Martin Sheen, Family (Filmmaking) Man
By MELENA RYZIKDavid Alexanian/Arc EntertainmentMartin Sheen as a father on a pilgrimage in “The Way.”
Forget about the 10: Officially speaking, 265 features are in contention for the best picture Oscar, as the Academy announced Monday. One you may not have heard much about is “The Way,” a family drama written and directed by Emilio Estevez and starring his father, Martin Sheen.
Inspired in part by a trip the Sheen patriarch took with Emilio’s son Taylor, it’s the story of the pilgrimage a father (Mr. Sheen) makes along the Camino de Santiago in Spain, after having his life jolted by the death of a wayward son (Emilio, in a cameo part; astute moviegoers may also recognize Yorick van Wageningen, who plays a gregarious Dutchman in “The Way,” as the social worker who menaces Rooney Mara in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”). But “The Way” is an unusual, highly personal film – see if you can count the number of Estevezes whose names appear in the credits – and it was promoted in an unusual manner, with a bus tour of college towns and midsize cities, where father and son did Q&As.
To date “The Way” has quietly made nearly $4 million at the box office, more than either “Martha Marcy May Marlene” or “Like Crazy,” two films with likeable ingénues about which much has been written this awards season – by us included – and more than double what “The Artist” has taken in here in the States (although that Oscar front-runner is on only a handful of screens). Without any critical love or precursor nominations from the Screen Actors Guild or the Golden Globes, “The Way” is unlikely to pick up much steam from the Academy – but you never know. And anyway, who wouldn’t want to have afternoon tea with Josiah Bartlet and talk about the historic shoot of “Apocalypse Now”?
So the Bagger did just that recently, meeting Mr. Sheen at the St. Regis where he made sure, in an avuncular way, to save us a scone (and insist that we eat it). After half a century in show business, Mr. Sheen, who took his stage name in tribute to Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, considered this film among his most satisfying. “It came from my most cherished source, it came from one of my children,” he said. “He wrote it for me. It doesn’t get any better than that. If I ended my career working for those lads from now on, I’d be happy as Larry.” Mr. Sheen, a member of the Academy who lets his wife help him choose what to vote for (“She knows more about everything than I do”), also singled out “The Help” and “The Descendants” as films he liked this year. “George Clooney, he’s very subtle,” he said. Here’s an edited, condensed version of the conversation:
Q.
What kind of audiences were you getting on the tour?
A.
They were a cross-section. We had an agency, they called focus groups and they said this film should appeal to Christians and so they would bring in fundamentalists, a lot who were very scrupulous and they loved it because there was no cursing and violence, they felt comfortable. But then more traditional Catholics began to support it. The Archdiocese here supported it very much and we began to get a groundswell of support among these communities on the Internet. That’s how it started. If we had been a studio film and had gotten this reaction, the film would be an enormous financial success because they could have poured a bunch of dough on it, TV, radio ads and make it a must-see and people would have felt they’d miss something if they hadn’t seen it. But we’re not a studio, we did it ourselves. We have this little company that distributes and that’s about it. We pay all the bills.
Q.
Did you get paid to make this film?
A.
No. We borrowed the money to make it. Not many people know that because Emilio wanted to keep that quiet because he didn’t want people to think that it was [a vanity project], a family kind of thing, how good could it be?
Q.
Now that it has some traction, do you think it’s a message that
News, features and multimedia about the Oscars race.
A.
I would say that they don’t give a whole lot of special attention specifically to it. They make a lot of dumb things that make a lot of money, but those dumb things don’t win awards and they can’t brag about it so they make enough films that are about people and relationships. “The Help” is one.
American Zoetrope/Miramax FilmsMartin Sheen as Captain Willard in “Apocalypse Now.”
Q.
Did “Apocalypse Now” have any “For Your Consideration” ads?
A.
I wouldn’t know, honestly. I had no involvement, I had no interest. I was just trying to get well. I made the film, I did everything I could to get it right and then I let it go. Never followed it.
Q.
But you’re a member of the Academy – when did you start to see the Oscar race get more aggressive? It’s like politics now.
NBCMartin Sheen as President Josiah Bartlett on “The West Wing.”
A.
That’s very true. I would say in the late ’80s I began to sense that people really campaigned for these things and it was a great effort to win. The last decade it’s just overwhelming.
Q.
As a student of politics, what do you make of Oscar campaigning?
A.
I’m not a student of politics. I played a politician. I have no interest in politics. But I have a great deal of interest in peace and human rights and civil disobedience to address grievances, to speak truth to power – I have a great interest in that, and that’s really the only way the world gets changed. People who suffer and who know what suffering is and take it to a higher level and create a movement, but it rarely starts from the top, like someone who’s elected is going to change things. No. They start wars and levy taxes and so forth, but they don’t change your life. Reverend King will change your life. Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, they’ll change your life. Very few others. Peace and social justice issues I get involved in. I have no illusions. I’m not going to change the world. I don’t even change myself. I’m still struggling to free myself. I can’t hope to get anybody to my opinion or my side. I don’t have any illusions about that. I do it because it’s the only way I can identify me. I do it because I cannot not do it and be myself.
Q.
Well that seems like a great thought to end on. Is there anything else we missed talking about?
A.
I wouldn’t know, I’m such a windbag. I’m surprised you got any words in edgewise.
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"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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