Patrick Stoner: There is a message in this film for all of us, I think: we are all willing to compromise to some extent to get what we want, even when we don't admit it to ourselves that we are doing it.Reeves: . . . and then what will you DO to get it? It's always a negotiation, a personal cost, a negotiation.
Stoner: Who hasn't compromised? Who hasn't negotiated?
Reeves: It's just like Hamlet's story--the ideal of the youth having to grow up. That's what they tell us to do; it's what you HAVE to do. You have to take your medicine and be a man. If I don't do that, if I DON'T grow up, how am I going to keep a roof over my head? That's what we tell ourselves, even though sometimes it's easier to say, "I WON'T do it." Sometimes it's not.
Stoner: And the Pacino character--the devil--is the seducer. He doesn't MAKE you do anything; he just seduces. I enjoyed his character; I laughed more than I expected. Did you all get the mix of drama and humor when you first read the script?
Reeves: I didn't. I was lost in the first readthrough. I didn't get it at ALL. The writer was going crazy. I told him, "Don't worry. I'm climbing a mountain here. I'll get there." Once we started working, he would come to me periodically and say, "OK, you're halfway up the mountain now. You're getting there." Al got it from the beginning.
Stoner: Do you two work the same way?
Reeves: I have no idea HOW Al works. But I like working with him. He understands form. He knows how it all fits together.
Stoner: Really? Because sometimes you don't get anything from the other actor. He's there in his trailer, going over his lines, and then he comes out and does the scene and gives you very little. He's not like that?
Reeves: No, Al loves to talk about the characters. What does this scene mean? What does this scene DO? Who am I? Who are you? What is this ABOUT? When you go into a scene with Al Pacino, you both know how the other feels about it and exactly what you want to accomplish in it. Nothing is left unsaid.
Return to THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE review.
