SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Atomic Popcorn: So what about the role attracted you to play it?
Christoph is a Basterd
Christoph Waltz: You know what, it’s not a stupid answer: everything. The idea of working with Tarantino, the idea of playing the best part I have ever come across, including various theatrical masterpieces that I have had the good fortune to be in, the attraction of being in a big movie like that altogether, the idea of breaking out of my kind of accustomed circumstances that I have been surrounded in. [W]orking in such an intense manner over such a long period of time. The fact that I get to work with these fantastic people, really, really, not least of them Brad Pitt. You know, the contribution to a fantastic story [that] you know, the hope to apply, for once… what I think I had acquired over the year in a way [but] a little bit to my regret, never got the chance to apply, if yet then only various aspects. But not everything at the same time, the fact that I understood that for once I can check my limit, you know, how am I supposed to know what I can do if I can’t check it? If I can’t actually try it out?
Atomic Popcorn: I also wanted to mention you’ve done a lot of stage work, I respect that a lot. I do plays as well and I think every actor should start out with that before doing films.
Christoph Waltz: Yeah you’re right, the rehearsal is what really does it.
Atomic Popcorn: Have you seen any of Tarantino’s previous works? If so which ones did you like, that stood out to you the most?
Christoph Waltz: I have known them all, I’ve seen them all several times, because you need to see them several times. Jackie Brown was always my favorite one for many reasons, I admired Pulp Fiction but Jackie Brown was definitely my favorite. I preferred Reservoir Dogs over Pulp Fiction, for example, I marveled at [the three] Kill Bills but I didn’t really find them accessible. To me it was like a huge foremost visual experience and I can really engage either emotionally or intellectually. Death Proof was something special, I didn’t dislike it at all and Death Proof actually helped me to understand that these long dialogues actually are very precious and very special – maybe the exact words or the meaning of the words are not that important but the music and the rhythm, the characterizations and who was saying what and how. You know that this is such a beautiful poetic weave, that kind of wafts through these wonderfully interesting images. So that it really made me take in the art.
ATOMIC POPCORN: When a lot of actors go through a script I think that they see a scene they are in and are excited about performing it and can’t wait to undertake it, was there a scene that you were excited about?
Christoph Waltz: I am always a bit skeptical about everything, so yes there were many scenes and not least the first and the last one. But my skepticism always makes me shy away a little about this “HA! NOW I GET TO DO THIS!” I approach it carefully with a lot of respect, and a little awe and a little fear. I try to find a entrance into the thing and so that I can do it from within.
Atomic Popcorn: My opinion after seeing this film yesterday, I have to say you gave one of the best villain performances I have seen in a long time. Its interesting I didn’t see Hans Landa as a typical bad guy, I think his actions can be said to be evil but what he was doing was apart of the German nation and just doing what was required. But he was a smart villain, his detective work was that of Sherlock Holmes, he really did what also benefited him but at the same time he was smart about everything he did. Was there anything you added to the role that maybe was influenced from other things to prepare yourself for it?
Christoph Waltz: Oh thank you so much, I agree with you totally 100 percent, that the [archetypal] villain is the least interesting, its exactly all these maneuvers, these little smart side steps, and this light-footed movement through the various layers and aspects of these occurrences. I really tried to stick to the script; yeah, there were things I read other then the script sort of, around, but that’s more for inspiration. I found a few old books about, textbooks on criminology, that was interesting and how the beginning of the twentieth century they applied psychology to understanding why a criminal would actually commit his crime. Now it’s called the profiler, but then they didn’t have the word and they still did it, especially one book I came across was really a humanistic approach to crime and before the First World War, this book was written in the 1915 in the middle of the First World War. So that was interesting, I don’t know if it was immensely helpful but it was interesting to understand backstory and to flesh it out a little bit. So I drew inspirations a little bit, but not too much; I worked mostly off the script because that was what I was after.
Atomic Popcorn: Yeah, those moments where you would interact with the other characters and they would think they have everything covered but you would still just break them down layer by layer and you could see it on their face, they would all think in their heads “Oh, God, he’s got us!” There was another scene I liked where you with Melanie Laurent at the restaurant after Goebbels left and you offered her strudel with cream. Every time you spoke you were hammering her down and you see her slowly trying not to break down. When you were supposed to ask a question, do you think your character knew who she was or do you think he totally forgot?
Christoph Waltz: what do you think?
Atomic Popcorn: I think he knew because I think the way things were going towards the end of the film, he basically used her to his advantage to help smooth out his plans. That’s what I thought it was.
Christoph Waltz: Well that’s important. I tend to agree, let’s put it that way, I would have been disappointed had you said something else. But Quentin makes it a point that if he wants you to know he would tell you, if he wanted you to know to be certain about the fact that he knows who she is, then he would let you know. So I agree with you, but you could also see it [from] a different point of view, why doesn’t he disclose it to her that he knows? Well, it’s in, a way, the same reason that he doesn’t shoot her, because disclosing that he knows would in a way [have] the same effect as shooting her. But he doesn’t.
Atomic Popcorn: Maybe he’s curious to see what’s going happen next. And see how far she goes, as he already noticed she’s around the war hero of Germany?
Christoph Waltz: Yeah exactly – that’s what I think, too.
Atomic Popcorn: Now, I know you have been doing a lot of things in Europe, and I have been looking over some of the things that you’ve done and I will definitely check them out soon. Are there any upcoming projects with more American directors or any in particular you would like to try to work with?
Christoph Waltz: Oh you don’t have to [laughs] but thank you, of course I would love to work the great directors and do the good stuff, absolutely. I am so curious about Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland because I really admire him so much and I really like the Coen brothers and of course the great directors like Scorsese. I could go on forever, to be in a Woody Allen movie is, like, one of the great dreams ever since I have been a actor. Now I am very curious to see this Nora Ephron movie Julie & Julia because of that level of sophistication that I really truly admire. Chris Nolan, of course and Cronenberg and Lynch, so, you name it!
Atomic Popcorn: Maybe you can get a shot for the next Batman movie and play the next big villain, always a possibility, right?
Christoph Waltz: No, so far that isn’t, but I would be grateful if you suggested me [laughs].
Atomic Popcorn: Oh definitely I would do it in a heartbeat if I was the casting director.
Christoph Waltz: Thanks.
Atomic Popcorn: Were there any jokes on the set or gags between actors?
Christoph Waltz: I usually stay out of that anyway, and in this specific case even more so because I was concentrating all my energies into the role. That doesn’t mean you have to get uptight and, yeah, there were a few jokes but I am not a great joker, I don’t confuse it with the social occasion. I am happy and relaxed when I can really work, so Quentin knew that, not because I told him. But Quentin understands so he kept that away, a little. But that doesn’t meant that, you know, when I came on everything quieted down. There’s a lot of talk of the music on the set, he understood I didn’t need that desperately, but you know it was never obtrusive or intrusive playing music. They would play music while they were changing the set and it was relaxing and nice. There was one occasion, in the Italian scene were Brad came from the states and flew all night, he was standing there at seven-thirty in the morning and he was still there at seven-thirty at night. It’s just like the others, like, most of the time off the camera. Only his jokes would get better and better and you know he was somewhere in jet-lag-land and his jokes were so fantastic that I think we had to wrap for the day ’cause everyone was laughing so much.
Atomic Popcorn: Well, thank you so much for your time Christoph it was a real pleasure and I hope to run into you again some time!
Christoph Waltz: Yes! Thank you for coming and see you sometime again soon, take care!
