Flightplan Cast Interview

Q&A with the Flightplan Cast

On her way down to the interview with us, Jodie Foster bumped into her Home for the Holidays co-star Claire Danes, who's in town with Steve Martin for their movie Shopgirl. She gave her some tips about playing an FBI agent (Danes was just cast as one) and they talked about what's the best buzz at the film festival. Foster loves movies, and she's cringing because she can't catch some of the films at the Toronto International Film Festival--many which feature her past co-stars.
The action thriller Flightplan that Foster is promoting isn't even part of the film festival, but in hotels around her are co-stars such as Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs), Dwight Yoakam and Forest Whitaker (Panic Room), Liam Neeson (Nell), Richard Gere (Sommersby) and many others talking about their film festival movies.

Foster has no time, because she's busy chatting up her film about a mom who loses her daughter on a super jet. The part was originally written for a man (Sean Penn was in mind for the role), but upon first read, Foster was hooked and wanted to be part of the project. Peter Sarsgaard (Kinsey) plays an Air Marshal in the film with her, Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings) is the pilot and Erika Christensen (Traffic) is a flight attendant. They're all in town with German director Robert Schwentke and writer Billy Ray to talk about their fear of flying (or not) and their Flightplan.

Jodie Foster

Jodie, it's been three years since you've been in a film, why so long?
Foster: "Well, they said that before Panic Room, too. I usually take three years between movies now that I have kids. And you know your life changes when you have kids in ways that you don't anticipate. I've been working for 38 years. I didn't feel like I was waiting and I didn't feel like it was a long time."

But why a mom again in a confined space?
Foster: "Yeah it's similar, I thought about that before I started. I thought that it was pretty different in style. Panic Room was much more of a visually stylish thriller that was really about camera moves. I think that this film is really more about a profile or a journey, one person's journey and the place that the characters come to in the film are in completely opposite directions."

This is a parent who loses a kid, and a lot of people can identify with the anger and fear you portray.
Foster: "Sure. Exactly. I was definitely drawn to that very primal fear. When you're a dramatic actor you look for films that hit you in the gut, in this unconscious place that really moves you and then you can't help, but make the movie because it's something that you fear and you want to know more about it."

So you thought about your own kids in a situation like that?
Foster: "Sure. For about five minutes. Definitely. And what you go through in those five minutes is extraordinary. I don't know that I'm a very brave person. I play brave characters and it's a way for me to, in a safe environment, find that bravery in me, find the brave part of myself and keep in touch with it because I don't know how I would react in life. I don't know. I think that having moments like that would be terrifying. Projecting at that moment about what could be happening to your child, that your child is hurting and you can't save her. This was originally written for a man and then I got to that scene and it was written for a man, I said, "This is not a man's. This is so not right." When he loses her and goes through all of this I just don't believe that that man would ever question his sanity. He would point his finger and say, "You did it. You did it." He wouldn't say, "Oh. Maybe I did it?" Men are outwards. They don't show themselves. I know that it sounds like a gender stereotype. So I really felt that this movie was right for a woman and maybe in some ways not right for a man."

Is it hard for you to put your director's hat away when you're working with a first-time director?
Foster: "Yeah, I think that I still bring a director's mind and a director's perspective. That's just how I work. That's true for my character. When I come in my character has to make sense to me or I can't play it. So I feel like I have to put on a director's hat in some way to try and architect the character throughout the piece so that it's not just moment to moment to moment to moment. But that it has a real flow to it."

Can you pick out an Air Marshal? Are you hesitant about flying?
Foster: "Not really. I'm a very un-nervous flier. I fall asleep the second that I get on a airplane. The other day I was sitting next to a guy for five hours and then we were landing and he said, 'By the way I'm the Air Marshal.' He knew about the movie and stuff."

Peter Sarsgaard

So, Peter, can you pick out an Air Marshal when you're on a flight?
Sarsgaard: "Not every time, no. They usually sit in first class, next to the door, so that they can stop anyone from coming through, stuff like that. You have to look presentable. You also have to wear something where you can conceal weapons. You can't be in a tight T-shirt and jeans. I am a good spotter of Air Marshals, I think. Because I also fly the New York L.A. trip quite a bit, and they're frequently on those flights. That's a very high risk flight, you know, a lot of fuel in the plane, big airplane--you know. I'm a little uneasy flying, no one would know it, but I hate flying."

You play a menacing character well, what's the process of going from the nice guy to a bad guy?
Sarsgaard: "It depends on the movie, it really depends on the movie, and the genre of movie that you're in. With Boys Don't Cry, I never once felt like I was the villain, when I was playing it. I felt completely just, because I was in it in a way that is like, this person is f***ing in front of me, the only woman that ever wrote to me when I was in prison, she's not giving me what I want, no one loves me…In some other movies, there's less of an emotional connection to it and just a sort of like free for all…In Skeleton Key, where it's obviously a fantasy, I just want what everyone wants, which is to live forever with the woman that you love [laughs], that's as simple as it is."

Was Robert [the director] able to describe to you what he wanted in a shot?
Sarsgaard: "Yeah. I knew what he was going for. He communicates very well about that, and he's so charming, and I am actually very good friends with Robert still, I talk to him on the phone, we're friends, we exchange music. And he really made it not seem like work, and it was fun."

Erika Christensen

What did you learn from watching Jodie Foster?
Christensen: "It's interesting to try and articulate. Just watching her was really nice. It was educational. And she's such a professional--in action and tears."

Did you go to flight attendant school for this role?
Christensen: "We did. We learned their jobs, and today [they] are really important. They're not waitresses. They're security guards, and nurses, and a million different jobs put into one."

As a young actor do you feel like you have to balance indie and big budget films?
Christensen: "Pretty much every decision I make is based on whether or not I personally feel something for the film. Some kind of connection to it. I have to feel like I'll be proud of it. And that's it."

Sean Bean

How do you think a pilot would deal with this woman who thinks her daughter is lost on the plane?
Bean: "I think that anyone under those circumstances would do the same thing. If you're a pilot you're responsible for tons of people's lives. You've got one individual who's not quite in touch with reality so it seems, and so I think that someone in that situation has to be very concise and very positive and make decisions on the spot."

Are you like that?
Bean: "Sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes not though. I usually wouldn't take anything on unless I thought that I could do something with it, make it successful or be gratified or get some sense of exhilaration from it."

Do you like playing a bad guy or a good guy?
Bean: "I like being the bad guy. I find it very juicy. You can do things that you can't do in real life like kill people."

What was the most surprising thing about working with Jodie Foster?
Bean: "I'd never met her before. She was wonderful and I'd always watched her as a kid, watching her do things when she was quite young. Just her focus and concentration and her thorough belief in what she's doing. It tends to raise your performance level when you're playing with someone of that caliber. It raises your performance too. I've always thought she's a great actress, but it was very much a good experience to work with her."