"I did 'Friends' usually always while I was doing another movie. It’s like a blip in my memory where I was stressed out, trying to remember lines. So people come up and say, 'The guy who melts stuff!' and I don’t even remember it. Like, what are you talking about?"
Giovanni Ribisi is one of those great supporting actors who tends to be so good with what he does, he often takes away focus from his leading counterparts. From “Saving Private Ryan” to “Boiler Room” and “Flight of the Phoenix,” Ribisi tends to play quirky, edgy or sometimes just flat out strange characters and “Perfect Stranger” is no exception. Ribisi co-stars with Halle Berry and Bruce Willis in this thriller about a headstrong journalist named Rowena (Berry) who will stop at nothing to expose the truths about a high powered advertising executive (Willis). Ribisi plays Miles, Rowena’s technically savvy assistant who has a dark side to himself as well.
We talked to Giovanni about the movie at a recent press day in New York City.
Q: What was it like working most of your scenes with someone like Halle Berry?
GIOVANNI: She’s incredible. She’s all you can imagine and more. I felt it was definitely a privilege to be working with her as well as Bruce and [Director] James [Foley]. This was really one of those movies that I think we all really, really want to push the envelope and get into the underbelly of New York. Of course the movie is about secrets and I’m sure everybody’s been saying that but there’s a darker aspect to it and she was fearless in that. James, this is maybe his forte in a way. I was a huge fan of his since “Glengarry Glen Ross” but I think that he knows how to provoke actors and gets what he needs out of them while making it a game.
Q: How would you rate your own technical skills in real life?
GIOVANNI: I guess I’m average maybe. I went to computer graphic school for a while after I did “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.” I just thought that was an interesting way and maybe the future of filmmaking. I think it’s slowly getting there with films like “300.” But I think for me the IT thing is a completely different world from graphics and it was really just getting into the dynamics of the characters and the relationships and understanding the complexities of the stories. It’s a movie with a lot of twists and turns and think that it was good to just concentrate on that.
Q: Do you chat online with people?
GIOVANNI: I don’t. I think I’m a little bit more old fashioned in that I like to have that personal connection with somebody.
Q: Your apartment in this film is a bit strange. Did you have any input in how it was decorated?
GIOVANNI: Yeah. They consulted me about that. They were like, “You’re weird, come here!” (laughs)
Q: How did you look at Miles? Did you see him love sick, disturbed, twisted?
GIOVANNI: No, I did not want to look at him as a disturbed and twisted individual. Again I think it was really about him being an individual. I saw him as somebody who ultimately and realistically wanted to be charming. Initially this guy was written as an introverted, geeky guy. But I thought it was way better to make it more complex and have [the villain be] five different people I suppose. That’s part of going to a movie like this. You can’t approach a character like that as him being the evil guy. I think there has to be the human aspect. That’s what I’m interested in.
Q: You tend to get really good supporting roles but did you ever wish you were the leading man?
GIOVANNI: I don’t look at doing something as part of a hierarchy. For me, what’s interesting is what’s going to fire me as an individual and hopefully, a creative person. It’s mainly about that and the people I work with. I would love to do more leading men roles but probably more focused in the way they were done in ‘70s where the “every man” became the fore front. I think that had its edge but was [later] shrouded by technology. But it really depends on the material out there and also what you’re specifically right for. I think the leading man essentially is a character and you can’t necessarily cast Laurence Olivier in “True Grit.” Or maybe you could. That would be genius. (laughs)
Q: Are there films that fans identify you with the most?
GIOVANNI: No. I looked on IMDB recently and I was like, “Wow, I’ve done 40 movies.” It really varies. It depends on where you are. Like in New York, it’s “Boiler Room” or whatever.
Q: What about your role as Phoebe’s brother in “Friends”?
GIOVANNI: Yeah, well there’s that but it’s interesting because I did “Friends” usually always while I was doing another movie. I would literally have to get off the set and rush to Warner Bros. and look at the script and have to do it right there in front of an audience. It’s like a blip in my memory where I was stressed out, trying to remember lines. So people come up and say, “The guy who melts stuff!” and I don’t even remember it. Like, what are you talking about?
"Perfect Stranger" opens in theaters Friday April 13th.