Tom Noonan Talks Working With Michael Mann

One of Michael Mann’s earlier films was the first, and some would say best, ‘Hannibal’ movie.  This summer it will celebrate what will probably be a quiet 30th anniversary.  So it’s no surprise that Tom Noonan will be nostalgic and talk about it.

There’s a cool interview that has taken place with Noonan at ShutUpKids, where he talks working with Michael Mann.

SUK: Michael Mann didn’t really give you much direction but it turned out great. You put on a great performance. How did you approach that knowing that Michael Mann wasn’t going to give you any directions except for going from here to here?
TN: I didn’t know what he would do. We rehearsed a little. I actually auditioned with a lot of the other people. Once he began auditioning me and I began reading with other people in the cast, which was the point that I had known I gotten the job, he would ask me about different people who would come in. We were sort of, well, close is not really the right word, but we were in the same head about how this was going to go. And everything that I did during these auditions with other people he never had much to say about it other than that he liked it or didn’t say much. People don’t direct me a lot in movies. Well, most people aren’t directed much in movies. It’s such a crazy atmosphere, where you are trying to make this huge movie with all of this crew, dealing with light issues and losing locations. If someone is decent and interesting, they try not to fuck with you so much.

SUK: Right.
TN: And I was sort of used to that by then. I would try to avoid that. I would never have conversations with directors or ask questions about the script. Ever. The less you talk to a director the less chance you are going to get directed. But he seemed to like a lot of what I did and I had an unspoken connection with him about the part. It was very emotional. I just feel like, that he felt in me, what he had envisioned. And he made it very easy to do that and was a bit inspiring to me. Sometimes he would push me to do takes over and over and over again to see how long it would take me before I fell apart. But I didn’t mind that too much.

You can check out the full interview here.