CHRIS NEUMER: You had mentioned this earlier about how you have a low profile and aren’t that well known. Looking through the films that you’ve chosen to do, you’ve never done back to back to back films. Is this something conscious that you choose not to do lots of films or is this something you do to balance in the playwriting as well?
TOM NOONAN: (laughs) I don’t know how to explain that really. I’d probably like to work all the time if I could, but sometimes there aren’t a lot of great parts out there. Not that all the parts I’ve done are really great, but often my choice in a part will depend on how broke I am. I mean I wish I was doing great parts all the time. If I could act [all the time] I never would have gone into all these other things. I would just act. Acting’s really fun for me. And the movies that I’ve chosen to do, generally, are just because those are the ones that were offered to me. So, if I needed the money and I thought the part was doable and fun I’d do it. The reason, in the last 10 years, doing my own stuff, the reason I haven’t done as much stuff is that my own movies were taking me out of circulation for a year or two. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, up until the early ‘90s, I kind of did whatever I could. I also live in New York where it’s a little bit harder to get work. And I turn stuff down a lot. I kind of get—if I have money in the bank and I don’t really want to do a part I don’t do it. Sometimes my agents wish I didn’t do that.
CHRIS NEUMER: And that is an admirably artful thing to do though.
TOM NOONAN: I guess. I don’t know.
CHRIS NEUMER: Not doing Freddy Got Fingered, that’s step one.
TOM NOONAN: Admirable would be to do the parts and then give the money to Mother Theresa. I’m just trying to get by and take care of myself a little…
CHRIS NEUMER: But you’ve got kids who are going to have to go to college. Now why was it that you decided to make the crossover from acting to writing and directing?
TOM NOONAN: Because I wanted good parts. I wanted better parts than I was getting. I wanted to be the star of the movie. I wanted to be the guy that the movie was about, which I felt like why I’m here.
CHRIS NEUMER: It’s interesting how many actors or actresses are actually starting to do that.
TOM NOONAN: It’s a way to actually do a part that you love and to work on something. I also like to write. I tend to be a very disciplined person and since I was a musician before, acting doesn’t have the kind of discipline that music has for me, so writing kind of took over and I started writing because it’s a good way to learn about acting and to learn about how plays and movies work. It kind of just happened in a natural way and I thought, “Well I can write a little bit here.” And then I started editing a little bit so I started editing, so I thought I could make a movie. But it took a little while before I could actually do that, before I felt comfortable enough to where I thought I could pull it off and not embarrass myself terribly.
CHRIS NEUMER: Was this something that you had been considering for a while and then dove in?
TOM NOONAN: I’m kind of a controlling, megalomaniacal person and if I’m going to be in a movie I was going to make one. Whenever I’ve been in movies I always wanted to direct them. I want to take over stuff.
CHRIS NEUMER: So there was no specific incident that sort of prompted you to go, “That’s it.” And got you buckling down.
TOM NOONAN: No, I remember the first job I got on a movie I thought, “Well, it’s not a great part but I’ll go in there and learn a little bit.” And I thought, “God, they know about as much as I do, I could do this.” So I thought, “Well, I probably can’t do this but I started to learn.” And it’s not that hard to make a movie.
CHRIS NEUMER: That realization that they know just as much as you do and they don’t know that much is a very scary one to make.
TOM NOONAN: Well, making a movie I had no idea that—have you ever been on a movie set?
CHRIS NEUMER: Yes.
TOM NOONAN: Every movie is very different. It’s like you’re on a ship that’s going down and you’re trying to survive, I mean, it’s not like you go into a movie planning to do things. My movies are a little more controlled. Directors have qualities about them you can’t learn anywhere. It’s like being in a war. Not that I knew more than them or was more talented, but I thought, “I could handle this. I could do this movie.” I didn’t go in there thinking, “Oh these people are jerks and I’m so smart.” I just thought, “I could probably do this.”
CHRIS NEUMER: Did you also feel that having been an actor for so long that it would sort of enable you to bring other things to the directing table that other directors, directors who hadn’t been acting, wouldn’t have been able to bring?
TOM NOONAN: Not so much that, but more like I could probably get people to work for me because they may have liked me as an actor. They might trust you a little because they know you’re an actor. I didn’t think, “Oh my god, I’ll show them.” You know, if I go to somebody now who’s pretty well known and they’ve known me as an actor and seen what I do and they’ve seen my movies, they might be more willing to work with me for cheap on a movie than they would for someone else who’s never done it.
CHRIS NEUMER: That’s true.
TOM NOONAN: When you’re an actor, people trust in you and will go a little further for you and do what you say. And I can talk a bit like an actor since I’ve done it. It’s more comfortable.
CHRIS NEUMER: I guess that would be something you could bring to the table previously acting a few times. Last question here and you can run off onto your schedule. Is there any kind of ideal that you strive to capture as an actor or a director? Is there any kind of stamp that you want to put on the project? I know it’s very vague.
TOM NOONAN: That’s kind of like the essay that you read and that you liked. I just watched a movie the other night called The Son’s Room I think. Do you know this movie? It’s Italian.
CHRIS NEUMER: Doesn’t ring a bell.
TOM NOONAN: This movie blew me away. You watch this movie. I want to make a movie where someone comes home from the movie and goes, “I think I learned something.” Well, maybe not learned something. But sometimes when I think my life is in a jam or out of control and I think, “What would a character in a movie that I really admire do in this circumstance?” Like what would James Dean do or what would Marlon Brando do? What would Gene Hackman from The Conversation... I can identify these people and in a very deep way I would love to make a movie where some person felt that it helped their life in some way. And I don’t mean some goodie way, but I mean it made it a little easier for them to get through the day having seen this movie.
CHRIS NEUMER: It just captivated them in a way that it was weighing on them and getting them to reflect back on their own life?
TOM NOONAN: In some ways, yeah. I don’t know. Some movies just have a very profound effect on me because I feel like they are a guide to me. Like James Dean in East of Eden. There’s something about him in that part that is so crucial to my life that informs everything that I do. That’s the kind of movie I want to make; one that effects people in their lives. Not that I start out trying to do that, but I guess that’d be the ideal thing, if it meant something to somebody. That’s why I try to make movies that are painful or difficult or scary for me, there’s a possibility that that might happen to somebody when they watch it.
CHRIS NEUMER: It’s always good to hear that that’s what’s propelling people as opposed to eight percentage points on the back end or something like that. I just remember from your website, do you sell these movies, like The Wife and What Happened Was… or are these available in general circulation or is it something that you’d have to track down?
TOM NOONAN: At this point What Happened Was… is out of print which is sort of a nightmare for me. It was bought by Goldwyn and it was bought by one company and sold to another company so at this point it’s really hard to get that movie, which is a drag for me. The Wife is now out on DVD and you can get it pretty easily. And for a while I would buy copies from the distributor myself and sell them from my website because I wanted people to see them and now What Happened Was… I can’t even buy any more because it’s out of print.
CHRIS NEUMER: The DVD of it is expected?
TOM NOONAN: Hopefully. I’m sure everything will be on DVD eventually. You know it came out in theatres and so people know about the movie and they read about it.
CHRIS NEUMER: And it won second place in Chicago at the film festival.
