EoM Senior Interviewer Thomas Manning recently had the opportunity to participate in a press conference with actor Glenn Howerton to discuss his role as Jim Balsillie in the tech dramedy BlackBerry, directed by Matt Johnson. Manning asked a question about the unique cinematography style of the film, and Howerton shared about how these technical choices impacted his experience as an actor.
Glenn Howerton as Jim Balsillie in Matt Johnson’s BLACKBERRY. Photo Credit: Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films Release.
Thomas Manning: I love the decisions that Matt Johnson and the Director of Photography [Jared Raab] made in shooting this film, using the longer lenses and setting up from a distance, which also lends to the mockumentary style of the film. How do those cinematography decisions and camera setups inform your performance and decisions as an actor?
Glenn Howerton: It was wonderful. We’re so used to – I mean, it’s good that we’re used to it now – but we’re used to there being lights and cameras right in our faces. Half the time, for eyeline purposes, you’re acting to an actor whose face is literally smashed up against a camera. And you do learn to ignore the equipment and ignore the people that are handling the equipment or manning the equipment, but with [BlackBerry], half the time we didn’t even know where the cameras were. And I’m not speaking hyperbolically here. [Matt Johnson] would have a camera that was like a hundred feet away, shooting through multiple panes of glass, and [co-star Jay Baruchel] and I would constantly be asking, “Where’s the camera? Oh, it’s way over there.” I’d have to look really hard to find it. Sometimes there’d be like a little key light or someone with a boom mic standing near you. But oftentimes, the scenes we would be doing, you wouldn’t even see the crew. It was very freeing. There are even moments in the film that Matt cut in – he would steal, he was sneaky – he would steal footage of us preparing for scenes. He would sometimes shoot us rehearsing. He would shoot us just going over our lines. He would shoot us – not realizing that the cameras were rolling – just messing with something in our desk, and he would throw some of that stuff in there. There are moments in the film where we didn’t even know we were being filmed. So, it was cool. It was very freeing though, for the times that we did know [we were being filmed] when action was called, there’s something very nice about being in a scene without all that equipment in your face.
Official Synopsis:
BlackBerry tells the story of Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, the two men that charted the course of the spectacular rise and catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone.
Available on VOD and digital June 2nd, 2023.
Available on Blu-ray and DVD August 15th, 2023.
For more information, head to the official IFC Films BlackBerry webpage or BlackBerry website.
Thomas Manning is a member of the NCFCA, SEFCA, and CCA, and also the co-host of the television show and radio program Meet Me at the Movies. He has served as a production assistant and voting member on the Film Selection Committee for the Real to Reel Film Festival. Additionally, he manages his own film review and interview site, The Run-Down on Movies. Manning is a graduate of Gardner-Webb University with a double-major in Communications and English. His passion for cinema and storytelling is rivaled only by his love for the music of Taylor Swift.
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Categories: Filmmaker Interviews
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