Eagle Eye (2008)
Eagle Eye - Ausser Kontrolle
Interview with DJ Caruso
DJC
DJ Caruso was expecting the guys from OutNow.CH in a hotel room in Zurich. Right before he went to attend the screening of Eagle Eye on the Zurich Film Festival, he took a little time to sit down with us and answer a couple of questions.
OutNow.CH (ON): Complete control of all electronic devices is the base of Eagle Eye. What made this story interesting for you?
DJ Caruso (DJC): I was reading about Jerry Shaw and Rachel and it was the characters that really attracted me to it. And once I got hooked to the characters and was reading the screenplay, I didn’t know what was going on and I found that very interesting. Basically it felt like this great videogame, where the characters literally had to listen to this voice and had to do these turns. And when I realized what the movie was about, all the technology and how much we use this in our everyday life and how much control we are actually giving up, it just got me.
ON: Can you tell us, what is pure fiction in the movie and what is not?
DJC: The film is not completely fictional. The computer system in the pentagon is really, really far more stretched out than the one that they have in real life. But they have one that monitors your behaviour and if they see something unusual, they flag you and start tracking you. We obviously took it that a little further. Also the 36th Floor in the Pentagon and all those computer systems are, I do not want to say “far fetched”, but we definitely pushed that a little further to the future.
ON: Eagle Eye is your second film with Shia LaBeouf. Do you think he is the upcoming superstar of Hollywood? He is everywhere!
DJC: That’s right. He is everywhere. But what is nice is, that Eagle Eye opened last Weekend in the US and it opened really big. And this was very good for Shia as a movie star. Because this did not have Harrison Ford and the hat. It did not have gigantic robots. So movies like Eagle Eye and Disturbia really established him as a movie star. And he is the only movie star in his age group. He is 22 years old. He is the only one at that age out there. He is going to be there for a long time.
ON: He got injured during the shooting of Eagle Eye. How did that infect the production?
DJC: Well he wasn’t actually injured during Eagle Eye. It was during Transformers 2. But it was as we were doing post production. So it didn’t have an impact on Eagle Eye, but they got him in the press a lot, so that was fine with me (laughs). But they had to stop Transformers 2 for a couple of days.
ON: The film has a very impressive cast. What was your influence in order to get those guys to play the characters?
DJC: It is like anything else. The more success you have, and I had recent success – “knock on wood” - it is easier to find the cast you want. I’ve always been a fan of Michelle Monaghan. I love Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and she was so great there. And Rosario Dawson and Billy Bob Thornton are fantastic. I was just able to meet with them instead of having the old casting thing and all the sessions. It is easier to get the good cast, when you have something you can show them, when they trust you. I think I have a good reputation, from the actors I worked with. Hopefully they called their friends and tell them to work with me…
ON: How is it to work with those big movie stars? Are they normal guys on the set or do they have this superstar-attitude?
DJC: First of all, you can never say, Billy Bob Thornton is normal. He is bizarre and crazy, but that is what I love about him. It is almost like you can not really direct in one way. I find myself adapting to the actor. Every actor is different. Shia LeBoeuf has to be directed completely different than Michelle Monaghan. The way I approach Billy Bob Thornton for going to do something that I think the movie needs is completely different of the way with Shia LeBoeuf. So you have to really stay sharp and adjust. I never had so many cast members in a movie, so everyday there is a challenge of how do I communicate with the actors. But I did not have any of this “movie star bullshit”, where one star wont come out of the trailer, before the other one is coming and so.
ON: Which one of your movies do you think is the best or the most important for you personally?
DJC: Personally? I think The Salton Sea, the first movie. It meant so much to me and the character was so good and it represented a period of my life, where I tried to figure out things. Except that I did not have any drug issues or problems. But the character Danny Parker felt very close to me.
ON: To end this session, I am going to ask you some pop up questions: Switzerland.
DJC: Beauty
ON: Mobile Phones
DJC: fear
ON: Best car crash in a movie
ON: Steven Spielberg
DJC: Genius
ON: Best movie ever made
DJC: (Thinks quite a while)
ON: Besides Eagle Eye
DJC: (laughs out loud) No, I would never do that… Ehm, 8½ by Federico Fellini
ON: Zurich Film Festival
DJC: Exciting.
ON: OutNow.CH
DJC: Bad Ass! I hope that translates good in your language. It means “very cool”.
