Rory Cochrane Chats About Partying With Ben Affleck

Rory Cochrane was born in New York and spent much of his childhood in England. He eventually returned to New York City to study at the La Guardia High School of Performing Arts. Cochrane’s first performance was in the critically well-received film Fathers and Sons in which he played Jeff Goldblum’s son.He followed this up with a memorable role in Richard Linklater’s film classic Dazed and Confused as Slater, the young comedic stoner before then giving a tour-de-force performance as a crazed tattooed killer in Love and a 45 with his former-girlfriend of two years Renee Zellweger.He’s also featured in Empire Records opposite Liv Tyler, Hart’s War alongside Colin Farrell and Bruce Willis and in the top-rated CBS show CSI: Miami, playing Tim Speedle with David Caruso.Now, more recently he can be seen giving a stand out appearance in Right At Your Door, the acclaimed film from Chris Gorak which, raises important questions about personal choices and sacrifice. When a dirty bomb is set off in L.A., ordinary couple Brad and Lexi (Mary McCormack – The West Wing) are faced with the ultimate dilemma when Lexi is caught in the centre of the explosion, while Brad is safe at home. With most communication lines down and no way of getting through to Lexi, Brad hears through radio reports that he should secure his home to keep out the deadly virus that is spreading across the city.First were able to catch up with the 34 year old actor from his base in the States to hear more about it:Can you describe your character Brad a bit more for me, from the movie Right At Your Door?

Well he’s sort of an out of work musician who is having a nice life. He’s living off his wife because she’s the breadwinner. This situation happens and it turns into a survival thing. What drew you to the part when reading the script for this particular film?

I think mostly I was scared of the project and the role because you’re not finding this heroic husband, you’re playing .. see it depends on your perspective. When I first read it, I thought the guy was a pussy for not letting his wife in the House(whilst the toxic attack occurs). But then I discussed it with some friends of mine and I said, “There’s this movie and they want me to do it, and the guy won’t let his wife in the House.” Some of my friends were like “yeah,I would” and others were like “hell, no I wouldn’t let her in.”

Terrorism is a somewhat sensitive and controversial issue. As an American who has resided in LA, what were your emotions about seeing the place targeted, enough though it was fictional?

Well, it definitely stirs up the idea that things become very chaotic very quickly. There’s certain things that you take for granted like electricity, information and order. Things can completely turn around in a very quick time. I remember when I was in Los Angeles and there was one of the very big earthquakes, and it was just absolute pandemonium. I mean the streets were just – people were crashing into each other, people were looting, in just a very short amount of time.

What was it like working with Chris Gorak, because the film was his directorial debut? How was he different from other directors that you have worked with in the past?

It was great – he was very collaborative and very supportive. He wanted to rehearse for a week or so and me and Mary were like, “it’s too intense to rehearse, we might as well just shoot it.” So we sat around and talked about it and he was fine with it.

He got good people to surround him like the Director of Photography – Tom Richmond. The Producers were also great. I was very impressed with the way that he was open to everybody’s ideas and thoughts. He wasn’t nervous.

Did he give you the freedom to totally improvise on screen at some point then?

What was impressive was that he just had trust in the people that he hired. I thought that was nice to see because there are some directors that work for many, many years, and have many films that they’ve developed, that just don’t collaborate. They’re sort of like Nazis or something. (Laughs)

I was reading your acting CV. You’ve worked with some amazing people, including your reported former girlfriends Liv Tyler and Renee Zellweger. But is there anybody else that you’d still particularly like to work with?

There’s so many great actors out there, I don’t think I could single just one out. Great directors too – there’s a whole load of up and coming ones that are putting out good films. The problem is you’re fighting a studio system that just cares about dollars and they don’t necessarily…... I mean there are some great films that are classics that they would never make today because they wouldn’t see them as making huge amounts of money now.

You were in the hit series CSI Miami as well for a while before you were shockingly killed off. What do you miss the most from that show?

I miss the cast; I got along with them well. It was fun to go down to Miami once in a while – they didn’t shoot the show there but we did get to go a couple of times a year. And of course you miss the pay checks they were nice. (Laughs)

If you had no choice but to choose, would you prefer to be involved in a film project that made an audience feel or think?

Probably one that made you feel, because if you’re watching a movie and you’re thinking while you’re watching the movie I don’t know if it’s doing its job I guess.

I mean it’s ok to think about a film afterwards, but if you’re not feeling something whilst you’re watching and you’re thinking the whole time – I don’t think that’s what you set out to do as an actor.

Do you believe it’s different for an actor watching a film or a theatre production? Do you find yourself getting lost in the tale or do you find yourself examining too much as you view?

No, I try to enjoy a movie or a television programme just like anybody else. I’d love to be emerged into the story and watch it, but if you work a lot as an actor, in any aspect of the industry, things might arise in a programme that somebody might miss, whereas it might catch your attention. But most of the time I try and get lost, as you say, into the story like everybody else.

Do you have a particular preferred scene from Right At Your Door? A challenging scene perhaps that you’re really proud of?

It was a difficult film to shoot, so there isn’t one to pinpoint out for me. They were all really hard to do. I’m glad I did it but it wasn’t like a fun film to shoot.

Do you have any more projects coming up in the future?

Well I just finished a project that was shot in Canada and Budapest called “The Company.” It’s about the CIA and the KGB. It’s the 1950s and then it spans over 40 years so the whole cast ages. It should be pretty good.

I believe you’re really good mates with Ben Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix?

Amongst others yeah (Laugh)

What do you all like to do on a guys night out now then?

Well I think we’re all older now – we don’t really get up to much. Ben has a baby as well now, so I haven’t seen him in a while but, yeah, when we were younger we used to get to all kinds of things……

Come on Rory spill some gossip…...

Now we’re older so... (Laughs)

Right at Your Door is released nationwide on DVD from 15th January.