Refreshingly modest, Robert Forster is quick to insist that his whole career has just been the result of “great luck.”
“It has been one lucky break after another,” he recently told me over the phone. “The first thing was working with John Huston. Then the second act was working with Quentin Tarantino.”
Of course, anyone who has seen his performances in the likes of “Mulholland Drive,” “Medium Cool,” “The Descendants,” Huston’s “Reflections In A Golden Eye,” and his Oscar nominated effort in Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown” will be well aware that his talent and presence easily eclipses any luck he might have had along the way.
That’s never been more apparent than in “What They Had,” which might just prove to be the peak performance of Forster’s esteemed career.
Because even though the family drama about Blythe Danner’s struggles with Alzheimer’s stars Hilary Swank and Michael Shannon, Forster, who plays Burt, the stubborn husband to Danner’s Ruth, grabs hold of the film and puts in a titanic and mesmeric performance that you just can’t look away from.
Forster is so proud of the film that he hopes it “might be the beginning, I hope, of a third act” to his already impressive career.
“If I can stretch this out a little more, this will hopefully give me a bit of loft to work with. It is a great thing to have a wonderful movie to deliver.”
Not that Forster is trying to boast about his work in the film, though. In fact, he credits any on-screen prowess he shows in “What They Had” to its first-time writer and director Elizabeth Chomko.
“It is the best character I think I was ever offered to play. You don’t make it up. Sometimes you get the chance to add some ad-libs, but in general Elizabeth offered everyone involved in the picture a great role. I was so delighted to be offered this one.”
“Because it is a family drama with humor. But about a serious topic. When I read this I kept saying it had the same appeal of ‘Big Fat Greek Wedding.’ It has the same family dynamic.”
“There are so many things in there that remind us of ourselves. No matter who we are, we can relate to this. Especially if you know someone with Alzheimer’s. I don’t think it is a niche audience. It is a general audience, family drama.”
When it came to preparation, Forster didn’t have to think too far outside of the box, too. “I am a father. I am a father over 200 years, if you count up the years of my children.”
“So I have plenty of experience being a father. Those are the simple things that I brought to my preparation. It was me and my wife against the kids. It is not hard to win those arguments. ‘This is the way we are going to do it. I am the father!’”
“As soon as I read it, I was like, ‘I know what this is about.’ It is about me. It is about her grandfather and all fathers who protect their family. It is about the job of life. It is about the human condition.”
“You are born and you can’t take care of yourself, you have to rely on your parents to protect you. Then for most of life you are expected to take care of others. Until the end, when you have to rely on the ones you raised to look after you.”
But while Forster immediately knew what he wanted to do with Burt, he broke down why the first day of production was and always has been the most important of filming, because that’s when he lays down the foundations from which his character emerges.
“I always remind actors that on the first day you have to deliver a confident stroke. It must include the detail that will never be there if you don’t put it there on the first day.”
“It doesn’t matter how little you are prepared, you must deliver a confident stroke and include the details. From that you create what else is going to be on that canvas.”
“Day by day you add stuff to it. You hope everyday that you can create something better and better that is worth being in the picture.”
You can see what Forster has created with “What They Had” when it is released on October 19.
