More of this Feature • Part 1: Rosie Perez • Part 2: Patricia Arquette • Part 4: Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry

Join the Discussion Have you seen "Human Nature?" Post in the Forum

Related Resources • "Human Nature" Review • Independent Film • Directors

Elsewhere on the Web • "Human Nature" Official Site

Tim Robbins
Robbins enter the room and starts to play with the animal crackers on the table. "Anyone try the cookies? The cookies are good?"

He is tall. He's wearing black, black jacket, black shirt. His eyes are blue. He looks more handsome in real life than he does in film.

A different kind of role for you?
Freaky. Freakish. Freakish man.

Why Human Nature?
The script was really great. I'm always attracted to a character I haven't done before. There were really talented people doing it. I love Patricia Arquette, so it all made sense to me.

Did you think your character Nathan Bronfman was empathetic?
He's kind of the bad guy, but I don't believe in the bad guy, I think there are just circumstances, and every person has flaws. Everyone in this script is trying to take advantage of someone else, and it is kind of human nature, all these people doing awful things to each other. Every time you play a part you have to be compassionate about the person you are playing; you have to see what some might be to considered there flaw as a result of circumstance and their upbringing.

Thus, we understand better how a scientist can devote his career to training mice table manners. Robbins talks freely through the rest of our session, mainly answering the college boy's questions who had a thing for "Mission from Mars" and really wanted Tim Robbins to talk about "Mission from Mars." Robbins thinks that movie bombed because it was about discovery, not revenge, and that doesn't sell tickets, and who knows what critics want anyway?

The most memorable part of this interview was when the cassette on my tape player finished, making that popping sound to signify that it had reached the end. Tim looked at me, said: "Should I switch the tape for you?" and I said, "Yes, please." Tim Robbins has handled my tape recorder; he even fidgeted with if for a moment of two before he put it back on the table.

Rhys Ifans
I think the interview team is tired when Rhys enters the room, but he seems to be bounding with energy. "Great time," he says, before we even ask about the film. "I want to do it again." He wore a skull on a cross ring and a gaudy silver bracelet. His hair and beard were stringy and shaggy, much like his character Puff when he was testifying in "Human Nature."

He gets our stock first question.

Why Human Nature?
The script is so ingenious, original, inventive, inspiring, poetic, theatrical, musical, all that. Puff in particular, because Puff is a blank page and you can bring so much of your imagination. I just leapt at the chance. The challenge and the difficulty is always the joyous part. The challenge was making him real and not a clown. I didn't want to do an experiment playing a monkey in the zoo but playing a child who had been abused. Explore his sense of hunger, his sense of loneliness, and all those things that happened to babies. Puff is a child. Always was, the tragedy is, he always will be.

How did you feel about nudity?
You take your clothes off, you learn your lines, you get on the set. This character has to be naked. The first couple of days were daunting, but the first couple of days are always daunting. This was working extremely from the outside in.

In other news, Ifans is excited to be embarking on his first leading role in a film to be shot in Australia with "Human Nature" co-star Miranda Otto.

Next page > Charlie Kaufman and Rhys Ifans > Page 4