The Counselor is ‘No Country For Old Men on steroids’ – cast and crew interviews

http://www.wow247.co.uk/blog/2013/10/22/the-counselor-cast-and-crew-interviews-57221/

The Counselor is ‘No Country For Old Men on steroids’ – cast and crew interviews

Published by Mark Butler
22 Oct 2013

Ridley Scott thriller The Counselor has to be one of the most anticipated movies of the year.

Not only does it boast a remarkable cast including Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, and Cameron Diaz - it is also the first screenplay by celebrated American author Cormac McCarthy to ever hit the big screen.

The Counselor - michael fassbender
[Out Of His Depth - Fassbender's lawyer is in big trouble in The Counselor]

McCarthy wrote No Country For Old Men – adapted into a jaw-dropping, Oscar-winning thriller by the Coen Brothers – and now his new crime story is coming to cinemas this November.

Fassbender heads the all-star cast as a lawyer who finds himself in way over his head after getting embroiled in the murky world of drug trafficking.

The production notes of the movie have just landed, offering compelling insights into the story from cast and crew alike.

Fassbender says the script had him hooked from the start:

“My character thinks he’s smarter than he is. He is given enough opportunity to get out of the deal, yet he repeatedly says he’s all right, and he is obviously not all right. There’s a blind arrogance that drives him forward.

“It was so well written, sophisticated and balanced, and while there’s a lot of information there, Cormac had left enough space for an actor to fill it in. It was just a masterful piece of work.

“I just love working with Ridley too,” he adds. “It’s like a master class every day.”

For his own part, Scott describes the plot as “an emotional rollercoaster ride”.

“The script had situations and characters that were epic and an inevitability that something awful was going to happen to them – and that there was nothing they could do to stop it.”

“Some folks have called this film No Country for Old Men on steroids,” adds producer Steve Schwartz. ”I think there’s some truth to that.

“All the classic Cormac themes are in The Counselor: a view that humanity is not intrinsically good…but people always have choices, and we often make the wrong choices. Choices have consequences, and you sometimes live and die with them. Thus, it’s a cautionary tale.”

McCarthy describes The Counselor as a classical figure in tragedy – “a decent man who gets up one morning and decides to do something wrong” – and he reveals that this film’s Anton Chigurh character, the psychopath of the piece, is actually a malevolent girlfriend played by Cameron Diaz.

“Malkina is a sociopath, and extremely smart,” explains Diaz. “She is capable of anything. There is no humanity in Malkina.

” The two questions she’s always asking herself are: how can I get what I deserve? What do I have coming to me? Nothing else, no one else, is of any concern to her. Malkina is so powerful because she understands the consequences of her actions more than any other character.

“The only thing she wants is more. Malkina is compelled to take the power of every man, devour it, and then break down every woman.”