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With considerable experience both in front and behind the camera, Noonan’s voice work on Anomalisa – a film adapted from Charlie Kaufman’s play of the same name in roles written for him – is tonally perfect for the small world that surrounds the film’s main character, Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis). The film is an extraordinary piece of filmmaking and perhaps one of the most human films of the last decade.
Anomalisa is available now from all major digital retailers and will be available on Blu-ray and DVD from Paramount Home Entertainment on May 3, 2016.
HTF: I had the chance to see Anomalisa and I was quite blown away by it. I found it incredibly human and real, sad and bitter and bittersweet. How did you first join this project and what was your response when you first read the material?
Tom Noonan: I have a long history with Charlie because I made a movie back in 1992 called What Happened Was, that won best film at Sundance, and Charlie had seen that movie and began writing to me back in the 90s before he was well known as “Charlie Kaufman”. Then, when he became famous, he would refer to me as one of his influences. And it was through that that I ended up meeting him and we became friends. So it was sort of through my work that we became close. And we were just sort of friends for a couple of years and then one day he called up and said, "I've written this play for you, you're going to do with David Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh." And he didn't tell me anything about it, he just sent it to me. And as I was reading it [chuckles] I started realizing that I was playing like 40 or 50 people [chuckles]. And I didn't really know how to do that, so we just got together and rehearsed. I tried really hard not to add grand expectations to that because I had never done that sort of voice work before, but we just did it a scene at a time.
HTF: And as you said, you voice everyone else in Anomalisa but the character of Michael Stone, voiced by David Thewlis, and Lisa, voiced by Jennifer Jason Lee, and they're both terrific. There are very, very subtle differences between each person that Michael meets in his disgruntled way, and it's a fascinating creative choice to have you voice everyone else in this world because it highlights the uniqueness, or the spark of inspiration and passion, that the Michael Stone character has when he hears the different voice of Jenifer Jason Leigh's character. How did you approach each person that you would voice in the film?
Tom Noonan: Sort of like I would in any movie or play. I just did it a scene at a time, and I didn't really try to make conscious effort to make them sound differently. I just tried in my scenes with David Thewlis, who most of my scenes are with – and I have a few with Jennifer, but I would try to win the scene. I would try to get what I needed, like I would in any scene as an actor. And, so I guess the fact the voices sound a little bit where you can feel the people through it - that just happened. I don't know how to make that happen. It's sort of like if you're walking down the street talking to somebody, then there's somebody else comes up to you, you take up a different persona. You have a different persona for every different person in your life. You're not the same person with everybody. You're different with everyone. And Charlie didn't want me to sound very different. He didn't want me to try to use what he called “funny voices”, or accents, or any of that stuff. So it just sort of evolved. It wasn't really much of a conscious thing.
HTF: I think it must come from just who [these different characters] are, so their function in the world, and of course in the story, is a little bit different, but they all have the same face and the same tonality, but just something a little bit different, and that creates an interesting dynamic. We spend so much time just looking at Michael Stone doing very mundane things - as he frustratingly interacts with everyone else around him. But that sameness - the numbness he feels in that world - is piled on by what he perceives as everyone being exactly the same in some form or fashion. But it was beautifully done.
Tom Noonan: I am sort of the opinion that the reason everybody's the same [is because] he treats everybody the same. He treats everybody like shit. Which was part of what I had to play against throughout the whole thing, because I play all these people who try to connect to him, and be close to him, but he doesn't want anybody to do that, and that gave me a lot to work with.
HTF: Anomalisa is a beautiful deconstruction of loneliness and the disconnection that the Michael Stone character feels from everyone around him, and it's largely, and I think you're right, that he brings it upon himself. He doesn't want to take time for anybody else and so everyone becomes this monolith of humanity. And there's a desperation that comes out when he hears a voice that's different that he then he vigorously pursues. Anomalisa is such a hard film to categorize, and I love films that don't like to check off traditional boxes, and Charlie Kaufman is well known for that. Do you find yourself inspired when a project comes along like this? Because you're an actor, a writer, you've done I think just about everything behind the creative process of film making and stage plays and in television that there is to be done. But when something unique like this comes along, do you find that that sort of stokes your coals in your creative endeavors, whether it's acting or anything behind the scenes?
Tom Noonan: Yeah, Charlie is one of the greats who's ever worked on movies [chuckles]. I try not to think about that when I'm working with him and I try to take a day at a time. I remember one night I went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and I immediately went outside and called him up and said, "Charlie, I now know what it would've been like to have seen Citizen Kane in 1941”. There's just something that's so startlingly different, and sort of alive and personal about his work that it's very inspiring, and I feel very flattered the he wants to work with me. I don't really understand why sometimes he would [chuckles] pick me because I've pretty much been in everything he's directed. I'm just very, very lucky.
HTF: So what is your working relationship like, and what was it like providing voice for puppets in this film. Is it a very collaborative relationship with a lot of give and take and feedback?
Tom Noonan: Charlie sort of leaves you alone at the beginning, and he picks who he wants to pick because he sort of knows who they are and what they're gonna bring. So he wouldn't say a whole lot. We've worked together a lot, and when he is in the room I can feel him and know when I did something he digs, or he directs me towards that. In the movie he directed me a little more than he did in the play because he wanted the voices all to sound enough alike that you thought it was all the same person. Whereas in the play he didn't have to do that because there I was sitting on stage and people could see me. So he would sometimes say, "not too much funny voice, take that back a little." In some of the takes I know that I did, some of the people were more emotional than he ended up using. But, he knows what he is doing, he knows what he wants, it's very easy to work with him. I'm very good friends with him and it's just fun working with someone who's that talented.
HTF: And you've played a lot of roles that have been somewhat menacing characters. But they have been characters that are sort of a fragile menace. What I find interesting about that looking over your body of work, is you honestly have one of the kindest faces of actors out there, and you have this very disarming voice which I think it's always been used to great effect when you do play characters with ill content. Have you always been aware of the power of using your kind face and your disarming voice for characters that turn out to not be good people?
Tom Noonan: Well, I try not to think of them as good or bad, but for an audience to be truly frightened by somebody I think the character has to be human and personal. If someone's a monster and not human at all, you can sort of write them off. But if someone seems like, "Wow, he reminds me of my cousin Bill," or I know my friend's husband is like that. You seem like a real person. It's a lot scarier." Somebody said to me once, "You know if you're in a bar, and some guy comes at you screaming and waving his arms, you know he's full of shit [chuckles]. If someone walks up to you smiling, that's when you really got to be scared."
HTF: I'm a life-long listener of film and television scores. It's my primary source of music, and I know that you've composed for a number of pieces for film and television, and I'm interested to know where that spark of inspiration to create the music comes from, and who composes today that you might listen to or admire. I mean Carter Burwell did the score for this film...
Tom Noonan: And Carter is great.
HTF: Yeah, he's fantastic. Very underrated and I think I have probably 90% of anything that he's ever released that's out there on CD, but I'm interested to know about your process for composition and your influences.
Tom Noonan: Technically my method is that I'm given a job, and they tell me the scene. They want to add the score over it. And the first thing I do is I look at the scene a lot, and then I create a click, sort of a beat, a rhythm, to the scene. Hopefully that it fits into the rhythm of what they intended, and then I begin just sort of riffing on a keyboard. I'll sit and watch the film over, and over, and over again. And I come up with a couple sort of sketches, the different sorts of things that would fit that click track. I go to the director show to him and the director will say, "I like number two or the click is too insistent, or it's too slow," and you just sort of work your way through, a little bit at a time. I've never felt comfortable sitting down and writing a grand score. I often feel there's just way too much music in those movies. I tend to be pretty sparse and economical and just work little piece at a time
HTF: Fascinating.
Tom Noonan: Also when I make my own movies what I've done in general is that I compose sort of a theme for the film before we shoot. And I do little variations on the theme, and I have different characters either humming that or whistling that in the movie to sort of tie it all together. I've done that a lot. I guess my favorite film composers are Nino Rota and of course Bernard Herrmann. There are so many people that are great. I see movies that I go, "Oh shit, that's a great score", but I don't know a lot of the people by name. But again, I feel there's way too much music in movies.
HTF: [chuckles] No, I understand. Well, thank you for taking the time today. The movie is wonderful, and all the best to you.
Tom Noonan: Yeah, great questions. Thanks for being in touch.
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