Brad Rushing, Cinematographer: And he flashed the camera with a flare
and I thought Oh that's perfect! Oh my goodness, it will never happen again.
Oh how tragic that I hope they use that take. So we rolled again…
Film Courage: How do you know an actor is the real deal?
Brad: Well I would say there are different flavors of real deal you know there there are
people who bring the performance in different ways that are moving and convincing but
you know it's really those moments when I’m behind a camera and I disengage as a
technician and become an audience member and I feel a tear in my eye or I have to
take my hand off the camera because I’m laughing so hard that it's going to shake the camera or
there's a scene in California Christmas that where Cali and her mom are in
the truck talking about her mom's cancer and every time we did that scene I just wanted to
walk from behind the camera and just go give them a hug. I just had this strong like oh
my goodness. I’m so sorry and those are the moments for me or also I’ve worked on movies
where somebody played a bad person and I remember thinking on set that guy's kind of an meanie and
then later on like we become best friends. It's very weird. I worked with Rutger Hauer once and
my god that guy was just amazing and this is another one of those things that we could
do a whole one of these just with my Rutger Hauer stories but I’ll tell you one of my favorite ones
is we were shooting in Brazil and we were shooting out in the rain forest near Ubatuba
and we were in a hut and Rutger was standing by a window threatening somebody and I had a
low camera angle looking up at him and I remember I was watching through the camera
and he's like you know yada yada yada yada and this chrome was kind of his gun was chrome
and you know yada yada yada and Austin he did said something and this precise moment he did a gesture
with the gun and he flashed the camera with a flare and I thought oh that's perfect oh my god
it will never happen again oh how tragic that's I hope they use that take so we rolled again and
by god he flashed the camera again and I'm like well now that can't be a coincidence
so I go up and I ask Rutger now you know Rutgers a legend I mean he did blade runner and the hitcher
and legend and heaven knows what else and so I'm there's not a lot of actors I work with where I'm
a fan and I just kind of have to not let that you know surface up but he you know I just thought the
world to him and the other thing is when you get to know him because you know so many his
characters are just big meanies but he was a teddy bear he was a gentle soul and an artist so I go up
and I say Rutgers are you flashing the lens and he goes oh I'm sorry do you not like that I don't
have to do it and I'm like no my god how do you have that level of control and the geometry to
just get that right and to know that to punctuate that that that that scene I was just like and he
was so humble and so unpretentious he he would ask me you know what lens is it is there a 50 50s
and I would tell him it was a 35 and he'd be like and he would play everything inside I never had
to say raise the gun you know you're out you know you're you're outside your he knew if I told him
what that lens was he knew where he needed to be and you know I just such an amazing guy I have to
tell you one more story of his there was another scene where we had a a plane crash and it was
in another world it would have been a second unit scene because it really didn't have the
principal actors in it and so it was Rutgers day off and they had built this
nose cone of a plane a full-size nose cone and we had a field and they wanted to just put bodies in
it and people were kind of you know going around helping the wounded and you know so we're out
there getting this set up and the director says Brad you know raise the camera and I'm like okay
so I lean over and the camera assistant unlocks a leg and I unlock a leg i'll lock this and we lift
it up and then she locked a leg I locked a leg and this other hand comes in and locks the leg
and I look over it's freaking Rutger and like Rutgers what are you doing here it's your day
off he says I don't want to sit around the hotel this is where all the fun is
he I'm sure he didn't get paid he came out there and he was he was helping them place background
this is Rutger freaking Hauer his place in background and locking tripod legs
you know that he was a solid dude man and and you know now bless him that he's passed away
I want to tell you that his email address was fartville aol.com gotta love this guy right.
what qualities are you looking for in an actor it seems like a strange question to ask a DP
but because I don't really get to ch choose the actors but things that I appreciate
I mean I appreciate their ability to hit a mark if they don't hit a mark oh you know my poor acs
you know especially on the long lenses and the focus but yeah I like them to be able to hit
a mark I like them to have a sense that you know if we follow their hands that they don't go quick
because if I'm doing a tilt and they go you know lift it up quick I'm gonna lose it you know have
a nice you know let me be able to understand that the camera is following you you know to be able to
find their light to have a sense that you know this if I hold my face this way I've got good
light on it but if I look that way I got shadows in my eyes you know some people are just you know
like a guy like Rutgers just he's gonna be there you know but maybe somebody else I may be like you
know you have to keep raising your chin because when you put your chin down I can't see your eyes
you know the ability to have again just have a sense of where the camera is
you know especially with things like stunts but you know stunt coordinators can help with that
but you know really those are the things that I and of course I want them to be good performers
because if if their performance is crap it doesn't matter how good it looks but you know I work with
good actors these days I don't it's been a long time since I worked with anybody that
I thought was wanting as a performer you know sometimes you have the extraordinary ones Rutger
was extraordinary I worked with Elliot Gould and Lainey Kazan they were just stunning fabulous
you know Josh and Lauren were magical you know and again I'm I know I'm leaving out people who
I shouldn't when I cook county you know Xander Berkeley Anson Mount Ryan Donahoe Polly Cole you
know all of those leads were just just amazing I mean you know people wouldn't hate that movie
not I mean everybody doesn't but the people who just vehemently don't like it wouldn't
feel that way if those characters weren't real to them you know and for the people who do like the
movie it's tragic for the same reason because those characters are real you know whereas
California Christmas was just that perfect magical escape in the time of covid for everybody who just
wanted that magic and and you know they brought it and you know Amanda Detmer the one who played
the mom you know the little girl Hannah you know I mean they were just all of them
David del Rio who was manny Ali Afshar you know the fellow who played Connor I mean
that's like you know again it's just it was just like every one of those person was a hit
and one of the things that's a little off topic but one of the things I loved about it
which I credit equally to the actors and to Sean the director and to Lauren the screenwriter
is that all of those characters are sympathetic I mean even the ones in with the conflicts the
ones that in a stereotype presentation you would you know they would be the villain
it's like they were all complex and if you really thought about it sympathetic
so you know I i just I i love all of that kind of thing from a performance point of view but
but really again you know if you ask me as a DP it's you know hit your marks find your light
and and don't move so fast that the camera can't follow you what do you do when time is running out
and the actor does not have the lines memorized that's the director's problem what can I there's
not diddly squat I can do you know maybe they do you know maybe they do cue cards typically unless
it's specified we don't have a teleprompter and even with a teleprompter they'd be looking into
the lens you could put you actually you could take a teleprompter and put it off outside the lens you
know I don't know if I was the director what would I do I mean I guess I would cover it in a way that
I could try and be on angles where I could loop it later you know I would try you know and I i would
simplify the dialogue I would like cut stuff out like how you know can you at least memorize this
and if it was a chronic problem I guess you'd have to think about recasting so yeah that's my answer.
Question
For The Viewers:
Which part of this was most helpful?