Callum Keith Rennie and Keith Behrman at Vicki Gabereau
Vicki Gabereau: ...A new feature film, it's called Flower & Garnet, it opens today. It's already created quite a buzz and it's [...] and it's getting really good reviews on the film festival circuit in Canada and in Europe. So we're taking a look at a clip from it and then we will be joined by the director and then the lead actor, Callum Keith Rennie. Here is a scene from Flower & Garnet.
[clip from Flower & Garnet]
Vicki Gabereau: Not too cheery, is it. That was Callum Keith Rennie, he plays Ed in the movie Flower & Garnet, and we're joined by the director as well, Keith Behrman. So, Gentlemen, this is quite a success, isn't it.
Keith Behrman: Well, it's been received pretty well. We had good critical response and [...] responses from festival audiences around the world.
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah. Very impressive, don't you think. First film. First feature.
Keith Behrman: First feature film, yes.
Vicki Gabereau: Was it hard to get it together? When'd you have him, how soon did you have him (points to Callum Keith Rennie) on board ?
Keith Behrman: We had him on board a month or two ahead of time. But I had done several shorts that sort of had gotten a lot of notice, and the script was at a point that I was kind of ready to go with by the time my first short was done. So it just kind of came together, people were interested in working with me...
Vicki Gabereau: (to Callum Keith Rennie) Where you interested in working with him? Did you- where you buddies?
Callum Keith Rennie: No, I've had the script for a while and I hadn't really looked at it and my-
Vicki Gabereau: (laughs)
Callum Keith Rennie: No, just. Because of what was going on at the time, and...
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah.
Callum Keith Rennie: ... and my manager, Liz, went, you really have to read this. And I looked at it and went, what was I doing not picking that up earlier? Like, it was so well structured, so sophisticated. I was amazed and- We met and...
Vicki Gabereau: Got along?
Callum Keith Rennie: Yeah, we had a long talk and, you know.
Keith Behrman: We drank coffee and talked about life.
Callum Keith Rennie: Yeah, we didn't really deal with the movie at all.
Keith Behrman: (at the same time) We didn't talk about the film at all.
Vicki Gabereau: Right. And he was perfect for it.
Keith Behrman: He was.
Vicki Gabereau: Ed the dad.
Keith Behrman: Yeah. He was great. He pulled out all the stops and went to a really interesting place.
Vicki Gabereau: You want to talk about the story? You don't have to tell the ending or anything like that.
Keith Behrman: It's just, like, it's a story about a family who had a death in the past. And the boy was born when his mother died. And the family has to kind of, you know, move ahead and try to find a way to, you know, love each other and be a family again.
Vicki Gabereau: And it ain't that easy.
Keith Behrman: It's hard, you know?
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah. (turns to Callum Keith Rennie) And you're the dad.
Callum Keith Rennie: Yeah.
Vicki Gabereau: You don't seem to work though.
Vicki Gabereau: You're never seen to go to work. Where do you work?
Keith Behrman: You mean, where does his character work?
Callum Keith Rennie: Some kind of [...]
Vicki Gabereau: (to Callum Keith Rennie) Yeah, you, I know, you work.
Callum Keith Rennie: (laughs)
Vicki Gabereau: I just, I didn't know where [...]
(laughs in the audience)
(Keith Behrman pats Callum on the shoulder)
Vicki Gabereau: Are you a little sensitive?
(everyone laughs)
Vicki Gabereau: Ah, sensitive actor. Ah, but where does Ed work?
Keith Behrman: He works in a lumber yard.
Vicki Gabereau: Do we know that?
Keith Behrman: No.
Vicki Gabereau: Oh fine. Cause I...
Keith Behrman: 'Cause it doesn't matter...
Vicki Gabereau: I went back and back...
Keith Behrman: Does it matter where he works?
aside:
(Callum Keith Rennie: [...]
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah?
Callum Keith Rennie: Yeah.)
Vicki Gabereau: I don't know. I just wondered.
Keith Behrman: I actually didn't kind of wanted... I actually avoided going into the whole business in the town. It doesn't matter to me. It was about his family and where he worked didn't really matter to me. We had an idea what kind of job he worked, I think, you know, social milieu, you know.
Vicki Gabereau: Yes. Yes. But I kept thinking I was missing something. That I should've...
Keith Behrman: Oh. No, you didn't miss anything.
Vicki Gabereau: No. But I didn't miss anything about where he worked in a lumber yard.
Keith Behrman: That's right.
Vicki Gabereau: Ah, the child. (looks at Callum Keith Rennie)
Callum Keith Rennie: Uh-huh.
Vicki Gabereau: ...in this film is amazing. Have you ever worked with children much?
Callum Keith Rennie: Ah... a couple of times.
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah?
Callum Keith Rennie: Yeah.
Vicki Gabereau: It's a different feeling I guess.
Callum Keith Rennie: Uh. But different because Collin was [...] so he wasn't like a...
Vicki Gabereau: He's ten.
Callum Keith Rennie: Yeah. That wasn't put into... You know, he was not a child actor. So he had an innocence and a newness about what he was doing and a freedom in it that was amazing.
Keith Behrman: Yeah.
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah.
Vicki Gabereau: I gather you got him at the last minute.
Keith Behrman: We got him about three or four days before out first day of photography.
Vicki Gabereau: What were you going to do?
Keith Behrman: I had no idea.
(laughs in the audience)
Vicki Gabereau: I see. (laughs)
Keith Behrman: I mean, there was another option for a kid I knew about, but it would have been a different film. You know, to make this film I wanted to make I knew I needed someone like Colin who I knew had a real- adept and he had a real sensitivity and intelligence...
Vicki Gabereau: What's his last name?
Keith Behrman: Roberts.
Vicki Gabereau: Right.
Keith Behrman: And he was great to work with. He was an amazing little guy.
Vicki Gabereau: Uh, he is very... quiet. He looks very still. He doesn't wriggle around and he- he's, I mean, this movie is silent. I mean it's so- there's no huge dialog.
Keith Behrman: It's sparse in terms of dialog.
Vicki Gabereau: Yes.
Keith Behrman: A lot of things are told through images and stuff like that.
Vicki Gabereau: Uh-huh.
Keith Behrman: But you know, he's a kid, and once we said 'cut' he ran off and grabbed cookies and started, you know, pulling people's arms and, you know, have a good time. But he could be quiet and still and, you know, portrait the adept that he needed to portrait.
Callum Keith Rennie: Yeah, he is very good at finding focus and coming back into what we were doing and listening and-
Vicki Gabereau: Did you have to teach him stuff?
Callum Keith Rennie: No. I learned way more from him than...
(laughs in the audience)
Vicki Gabereau: That is extremely generous.
Callum Keith Rennie: Yeah.
Vicki Gabereau: No. Honestly. I mean it. It's hard to do- You know what people say, never work with kids... costume dramas, or trains. Animals. So you- Guns.
Keith Behrman: [...]
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah. Guns. You had guns, you had dogs. You had stuff.
Keith Behrman: We broke every rule.
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah. Did you pretty well know what you where doing when you got there the first day?
Keith Behrman: When I first got there I was a little bit alarmed 'cause there was a lot of big trucks.
Vicki Gabereau: Well, what did you think was gonna...
Keith Behrman: Well, I never had this big of a- this big of a production, so I kind of was, woah. You know, forty, fifty people there. And I was a little bit, for a moment like, wow, is this deference? But then, as soon as we began shooting...
Vicki Gabereau: How are these people doing things here?
Keith Behrman: These people where actually... Who are these people? I don't know, and they don't know me.
Vicki Gabereau: They didn't know you either, I guess.
Keith Behrman: They didn't know me. But once it started rolling, I was right into it and I felt very comfortable.
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah. You won the Claude Jutra Award.
Keith Behrman: Uh-huh.
Vicki Gabereau: That's a very big deal too.
Keith Behrman: That was very nice, yeah. It was a nice award to win.
Vicki Gabereau: You get dough?
Keith Behrman: No dough.
Vicki Gabereau: No dough.
Keith Behrman: No dough with that one.
Vicki Gabereau: Did you have enough dough to make this movie?
Keith Behrman: We did. And I mean, you know, you always want more to a certain extent, but no. We had just under two million, and so that was, uh, you know, a lot more than I ever had before.
Vicki Gabereau: That is true.
Keith Behrman: You make it work, you know. And it always one or the other. You got- My producer was always saying, you want three things, you can have two. Which two do you want? So it's always that way.
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah. Well. At least you didn't have to make it on your credit card.
Keith Behrman: No.
Vicki Gabereau: No.
Vicki Gabereau: Some guys [...] to do. You [...], I'll be right back with them. (points to Keith Behrman and Callum Keith Rennie) These guys.
[clip from Flower & Garnet]
Vicki Gabereau: That was Callum Keith Rennie playing Ed the dad from the movie Flower & Garnet. And I am also joined by Keith Behrman. He's the director, you know.
Keith Behrman: That's all.
Vicki Gabereau: It's a troubled tale, isn't it, of a small-town family?
Keith Behrman: It's about people who have a certain challenge to get over. But, you know, I- They deal. And it's important to me, when I make a film that, at the end signifies, that they gonna... come together, you know. And that they'd be, you know, happier in a sense from that point on.
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah. There is a defining moment.
Keith Behrman: Yeah. There is a defining moment, there is, you know. They pull it off.
Vicki Gabereau: Where are you from? Small town?
Keith Behrman: I'm from a small town in Saskatchewan, called Shaunavon.
Vicki Gabereau: Right. Shaunavon. Where- How do we get to Shaunavon? (to Callum Keith Rennie) You've been to Shaunavon?
Keith Behrman: Well, we take the number One to Gull Lake, and then go right, almost to the, uh, Montana border.
Vicki Gabereau: Ah.
Keith Behrman: It's before Climax.
Vicki Gabereau: Right. And everybody knows that town.
Keith Behrman: Yeah. Climax, Saskatchewan, just [...]
Vicki Gabereau: So did you like to go shopping in to Climax, Saskatchewan?
Keith Behrman: No, we didn't go to the shop, we used to go to Turner in Montana to drink on Sundays when we were kids.
Vicki Gabereau: To drink on Sundays. Aha. So, you know the way small towns work. (to Callum Keith Rennie) Where are you from?
Callum Keith Rennie: Edmonton.
Vicki Gabereau: Well, you know how... bigger towns work.
Callum Keith Rennie: [...] Not Climax.
Vicki Gabereau: Why didn't you shoot it there?
Keith Behrman: Well, it was- I actually wrote it with that in mind, but, you know, it was- when it came to actually get the production together it was just gonna be to complicated to go there. It was better for the production to just shoot it here. So we found Ashcroft, which I loved. It's a great environment, a great place.
Vicki Gabereau: A bit chilly. (turns to Callum)
Callum Keith Rennie: Can be a bit cold.
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah. I hear you whined about the heater in your trailer quite a bit there.
Callum Keith Rennie: Well, it was off for almost two weeks...
Vicki Gabereau: Two weeks. (laughs)
Callum Keith Rennie: The, uh... My dog's waterbowl had frozen solid. So. I wasn't so much whining as just bringing it to attention. Repeatedly. Over and over...
Vicki Gabereau: Right. Over and over and over and over...
Callum Keith Rennie: ...every single hour, to whoever would listen to me.
Keith Behrman: He was in his trailer, you know, shaking the whole...
Callum Keith Rennie: ...and I think- I was thinking that maybe they're doing some sort of method work for me...
Vicki Gabereau: Right.
Callum Keith Rennie: ...where they were getting me all, sort of, uhm...
Vicki Gabereau: Psyched up to be...
Callum Keith Rennie: ...out of my mind.
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah, out of your mind.
Callum Keith Rennie: Yeah.
Vicki Gabereau: (laughs, then to Keith Behrman) Well, because of the cold, you got real snow though.
Keith Behrman: Uh-huh.
Vicki Gabereau: That wasn't fake snow.
Keith Behrman: No. We're- I was, uh- I knew it was gonna snow. I had a sense.
Vicki Gabereau: Did you.
Keith Behrman: I thought, you know, it's gonna snow.
Vicki Gabereau: (to Callum Keith Rennie) He's a bit psychic. Or is that psycho? No.
Keith Behrman: It's- it's both at a time, actually. But no, I had a feeling it could snow. I mean, you could smell it, you know? So I changed the scene previously where he asks for his birthday party to be a barbeque. I had his sister say, it's too cold. In case it's snowing, right? And the day we were shooting the outdoor barbeque scene it started snowing. And the hamburgers were freezing, and the drinks were freezing...
Vicki Gabereau: (points to Callum Keith Rennie) He was freezing.
Keith Behrman: ...the actor was freezing. It was almost as cold as his trailer.
Vicki Gabereau: Your big expensive talent was freezing... Okay, what's gonna happen with this movie?
Keith Behrman: Well, it opens tonight, at the fifth avenue. Also in Montreal and Toronto tonight. And if we get a good audence it will open in other centers.
Vicki Gabereau: (to Callum Keith Rennie) It that why you've succumbed to doing this?
Callum Keith Rennie: What do you mean?
Vicki Gabereau: (laughs) I mean is that why you have succumbed to coming on here so you will ensure that there will be seats in-
All three: ...bums in seats.
Callum Keith Rennie: Bums in s- Uh, I- I had such a great time working with Keith, and they've been so supportive of me, that- that's why. And I really love the film, and I- I just saw it again last night. And I get a kick out of it. And I get a kick out of seeing somebody doing their job so well, and- And I'm into it. So...
Vicki Gabereau: So you are proud to associated with this guy.
Callum Keith Rennie: Yeah. Very much.
Vicki Gabereau: Would you do something together again, do you think?
Keith Behrman: Absolutely.
Callum Keith Rennie: Yeah.
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah. So, again, what we have to count on is that people understand this film is available and they can go and see it.
Keith Behrman: Yeah.
Vicki Gabereau: But. Can you get a wide release? Can it go outside this country, do you think?
Keith Behrman: Well, it's been- We were in Berlin recently, and the audiences there...
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah, how'd that work?
Keith Behrman: They loved it. We had, like, three screenings. And they were big houses, like, you know, hundreds of people. Like, eight hundered people? And they were really into it. We got a lota...
Vicki Gabereau: (to Callum Keith Rennie) Did you go?
Callum Keith Rennie: No, I didn't.
Vicki Gabereau: Is this your first appearance to, uh, bump this film up a bit?
Callum Keith Rennie: No, I was at Toronto- in Toronto for the festival. I was in Montreal for the festival. I was in Calgary.
Keith Behrman: Calgary. He's been a real trooper.
Callum Keith Rennie: ...For the festival.
Vicki Gabereau: Just a trooper.
Keith Behrman: He's been a- he's been a trooper.
Vicki Gabereau: Well, I think you've done an amazing job, I have to say.
Keith Behrman: Thank you!
Vicki Gabereau: Really. I think it's gonna do well. (to Callum Keith Rennie) And I'm sure your career will continue. You can come and be on here any time you want.
Callum Keith Rennie: Thank you very much.
Vicki Gabereau: Yeah. Many thanks to Keith Behrman and Callum Keith Rennie, the movie is Flower & Garnet. (pats Callum on the shoulder) You can- You don't have to worry, it's over now.
It opens tonight in select cities, Vancouver in particular. You can go to odeonfilms.com. I'll be back.
The screencaps are taken from Stormy's Callum Keith Rennie & Paul Gross screencaps archive, more from that interview here.
I didn't understand everything that was said. If anyone could fill out the blanks ([...]), that'd be great.
Click to view