JOHN CORBETT: I don’t try to manufacture a screen presence. I just try to… I don’t know how to answer that, really. When I was in acting class—and the thing with my acting classes, the thing I took away from it was the ability to fail. Have you ever taken an acting class?

CHRIS NEUMER: No.

JOHN CORBETT: Okay. You do a scene-study class where we work on a scene all week long. On Monday night, we’ll get up and perform this eight-minute scene in front of the other thirty people who are in the class. You try to do it so well that you don’t have to do it again the next week. You want to get another scene-partner and move onto another scene. You want to be a one-take Charlie. That rarely happens, and it happened with me once in a while. Sometimes you’re working on that fucking scene for four weeks, and the audience is sick of it, you’re sick of it, but you can’t get to that place. The thing that that exercise taught me was how to fail. How to fail and not give a fuck, you know? In front of people. So, now I can do whatever I think is appropriate for the scene and not worry about being judged because I don’t give a fuck. When I was in front of these people on stage, I never thought about my stage presence, I just wanted to be truthful in the scenes. It’s the same thing in the movies. I’m still going through the same process that I did in front of thirty people in class, to try to make the scene as real as I can make it. The other thing… I can’t explain it. I know what you’re talking about [screen presence], and there are a lot of actors out there that I feel don’t have any screen presence, and there are others I can’t take me eyes off of. I know when they have it.

CHRIS NEUMER: Well, that’s what it is. It’s IT. You’re got IT.

JOHN CORBETT: Well thanks! I happen to agree with you. [Laughs] I can’t take my eyes off myself when I’m on screen, but that’s really just make checking out my hair, and seeing what my hair is like…

CHRIS NEUMER: I don’t have that problem.

JOHN CORBETT: [Laughs]

CHRIS NEUMER: Acting is such a unique profession. You can study it for twenty years and being acting next to some actor that Larry Clark just pulled off the street, and you both could do a halfway decent job.

JOHN CORBETT: Yeah.

CHRIS NEUMER: It’s not like there are medical doctors out there where some of them have gone through fifteen years of schooling, and some of them say, “I’m going to take a hack at brain surgery.” It doesn’t work that way. But, in acting there are so many ways to get the truth, or the reality of the role. It’s interesting how some actors who just go, and do, and they’ve got it. Billy Bob Thorton is the best asshole in the world and he makes you like him, even though he is an asshole. What’s he doing? No idea. Thomas Jane, who’s amazingly detailed about every little thing he does…

JOHN CORBETT: Who is that?

CHRIS NEUMER: Thomas Jane. He was the Punisher in The Punisher. He was in Deep Blue Sea, he was in Boogie NightS. He’s got blonde hair. He’s married to one of the Arquettes…

JOHN CORBETT: Oh! Yeah, yeah, I know who he is. I get him confused with… Aaron Eckhart. They kind of look the same.

CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah, that’s fair.

JOHN CORBETT: Yeah he’s married to the little Arquette… Is he a good actor?

CHRIS NEUMER: I think he’s very, very good.

JOHN CORBETT: He is?

CHRIS NEUMER: I like watching him, but it was in talking to him that I really started to appreciate him. He can put words to his actions better than anyone else I’ve ever spoken to. He was explaining how he will talk to the DP before the shot to find out what the camera’s going to be doing, so that he can tailor his movement to the camera.

JOHN CORBETT: Wow.

CHRIS NEUMER: Because, if it’s a hand-held shot of him walking across a road, he’s going to five his performance less movement, but if it’s on a dolly, and they’re just going to do a slow push, he’s going to give more movement. I thought, “Wow, you have thought out everything in life and how it relates to the camera.” It was phenomenal just hearing all of his stuff, because he’s the only person to have ever talked about that—preparing for different camera types and all that.

JOHN CORBETT: That’s a kind of nuts. I don’t get that detailed, but if you’re doing a close-up, [moves in close to Neumer], if I’m fucking talking to you like this, and I’m all wound up—that works in a medium shot. But, if that’s a close-up, it’s just going to be this [waves arms] back and forth, so I would consciously slow it down a little bit. A lot of that [movement] is not going to be usable. So, I do a little bit of that, you know, but I don’t have to do many scenes like that in the movies I so.

CHRIS NEUMER: Oh come on, in Raising Helen you were throwing “fuck” around all the time!

JOHN CORBETT: [Laughs]

CHRIS NEUMER: Oh wait, I’m sorry that was from the deleted scenes, I’m sorry, there weren’t actually in the theatrical release.

JOHN CORBETT: [laughs] Yeah, I don’t get that crazy with it. He’s thought about it a lot more than I ever have. Maybe I should start worrying about it, but I feel like those guys—the camera guys—If it’s not being captured right they’ll say, “Hey, can you turn a little bit this way?”

CHRIS NEUMER: I think acting for the most part, is best when you’re not thinking about it.

JOHN CORBETT: Yeah.

CHRIS NEUMER: Are you into basketball at all?

JOHN CORBETT: [Nods]

CHRIS NEUMER: Do you play basketball at all?

JOHN CORBETT: Yeah.

CHRIS NEUMER: It’s like if you start thinking about your shot.

JOHN CORBETT: Oh yeah.

CHRIS NEUMER: If you start thinking about what your elbows doing as you’re shooting. It can certainly get under your skin. I’m assuming it’s the same thing with acting. Feel free to correct me, but if you’re walking through a scene thinking about how to bounce or how to do this, it seems like everything else could just go to Hell.

JOHN CORBETT: Yeah [pauses]. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

CHRIS NEUMER: Sticking with the basketball reference, there was actually a guy who made news here in Chicago, Larry Hughes who was traded from the [Cleveland] Cavs to the [Chicago] Bulls…

JOHN CORBETT: I don’t know Larry Hughes.

CHRIS NEUMER: Okay, well he was a really talented guy who came out and was taken near the top of the draft. He made headlines when he got traded to Chicago, because he said he was happy to get out from underneath LeBron James, because he felt like now he’d be able to play basketball and enjoy it again. Everyone goes, “You were winning, you were in the Finals last year,” and he goes, “Yeah, I didn’t feel like I was contributing.”

JOHN CORBETT: Oh, wow.

CHRIS NEUMER: He was like, “I got up, and I just didn’t feel it.” People were really taking him to task on this. I was thinking about this in reference to some of the things that you had said about sort or showing up, and I don’t want to say go through the motions, but just sort of a forced working with these romantic comedies. I was curious to know how you keep your motivation-level up, when you are on a job?

JOHN CORBETT: Well… I’m a people pleaser. I really want to go away from the experience having the director feel like I did whatever he wanted me to do, and that I never got in his way, and that I helped him make the movie. He had the movie before I did. They’ve got the fucking electric department hired before they get to me. I’m one of the last guys [they hire], so part of my job is to help this guy make the movie that he’s got in his mind—the movie he wants to make. So, that’s a big motivation for me. I want this guy to like me. How can I do that? I can try to help him, and together we can make something that’s funny or sad, you know? We’ll make a little story together. That’s my main motivation—to help this guy in any way I can. If I’m saying, “I don’t know, man, why do you want me to do that?” I’ve already untied his shoe for him, you know? Then he’s got to bend down, and fucking re-tie it. I’ve seen actors do that and I hate it.

CHRIS NEUMER: Metaphorically speaking, I’m assuming. No one’s actually reaching over and untying his shoe, right?

JOHN CORBETT: Yeah, yeah. I never want to stand in the director’s way. I think that’s my motivation: just to be liked. And to be thought of again in the future. If they had a good experience, and I did too, maybe they’ll hire me again, someday.

CHRIS NEUMER: It’s very simple, it’s very logical, and naturally I would never in anyway associate it with most actors that I’ve spoken with, because of those two reasons.

JOHN CORBETT: Which two reasons?

CHRIS NEUMER: Because it’s simple, and logical!

JOHN CORBETT: [laughs] Oh!

CHRIS NEUMER: If I were to answer that question—with what would be the right answer to this question, I would have said—well, it’s logical, or it’s my paycheck. Either of those answers would have been acceptable. You went with the, “I’m here to help the director, so I’m going to help the director—that’s my motivation.”

JOHN CORBETT: Yeah… Yeah. I try to not want to be somewhere else. It’s happened to me a few times, where I just didn’t want to be there for whatever reasons…

CHRIS NEUMER: You didn’t like Shark Attack V?

JOHN CORBETT: [If] I didn’t like being away from home, or if I didn’t like the fucking town I was in, for whatever reason. But I think I’ve found a way to just be there now, and now I’m going to be there… and today’s my last day.

CHRIS NEUMER: See, that’s why I’m here today. They asked whether or not I wanted to be here on Monday or Tuesday, and I said that your last day was Tuesday, so…

JOHN CORBETT: Oh really? Cool, that’s nice.

CHRIS NEUMER: This goes back to that “fan” thing you were talking about—you must get a lot of jackass guys coming up to you and doing, “Dude, I must have been fill-in-the-blank working with Kate Hudson, Sarah Jessica Parker or—oh!—Nia Vardalos!” Do you ever get tired of that one?

JOHN CORBETT: [laughs] No, the answer is…. Have I answered it a thousand times? Yeah. But I went from being this guy on their 30-inch T.V., to being 6 foot 5 right in front of them in 3-D, so they’ve never talked to me before, and that’s the first thing that comes out of their mouth. They’re excited, so I’m not going to look them in the eye and say, “Bro, do you know how many times I’ve been asked that?” They don’t give a shit. They want to here my real-fake answer which is, “Dude, she’s hot right? How hot is she?” What’s the easier thing to do? I give them what they want.

CHRIS NEUMER: You make a very valid point.

JOHN CORBETT: You know? I’m not getting an satisfaction by putting them in their place by saying, “Come on bro, I’ve been asked that a thousand times.”

CHRIS NEUMER: The suggestion was not for you to be like, “Hey douchebag listen, where do I start?” That was not the suggestion. The suggestion was how you deal with it, internally? That was the question.

JOHN CORBETT: I treat as it I’ve never answered that question before.

CHRIS NEUMER: That’s when the real acting kicks in. I can’t remember who, but somebody told me that the real acting was in the press-junket.

JOHN CORBETT: [Laughs]

CHRIS NEUMER: I said, well if you want to be around really hairy guys who don’t shower often, and you want to seem like you’re interested in what they’re asking you, so be it.

JOHN CORBETT: I’ve had a couple encounters with famous people… Being famous, I can go up to somebody famous and hope that they recognize me when I introduce myself. It’s happened though that I’ve done that and they looked at me like I was just another guy who was coming up to say “hi” to them. I was just in Ireland before I was here, and it happened a couple times over there. I’m not going to say who, but I went up to some dude that I’m a big fan of and kind of hoped that he’d say, “Bro, I like you too,”

CHRIS NEUMER: I’m going to just write down Daniel Craig.

JOHN CORBETT: [laughs] But, I remember all the encounters that I’ve had with famous people. I’m a fan too. Just like with the directors, I want them to go away with a good memory of Johnny the C’s encounter…

CHRIS NEUMER: Or better yet, sticking with Daniel Craig, you want him walking away from your exchange and thinking, “Oh my God

JOHN CORBETT just came over to me!” That’s what you want!

JOHN CORBETT: [laughs]

CHRIS NEUMER: You’ve got to set your sights a little higher.

JOHN CORBETT: [laughs]

CHRIS NEUMER: The last question that I had for you, and if you want to keep talking that’s fine… You got into acting a little bit later in life, like twenty-five-ish. Jerry [O’Connell] for example, I’m not sure he was out of his mom yet before he was acting. It was very awkward at first. He was acting young, he was still a zygote—

JOHN CORBETT: Yeah, with Stand By me he was already eleven, but I think he was acting before that right?

CHRIS NEUMER: Absolutely. If you don’t know, feel free to tell me, but do you feel that your late start in acting has given you extra perspective on both life and/or the craft? Having gotten into it when you were an adult, having a sort of nonfamous/celebrity mind-set already instilled in you?

JOHN CORBETT: [pauses] Yeah. I mean, my true experience is that when I met this group of actors when I was a kid, I might have been twenty-four. I was in the steel factory since I was eighteen, and then I got hurt. I was about twenty-four maybe twenty-five. So, when I was that age, and I met these kids who were all eighteen, at Cerritos I’d never seen a play believe it or not.

CHRIS NEUMER: I believe it—West Virginia, working in a steelmill, no experience with live theater, I’m with you…

JOHN CORBETT: I’d watched T.V. and once in a while went to the movies with my girlfriend… My buddy’s the same way in West Virginia, since I was five years old he’s been my best friend in the world. He wouldn’t know who Daniel Craig was for a million bucks. He wouldn’t know who Johnny Depp was! He’s seen Pirates of the Caribbean, but if you asked whether or not Johnny Depp was great, he’d just look at you. He doesn’t read Us Magazine, he’s a glazer—he puts the glass in windows—he doesn’t watch Entertainment Tonight, he has no idea. That’s the dude I was, I’d go, “Who’s Johnny Depp?” He hasn’t seen an Us Magazine since I was in them for Northern Exposure. His wife would get them, and he’d look but he doesn’t know popular culture, and at that time in the 80’s, I didn’t either. The thing that I learned in my acting classes was that I really liked that sort of “fake life” that we’d create. I could say things that I normally couldn’t, like, “Go fuck yourself.” Since it was written down…

CHRIS NEUMER: Now it’s just a matter of getting that asshole I don’t like to play my partner.

JOHN CORBETT: [laughs] Yeah, right? I had fun with that, and I liked that. It was interesting, because I never got to express myself like that in life. I really enjoyed it, and I guess about four years went by and then in 1990 I got Northern Exposure. I had had a lot of acting classes, and I felt like I knew what I was doing. I had done six or seven plays, and I didn’t have a lot of experience in front of the camera but I had years of getting up every week in class and acting… So then you go from nothing to going, “Oh I’m working on a T.V. show in Seattle called Northern Exposure,” When’s it going to be on? “Oh, I don’t know, uh…” In six months when it comes on, you go into the same restaurants and it’s fucking [mimics noise of flashbulbs going off] life changing. And, it’s really interesting for six months. Then it sort of peaks out, and you go, “Fuck, man can you just leave me alone for one minute?”

CHRIS NEUMER: Outside of the models, the good coke and the money… it just goes downhill from there, I guess.

JOHN CORBETT: All that’s out there. But, that too gets old. That lifestyle…

CHRIS NEUMER: There’s a very famous saying: show me a good-looking chick, and I’ll show you a guy who’s tired of sleeping with her.

JOHN CORBETT: That’s out there too, and for me… I’m going to put it into a little more perspective. When I was on Northern Exposure, from 1990 to ’93… did you ever see Northern Exposure?

CHRIS NEUMER: I did not. …