Interviews

Michael Pitt


MP: One of my biggest realizations is that, in not making it specifically about anyone or times or dates, he allowed people to look at a human being in that situation. And not like a rock icon. Someone that people already have, like, ideas about what they are in their heads, you know?

MP: Gus is just—Gus has no ego, and it's really easy to be friends, and we're interested in a lot of the same things. I mean, I love being around him and learning—I mean, he knows so much, you know?

G: What was it first about his work that captivated you from the outside as a viewer?
MP: I guess the fact that it was like a film that I had never seen before. You know, my first film that I saw of Gus's was Private Idaho, and I just remember—I just had never seen anything like that before on film, and I had watched a lot of films.


Gus Van Sant

How did Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore become involved as music consultant?  I needed to have somebody that knew the music scene. I met him at a few NYC gatherings and asked him to be a musical advisor on the film. For any and all questions on music, bands equipment and so on. I went over with him and brought Mike (Pitt) who brought his guitar and I remember he played a song.

At the film’s end we remain unsure exactly how Blake dies. Can you comment on that significant choice, to leave the matter open? When he (Blake) was looking up, it is sort of his revelation, whatever it may be. You see it from the tabloid point of view, just from the hillside and you’re not really part of it.

Finally, as used brilliantly in “Last Days,” there is “time-looping” device that also drives “Gerry” and “Elephant.”
 Well, “Elephant” is one that has the most extensive and successful circling of time, because of those characters being so separate. We were attempting that same thing in “Last Days” but then we realized that Mike’s character, Blake, was so dominant that it was hard to go-off with other characters for really long periods of time.


Were there any favorite or affecting films that influenced “Last Days”?
One of the influences on all three films is Bela Tarr’s “Satantango.” Another is Chantal Akerman’s film “Jeanne Dielman” from 1975.