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Joaquin Phoenix Transcriber's Note: The first three minutes are an interview with producer Reinhard Klooss. Here's a translation of what he says... Why do you shoot in Karlsruhe? As you know the movie bases on the cult-novel by Robert O'Connor and sets in a U.S. military base in Baden-Wütterberg. Karlsruhe was kind of a lucky case, we looked at many closed U.S. bases in Germany and this one was just the best. Why did you choose Buffalo Soldiers? It's a very interesting story, it's got a lot of action and humour and a great cast. We wanted to produce another American movie (after Asterix&Obelix last year) beside our German ones. When can we expect it to come out? We shoot 'till end January and the movie's got a long postproduction — there's a bunch of computer effects — so probably end next year. TN: The article says that the crew stays around the Rhein-Neckar region 'till January 2001 and then leaves for postproduction "somewhere between Sidney, Munich and London." It also says that Joaquin did a lot of preparation for the film and posts the following quote: "I ate a lot and slept even more." TN: About 2:58:00 into the streaming file: Joaquin, what is your part in Buffalo Soldiers? I play the battalion clerk, Ray Elwood and he...there was a policy in the 80's in which you served, sorry, if you were convicted of a misdemeanor crime you could either serve a certain amount of time in prison or have a chance, which is the army. So that's kinda what's interesting about this film, in this period in the US army in which, you know, there were a number of convicts basically (laughing) in , you know, the army. So my character was caught stealing cars and he had the option of six months in prison or a year in the army. You like playing negative characters? No, but I think that there are some inaccuracies in kinda how people perceive what I do. For instance, that I played a serial killer, that never happened. So that I think the perception of the characters I play is kinda off. So I think that I have played a variety of different characters. Is there a difference between working in Hollywood and here in Germany? Well I think what's unique about working here is that, I spoke to you a little bit about it, but the fact that...(*tanks thunder past behind the interview*) well there is a tank rolling by in the background! (smiling) We have an authentic feel while working here, we're on a real army base and the tanks go rolling by so and there you see that sensation which always works when making a film there's a...you feel isolated here in a really good way There aren't a lot of distractions that you might find if you were working at home, so it kinda creates this great unity amongst the cast and crew. We're kinda all here to stick to the job and were all working hard, so that's great. One last question. In Germany we would your name wayk-ien, how do you pronounce your name? (smiles) That's fine. And the US? Ah no, in the US, in the States, I don't know, everyone says it differently. But it's a Spanish name and it's wak-een, that's how it's pronounced. |