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Interviews




MAD LOVE: Q & A WITH "ASYLUM'S" MARTON CSOKAS

Andrea Meyer
August 12, 2005
IFC TV


The name is Hungarian. The man is from New Zealand. But lately Marton Csokas is a self-proclaimed gypsy, since he's been shooting near-constantly since 2001, when his career surged, thanks to a little movie from Down Under called "Rain", in which he played a drifter who's dabbling with both a lovely lady and her curious 13-year-old daughter. Csokas' penetrating stare and abundant talent have landed the former soap star roles in a stream of blockbusters — "The Lord of the Rings," "Star Wars: Episode II," "XXX," "Kingdom of Heaven, " the upcoming "Aeon Flux" and the occasional artier project.

In "Asylum," Csokas plays Edgar, a tortured artist in a mental institution for murdering his wife and the pet patient of sexual pathologist Dr. Cleave (Ian McKellen). Edgar's life changes irreparably when he meets Stella (Natasha Richardson), the wife of the asylum's new deputy superintendent, and a dangerous passion is born. IFC News' Andrea Meyer had five questions for Mr. Csokas.

Is Edgar insane?

No. He's diagnosed with morbid jealousy and severe personality disorder. Someone with morbid jealousy is defined as someone who will kill in a jealous state and not be remorseful. Within the mental institution, none of these things are noticeable and they don't manifest themselves until he's in a relationship.

Is passion worth the risk?

Well, if you ask someone in the midst of passion, they will inevitably say yes. Obviously this is a story of extremes. Even though Edgar is completely deluded, his jealousy is a common experience. We all have our ugly, unattractive side and that's part of love that we don't necessarily run to. Hopefully we can run from it.

Can you draw?

He's described as a failed artist, so I took up drawing. I'm better at it now than I was and I found that to be really useful. The way an artist looks at the world is completely different from how a lawyer might look at the world, and it helped very much in the love scenes. Natasha suggested looking at Rodin's sculptures and we loved that idea. Sometimes the sex scenes were primal and animalistic, but there was a degree of beauty. The physicality was a vessel to contain or inhabit the emotions of the characters. It was very exciting and very collaborative, like a theater piece, where we would sit around a table and throw everything into the middle of it and argue and disagree and agree and use it as a place to begin rehearsals. Of course you may throw things away, but at least you have a common dialogue, a common vocabulary from which to discuss the piece we're working on. Working that way, you really grab everybody who's working on it. You grab their spirits and hearts.

Is Dr. Cleave a completely unreliable source?

What I love about that character is that he does put his unattractive, manipulative side to the fore. I think a lot of people are like that but they conceal it. People say they think he manipulates the whole story, but I think that's impossible. It would be an inferior story if he did. There's chaos at work. That's what I loved about the novel: I was reading and thinking, "that's what happened, that's what happened," and then suddenly the person who's sort of whispering in my ear is not the person that I thought they were. They're a liar and a deceiver. It's such a beautiful device.

Do you prefer your movies dark or light?

On the dark side, mainly, although I like a good comedy, too. Something with substance: Werner Herzog, Fassbinder, the Italian neo-realists, Bergman, Fellini, Cassavetes. I like a good Western, too, if it has a depth about the human condition. Then it will entice me.