APRIL 18, 2010:
MICHAEL REESE MEYERS likes to call himself "the chameleon". A title given to character actors fond of altering their physical appearance from role to role, never looking the same, having the same mannerisms, or sound the same, often using various types of accents and vocal inflections. But Meyers, not only does he seem like one with his on screen roles, but he is also one behind the scenes as well. I honestly do not think I have met such an intriguing, mysterious, enigmatic, complex actor in my 28 years doing what I do. I honestly felt like I interviewed four different people in the 3 days it took to conduct this piece. Each a distinctly different person than the other. One, a shy, introverted, nervous, almost insecure child, unsure of what to do or say. We'll call that side "Shy Mike". The second, a charismatic, charming, confident ladies man full of sex appeal and grace as he walks into a room. We will call that side "Sexy Mike". The third, a very intelligent, well spoken and well read young man who takes the craft of acting incredibly seriously. Let's call that side "Smart Mike". The fourth, and most disturbing though, is a lost and fragile soul filled with rage and seemingly obsessed with thoughts of revenge on those who hurt him or slight him in any way. We can call that side "Dark Mike". And strangely enough, he seemed to randomly alternate within minutes from each personality, each moment of every day.
The first day I sat down with Michael was in mid April, on a warm Spring day in L.A. at the Four Seasons hotel. He was in Shy Mike mode as the interview casually commenced, unable to accept a compliment when I commented on how slim he looked ("I'm no Brad Pitt" he said, a comment he'd repeat numerous times). Despite the public persona he has as a sex symbol, he really doesn't see himself as one, even though others do. When my young and blonde female assistant pops in briefly to ask if either of us want coffee or water to drink, Sexy Mike appears. He shakes her hand, stares deeply into her eyes, asks about how long she's worked for Complex Magazine, and compliments her on how pretty her eyes are. She replies with "yea my boyfriend tells me that alot" and Meyers almost immiediately disengages. His face becomes distant and cold, and he no longer seems interested in her conversation or presence. He can barely speak above a whisper or even make eye contact when saying "No I'm Ok" as she asks if he wants anything to eat with the Mocha Cappuccino he requested 5 minutes earlier. In a stern voice, almost as if she was HIS assistant and not mine, he orders her to close the door after she leaves. Maybe this was Dark Mike.. who knows.
Smart Mike emerged when I asked what, if any, advice did he get from Denzel Washington on the set of Pelham 123. "Do Theater", Denzel told him. "I said Ok". But Meyers was merely playing fecicious. "In my head I'm thinking, Hell No. No way! Theater is crazy man. You know how hard it is to memorize two hours of dialogue without messing up once, no chance to say cut and do it again? To know the whole script from front to back? It's a hell of a challenge that's for sure. The Best Tears was the closest thing to theater since doing TV you memorize alot more lines and scenes at a bulk than film. There were times doing that show I felt, there's no way I can do all this. But I did." Meyers does concede he only took the role in order to work with Washington (he even begged director Paul Steinman to add a scene not originally in the script where the two interact) and Denzel's performance in Training Day among many others inspired him to become an actor. "Growing up I had alot of anger and wanted to be a boxer, professionally. But eventually movies became my passion", he says. When listing the actor performances that made him fall in love with the craft, he includes Mark Wahlberg's in Fear, Sean Penn's in At Close Range (also directed by James Foley, who directed Fear), Sean Penn in Carlito's Way, Gary Oldman in State of Grace, True Romance, and Shortcomings, and Val Kilmer in Tombstone.
Meyers, though clearly no where close to retirement, sounds almost like an old man dealing with years of labor, talks stoicly about the toll acting takes on him physically. "It's emotionally taxing. It's physically draining" he says. "I've read about what it did to James Dean, Marlon Brando. What it does to Sean Penn, Daniel Day-Lewis. It really scares me. That's why Day-Lewis rarely acts and gets away from it. That's why Sean was ready to retire in the early 90's and direct. Sean even talked to me backstage at the 2009 Oscars right after he beat me for the Best Actor award for (his performance in) Milk and called me 'the future (of acting)' on stage. Backstage he said to me, 'I'm glad you're also into directing because what we (actors) do, you can only do it for so long and keep your sanity. What we give, we never get back'. I really felt that. After my screaming scene in Malibu's Most Wanted where I threaten to kill Emile Hirsche's character over the phone, my last scene in that film, it gave me a migraine. I only did one take. I told Matt (Ratner, the director) 'I'm only doing this once'. And on The Best Tears I started getting these tingles in my hands and arms after a real emotional scene, like the kind you get when your leg falls asleep. And my hands wouldn't stop shaking. It was scary man. I asked them (the teachers, producers) what to do about it. They said breathe better. It didn't help. I still haven't figured it out, but thankfully that doesn't really happen anymore."
Of course when The Best Tears comes up, Meyers knows the conversation will inevitably turn to Mel Morley. When I mention her name his face becomes visibly irritated as he closes his eyes and plays with the bridge of his nose. When I ask what the tattoo on his neck means to him he says: "I see it as a badge of honor. We all, or most of us who have lived long enough, have that great love or that one person who changed us forever. Growing up I always dreamed of finding that person. That (person who) either makes you the happiest you ever been or breaks your heart and soul deeper than it has ever been before. She was both for me. I found that person. I gave her everything I have. She took a part of me I will never get back. I am not 100% anymore. I never will be. But I survived. It's a scar. A reminder. A beautiful scar that reminds me everyday. I love it. Like in Face Off when Travolta had that scar from the bullet wound and he wanted the surgeons to keep it. Any girl I am with just has to understand that and accept it. We all have a past, we all have that person, I just happen to have her name on my neck." When I remind him that at the end of the film Travolta's character realizes he doesn't need the scar anymore, Meyers admits that unless he gets it laser removed or covered with another one, he doesn't have that option. When I asked what he'd do if a girl he was dating asked him to remove it, he quickly replied, "I'd dump her".
With the exception of 2007 and 2008, Meyers has been steadily releasing about three films a year since his breakout year of 2005 where he had 4 films released. In 2010 that continues with sci-fi thriller Inception, marital affair drama Brotherly Love, and boxing epic The Fighter all scheduled to hit a theater near you every other month during the second half of the year. It starts in July with Inception. He accepted the role on a whim while in the middle of his boxing training for Fighter. "The script was genius, the concept was brilliant, I'm a huge fan of (director David) Fincher, (co-writer) Chris Nolan, and I been wanting to work with my friend Leo (DiCaprio) for a while now. Me and Rachel McAdams were going to star in Red Eye in 2005 but I had to turn it down to do another film and Cillian Murphy replaced me. So it's ironic I am replacing him here." The mysterious and complex plot and ground breaking CGI are no doubt big draws for the film, but it's major star power is what has got people talking. The biggest issue on everyone's mind of course, is what it will be like to see Meyers and Mel Morley on screen together again, for the first time since their days on The Best Tears. The blockbuster stars DiCaprio as scientist/dream specialist Dr. Lucas Cobb, Rachel McAdams as his wife, nuerosurgeon Dr. Lisa Cobb, Meyers as Dr. Trace McPherson, a Columbia psychology teacher, and Mel Morley as Adrienne Miller, a British young prodigy who was one of McPherson's students at one point with whom he had an innapropriate relationship. The Cobbs invent a way to enter people's dreams and download their thoughts with the purpose of finding a better understanding and treatment of mental disorders. When the government refuses to give them funding to put it into use, Cobb resorts to getting help from a shady energy mogul (Ken Watanabe) who says he will foot the bill, but first he wants them to use it to destroy the empire of his rival (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). The Cobbs put together a "dream team" and recruit old college friend McPherson to help them. Leo also goes to his father-in-law Miles (Michael Caine) and asks him for his brightest architecture student, which turns out to be Adrienne, forcing her to be reunited with Trace, causing friction on the team, which also includes Tom Hardy as a master of disguises and Anthony Mackie as a chemist who specializes in inducing sleep sedatives.
On filming, Meyers says "It was like a fever dream. Trying to focus on my character, who I had very little time to build, the plot, the locations, chemistry with my co-stars, and of course dealing with all the emotions of being around Mel again, it was alot to deal with." Meyers anticipated animosity immediately from Morley but was shocked to find his ex flame to be quite receptive and welcoming to his joining of the cast. "She was very sweet. I wasn't expecting that". The two agreed to put the past behind them and focus on the work. "She had matured quite a bit since I had last seen her and it was 15 months that had gone by. After saying the worst things you can say to someone. But we buried it and tried to be professional. There was a surreal dual meaning to all our scenes since we play a former couple and all the things our characters were saying were stuff we either already said to each other at one point in real life or things we've been wanting to say, it wasn't like acting at all". They would hang out often after filming was over and rumors started to surface they were rekindling their romance. Meyers laughs at the notion. "I thought we were. But she had other intentions". Meyers said in an interview last year that the two did have a sexual relationship while filming but Morley refused to engage emotionally. He admitted the pain caused him to temporarily use cocaine again after filming completed. Meyers says he is clean now and hasn't done the drug since. When I asked how did things end between the two on set he says "Horrible. We're back to where we started. We hate each other. Part of why I won't be doing press or interviews for Inception or be at the premiere is because I will be filming Bond but another is the fact that we cannot be in the same room with each other. Before Bond came about I wasn't planning on doing any of the press simply due to the fact that I don't want to be around something I was once addicted to and took me years to get over. You don't go around alcohol if you are trying to recover. You stay away. But as of now, that's done. I just don't want to see her."
At this point Meyers is told our time is up and we might conduct part two the next day.
APRIL 19, 2010:
Meyers meets me 9AM the next morning at his L.A. home and gives me a tour of his humble abode. We walk, talk, and sip caffeine free Pepsi mixed with rum (he says caffeine, he recently discovered, gives him strange night terrors where he feels someone is actually choking him).
Meyers is in a relaxed mood as he explains his excitement for his boxing film The Fighter. He shows me the bright lime green boxing gloves he used to train for the film with. "The training was very difficult but at the same time I loved every minute of it. Like I said, growing up, before I discovered acting, I wanted to be a boxer. In my house, my dad and my two older brothers and I would watch all the big fights, Mike Tyson, and stuff. I fantasized about walking into the ring and being paid to beat the shit out of someone. So training for this film, shooting it, pretending to be a professional boxer, was really like a dream come true for me. I was jealous when my best bud James Franco got to play (a boxer) in Annapolis, a very good and underrated film not alot of people saw. But yea, he gave me alot of tips for this. How to eat, how to train, how to save my body, not over do it." Meyers gets reflective and emotional when talking about the real boxer he had to portray in the film, someone he was a fan of. "Yea I was a fan man. I was a fan. It was sad. I mean to play Arturo Gatti, one of the most exciting blood and guts warriors to ever live. A legend. It was a true honor. He was my favorite boxer, ever. It was crazy timing that the summer he died, I was training for the part. I saw it on the cover of the newspaper and was shocked. Just shocked. It's truly a tragedy and I hope they find the truth to what happened. Maybe one day he will get his own film, he certainly deserves it. I just hope my performance in this film makes his family and fans and legacy proud." When asked if he got injured shooting the film he smiles, "Of course, it's a boxing film". Meyers broke his jaw a week into filming but soldiered on. "Yea me and Mark (Wahlberg) were shooting a fight scene from the first fight in Ward and Gatti's trilogy of fights, and he hit me with a left hook and I'm supposed to turn away from it so it misses me a little but I forgot and I took the hit a little too flush, too direct to the cheek and I instantly felt a sharp pain in the right side of my mouth. Doctors took a look at it after we finished shooting for the day and told me he broke my jaw. I could feel my jaw slightly hanging crooked or out of alignment when I opened it all the way but it's not like you'd imagine, with your jaw coming off. It just hurts like a bitch and you can't move it correctly. It was easily the most excrutiating pain I've ever been through. Two, three days straight. They operated on it, put a plate in there, which I just had removed since it's healed now, and they gave me these antibiotics which were from another world. It helped with the pain but I thought my brain was gonna explode, haha. But yea 3 days later I was filming again". Meyers also cracked two ribs and broke three fingers throughout the shoot but adds "Mark got banged up, I got banged up, it's a tough sport and we shot 70% of all our fight sequences, it's a lot of close ups. The audience don't pay for wide shots of stunt doubles, they wanna see the real guys in there doin' it."
Meyers was reluctant to use the antibiotics at first since he had heard stories of people getting addicted to them and Meyers is no stranger to drug issues. Back in late 2005 while filming 16 Grams, Meyers became addicted to cocaine and prescription pills, mostly pain killers while dating his co-star Julia Fonda who passed away from her long battle with heroine 5 months before the film was released. Meyers hasn't been shy about his struggle with substance abuse and entered himself into rehab in November 2008 for six weeks to get treatment for depression and addiction to pain killers. He emerged with a beard and a depressing song about suicide with talk of retiring from acting for a singing career. After a Morley response song and an Academy Award nomination for his performance in The Believers, Meyers put down the drugs and says he doesn't plan on returning to rehab, ever. "I'm never going back to rehab, never" he says emphaticly. "It's the most depressing, loneliest place in the world. I feel like such a pathetic loser when I'm in there. Surrounded by a bunch of low lives who can't get their act together and need to pay someone to listen to their problems. No way. Not me. I'll handle my own shit from now on. You won't hear 'Michael Reese Meyers back in rehab' anytime soon. I promise you. Like Vin Diesel said about prison in the first Fast and Furious movie, 'I'll die before I go back'."
In January Meyers went on the Tyra Banks show (something he once swore he would never do after how he felt Tyra treated his ex-girlfriend, porn star Sasha Grey, during a 2006 interview) and joined the laundry list of celebrities claiming to be a sex addict. "That was one of the hardest things I've ever done" he says. "To go on TV and spill all that, very personal stuff, from my past, my childhood, my sexual actions, it was very awkward and revealing but I needed to do it. I needed to talk about it." Meyers confessed to needing sex daily, that he gets terribly depressed when he doesn't get it, and usually right after he gets it. He confessed that he has had intercourse with numerous porn actresses weekly and bankrupted himself in the process, since their services usually don't come (pun intended) for free. He also recalled seeing pornography filmed right in front of him as a child and the combination of that and an adolescence filled with female rejection caused him to become obsessed with sex and pornography. "Maybe my wires are all crossed. I don't know. When all you do is think about sex, how much sex other guys are getting, how much you're not getting, when you spend your time with girls who have sex for a living, it's very hard to have a normal conversation with a normal person. When I meet someone, I want to be intimate with them right away. Not just sexually, I mean, emotionally. People have walls up. They aren't comfortable telling you their life story, their favorite sexual position, how often they finger themself, who broke their heart the worst, what they like most about you physically, all that stuff. I want to know those things in our first conversation. Most girls take months before they are ready to talk about that stuff. The conversations me and porn actresses have contain all that and it's like nothing. But I ask a co-star on The Best Tears something like that and she reports me to the producers. Normal girls just aren't wired that way. Society tells them not to talk about that shit or they're seen as sluts. They won't tell you everything right away and that wall prevents us from getting closer."
Meyers doesn't want to be seen as a sex obsessed pig, but a love obsessed (or as he puts it "love starved") loner looking for someone to trust. An emotion he says he is rapidly running out of. "I'm scared of alot of things. I'm scared that I won't be able to connect with a normal girl again. Go on a normal date again. Fall in love again. Love a girl as deeply as I loved Mel or Kristen (Bell, his fiance from 2004-2005). Maybe it's my fault, maybe it's the girls I choose, maybe it's my past, but for some reason girls meet me and they like me for a few days but then they refuse to open up or get close. I lose trust in people when they show signs of insincerity or fakeness. Little things set me off. Like if we're texting and she signs off without saying goodbye. That drives me insane. If we were on the phone and in the middle of a conversation I just hung up, that would be rude. I see the internet the same way. It's common courtesy, respect. I don't think I'm being overly sensitive in feeling that way. And what I'm most scared of is my temper. I know what's inside of me and I'm terrified of it. What happened last June at JFK, was scary man. I don't like that side of myself and try to hide it. Bury it. Only tap into it when I'm acting. But my fear is one day it will come out again, and something really bad is going to happen. Everyday is a struggle to keep that monster on the leash."
Meyers spent alot of time with porn stars on the set of his film he just finished directing a few weeks ago, Look At Me Now. The movie is an indie he wrote and directed about two characters who are dealing with the exact same dilemma Meyers deals with everyday now; the agony of endless disapointment when it comes to finding true love and emotional/sexual satisfaction. "I found this kid named Chandler Massey, he's great" says Meyers. "He plays a guy from Denver confused about his sexuality. He cannot be truly happy with either guys or girls because either choice leaves something missing in his life. So he chooses to run from intimacy by taking a radical new drug that eliminates the sex drive completely, thinking that's the answer. But it isn't. He meets someone he wants to be with but he can't, perform, if you will. He loses them. He creates his own prison. The other character we follow is a girl, played by Secrets and Sunsets lead singer Alley Vendetta, who becomes a porn star and cannot escape the industry when she decides to leave. Her story is so true and I discovered while shooting Taken and through my research how prevelant this is in the adult industry. The movie is gonna open alot of people's eyes. It's very dark and very touching. I put my heart and soul into it. Both characters are acting out on ideas I've had on how to escape the pain and loneliness of losing love or not having love in your life and they each showed the dark results of either running from intimacy or craving a false sense of it constantly in order to trick yourself into thinking you're getting it."
During a food break in the interview Meyers receives a phone call on his cell phone and jumps up in excitement to the news that he has been named the new James Bond. Director Christopher Nolan called Meyers himself to deliver the news. Meyers begins to call family and friends. He learns he must fly to London that night in order to do the press conference the following day. Assuming our interview has concluded I prepare to say goodbye to Meyers but he politely asks if I want to come with him to England and continue the interview, as well as chronicle the experience. I of course accept (a free trip to Europe people!!!)....
APRIL 20, 2010:
On a private jet to London, Meyers turns on the charm as the cute female flight attendant tends to his needs. After she leaves to get his meal and warm pillow I ask him about past relationships and which ones meant the most to him. He rubs his chin deeply and with a reluctant smile concedes: "They all were special in their own way and taught me something. Kristen (Bell) hurt me alot when she ended our engagement but she was the sweetest girl ever and gave me the best three years of my life. With Megan Fox, it was purely physical. There was no love there. We were young. Did it hurt when she cheated? Yea. But I got over it pretty quick. Julia (Fonda) was a crazy experience. To watch someone slowly destroying themselves and to know there's nothing you can do to save them, it's heart breaking, it's frustrating. When she died, it wasn't shocking, but it hurt. Mandi (Sutton, American Idol contestant) was very short lived but it served a purpose. She was the reason I did The Best Tears. She suggested I do it when we ran into the casting people in Florida. I'm a strong believer we meet everyone we meet for a reason. God has a plan for us. Like when I met Mel, I had no idea what was going to happen. That she would put me through the worst pain I ever been through. But I made it. It made me stronger. Now I feel nothing can kill me. And I know what girls to stay away from. Sinead was an interesting failure. Great kisser, but kinda crazy. We were using each other to make someone else jealous. Sasha Grey was an experiment for sure. She is a weird weird girl who showed me some things about myself that I probably didn't want to look at but she made me think and she is incredibly bright. We had very deep conversations. People underestimate her. Naomi De La Fuente was a special girl. We had a great time shooting The Believers and at the time I really was going through alot emotionally and she and her family took me in. Her mom, her brothers, were all so nice. I felt loved. I felt appreciated. Me and her got very very close and it's funny how now I live one floor above her in a loft apartment in Laguna. We're neighbors. It's awkward sometimes bumping into her but we're friends now. The love I thought we had turned out to be more of a brother/sister thing. We have a funny friendship, the way we poke fun at each other. She's a May baby like me. Taurus' are very sarcastic. Since then it's been a blur. I've been with alot of girls. But they all, from the Mandi's and Audrina's (Hills star Patridge) who I spent no more than a month with, to the Kristen Bell's and Mel Morley's who changed me forever, I truly believe that each and every girl we meet, as they come and they go, they each get a piece of our soul, and if we're lucky, they give us a piece of theirs too. And no matter what, as shallow as this may sound, the sex with all of them is something you'll always remember."
I ask him if they would feel the same and he braggingly proclaims "I'll say it. My sex game is insane. It's very intense, sensual, and will have you begging for more. I've had girls tell me it changed their life and sex since me wasn't as good. A lot of guys don't understand this, but women do, sex, is emotional, at least it is for me. If you can imagine yourself in love with that person, wanting to kiss and touch every part of them, enjoy every part of them for as long as you can, please them as much as you want to please yourself, you will do things to that person you never imagined doing to anyone else. I like to lick and eat ass. That's my thing. That's my shit. When a girl has a great ass. Oh my God. It drives me crazy! I love to kiss, make out. That's my shit too. I mix food with sex. Whip cream, ice cream, strawberries, lotion, oil, all of that. And with each girl it was different. Sasha and I got real rough. Kristen liked to be on top. Megan was very passive and submissive. Naomi liked to talk dirty to me. Mandi and Julia liked to get high before sex. Mel and I liked to go all night. We'd go til the sun came up. It was insane. I feel you should literally be physically and emotionally exhuasted after sex. Great sex is like a drug, the greatest high. You should be on a high after you're done. If not you ain't doin' it right. And I have no problem bragging or saying what I'm saying because it's the truth. Ask anyone I've been with, they can verify it as fact. Ask Megan Fox, ask Kristen, ask Leighton (Meester, Gossip Girl star with whom Meyers made a sex tape with in May 2009 that surfaced online two months later), Sasha, Mel, you name it."
The plane lands and all talk from this point forward centers on James Bond. Paparazzi hound Meyers as he exits the plane, enters a limo, and heads to the hotel to meet with Nolan, the Broccoli family, and media. The boat ride over the Thames River took us to the lawn where the massive podium was set up for the photo ops and press conference where the announcement would be made. The mood was of anticipation and excitement. After the press conference and photos Meyers and I got about 15 minutes alone together before he was to return to the hotel to begin preparations for that night's dinner celebration. I struggled for a while to come up with a question on Bond that he hadn't already been asked during the day and he surely will have a whole year to discuss it more. I turned my recorder on as he leaned against a tree to get some shade from the glaring English sun and take a phone call. I said to him who was it and he replied "my granma". "She's obsessed with Judi Dench, cause as a young lady she spent alot of time in England, she lived here and worked here for years and years and has a fascination for British culture, I guess that's where I got it from. Dench is her favorite actress and she wanted to know if she's here and if I met her yet. I told her no, haha. But it's funny, after all the success I've had, the big films, big name co-stars, Oscar nominations, only now does my granma think I've 'made it', because I'm gonna work with Judi."
Knowing I had time for one last question, I asked him the biggest similarity between him and 007 and he replied: "He lives for the thrill. He seeks pleasure whenever he can find it."
