Steve Zahn is not just your guy in a costume

OMG Stevezie my love

So here I am, on a rainy night, just eating ice cream and obsessing over Planet of the Apes in general, watching all the old originals (which are coincidentally all on YouTube for free BTW) and checking out Andy Serkis interviews and here he is with Steve, talking shop with director Matt Reeves for a good 45 minutes. Interesting stuff, my fav guys look hot, I’m happy… but then Steve comes out with this admission about how working on Apes was both challenging and validating to him as an actor because he’s clearly not being given the kind of room for artistry that he deserves.

And my heart just breaks. 

It’s a testament to his abilities that even in his tiniest throwaway roles, he’s never boring, never phoning it in, even though clearly some filmmakers treat him like furniture. He’s described himself in the past as that one guy at the U-Haul company that will move anything, always ready to work, ready to carry his weight on a project. At the time I thought he was just being clever, but now I see the pathos in that statement. 

I’m glad that he got to have a legit creative experience on this unique film; it’s definitely one of my favorites of all his roles. He’s perfect and brilliant.

You can watch the video below at 31:12. I transcribed his speech:

“I’ve done lots of movies where you get invited to set and there’s no rehearsal and the shots are already set up and you have to act within the confines of what is the vision of the director, a DP. There’s no exploring, there’s no like ‘Hey, we want you to you know, do things.’ It’s like ‘No, here’s the shot and here’s your mark and GO.’ That’s hard. I mean that’s… that’s you know, not fun. This was hard in a good way and free and I felt like an actor. You know, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I feel like a guy getting paid to wear a costume. You know, for real, you know. And this one it’s like… I felt valued.”