Posted Aug. 8, 2004.
Interviewing celebrities is a draining experience. Always set in fancy suites in upscale hotels, these interviews are often rigid, formal and timed down to the minute. Of course, a journalist cannot expect actors like John Malkovich to extend a personal tone during what is undoubtedly one of hundreds of interviews they are dragging themselves through in the spirit of movie promotion. But in a sea of nerve-racking Q&A sessions that spit interviewers out like a cog in the PR machine, there are a select few celebrities that profoundly affect a journalist in a way that goes far beyond providing exactly 30 minutes' worth of article material. Zach Braff - the star of the NBC comedy "Scrubs" and now the writer, director and actor of the film "Garden State" - is one such celebrity.
Braff, who is spending his summer traveling around the country promoting "Garden State," does not seem to view this obligatory film promotion as an obligation at all. He genuinely seems happy to be spending 12 hours every day rolling through dozens of interviews with journalists who probably ask him the same questions over and over again.
"Garden State," which opened in D.C. on Aug. 6, is a semi-autobiographical film about Andrew Largeman (Braff), a twenty-something who returns to his childhood home in New Jersey for his mother's funeral and is forced to reevaluate his life. Largeman meets Sam (Natalie Portman), an eccentric girl who causes his views and attitude to takes a drastic turn for the better.
Braff explained the pros and cons of taking on the triple-threat role of writer, director and star in the film to yet another nondescript group of journalists at yet another upscale hotel in downtown D.C.
"The pros were when it's a smaller scene - when it's one, two or three people - I could almost direct from the inside," Braff said. "I like to think of it as I was undercover as an actor. I could steer a scene the way I wanted it to go by just the way I was relating to the other actors I was working with. The bigger scenes is when I felt in over my head. All said and done, I think I had a good experience and I would do it again." Braff, who wrote the movie as a response to a period of disillusionment and depression after college, explained how "Garden State" came to be. "Particularly from 22 to 28, I'd feel really 'in it' as we say in the movie - really 'in the shit,' trying to paddle myself above water, just feeling really lost and depressed," Braff explained. "And actually I got a big break and I got 'Scrubs' in 2001, and the first thing I did was quit my waiting tables job. I found out the next day we wouldn't be shooting the pilot for 'Scrubs' for four months. I like to keep busy and would go crazy just sitting and watching TV so I said, 'I gotta write this.' Even getting the show didn't really put me out of the depression I was in. So I just sat down and wrote for four months straight, and that was the first draft of 'Garden State.'"
Even with the lead role on "Scrubs," it was difficult for Braff to get his film off the ground. "The best thing about 'Scrubs' was it gave me access," Braff noted. "It didn't get anyone to make the movie, but it got me in the door."
After being denied by much of Hollywood, Danny Devito's film company (the aptly-named Jersey Films) took interest in "Garden State." Braff, however, never expected to get someone like Natalie Portman to star opposite him in the film. "I wrote with [Portman] in mind, but I never dreamed that was actually who we were going to get," Braff said. "We used her as an archetype. We never talked about seriously that we're going to get Natalie Portman. We weren't kidding ourselves, but then we decided 'let's go for her and see if she's into it."
So Braff, who had a remote connection to Portman because they had both participated in New York's Shakespeare in the Park, wrote her a "really personal" letter in hopes that he could persuade her to accept the part of Sam. "She read it, loved it and wanted to meet me," Braff said. "We had lunch in L.A. and we clicked. I thought she was even more right after I met her in person and she called her agent on the way home from lunch and said she wanted to do it."
The character of Sam, who Braff readily admits is a personification of his "dream girl," represents something that Braff feels we can all connect to.
"We all have a fantasy that this person is going to come along who will be so different, it'll be like 'Ahhh,' this big shining light, and there won't even be a question," Braff said. "They'll just be so different than every other person you've met. So I essentially wrote a really eccentric, interesting, different girl in a sea of people that weren't interesting or special." Sam's rather quirky nature offers a much-needed change in Largeman's sterile existence. This idea of a classic rescue is nothing new, but Braff's film offers it up in a rather unconventional manner.
"I feel like life goes in waves," Braff explained. "The way I describe it is it's like being long overdue for the next chapter of your life to open up. I think everyone can relate to that. It's like life is a series of beginnings and change, and then there's times in your life where you're like, 'I am so due for an epiphany, I am so due for something new to happen to me, a new girl, a new job, a new - an epiphany, somebody please send me an epiphany.' And this is a guy who's like 15 years overdue for a new chapter to start in his life."
This epiphany, which comes in the form of Portman's character, has not necessarily happened to Braff in the same way it happens to Largeman in the film. Although Braff notes that much of the film is drawn from life, the characters are not meant to represent actual people.
"I took a lot of character traits [from people in my life]," Braff said. "Like I had a buddy who would shoot arrows in the air and thought that was the funniest thing in the world - not on fire, I added the fire, but he did have a joint dangling from his mouth as he does in the movie."
The unconventional characters that pervade the film are a result of Braff trying to understand the experiences of people who may not have taken the road well-traveled.
"I started writing this during the dot-com phase when you'd open up the paper and find out about kids making $100 million," Braff said. "I always thought that the whole plan in our society is to get a job, get educated so I can make enough money to start a family, have kids, send them to college and retire - that's all programmed out for you. But what if you're 23 years old and you come into $100 million? You must be really confused because what the hell do you do with your life? So I created this character who was completely confused and just bored as the next guy, just so happened he stumbled on $100 million and couldn't even get himself to buy furniture because that seemed boring."
Although "Garden State" deals with issues of being a lost twenty-something, Braff has been gratified to discover that the film has the power to connect with a much broader audience.
"The coolest thing is when people who are so outside the demographic for the movie are moved by it," Braff said. "A woman at a screening who was over 80 had tears in her eyes she was so moved by the movie and that is something I didn't expect. I thought the 20 to 40 crowd would get it. I didn't know that it would expand to all ages."
It is not only the film that is pulling audiences in, but also Braff himself. The actor, who will be directing his first episode of "Scrubs" this fall, has a way with the fans. Braff has started a blog, an online journal, at gardenstate.typepad.com that chronicles his trek around the country supporting the film. Braff's almost-daily postings on the site elicit hundreds of reader responses each day, and Braff insists he reads every one. With this kind of dedication to his public, it is no wonder every post on the site reeks of overwhelming praise for Braff.
Indeed, his enthusiastic manner and genuine desire to communicate about his film gives him the upper hand when compared to other celebrities. Even the most carefully timed interview in the most uncomfortably fancy hotel room can be transformed into 30 minutes of sheer enjoyment that only further supports the preconceived notion that the man behind "Garden State" must be a remarkably sincere guy.
