Scott Huver of NBC Entertainment (Southern California affiliate) talked with Keanu Reeves about Side by Side which will premiere on VOD tomorrow, August 22. In this interview you can find out what surprises Keanu had as he went through the interviews, the philosophy behind going digital, and how the film vs. digital debate compares to talkies vs. silent films. We also learn that the Wachowskis did the interview because it was for Keanu. When asked how, as a performer, he would compare working with digital to having practical locations vs. doing blue screen work, Keanu replies:
It’s like playing cowboys and Indians in your house or in a park. It’s a different sense of control and abandonment because you either have things to interact with and that affect you or you’re pretending that there are things. That’s why it’s like you’re either all pretend in imagination…if you have another actor it’s great. If you’re just acting to the tennis ball, or like, ‘There it comes,’ that’s not as much fun for sure, to have interactive and to have the actors and have the real environment.
Keanu is also on record as saying that he would like to personally create an archival of all the clips and out takes that weren’t used. Looks like he has another project for a rainy day.
The entire interview can be read here.