs.] I went and met with all these different people, and the reality of these people?s jobs is always so much more interesting than they?re depicted in films. They did all these cognitive tests on people; which is sort of the first thing they do when somebody comes in with some kind of disorder?run a whole series of cognitive tests. And they?re the most bizarre eccentric things you?ve ever seen, like, these weird beads that look like children?s toys, and strange diagrams. People are supposed to tell you what they see in some kind of weird grouping of lines and circles and colors. The strangest answers come out? We were determined to try and bring some of that to the early scenes in my office, when she first comes. And sure enough we managed to actually use some of those cognitive tests to create some things that are just slightly odd. The more of that the better as far as I?m concerned, because that is what?s interesting to watch. The reality. But in terms of the whole, I don?t know how much is gonna play in the movie or not.

Are you a horror fan? Do you have any favorites?

Well, all the obvious ones really, like The Shining. I like The Parallax View. It?s a Warren Beatty movie directed by Pakula. I love all the movies from the ?70s. I think that was our golden age of film, and so the horror movies that were made then, I think, were the best.

What was your opinion of the original Eye?

The original? To be honest, I haven?t seen the whole thing, I just saw bits of it. I thought that it was not as scary as it could have been. I know that the difference between that movie and this movie, in terms of the style, the way that they?re going about it, is that they don?t ever want there to be a sense of a ghost. That everything you see appears to be real. Because when you see something floating in the air?it just isn?t scary to me. I think that if there is that sense, that you cannot separate reality from fantasy, that that?s always scarier somehow. But that said, I thought it was a really clever story, and that it was told with integrity and everything. I guess the Pang Brothers?I haven?t seen anything else that they?ve done, but people seem to think that they?ve got something going on.