The movie wouldn’t have existed if Rob (Pattinson) didn’t reach out to us

Glide Magazine spoke to the Safdie Bros about Good Time and obviously mentioned Robert.  There’s some great information in this interview.  I don’t think I realised Eric Roberts was originally the bail bonds character.  Below is the extract about Robert, but click on the link to read the full interview:

Where did this idea come from, initially?

Josh Safdie: The movie wouldn’t have existed if Rob (Pattinson) didn’t reach out to us; that’s the first off. But the origins of the movie were definitely born in this kinda a confluence of Executioner’s Songby Norman Mailer, In the Belly of the Beast by Jack Abbott, Norman Mailer’s Introduction, and then, at the same time, downloading every episode of Cops.

And that was like those three things together, and then, of course, Buddy Duress’s (who plays Ray) prison journals. And watching him try to assimilate back into society after he got out of prison, and then basically going back to jail for three months when he violated. All these things together, combined kind of created this world. And that’s the origins of it.

…

You’d mentioned Pattinson’s involvement was crucial to the film, but he threw his hat in the ring in an unusual way, didn’t he?

Josh: Yeah, I was actually here [in Austin], on the premiere of Heaven Knows What and I just remember sharing this hotel room with my producer, with our producer, Sebastian Bear-McClard, and I got this email out of the blue, from Rob Pattinson, basically saying, “I saw this still,” and basically the way he spoke about stills was very much like Connie: it was such an important thing, it was tied to his purpose, and he feels like it’s exactly what he wants to do.

I was like, “Have you seen the movie?” He’s like no, I haven’t seen anything, all I saw was this still. And I was like, that’s a little bit insane of him, big movie star reaching out based on the merit of a photograph. But I liked that. I liked the insanity of it. So, yeah when we met up with him in L.A., we had no idea what to expect. He was very confident about trying to find something to make together, ’cause at that point he had seen Heaven Knows What, he’s like “I saw the movie and it’s exactly what I thought it would be, I love it, whatever you are doing next, I want to be a part of it”.

Benny: He wanted to kind of disappear into a world, and he’s like, “You guys can take me there.” And we’re like “Okay, but don’t tease us, cause we’ll go, and we’ll take you at your word for it, and we’re like times a thousand” and he did it. He never once complained. And like we were working really long hours, he was just amazing. You can kind of see the dedication that he brought. But we could sense that he wasn’t kinda bull-shitting us from the beginning. Because a lot of people say, “Oh yeah, I’ll do this, I’ll do this” but he meant it. And we could tell that he meant it. And when he left, we’re like, I think we can do something interesting because he was always slinking around, trying not to be seen. And there was an element of that, that we really wanted to bring to the character.

Well, and I’m not really in the Twilight demographic, but I’ve seen a number of his other films and knew he was a talented actor, but he absolutely disappears into the character of Connie.

Benny: Yeah, yeah, when that door opens, it’s Connie, it’s not Rob. It’s awesome.

You did some work off camera while in character, too, right? Working at a car wash together to develop your rapport?

Benny: Yeah, we went and there was a camera test and also a little character history building. You know for both Rob and I, it was almost like a tamer version of the beginning of the movie. Like, I’m going to take you to a car wash, and you’re going to work in here and drive the cars. And I’m going to give you this experience to show you that you can be like a real part of society, you don’t need to be where they say you should be.

So we went and we worked there, and the cars would come out and I would try to dry them, and of course, I would get distracted by something, or a car would run over my foot, and he would get really frustrated, as Connie he can get frustrated and be like, “Oh my God, why can’t you just do something so simple?”

And I remember there was like a wax scene that I got really obsessed with because it was this giant tub and you’d press that and the wax would kind of just squirt out all over on the floor and on the cars, and I just kept doing it and he wanted me to stop doing it. But I wouldn’t listen to him and he kinda grabbed me and put me in like this kind of headlock. And I was like, “Stop it! Stop it!” But then I seized up, and he sensed that. And I was thinking that to ad lib, as the character, as playing and actually being in that part, I’m just going to respond as Nick would respond. I’m going to throw this guy into the wall and it’s going to get really dangerous and that’s the way I wanted to start a relationship with Rob, but he felt that I was going to do that, and he backed off and said, “I can’t do that with Nick, I can’t make that step.”

And it ends up being in the film, when he grabs Nick and he kinda hugs him and gives him a kiss. That’s a risk that Connie’s taking and he’s really saying “I’m going to go out on a limb and I’m going to show you I love you in this sense.”

But that comes from building these characters. Josh had Rob send me letters from jail. Like when he was up when he was on the set and for The Lost City of Z, he said “Send, Nick a letter from jail right before you get out.” So it’s kind of like four months before the movie started he was starting to come back into contact with Nick. And it was just this back and forth relationship over a couple months where he would send me emails and Josh would say “Don’t answer and let’s see how Rob responds.” And he wouldn’t respond and he send like three or four more emails trying to really get an answer. And all that just helped build our relationship and it helped build the performances with us too.

….

[Robert about Buddy Duress]

And [Rob] was like, “Oh, I loved Buddy in Heaven Knows What“, I want to work with that guy, I thought he was incredible. So, I was kinda sharing a couple of his prison journals with Rob, so he could see the inner mind of what its like to be locked up in Upper State New York, so the part was written for him.

I agree with Robert – Buddy Duress was my favourite performance in Heaven Knows What so I’m glad Robert wanted to work with him as well.