Eric Balfour
Eric Balfour is back on the big screen this week with his new movie Skyline, which is already being called the District 9 0f 2010.
So I caught up with the actor to talk about the new alien invasion flick, his shooting experience and moving behind the camera for the first time.
- Skyline is your latest movie, it’s due out in November here in the UK, so can you tell me a little bit about it?
Skyline is really, for me, interesting take on the alien invasion genre because it’s told through the eyes of a small group of people and it’s told in a way, for me, was an analogy of what it would be like, in any situation, for a group of people to survive through a disaster.
It has all of the Belgian whistles of a great classic alien invasion movie but to me what was interesting was the character’s stories and the development between my character and my best friend, who is played by Donald Faison, and my love interest, played by Scottie Thompson.
We kept talking about the idea of what it would like for a group of people trapped in a building during a disaster, whether it be a war or an natural disaster, and how do keep your hope alive and how do you maintain when you start to lose public systems, water power, toilets, and you have no communications and no information.
So for me the interesting part was watching, especially how my character had to really go from being in essence a boy to a man.
- You have touched on my next question really you take on the role of Jarrod in he film so what was it about the character and the script that drew you to the project?
One it was an alien invasion movie like non other that I had read, the uniqueness of how these things take control is really fascinating and there is a science to it that was really unique.
And the second thing was I have always been fascinated by characters that have to make great life decisions.
And the writers Liam O’Donnell and Josh Cordes did a fantastic job of setting these characters in a moment in their life when they were already faced with great decisions and so this event really only heightened those questions and force them to really look at what is important, what they want in their lives and how they wish to proceed, in what could possibly be their last few moments.
- The movie is a big sci-fi spectacle how did you find the special effects side of the shoot - was there a lot of green screen?
Actually there was no green screen! The directors Colin and Greg Strauss are two of the most innovative guys working in special effects right now so the process of the special effects was done in a way that I have never seen before.
So basically the entire movie is, what they called, pre-visualised which means they take an actual world, digitalize it and then they can anything that they want to it.
So we would actually watch scenes with little stick versions of us running through corridors and we would see the alien monsters coming at us and we would be like ’right so I need to move to the left here’ or ‘that’s where the thing comes through.’
So there was no green screen and in some ways it makes Sin City, and the things that we have seen in other Frank Miller movies, antiquated, if that’s possible.
- So what were the challenges for you on this movie?
The challenges of this movie was really the physical toll that it took on us because it was a small crew, it really was made with an independent spirit. It was a huge undertaking and it was a really advantageous exercise we were working so the physical demands were far beyond anything that any of us were expecting, everyday we all had bumps and bruises.
Sometimes even doing things, in hindsight were not the safest things to be doing; we were doing stunts on these scaffolding rigs a couple of hundred feet in the air on top of a skyscraper just thinking ’god I hope I don’t screw up because there is no coming back if I fall.
- Do you like the stunt work - is it something that you very much get involved in?
Oh yeah I loved it, I loved it. Fortunately, or unfortunately I suppose, we couldn’t really afford much in the way of stunt men so we pretty much had to do it all ourselves.
So there was constantly days were I would be getting blasted ten or twenty feet in the air or thrown across a building and was just hoping that I wouldn’t snag myself on some steam pipe.
There were always things that you didn’t expect happening one day we were on this roof and I had this axe in my hand I hit my knee on this pipe and I didn’t want to stop in the middle of the take, the camera guys have these hand held camera that weigh a lot, so I waited until the end of the take to scream.
But as I screamed I threw the axe down on the ground but the end of it was made of rubber and it bounced straight off the roof, thirty stores up in the air, down towards the parking area and we all just watched this axe praying that no one was going to come out of the doors.
And it was just things like that because we didn’t have the ability of lock down whole areas we were out there like the wild wild west.
- Skyline is directed by Colin and Greg Strause so how did you find working with them?
(Laughs) I have got to be honest, I love these guys but they tortured me for two months, everyday they convinced me to do something that I was sure was going to kill me.
They were so enthusiastic and they had to be, to be frank, they made this movie with their own money and yes they are very successful guys at this very successful company but I don’t care who you are when you start writing cheques out of your own cheque books that’s a scary thing.
You just knew that they cared so much and that they had so much invested, it really was all or nothing for them and that spirit ran through the entire crew.
- The film is being called the District 9 of 2010, so what do you think of these comparisons?
Well I think that that is a huge standard to live up to and I guess that I’m honoured that that people might think that. In some ways it is very accurate as this movie was made with a very independent spirit, District 9 was not made by two kids from Arkansas in their back yard it was made by Peter Jackson.
But not dissimilarly this movie was made outside of the studio system the two writers, the two directors, the producer and the actors controlled everything. There was no one else we had to ask permission from, so nothing every got watered down, and we were able to side step the traps of the usual Hollywood genre film.
- Away from Skyline you have also moved behind the camera with Do Not Disturb so how did you find directing?
I love it! It’s what I absolutely want to spend the rest of my life doing. I was fortunate to direct that this year and it was a great way into directing for me because it was a short piece in a bigger film and then I also got to direct a few episodes of a show that I created for Fox television.
I love it I just love working with other actors and I like having the creative control on that side of the camera. I have been fortunate to have been acting since I was fifteen years old, through many ups and downs, and I have always been fascinated by the process of filmmaking and it is very much the final frontier for me.
- As well as starring in movies this year you have also worked on TV shows Haven and Saving Grace so how does TV compare to working on movies?
The biggest difference is time the time that you have on a film to mould and shape something is a blessing but in television there is a community that is built and a family that is built. I’m very excited about my show Haven and we are really proud of it.
- Finally what’s next for you, I was reading that you had been linked to Dark As Day and Paradise?
There are several projects that I have coming up, in fact I’m going back behind the camera next month as I direct and write a pilot for a US network called Fuse.
Movies we are trying to figure that out as it all depends on the Haven schedule and when we start back for season two, hopefully if I can do something before we start back I will, but I’m going to be busy promoting Skyline and that is going to keep me busy.
Skyline is released 12th November.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Eric Balfour is back on the big screen this week with his new movie Skyline, which is already being called the District 9 0f 2010.
So I caught up with the actor to talk about the new alien invasion flick, his shooting experience and moving behind the camera for the first time.
- Skyline is your latest movie, it’s due out in November here in the UK, so can you tell me a little bit about it?
Skyline is really, for me, interesting take on the alien invasion genre because it’s told through the eyes of a small group of people and it’s told in a way, for me, was an analogy of what it would be like, in any situation, for a group of people to survive through a disaster.
It has all of the Belgian whistles of a great classic alien invasion movie but to me what was interesting was the character’s stories and the development between my character and my best friend, who is played by Donald Faison, and my love interest, played by Scottie Thompson.
We kept talking about the idea of what it would like for a group of people trapped in a building during a disaster, whether it be a war or an natural disaster, and how do keep your hope alive and how do you maintain when you start to lose public systems, water power, toilets, and you have no communications and no information.
So for me the interesting part was watching, especially how my character had to really go from being in essence a boy to a man.
- You have touched on my next question really you take on the role of Jarrod in he film so what was it about the character and the script that drew you to the project?
One it was an alien invasion movie like non other that I had read, the uniqueness of how these things take control is really fascinating and there is a science to it that was really unique.
And the second thing was I have always been fascinated by characters that have to make great life decisions.
And the writers Liam O’Donnell and Josh Cordes did a fantastic job of setting these characters in a moment in their life when they were already faced with great decisions and so this event really only heightened those questions and force them to really look at what is important, what they want in their lives and how they wish to proceed, in what could possibly be their last few moments.
- The movie is a big sci-fi spectacle how did you find the special effects side of the shoot - was there a lot of green screen?
Actually there was no green screen! The directors Colin and Greg Strauss are two of the most innovative guys working in special effects right now so the process of the special effects was done in a way that I have never seen before.
So basically the entire movie is, what they called, pre-visualised which means they take an actual world, digitalize it and then they can anything that they want to it.
So we would actually watch scenes with little stick versions of us running through corridors and we would see the alien monsters coming at us and we would be like ’right so I need to move to the left here’ or ‘that’s where the thing comes through.’
So there was no green screen and in some ways it makes Sin City, and the things that we have seen in other Frank Miller movies, antiquated, if that’s possible.
- So what were the challenges for you on this movie?
The challenges of this movie was really the physical toll that it took on us because it was a small crew, it really was made with an independent spirit. It was a huge undertaking and it was a really advantageous exercise we were working so the physical demands were far beyond anything that any of us were expecting, everyday we all had bumps and bruises.
Sometimes even doing things, in hindsight were not the safest things to be doing; we were doing stunts on these scaffolding rigs a couple of hundred feet in the air on top of a skyscraper just thinking ’god I hope I don’t screw up because there is no coming back if I fall.