TIM BLAKE NELSON
INTERVIEW BY STEVE EARLE
-
PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAINER HOSCH
STYLING BY KIM JOHNSON
GROOMING BY RHEANNE WHITE
—
You can take the man out of the South but you can’t take the South out of the man. Since Tim Blake Nelson’s memorable portrayal of Delmar in the Coen Brothers’ critically acclaimed O Brother, Where Art Thou? he has become a go-to guy for unusual Southern characters, appearing in movies as diverse as The Good Girl, The Incredible Hulk and Syriana. To become the accomplished actor, writer and director he is today, the Oklahoma native bid farewell to Dixieland, ropers, and Wrangler apparel to walk the Hollywood line, but if his latest directorial effort is anything to go by, it’s as if he never left. Set in his hometown of Tulsa, Leaves of Grass sees Edward Norton playing diametrically opposed twins Bill and Brady – one a Classics professor, the other a pot grower – the former forced to return to his redneck roots to help his brother out of a shady spot. The movie is full of humor, hard work and heart, so it makes sense that Tim brought some of his good friends along for the ride. One man who scored a role and is featured on the soundtrack is country rock singer and Tim’s lifelong pal Steve Earle – no wonder he was more than happy to take time out to put a few questions to his fellow Southerner.
STEVE EARLE—Hey man, what’s up?
TIM BLAKE NELSON—How are you? Were you on a red eye?
SE—Yeah, I just got off… How are you sir?
TBN—Steve, I’m sure you’ve been up all night researching questions.
SE—I actually have a handful of questions, and they should work just fine, and both of us can talk the ears off a wooden Indian… So Leaves of Grass… There are two Edward Nortons in this movie, how many Tim Blake Nelsons are there?
TBN—Well there’s the Steve Earle fan, the director, the writer, the actor, the producer and the … no let’s just actually say there’s the Steve Earle fan and the giddy actor/filmmaker getting to realize his eccentric vision of the world with some of the best actors around. How’s that?
SE—Cool. That’s actually the answer to my second question, which means you’re fucking clairvoyant on top of everything else. It looked like a lot of work, doing all those different jobs. But I’m not so much asking about job descriptions as I am interested in how much of you is in these characters. I think to some degree both of Ed’s [Edward Norton’s] characters are you, some part of you, and I’m from the same part of the world you’re from and I definitely recognized some of the characters in this movie…
TBN—Well I think that any of us, and I would certainly include you on this list, who’ve left the Southwest or any truly specific region of the country for another specific region of the country, have an inherent duality, because while being strongly rooted in where we’re from, we’re also seeking a place that will nourish other aspects of our identities. I think it’s certainly true that the professor character and the pot-growing character are both versions of me. The simplest way I can put it is that I am a father with three kids and a wife, who travels all over the country and sometimes the world making movies as if I weren’t tied to a home life at all. Like most people who do what we do, I live a duality, and so the movie is hopefully a funny but also poignant exploration of that and how difficult it is to balance the strong forces that one can have in a single life.
Continue Reading This Article 1 2 3 4 5
