Rodrigo Santoro – Last Call

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) How was your character Carlos originally described to you?

A) Well, I read the script on a plane from Los Angeles to New York. It was not exactly what you see in the movie. It was pretty similar. I think originally it was not written for a Latin character. And, the reason they were coming to me was that there was another actor who was going to do the part but it didn’t work out. I remember loving the script and the idea. I loved the whole story and I myself, love poetry. I love literature too. This movie isn’t just about poetry. It’s about language, it’s about fame and so many other things. It’s such a beautiful metaphor of seduction and fame. It’s very similar to the entertainment business world that I live in. So, everything caught my attention. Carlos was already crafted in my mind and as soon as I landed, I jumped on a call with my agent. I told him I really loved it and if they offered it to me, I would do it. At that point I didn’t even know that Rhys [Ifans] was going to play Dylan and that John Malkovich was going to be in it. When I found out about them, I already wanted to do it, but that made it even better.

Q) Was there anything you added to this role that wasn’t in the initial breakdown?

A) I had a conversation with Steven [Bernstein], the writer/director, and I said, “I’m from Brazil. I can speak English, but I have an accent. Do you want me to work on an accent? What do you want me to do?” He said, “No, that doesn’t matter. I just need a great actor who can play that part. It’s a very tricky part because it’s the mystery of the movie.” You don’t know who this guy is. He’s an antagonist for Dylan, but at the same time he represents the Beatniks – Alan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and all of those guys. They wrote poetry about life as it really was; about things that were really happening. For them, Dylan was a dreamer.

Q)What kind of advice did director Steven Bernstein offer you about the role?

A) When I spoke to Steve it was an instant connection. He started telling me about the story of the characters and he was really open and excited and passionate. We clicked from the first phone call and from then on it was pure joy and a lot of work and research and reading. I needed to really understand about being a bartender because I didn’t want to play a bartender who just washed glasses and served drinks. The most fun part of my job is research. When you’re preparing for things you really learn and you learn how to suspend judgement and really understand people’s lives and how they are and where they live and not just look and judge. There was a lot of that for this part.

Q) What type of research did you do into the life of Dylan Thomas for this role?

A) I was lucky because I told a friend who is a newspaper editor in Brazil, that I was researching Dylan Thomas. He introduced me to a super smart woman who is a Brazilian expert on Dylan Thomas. She also knew a lot about Wales and England. She had dedicated her life to studying poetry and poets. She was my first source. She gave me some stuff to read and I started with his poetry and understanding more about his life – who he was and what he represented. From there, I started to work on my part. My character Carlos quotes literature from A to Z; from St. Thomas Aquinas to Shakespeare, to revolutionary poets. And Steve helped me with that. It was a lot of reading – a lot of literature and poetry. That was the basic literary research. Then, I went to a bar and I said, “Hey, I’m an actor. I’m playing a bartender and I need to learn the steps. I would like to talk to the guys.” So I talked to this one guy and he recommended I talk to another guy and I learned the basics about the kind of drinks and the kind of bar that was in the script. Then I did research on White Horse Tavern which is the real bar where the story happened.

Q) Did you and Rhys discuss the relationship between Dylan and Carlos before filming?

A) When there is great writing and the parts are well written, if the actors do their jobs, there is no need for them to discuss their relationships. Rhys and I didn’t talk much. We didn’t have much time. I landed in Montreal two or three days before shooting. I met Rhys. We talked for a little bit. Then, the next day we had lunch and we had one of those dinners with everyone together (pre-pandemic) where we could go and just have a nice meal together. It was great. It was great energy and we were all excited as actors to be able to do such a nice piece. I talked to Rhys briefly about the relationship and what he thought it was. But that was it. It was brief. Basically, Rhys is a beast as an actor. He was in character the whole time and he would do one take after another and each take was completely different to the last. I loved it because I like to work like that too and I think that helped our chemistry because we were feeding off of each other. Dylan takes a little bit of time to understand where Carlos is coming from. Carlos is aware, like an eagle, from day one. There is so much subtext going on. Carlos is a bartender who appears to be just doing his job, serving drinks and cleaning glasses. His physical expression does not reveal what he is really thinking or what he really wants to say or do. He is boiling inside and at the same time keeping it cool until that’s not possible anymore and he lets go and explodes.

Q) What do you hope viewers take away or learn from watching Last Call?

A) A couple of things.  One of the main themes of the movie is seduction and how much we are all seducing each other, in different ways, all of the time. And, at the end of the day, that is what our society is all about. The very first time I read this script all of this was clear to me. But it’s also a movie that talks about language – the power of language in many forms, poetry being one of them. That’s important. Yes, it’s possible, though no one is certain, that Dylan Thomas drank himself to death, but that is certainly not what the movie is about. It’s about seduction and language and the search for meaning. Drink isn’t what you do when you are looking for meaning, but maybe it is what you do when you don’t find it. So maybe the denizens of a bar are all lost souls. Maybe that’s what Dylan Thomas was most of all.

Dylan tried to impose his own order on a disordered world through force of will. But others resisted, they had to, looking for their own meaning. I play Carlos, who has an opposite way of thinking than Dylan Thomas.  He wants his voice heard. He wants to hear his own voice, impose his own will. He doesn’t have the fame or the fans, but does that mean his creative understanding of the world is not valid?  Maybe truth is more substantive than fame and in part that is what the movie examines. Substance.  Of course, every viewer has the freedom – and that’s the beauty of art – each person will have their own impression and opinion on the movie. That is what is so beautiful about this movie, it works on so many different levels, each time you see it, I should say each time you experience it, there is something new. Rarely is public art like this; challenging and engaging an audience. People will connect or not, will be touched or not, will be angry or happy – they will have their own relationship with the material – and each person will take away something different. That’s how rich it is, how rewarding and how difficult.  There is a lot of metaphor in this piece that will resonate. This world we portray was the world we live in now at its genesis. Fame, self-obsession, the frailty of the human condition, the falseness of our public selves. After this pandemic when people are rethinking and reevaluating and reinventing – we are being forced to reinvent ourselves in every single way. I think we will look at one another with greater understanding and greater caution.  When the world descends into chaos, be it our private world like Dylan Thomas’ or the shared truth. Whatever that may be. Certainly, Dylan Thomas and my Carlos couldn’t agree what that is. Maybe none of us can.