MARTON CSOKAS TAKES OVER THE ASYLUM

Lorna Allen
Fall 2005
Close-Up Film

Marton, who is of Hungarian and Irish descent, is by no means a newcomer on the international cinematic landscape – in fact you are guaranteed to have watched this chameleon in a multitude of guises on both your telly box and in big screen blockbusters. A graduate of The New Zealand Drama Academy, this classically trained actor is set to become New Zealand’s biggest export since Peter Jackson. Rising from that hallowed training ground for much of New Zealand’s acting talent (along with compatriot Karl Urban) the hospital-based soap Shortland Street, Marton played Dr. Leonard Rossi-Dodds. Csokas (pronounced Cho-Kash) then went on to inhabit leading roles, complete with long hair and handle bar moustache, in Xena: Warrior Princess (as Borias), a recurring role in Hercules and in Beastmaster before spreading his wings in a number of independent Australian and New Zealand films. In 2001 he donned pointy ears to play elf king Celeborn in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring (reprising the role again the next year in The Return of the King). He was even cast as Archduke Poggle the Lesser in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones before George Lucas decided to make the character animated – sadly not much of Csokas performance remains in the final cut. Since these initial steps the versatile New Zealander has played a number of larger than life baddies in mainstream fare including the show stealing Yorgi in the Vin Diesel vehicle xXx, alongside Matt Damon as Jarda in The Bourne Supremacy, the scheming Guy de Lusignan in Kingdom of Heaven and, who could forget, the villainous Mr. Smith in the ‘classic’ marsupial focused flop Kangaroo Jack.

Although highly praised by critics for his performance in xXx it has been the recent success of the sexually-charged drama Asylum at the Berlin Film Festival (and his upcoming leading role as Trevor Goodchild alongside Charlize Theron’s Aeon Flux) which has propelled Csokas into the public eye.

Asylum is a brooding, atmospheric melodrama set in a remote psychiatric institution in Northern England. Unhappy doctor’s wife Stella (Natasha Richardson) finds a little escapism from her dull and unfulfilling marriage and life when she indulges in an illicit, and ultimately destructive, affair with one of the inmates – a hunky Aussie handyman (Csokas) who has found himself indefinitely incarcerated for slaughtering his wife and children. Some genius at the funny farm has decided that working on restoring an old greenhouse may be therapeutic so he is handed an array of potentially lethal tools and sent on his merry way.

From his lengthy resume, the role of Edgar looks like yet another dangerous villain role for the charismatic actor. Csokas, however, doesn’t see the character of Edgar quite like that at all and has a more perceptive and sympathetic attitude towards this role.

"It was my chance to play an everyman for me because although he is obviously ill, more than what most of us are like, we all know what it is to be jealous and I couldn’t help in thinking, well certainly, from my perspective the main difference is that he will go and maim and kill and then not show remorse – that’s the primary result of his illness. But everything up until that – there were certain resonance with jealous behaviour in myself and other people that I observed and I thought it was really important to ground him in some sort of reality because then there will hopefully be some degree of truth in their relationship.’"

The ‘illness’ in question is personality disorder and morbid jealousy, which results in Edgar becoming a tad possessive and unpredictable, rendering Stella prisoner in yet another oppressive relationship. All the characters in this film seem to be suffering from some malady or another, whether incarcerated or ‘free’. Stella is selfish and irresponsible; her cold fish husband Max, (Hugh Bonneville) is repressed, insensitive and controlling. With the exception of the innocent child, Charlie (Gus Lewis) all the adults seem trapped or imprisoned by their own hang ups and flaws in one way or other.

"Certainly they have all got their complications and their complexities and the innocent child is in the centre and is swept away by the adults’ behaviour. But they are all finding their way. All those characters I tend to see with a certain amount of sympathy and empathy. It’s a love story and there are many forms of love in the film. They all have certain disorders and psychological dilemmas of some kind. When I played Edgar that was on my mind. I didn’t want to make him a ‘loony’, which would have been silly."

Marton, who views the film as a ‘reflection of the way in which people behave in a lot of institutions’, speaks eloquently and carefully. His responses are thoughtful as he contemplates his subject and his responses to his finely tuned craft. His classical and serious approach to his character preparation is apparent as he explores the various alternatives to Edgar and Stella’s destructive actions.

"I suppose they could have conducted a slightly more platonic love affair but kept it in bounds. They would still have been breaking the rules but they wouldn’t have taken it to the extreme. I mean, these people loved with a passion and no consideration, which was part of their disposition."

A facet of Asylum, which is indisputable and can’t fail to grab attention (and some headlines when it premiered at the Berlin Film Festival) is that it is somewhat raunchy. The two lovestruck leads do not waste much time with the pesky business of getting to know one another before they get down to action on the greenhouse floor, a fact that Csokas can’t help but acknowledge with a hearty laugh.

"Well, they didn’t talk a lot. The original script of Patrick Mawber’s had a lot more of, shall we say, a courtship between the two of them and a lot more explanation, not just to the audience, but to one another, of who they are and why they are there. In the end they went for lust more than love, although hopefully, contextually a lot of that love stuff is there. There wasn’t a hell of a lot of messing around [chuckles] – there wasn’t much procrastinating."

With a varied and eclectic taste in cinema, Csokas lists Hungarian directors Béla Tarr and Miklós Jancsó amongst his favourite contemporary filmmakers. With this in mind xXx (which he describes as ‘a stepping stone’) and Kangaroo Jack seem somewhat at odds with his artistic preferences. Would these particular films strike his fancy as a cinemagoer?

"Yeah…No…No is the answer. I wouldn’t watch those films," he laughs again, in a friendly and candid manner, which assures me he hasn’t taken offence. "When something like Kangaroo Jack comes along – it wouldn’t really matter what it was – there was a chance for me to get myself together financially, because I wasn’t. It was a very practical decision. I was humming and hawing about whether I should do it but the bills in my mailbox told me [laughing heartily] not to rule it out. Having said that, I am not a snob either. I love delving into the avant garde and weirdness and lofty ideas – I love all that – but I also like to smash things up as well and commercial film is a bit like that."

Csokas displays an eagerness to ask questions and a charming curiosity. Initially it felt like he was the one doing the interviewing. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that fulfilment for him doesn’t necessarily come down to awards and box office receipts. He seems much more concerned with growth and development than material success – it’s more about the journey than the destination. He explains how he developed an interest in aboriginal art while shooting Kangaroo Jack in Alice Springs and how initial plans for his character in xXx to speak in his native tongue led him to delve deeper into the Russian language.

"There are many reasons for doing things not just the obvious career propulsion. In the case of xXx – I hummed and hawed about that one too and, by the way, that was a much different film than it ended up being. It had a politically savvy core to it. The themes of anarchy were actually quite rich. You had the Russian and the American characters that opposed each other but also had empathy for one another. There was a good depth to it – and a lot of that was removed when they went for the entertainment value, which at the end of the day is what the film is."

Csokas latest project is more mainstream, occupying a leading role in a commercial film as Trevor Goodchild in the big screen version of the cult animated MTV series Aeon Flux. Csokas admits to being a fan of Peter Chung’s series.

"That attracted me to it originally but also I wondered why they were doing something, which to me, was not worth doing a film on – it was like a replication. The idea was not to do that though and the story has changed a lot."

He acknowledges that stateside reviews have been disappointing but suggests that critics and audiences perhaps expected a replication of the original but that this version is centred more on the psychological journey than on action packed sequences and gymnastics.

Among the changes made in the cinematic version is the core relationship between Aeon and Goodchild who are portrayed less as enemies and more as lovers.

"It is Aeon Flux but it’s not. There are more human proportions to the characters and it has become more of a love story but not in the sadomasochistic way of the animated series. I don’t think it is a Hollywood film – it never was going to be that, which I am glad of, and it wasn’t written like that."

Csokas is pleased to be playing ‘a version of Romeo’ for a change after the string of villains already listed. So is he a romantic kind of guy? I asked him what his ideal Valentine's date would be.

"Off the top of my head…It would be something to do with the senses and it would be extreme. Red roses…a scantily clad woman…a bathful of blood…I’ve seen a bathful of blood you know?"

International terrorists, psychopaths and a bathful of blood – I detect a definite dark side Mr Csokas!