Interview with Steven Culp- Rough Cut
Rough Cut: Can you talk about auditioning for the role of Robert
Kennedy?
Steven Culp: I spent about three months auditioning, and then they
came in with an offer that was contingent on the results of the
screen test. So basically I had to pass the screen test. And they
said, "It’s just to see how you look with Bruce." And I thought, "Yeah,
right." I had been working on the accent and watching a tape of the
night Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. The speech that Bobby is
incredible. But I didn’t have time to memorize it; I was playing it in
the car and stuff. When I showed for the screen test, one of the
research people gave me a book of speeches and there it was.
When they put the camera on me, Roger said, "Why don’t you just
say a few words?" and I said "Well, how about if I read this speech"
and he said go ahead. So when I finished reading the speech he
said, "That’s a stroke of genius, man." And the producers were
saying, "We’ve got chills." So it was a good moment.
RC: Bruce said that at first your accents ran together and that it
took a while to separate them. Was the Kennedy accent a
challenge?
Culp: People have this generalized view of the Kennedy accent,
but tonally their voices are much different. Bruce and I read together
in the auditions and we would find our voices drifting toward each
other, so we would call each other on the phone or I would go over
to his house and we would do dueling Kennedys for as long as we
could, basically to see who would crack first so we could get used
to hearing each other without sliding toward the other voice. And
then we would talk about what books we were reading and how
much we were doing and I was always, like, "Bruce is reading that
book, I’ve got to read it too." Because there was sort of a
competitive thing. At one point, my agent said, "You know, Steve,
not many actors would be willing to put in as much work as you are,
and I said, "Well, Bruce Greenwood is and I’ve got to catch up!"
RC: Were you nervous about the scenes when you had to go head
to head with Kevin Costner?
Culp: Oh, it’s fun. This was an interesting thing about Kenny and
Bobby because they were so tight. They had this great relationship
and they trusted each other so much that they could argue...I mean
they would really get into it and people would get scared. But there
was such a strong bond that they knew they could go to these
places and still be friends. So I went into it with that. There one
scene where we’re in the hall and we’re getting into each other’s
face, and I had read that Bobby had a habit of poking people in the
chest. So on a couple takes I poked Kevin in the chest and you can
see Kevin and he dug it. He was startled. So in the next take I
wouldn’t do it. And then I’d do it again. But I tried not to watch the
playback too much because I didn’t want to get self-conscious
about what I was doing. All I could see was big teeth and this guy
who wasn’t Bobby Kennedy.
RC: What about before you met Kevin? Were you nervous about
the experience as a whole?
Culp: Well, on the first day we were doing makeup tests, and Bruce
and I were in the trailer getting made up, and Kevin walks in and
says, "Hi, I’m Kevin Costner." You know, he doesn’t have to say
he’s Kevin Costner. The first day we were sitting around reading
the script and had some suggestions about something in one of the
scenes, and I disagreed because I felt, "No, Bobby really needs to
do this, this is very quintessential Bobby here." So the first day I’m
disagreeing with Kevin Costner and not only was I listened to, but
they ended up agreeing with me. Kevin’s got tons of good ideas
and 99 percent of the time when Kevin has a good idea you go,
"Good idea" because it’s a great idea. He really knows what he’s
doing. But if you have the better idea, then that’s the idea you do.