CHRIS NEUMER: I assume you are getting ready for an assload of talk about the movie that doesn't even have a name yet. Possibly Cloverfield.
MIKE VOGEL: (laughs) Yeah, I’d tell you that name if I knew it. It's just they still haven't told me that name.
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah, see my thing is I don't care. I can wait until January.
MIKE VOGEL: Right, I love that... Could you be at all of these things?
CHRIS NEUMER: I will try, I will follow you around like a deranged stalker.
MIKE VOGEL: (laughs) Could you?
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah... I went to a screening of Southland Tales the other day (food arrives) apparently there was the big deal because some photos had been stolen off the Indiana Jones set. Two bloggers gave Spielberg a lead to follow and he thanked them by giving them a signed poster.
MIKE VOGEL: Oh, really.
CHRIS NEUMER: I don't know whether it's for the new movie, or if he'd just given them a memo, or showed them the trailer or something, but they were going nuts over him.
MIKE VOGEL: Okay.
CHRIS NEUMER: ... They were acting like catty little girls. I was there, and I was like, "Come on, it's just a signed poster," and these guys said, "Oh, you don't know what this means.” I asked what it meant and they said, "We got a signed poster!"
MIKE VOGEL: Wow. And you're like, "Oh, okay,"
CHRIS NEUMER: Right, my question is, how do you deal with all the junkets, and the people in sweatpants who don't exercise, asking you questions...
MIKE VOGEL: (laughs)
CHRIS NEUMER: ... about what it was like working with so-and-so?
MIKE VOGEL: I think your first reaction is to figure out if they're serious or not. Because you'll have this function or that function, and somehow it's incredible that the same people always show up. They’re these autograph hounds outside, and it's just amazing how they always seems to have the right picture with them, and they know exactly where to go. It’s intrigued me for the longest time. My brother is an editor and the "practices" of these places amaze me. He's said that the place goes out of control, when it's like, "Britney's on the move Britney's one the move!" He feels like he has to take a shower everyday when he comes home because he feels disgusting.
CHRIS NEUMER: Where does he work?
MIKE VOGEL: TMZ, he's one of the editors for them. CHRS NEUMER: His name rings a bell.
MIKE VOGEL: I'm just torn constantly because you have the people who bemoan the fact that go "Oh, leave me alone, they're everywhere, my life is..." But at the same time, you have to show up to these places [to be seen]. You have to make an effort to go and do these things. I find the best remedy is to live way the hell away from it all. I've often wondered, what's going to happen if and when things would go absolutely haywire, publicity-wise for me. What if they see me walk into Home Depot in torn off sweatpants, and a sleeveless shirt, and come out with tons of wood and tons of tools. They’ll be there taking pictures of me building things in my backyard. Is that really going to supply a lot of entertainment for people, because they want to know what the life of a "star" is like?
CHRIS NEUMER: I'm already captivated.
MIKE VOGEL: Right, see?
CHRIS NEUMER: You see, my life is so bad that I have to live through you.
MIKE VOGEL: (Laughs hysterically) Yeah, I'll throw you a hammer, Chris.
CHRIS NEUMER: When you get asked the same questions over, and over again, do you just fall into a routine, or lapse into a sort of general I-don’t-care mode?
MIKE VOGEL: Kurt Russell did an awesome job of dealing with this when we were in Italy on the Poseidon junket. One of these Italian interviewers asked, "What did it feel like to be wallpaper?" Basically he was calling us wallpaper because the star of the movie was the ship, not us. We knew that when we were doing it. But he asked, "What did that feel like?" and "Why would you do a film like that?" Kurt goes, "You know what, let me tell you what it's like. We're people, and we need to buy certain things for our families, like socks and underwear, and sometimes you do a film just for that reason and that reason alone. And that's probably the same reason your ass is sitting there asking me such a foolish question.”
CHRIS NEUMER: About this movie.
MIKE VOGEL: (laughs) About this movie. When you're young, and you're trying to say the right things, and come up with the witty answer you realize, "The hell with it." I go to work, I do my job, I come home and that's it! I mean, I grew up the son of a plumber in Philadelphia who was doing that all the way till I moved out here [to L.A.] to be on that television show I got. No one's throwing a microphone in my dad's face asking him what he thinks about the world-shattering international issues, or other such world affairs, or this that and the other thing.
CHRIS NEUMER: Now that you say that, I actually might do that now.
MIKE VOGEL: (laughs) Hit him up. You may get some interesting answers. Way more than I'll give you. But why do I have the right to speak on those things more than anyone else? I'm doing a job. That's it! That's the thing that's baffled me most about all this. People will actually base their opinion, or a decision off of something that I’m going to say, when it's nothing more than my opinion. I mean, I'm not more entitled to it than Joe Schmo anywhere else.
CHRIS NEUMER: That's where we differ. I believe I'm a little more entitled to it than you are.
MIKE VOGEL: I'll give you yours, it's all yours to have. But, I'll be back in Woodland Hills building a deck, and someone will throw a microphone in my face there. I don't know. It's just weird.
CHRIS NEUMER: Housewives in Iowa—the every woman—are of the opinion that there are two things that actors do: One is on set acting, and the other is going to glamorous red-carpet events. That's it. And what surprises me is that I venture that there are more things in an actor’s life that aren't directly related to acting. I was trying to explain it to an intern. I said, "Imagine if Alex Rodriguez had to spend four hours a day, doing something other than baseball. It's like, “If you want to be a baseball player, you play baseball. If you want to be an actor, you get go to parties, or give interviews.”
MIKE VOGEL: (laughs)
CHRIS NEUMER: It has nothing to do with what you wanted to do. I mean, imagine is Alex Rodriguez had to spend four hours a day playing Yahtzee. You'd ask, "Why would he do that," and I say, "That’s my point." Is there ever a time you just sit down, and think, "I can't believe I have to go to this party.”
MIKE VOGEL: To be honest with you, I don't really go. It's sad to say—it's much to the detriment of my career—I could get more recognition by kicking the snot out of some paparazzi somewhere, and then showing up at a party, and taking my clothes off and showing up drunk, than I could by doing an incredible role. There’s something off about that. As far as it pertains to parties and everything, I just don’t really go. I get the invites because I see them come across the desk. It’s funny, I actually had a friend who was going in my name to different parties because he enjoyed it! He loved it. He was partying with Outkast, and enjoyed being with all these crazy people. All the while I’m at home, sitting in front of a fire doing nothing.
CHRIS NEUMER: Big Boi’s going to be really surprised…
MIKE VOGEL: Yeah, Big Boi’s going to be really mad when he shows up somewhere I am, and says, “but, you’re not…I thought…” I’m going to dash everyone’s hopes.
CHRIS NEUMER: Does [your publicist] ever get on you to do more? Or say, “Come on Mike… You’re paying me here, I’m trying to get you some help here, your brother works for TMZ, throw me a bone.” Is there any of that?
MIKE VOGEL: There’s a lot. But again, I think there are all these actors that bemoan the fact—I mean, I think a lot of it is what you make of it. Do you see Ed Norton in stuff anywhere? No. He stays out of the limelight.
CHRIS NEUMER: I don’t even know where he lives.
MIKE VOGEL: Of course. Because he goes to work and that’s it. He wants to be known for his work. And look, I’m still young, I’ve got a long way to go. Has every film I’ve ever done turned out exactly like I wanted it to? Absolutely not. Of course not. Can I say I’ve done earth-shattering, earth-changing ropes yet? No, but that’s the plan. That’s what I work towards, and that’s what I want to be known for. I don’t want to be known, “Mike Vogel was spotted at Chi Chi’s… or Fredrick’s today, and…” It’s just not what it’s about.
CHRIS NEUMER: It’s interesting too because the people who keep making it, are the people like that. Wait, Chi-chi's?
MIKE VOGEL: (laughs) Yeah... But there’s a change coming. There has to be. At a certain point, people have to get fed up with what this has become about.
CHRIS NEUMER: Well let me ask you this in a chicken-or-egg question. Do you think it’s become this way, because people want it? I was at this wedding, and somebody found about what I did, and asked me who I had interviewed, and it was actually about Josh Lucas, whom I really should be hanging out with, I got to tell you.
MIKE VOGEL: He’s having fun, man.
CHRIS NEUMER: He’s just a great guy.
MIKE VOGEL: Yeah.
CHRIS NEUMER: We put him on our cover and the girl I was talking to goes, “Oh my God, Josh Lucas is so amazing. He’s so much better than me!”
MIKE VOGEL: (laughs)
CHRIS NEUMER: I said, “He’s a really nice guy. A really talented guy, but, I mean, he’s just a guy.” I know he’s in Glory Road, and he’s in Poseidon, and all this, but honestly, just imagine me with acting ability, and more hair, slightly.
MIKE VOGEL: (laughs) Yes, slightly.
CHRIS NEUMER: And she says, “What do you mean?” And I said, “Part of the thing that’s so cool about him is he’s famous, yes, but he’s just a guy.” I think I asked him if he played Joaquin Phoenix’s role in Walk The Line whether or not he would’ve gotten an Oscar nomination, and he was like, “Well, I don’t know about that,” nodding his head slightly at the same time. I’m laughing because, well, how am I going to get around that and do anything with it? I can’t!
MIKE VOGEL: Yeah, I mean, he and I kind of—I just get Josh so much. We come from a lot of the same beginnings. He’s the one who actually said, “You can do a lot more for your career going out and kicking the shit out of some paparazzi guy than you could by doing a great piece of art.” He had the same struggles. It’s just that people don’t understand. I try and describe this to my friends and I tell them, “Yeah, I moved out here, and do I make some money? Yeah. I do all right. More than I ever expected growing up, yeah, but I have no idea when the next [paycheck] is coming. I have to assume that I’m going to make that stretch from year to year.
CHRIS NEUMER: Yes.
MIKE VOGEL: And then imagine that the average person, let’s say they interview for a job, like, ten times in their life…
CHRIS NEUMER: That’s a good week for you.
MIKE VOGEL: Yeah, that’s a good week for me, and I’m going into every one of those meetings with more of a I’m being asked to emotionally perform. Not just to show up and say, “Hey, here’s my resume. I studied here, here, here, and here the experiences I’ve had.” My resume precedes me before I go into that room; they know what I’ve done. But then on top of it, I have to bring the goods into that room, and then I’m supposed to walk out of it and forget about it and write it off and go to the next one.
CHRIS NEUMER: And after you nail an audition, the director tells you, “Well, we wanted somebody with brown hair.”
MIKE VOGEL: Yeah or you’re too young, or you’re not good-looking enough, or you’re too good-looking.
CHRIS NEUMER: Laura Ramsey told me that she that nothing ever pissed her off more than being told she was too good-looking for a role.
MIKE VOGEL: Multiply that times fifty. I mean, it happens so much more than you’d think.
CHRIS NEUMER: Well, for what it’s worth, I don’t really think you’re all that good-looking.
MIKE VOGEL: Thank you! Thank you. we should write a script together, or something.
CHRIS NEUMER: What was that?
MIKE VOGEL: I don’t know… I mean, every other week, I’m still calling my dad and saying, “Dad, have a truck ready for me, because I think I’m coming home. I’m getting back into the truck, I can’t [do this].” But you keep going, and you keep plowing forward, and you hope the two ends meet.
CHRIS NEUMER: What you’re saying reminds me of that Rosie Ruiz speech in White Men Can’t Jump. That's not right...
MIKE VOGEL: Rosie Perez.
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah, Rosie Perez. When she does that speech where she goes, “Well, sometimes when you win, you lose and sometimes when you lose, you really when.” I wonder if there’s a story where there’s a young actor like that who has success, and then goes, “well I just can’t take it anymore,” and just gives up and leaves. Everyone in America would look at that and go, “Oh well, he lost, or look at him – he got beaten,” but the truth of the matter is, you wouldn’t get beaten, you’d be actually winning.
MIKE VOGEL: It happened to… wait what’s his name… from the Arizona Cardinals.
CHRIS NEUMER: Pat Tillman.
MIKE VOGEL: Yeah, Pat Tillman. And I’ve often thought about that.
CHRIS NEUMER: Because that is winning, somehow.
MIKE VOGEL: But many people that I talk to—It’s the mentality that we’ve come to when people go, “Wait how could he give that up?” And we go, “Well he didn’t give it up, he’s doing what satisfies him.” At the end of the day, that’s what you’ve got to fall back on. That’s how I look at it, I guess, because at the end of the day, no matter how many bruises you take, or how many punches in the face… So many people tell me, “I think I want to give acting a try,” and I say, “Don’t leave town, because this is the last resort, when there’s nothing else you could possibly do
CHRIS NEUMER: Do you mean L.A, or acting period?
MIKE VOGEL: I mean acting, period. It’s not something you can do—well, I take that back, there are people who have done it willy-nilly, and somehow string a career together, but it’s usually a career based off of publicity. When it comes to truly investing yourself in the work, and investing your feelings in it, it’s not something that’s worth leaving home, and not something you can do leaving one foot in and one foot out… Man… You always have to have a back up plan. But I think that’s what keeps people here; that it is unsafe. There’s that feeling that at any moment that you can fall off the edge of the cliff, and when you do fall off the edge of the cliff, you just hope that the magic carpet comes.
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah… I’m dealing with [a famous director’s] publicist while I’m in town and we were trying to get something going. It started when she said, “Let’s meet up, call me on Wednesday.” Wednesday comes and she says, “Well I’m really busy, I’m swamped this week, I’ll be back in town next week, it’s too bad you won’t be here.” I say, “You’re not going to believe this, but I am in town next week,” and then she goes, “Oh, I think some stuff just came up.”
MIKE VOGEL: (laughs)
CHRIS NEUMER: Shocking, huh? She says, “Why don’t you call me early next week, and we’ll see what we got going on. My schedule is pretty open.” So I call her, and [again] she says, “You wouldn’t believe this, but I’m swamped this week.” and I say, “It’s amazing how much just came up.”
MIKE VOGEL: Sure, it happens you know.
CHRIS NEUMER: Uh huh. At this point she is insisting that she wants to meet with me. She’s saying, “No, you don’t understand how much I want to meet with you, I really love your magazine, it’s too bad you’re not in town next week because I have nothing and I know for a fact nothing is coming up.” At this point, I say, “You’re not going to believe this, but I just got offered an interview with Anthony Hopkins on Wednesday, and I’m going to be here all next week.” The first part is true, the last part is not. There’s this pause. After five seconds she clears her throat and says, “I’m so sorry, I just saw that I’m flying to New York on Monday.”
MIKE VOGEL: (surprised) No! I wonder if she has any openings in her roster. Sorry, Ruth.
CHRIS NEUMER: (chuckles) Yeah… There are a lot of situations in this industry where it feels like you’re asking out a girl and getting brutally rejected. Every day! It takes either a special kind of idiot or a stupid, conceited asshole to be able to consistently go back to that. If I had to deal with this stuff with a girl I was dating I would break up with them every single time.
MIKE VOGEL: Right. Yeah, “I’m moving on, I need a different relationship.”
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah, I don’t think you have that when you’re an accountant… I mean, actors deal with gruesome rejection every day.
MIKE VOGEL: Yeah, certainly.
CHRIS NEUMER: I noticed your IMDB page the other day, and it had you listed as “Rumored to be playing one of the roles in the new Star Trek picture…
MIKE VOGEL: (laughs) Yeah, I can’t talk about that.
CHRIS NEUMER: And I realized—here you are, you’re getting a lot of press for this role—you can’t enjoy it because, first, you don’t have it, and second because some people think you ‘lost’ in the whole scenario. It’s like a girl turning you down, but explaining why she considered going out with you for a brief second.
MIKE VOGEL: (laughs, imitates female voice) “I’ve always liked you and you would’ve had a shot if you just…” and you’re like, “What?” (female voice) “Well you could’ve done this!” [Star Trek] was a bizarre situation. Bizarre. And then you have to confront the issue of even if you did get the role [of Captain Kirk], would you really want it?
CHRIS NEUMER: The Brandon Routh problem.
MIKE VOGEL: Times twenty. It’s interesting. I let myself buy into the hype for a second. It’s impossible not to. Before I even knew anything, I was getting stopped on the street, and people were going, “Hey, Kirk! Kirk!” And I’m like, “Wait, what?” As much as people say, “You can’t read that stuff, It’s not healthy for you,” you kind of do. There’s the overwhelming curiosity part of it all. If you start reading a couple blogs and they say, “He’s not enough this, or that, or he had better do a great Shatner impersonation, or he’s the worst actor I’ve ever seen in my life,” it hits you. I’m like, “Wait, this is all based on rumors!”
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah.
MIKE VOGEL: Could you imagine? Chris Pine’s doing it now? Chris, I wish you luck, buddy. It takes stones. They’re expecting somebody to come out and do a William Shatner imitation. That’s not at all what J.J. [Abrams] is doing! So people are going to be either extremely disappointed, extremely happy, or they’re not going to care one bit about Star Trek, anymore. This is all happening off of a rumor. Could I even stand it if it were true? Would I even want to attempt to fill those shoes?
CHRIS NEUMER: Right.
MIKE VOGEL: There’s just so much more that goes into choosing something like this than you’d think about. Most people would say, “Well Captain Kirk is a no-brainer…”
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah, nobody even knew who Chris Pine was, and now he’s got this huge movie, and it’s interesting that you’d have to think twice to sort of think of the “real world” application of all this would be.
MIKE VOGEL: Someone said that about James Bond. It’s a lot like that. I mean there have been eight hundred Star Treks… There have been eight hundred Bond movies, but there one “all time favorite,” who will forever be (in faux-Scottish accent) Sean Connery… forever! I think Pierce Bronson did a good job, Daniel Craig did a good job, but it’s hard to stamp something that’s been stamped eight hundred times. You run out of pages in your passport. I think it’s the same thing with this. I mean [in Next Generation] Patrick Stewart had the benefit of playing an entirely different character – he wasn’t playing Kirk. Yeah, he was a commander, but he wasn’t playing Kirk, so he could do his own thing. This new person has to come out and win Shatner fans… It’s a BIG undertaking.
