Michael Ironside Has A Sneaky Way Of Testing The Directors He Works With
Not to be all, "being a successful actor is hard!," but it certainly can be tricky. Assuming you're well-off enough to have your pick of projects to work on, there are other factors to consider: whether the material itself is any good, whether you can do something with it, and most importantly, who your co-workers will be and whose vision is behind it. After all, this is several weeks (if not months) of your life and craft that we're talking about, here.
Fortunately, seasoned actors have their own sly ways of testing the waters, especially with young, inexperienced, and untested filmmakers whose reputations don't yet precede them. Canadian thespian Michael Ironside, who's been working at a steady clip since the mid-1970s, is as seasoned as they come, having appeared in well over 100 projects ranging from the small to the big screen. It's no surprise, then, that Ironside has his approach to testing out new directors down to a science, one that's as effective as it is sneaky.
Understanding the function of a director
Thanks to his vast amount of experience, Michael Ironside has picked up a sixth sense regarding directors, their abilities, and their function while making a film. During an interview in 2015 on the eve of the release of "Turbo Kid," Ironside explained how he calibrates his working approach to a director:
"I don't make my work dependent upon someone else. Even the director. You usually know right off the bat when you're on something whether somebody's falling down. Then my job's to go to the script to support the story. First thing's always the script. The script's always got to be there. Then, the interpretation goes to the director."
Ironside's practical philosophy on the director's role, in fact, allegedly caused him to be hired on the sly to mind certain directors on a few of his films, claiming that he "had producers and stuff in the States paying me an extra $50k to keep an eye on the director. To go up to them and say, 'Look, how many shots have you got today?'" Obviously, the producers and Ironside shared the same ethos of suffering no fools.
Surprising the 'Turbo Kid' directors with a sneaky test
When Ironside was approached by Canadian filmmaking trio RKSS (François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell) about "Turbo Kid," the actor found their enthusiasm for the project "infectious and so over the top" that he offered to see a script. Upon reading and enjoying it, Ironside met with the trio over Skype to discuss the film, the directors and actor essentially interviewing each other. As Ironside recalled:
"I'll ask obvious questions of directors, especially young directors, that are contrary to the good of the film, and I'll ask them, what about changing this? They were right on top of it and said no, we need this and this and this. And they were very comfortable saying no, which is not always true."
Ironside remembered one testing point in particular regarding his character, Zeus, and his first major scene in the movie. He continued:
"I think it was the entrance of Zeus, that whole thing where he comes on with the trike where he's pedaling and the stuff is over there. I asked [is] there any way we could have that motorized so that he's getting, and I knew it was wrong. I said, 'because I know you're doing a whole Road Warrior thing, but is there any way we can get him elevated so that gives him a bigger entrance and [one that's] more powerful?' They said, 'No, no, we want to stay within the genre and within the limitations of our world,' and I went, 'right answer." I started laughing and they said what are you laughing at, and I said, 'I'll tell you one day.' And so I got to tell them."
Establishing a healthy working relationship
Of course, Ironside isn't just being a playful scamp with such sneaky tactics. His "tests" were a sly, quick way to establish trust in his directors, as well as opening up the lines of communication regarding the creative process. After creating this rapport with RKSS, Ironside then spoke to them about some changes he really did want to make, "and they considered it and they said yes to about 60% of them," he explained.
Ironside wasn't looking to disrupt things with his tactics, but was instead all about creating an environment where boundaries are established early on, then going from there. As he elaborated, "I kind of pride myself on trying to fit into a production. [...] You've got to trust, once you're on board, you're on board. Once the ship sails, you're on board."
As anyone who's seen his performance in "Turbo Kid," "Top Gun," "Scanners," "Total Recall" or any of the dozens of films he's appeared in knows, Ironside is one helluva actor to have on board.