“Bucking Fastard”, interview with actors Orlando Bloom and Domnhall Gleeson

Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson bring Bucking Fastard, directed by Werner Herzog, to the 83rd Venice Film Festival, where the film is in competition. The two actors speak about what it means to work with Herzog, the singular nature of the script, why they choose the projects they do, the freedom of working outside the studio system, and what it was like acting opposite Kate Mara and Rooney Mara’s synchronized performances as two sisters who speak, move and dream in unison.

A gift to work with a master

Asked what it is like to work with Herzog, Bloom doesn’t hesitate: “It’s a gift, really. To be here at the Venice Film Festival with an amazing cast of actors and to have worked with Herzog is a gift.” He calls him “unlike any other director I’ve ever worked with,” someone whose “passion and obsession with moviemaking and art is just palpable on the set.” Gleeson agrees: “There’s nobody who can make films like Herzog. You can try, but you will fail. Only he can do what he does, and to be a part of it is an honor.”

A script like nothing else

Reading the script for the first time raised its own questions for Bloom: “How are they going to do this? How do we get the budget to make an unbelievable script like this?” For him, the result is unrepeatable: “I think this is a movie that you will never have seen before and you certainly will never see again.” Bloom also points to the film’s dedication to David Lynch at its opening, wondering aloud whether it shares something of his universe. Gleeson sees a kinship without the film being derivative: “there are sinister elements in the film and there’s a lot of empathy, and it doesn’t always explain itself, which I think is really important with real art.” He adds, “very proud to be in a film that’s dedicated to another master.”

Two actors as one

Both actors describe the experience of working opposite Kate Mara and Rooney Mara, who play two sisters so close they speak and move in unison, as something hard to put into words. “You’re working with two great actors working as one great actor, somehow,” Gleeson says. “It’s a strange experience, but then what’s unusual is that it becomes normal — you tune in to them and what they’re doing. What’s extraordinary is that it feels real in the room. You can’t explain it, but it feels real.” Bloom recalls a similar sense of wonder on set: “They were unbelievably prepared. They were breathing, performing, speaking, dreaming almost together. That created an awe for everyone around them.”

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