John C. Reilly Is Ready for Carnage

For the film Carnage — the much anticipated-big screen version of Yasmina Reza’s Tony-Award winning play God of Carnage — Oscar winner Roman Polanski put together a dream cast for this compact if acid-etched portrait of four New York parents trying to maintain a veneer of civility when confronting each other about an incident involving their children: Oscar winners Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, and Oscar nominee and Broadway veteran John C. Reilly. TheaterMania recently spoke to Reilly, who plays hardware salesman Michael, about his work on the film.

THEATERMANIA: You’ve worked with some pretty great directors, including Woody Allen, Brian DePalma, Martin Scorsese, Rob Marshall, and Robert Altman. Still, was the idea of working with Roman Polanski daunting?
JOHN C. REILLY: Oh yeah, definitely the first day I was very nervous. I mean he’s a pretty legendary talented person, so I felt, “well, if this doesn’t work, it’s not going to be his fault.” But he quickly dispelled any kind of hero worship. He’s a very practical guy and we had some work to do. We had the luxury of a two-week rehearsal period and then we did something that’s unheard of in movies, we shot in sequence so we could develop the characters together. I really like working with a director who has acted as well.

TM: Even though the film is set in New York, it was shot in Paris. What was it like being there for eight weeks?
JCR: I felt incredibly lucky to be there. They gave us these amazing apartments in a beautiful part of Paris; mine was in the Place des Vosges. Of course for the shoot, we were indoors all the time on a set built just outside of Paris. And when we were on the set, you could be blindfolded and you’d think you were in New York. Everything in the apartment — all the furniture, the appliances, even the food in the fridge — was American. Everything had to be imported.

TM: Had you known any of your co-stars before shooting started?
JCR: I’d never met any of them before. It’s a really amazing thing about being an actor — you get so many “first day at school moments.” Even after working 10 hours together during the day, we really enjoyed the time we spent with each other. At the end of the shooting day, we’d get back to our places, do whatever we had to do during that down time — make phone calls, send e-mails home and stuff. But Christoph and I often went out together to eat at night.

TM As a parent yourself, have you ever been involved in any situation like the one in the film?
JCR: No. But I think all parents can relate to this film, because anytime kids are involved the stakes are really high. I have another very different film out right now, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and that’s also about parents and children.

TM: Will we be seeing you back on the New York stage anytime soon?
JCR: I do theater work out here in Los Angeles, and I hope to be able to get back to Broadway soon. I have been approached a few times, but it’s not such an easy thing to run off to New York as it once was, now that I have a family.