On Jan. 18th, after six months of Internet hype and mysterious, untitled trailers that had bloggers and moviegoers wondering just what was attacking New York City, Cloverfield finally arrived. Directed by Matt Reeves and produced by Lost creator J.J. Abrams, the film’s already racked up a blockbuster weekend at the box office.
The story opens with Rob Hawkins (Michael Stahl-David) set to leave for Japan to start a new job, but before he leaves, his brother and friends throw him a hip Manhattan apartment party. His “main dude” Hud (T.J. Miller) is video recording goodbye messages for Rob when an explosion rocks the building. Soon they see the cause — a Godzilla-type monster is destroying the city. Instead of jumping in a helicopter and flying to safety, Rob decides to head into the melee to save Beth (Odette Yustman), the woman he loves. Rob’s brother Jason (Mike Vogel) and Jason’s girlfriend Lily (Jessica Lucas), along with friend Marlena (Lizzy Caplan), all stick with him, and Hud continues to record the terrors they experience as they move deeper into the city.
The Muse spoke with three of the film’s stars, Vogel (Rumor Has It, Posiedon), Caplan (best known as Janis Ian in Mean Girls) and up-and-comer Miller on the day Cloverfield opened. They gave us the scoop on the rousing action sequences, the film’s message and what it’s like to be in one of the most anticipated movies in recent memory.
The Muse: Much of this film consists of action sequences. In what ways was this movie physically demanding?
Caplan: We had to do upwards of 40 takes for every scene and we were running a lot of the time covered in sticky blood and dirt. Jessica [Lucas] had it rougher than I did with her high heels, but I had on these high heel wedge boots so running was terrible. In order to gear up for scenes when we had to be out of breath, we would run up and down the street so it would actually seem like we were. They actually had oxygen tanks on the set from all the dust that was always flying around.
Miller: We spent 12 hours a day on the set sometimes and I was holding the camera a lot, which was difficult. It was not a tiny camera, although it seemed like it. It was pretty big. Just constantly running, constantly screaming, and always breathing hard — even in the sound booths off the set — made the movie very demanding to film.
The Muse: This was director Matt Reeves’ first large-scale movie. What bearing did that have on you as actors?
Caplan: They really wanted a director who could direct actors who had characters with real emotional connections. The main objective was to give the movie a real emotional pull.
Vogel: I don’t know if they would have been able to pull it off with a more mainstream director than Reeves. Cloverfield is so much more than a monster movie, more than just a Michael Bay film. It’s about survival; it’s a bold, ambitious, different movie. And it had the best acting I’ve ever seen!
The Muse: T.J., you had some great lines that brought some levity to the film. How much of this was ad-libbing?
Miller: Every time you laughed at one of the lines that I said, I came up with it. Every time you didn’t, that was someone else’s fault. No, the script was great. Matt Reeves knew that I came from doing improv, so I did improvise a lot. Lizzy and I improvised a lot together as well. That’s what they pay me for. I’m the comedian they brought in to make my character funny and make that part of the film be successful. Some people are cast like Mike Vogel, to be really, really hot, and some people are cast to be awkward and funny, and we each had our own place in the film. The main idea was just to do a real reaction to a terrible situation.
The Muse: How will people react to the prominent 9/11 imagery?
Caplan: I think some people will react negatively to the 9/11 imagery. It was never our intention to exploit this issue, but I think it’s important to explore these relative issues that affect us all today. I think this monster is much easier to deal with than our actual enemies.
The Muse: What message do you want the audience to take away from this movie?
Miller: A movie like this is a good way to experience a catastrophe without having to go through it yourself. What’s important is that when something like [September 11th] happens, all you can think about is the present. The movie is about how everyone is looking towards the future, but when [stuff] goes down you have to look at the present and what’s around you at that moment. I hope people will say, “Okay, I should pay more attention to my life as it comes and not worry so much about what’s coming.”
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