Friday, November 8, 1996
Playing a mentally unstable character ready to burst at any
moment, actor Chris Penn describes his experiences in ‘The
Funeral.’By Cheryl Klein
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Listening to a blue jean-clad Chris Penn chat about cooking and
fishing as he doodles geometric shapes on hotel stationary, it is
hard to imagine the actor as anything but the guy next door.
Yet in "The Funeral," a new film directed by Abel Ferrara ("Bad
Lieutenant," "The Addiction"), Penn plays Chez Tempio  a
mobster with a volcanic temper and a shaky hold on sanity. Chez has
a habit of exploding into violent rages and wielding a gun on
anyone who gets in the way. But, Penn stresses, it’s not Chez’s
fault.
"It is complex, because I don’t think he’s insane. He’s
obviously disturbed, he’s in a lot of pain, he’s abusive, but he
feels a lot of regret over it," Penn says. "He’s brought up with a
gun in his hand. He and his brothers learn to kill people when
they’re little kids."
The film follows Chez and his two brothers (played by
Christopher Walken and Vincent Gallo) as they struggle to find
emotional stability in the tumultuous lifestyle of a Mafia family
in the 1930s. When Johnny (Gallo) is gunned down while exiting a
movie theater, Ray (Walken) is out for revenge. Chez is just out of
his mind.
"Chez is really by nature not a killer. He’s a nice, sweet teddy
bear, in a way," Penn says. "But because of all this anger and this
pain, the guy’s like this close to breaking your neck if you piss
him off."
Opposite Penn’s fiery role is Gaspare, a suave fellow mobster
played by Benicio Del Toro ("The Usual Suspects," "Basquiat").
Gaspare is a "gentleman gangster," a personality that has become an
archetype not only in the mob genre of film but in real life as
well.
"I’ve been in places where I’ve seen little gangsters and they
pattern their behavior and their clothing after movies," Del Toro
says. "You see, you’ll see a little ‘Goodfellas’ in New York in
gangsters today, so I felt that my character would be one of those
guys who patterns himself on the movies."
In preparing their parts, both Del Toro and Penn explain they
relied more on instinct than patterns or method. Del Toro confesses
that he had to squeeze Gaspare between other acting jobs and Penn
opted for an almost improvisational approach.
"Some guys are brilliant at studying their lines, saying, ‘I
want to build it here, I want to do this.’ And they break it down
and they’ve got it so technically exact," Penn says. "That blows my
mind and that impresses me. I can’t do that. I study the words, I
know what they mean, and then I wing it."
This straight forward style complements Ferrara’s directorial
spontaneity. "In his complete insanity, he’s kind of loveable, in a
way," Penn says. "He’s as honest a filmmaker as you’ll ever get.
There are guys who might be more brilliant or more talented, but
there’s nobody more honest … more dedicated to ‘just give me the
real shit. I don’t want anything else.’"
Ferrara brought out raw emotion in his actors, an experience
that helped Penn find himself in Chez’s character. In one scene,
the family spends an evening rollicking and celebrating in a bar
and Ferrara encouraged Penn to bring one of his favorite hobbies
 singing  to the scene. So as Chez dances around with
his slightly tipsy loved ones, he also belts out "Tonight Will be
the Night," lending a more joyous and realistic tone to the
screen.
In a more serious scene, Chez unleashes his anger on his
brother, a moment made more intense by Ferrara’s innovative
techniques.
"Isabella (Rossellini, who plays Chez’s wife) was supposed to
come down at the end of the scene and it was already over. Well,
Abel got a bright idea and knew what would happen and had her come
down before the fight took place. And it erupted in some words
between me and Isabella, which was not scripted. Because Abel told
her, unbeknownst to me, ‘Come down and try to stop this and don’t
let him intimidate you.’ She tried and so, actually, Isabella got
very angry at me because she felt that I was out of control, which
I wasn’t but … it was very tense," Penn explains.
Penn’s part in "The Funeral" is undeniably intense and he
expresses great pride in this performance. While his past films
 from "Footloose" to "Beethoven’s 2nd"  may have called
for less dramatic capabilities, Penn is not about to dismiss their
merit.
"I’ve certainly made a lot of hokey movies, but I always had my
reasons and very rarely have I regretted any of them. I mean, I’m
proud of ‘Beethoven’s 2nd.’ My nieces and nephews saw that and
liked it. That makes me proud," Penn says. "’Footloose’ was a
stupid movie, but people liked it. It gave people something Â
there was something to be said for that kind of silliness."
Del Toro, too, is not about to make the common actor’s folly of
taking oneself too seriously. Smiling calmly, he contemplates his
recent success as a character actor. On one hand, there’s the fun
of playing someone completely different with each part. On the
other, there’s the fame that comes only with leading-man
recognition.
"Hey, if it happens, it happens," Del Toro says nonchalantly.
"If it stops being fun, I’m not doing it. Eventually, they’ll know
it’s me. The longer they get to know me, they’ll know, ‘There he
is, trying to fool me. Jerk.’"
His first experiences with character acting date back to his
childhood in Puerto Rico, where he thrived on horror movies and
imagination.
"I was a little kid and I grew up and got sucked into (acting).
As a kid, I used to play every monster. ‘It’s alive! It’s alive!’"
Del Toro says in mock terror.
This love of character before all else was possibly what
attracted both Del Toro and Penn to acting in general and "The
Funeral."
"I just look for good characters, number one, then director, the
overall movie, and of course money … This was all the right
reasons. Except money," Penn says.
FILM: "The Funeral," directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Chris
Penn, Christopher Walken and Benicio Del Toro, opens today.
October Films
Benicio Del Toro as Gaspare, a suave mobster, in "The
Funeral."
"Chez is really by nature not a killer. He’s a nice, sweet teddy
bear …"
Chris Penn
Actor