When I first met Josh Lucas, I was thrown for a slight loop. He didn’t have any extremely alternative facial hair, a creepy accent or a way of looking at me that made me fear for my well-being, as he had done during his black turns in The Deep End and Session 9.
"I think that ‘dark’ feels the most dramatic, the most wildly interesting," Lucas says, explaining his penchant for playing characters who make up the underbelly of society. "Violence and pulses of rage and all these things that happen in life are actually really, really rare; they’re really built up moments." "Truthfully," Lucas laughs, "there’s nothing totally weird or odd about me,"
Lucas is in Chicago promoting his latest film, Sweet Home Alabama. His presence in Sweet Home Alabama marks an unusual milestone in the progression of his nearly 10-year acting career. Having made a name for himself by expertly and delectably playing off-the-wall characters and sociopaths, Lucas seems like a peculiar choice to co-star opposite Reese Witherspoon in a studio romantic comedy... something even he readily admits.
"You have to understand that no one wanted me to do this movie except the director, Andy [Tennant]," Lucas states. "The studio was like, ‘Who is this guy? He’s done nothing and he’s not financially viable. His movies are weird and dark and his characters are always bad. What makes you think that he can play a light romantic leading man?’"
Interestingly though, Lucas didn’t look at his participation in Sweet Home Alabama, his first breakthrough lead role, as anything like a conventional ‘safe picture.’ Nor did he find his supposedly normal, sane, romantic lead, Jake, any easier to play than his previous bad guys.
He sighs and, effectively separating himself from Ben Affleck, says, "It didn’t seem easier for me because I’ve spent so much time playing characters who are so far away from the real me and learning how to technically build and how to technically put something on top of you. This character became about having to strip those levels of techniques and different things that I had learned."
Breaking down his shell wasn't easy for Lucas, but he felt propelled forward by the challenge of doing so. "I have no experience in comedy whatsoever and I really felt that I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. I waited on a day-by-day basis to get fired because this isn’t what I do and I don’t know how to do it very well."
Lucas attributes his ability to morph into a romantic leading man to Tennant. "He really helped me find a lighter element of my acting technique than I ever had to find before," Lucas smiles. "In the first moment my character has in the movie, I walk out of a cabin." He pauses to reflect on the scene. "I always go to the dark first. In typical Josh fashion, I come and play the scene like a psychopath. Andy was like, ‘What are you doing?! The character is a sweet, lovely guy and you’re coming out of the door like you’re pissed off!’"
He laughs again and continues. "Andy was constantly having to talk to me and say, ‘Come on, stop being the psycho.’" Finally, Tennant agreed to give Lucas what Lucas refers to as his Ralph Fiennes take. ("Where I play it as if I wanted to kill [someone] or... as if I wanted to rip [someone’s] head off.")
"We always played the game," Lucas says. "I got one Ralph Fiennes take and then we did it ...lighter and more playful." He chuckles and states, "Those Ralph Fiennes takes are not in the movie once."
Lucas takes off on a tangent, thinking about the possibilities of the Ralph Fiennes outtakes on the Sweet Home Alabama DVD. "That would be funny if Andy did that," he says, "The Ralph Fiennes version of Jake. It’s definitely there."
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