Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake and other 'Wonder Wheel' cast members talk about working with Woody Allen

(Los Angeles) — Just like the characters in his latest drama, “Wonder Wheel,” Woody Allen remains as interesting and colorful.

The 81-year-old auteur-writer-musician, whose career spans more than six decades in a very competitive industry, remains grounded and quotable.

We talked to the award-winning filmmaker and his “Wonder Wheel” cast at the Ritz Carlton in New York. Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Jim Belushi and Juno Temple candidly shared their memorable experiences working with Allen among others.

Below are excerpts from our chats with Allen and the cast:

WOODY ALLEN

All photos: Janet Nepales/HFPA

On his directorial style for this movie, as Justin Timberlake said he was intimidated by him, Jim Belushi said Allen asked him to act “stupider,” and told Kate Winslet to be less “actress-y”: "I hire these people who are very good. Jim, Kate, Justin, and Juno, they are all good actors. We are very careful before we hire. We look at many tapes. We speak to the people. It doesn’t take a great mind, a great casting director, to cast Kate Winslet or Justin Timberlake. So I hire them. 

Then I try not to push too much of my own feeling and let them do what it is that they do that makes everybody like them all the time and makes them so exciting to people. I don’t want to be on top of them and say don’t do this and do it this way and this is what I was thinking of. It doesn’t matter what I was thinking of, because very often, they don’t do it the way I was thinking of. It comes out much better, because it’s more natural for them. It’s just better. So I give the stupidest directions, ‘faster,’ ‘louder,’ ‘better.’ But you don’t have to direct these people. You just have to hire them, not supervise them too much and get in their way.  

Once in a while, you do have to tell them, can you speak a little faster? Or, can you walk across the room a little more languidly? But generally speaking, I keep to myself.”

On where he spends his $35 every two weeks allowance which he gets from his wife: “My allowance? I can’t afford the Yankees memorabilia on my allowance. What I do with my allowance is, I leave my pants on the stool in the bathroom and I notice that my kids on the way to school occasionally come and take a five or a ten. It gives me a thrill that they are taking it. Then I say to my wife, I need some money; I have to take a cab or I have to tip a maitre’d or something. She says, oh here, you ran out quickly! But I really let the kids gyp the money out of my pocket.

KATE WINSLET (“Ginny”)

On working with Woody Allen and his process: “It's really funny because working with Woody and working alongside Jim, Juno and Justin who were all terrified, somehow I felt a little bit like the inflight crew on a plane. You don’t panic when there's bad turbulence or everybody will start to panic.

If they all see that I'm also terrified then it'll have this trickle effect. Especially for Juno who I just completely adore and she actually reminded me of myself when I was a younger actress and the fear, the nerves and the feeling of being self-conscious in front of people you admire. I immediately took her by the hand and I said I am going to look after you.

Woody gives very clear direction but he's also a funny man. He would have this way of just standing up and saying ‘no, no, no (sighs)’ and I would go ‘okay, what’ and he'd say ‘it's way too actress-y.’ And I would laugh and I would go ‘okay, you did not actually just say that, Woody.’ He would say, ‘well, what do you want me to say.’ And I would say, ‘okay, let me just do it again.’

Sometimes, he would just get up in the middle of a scene which we all think is going really rather well and he would shuffle in and he would say ‘no, we have to stop.  Oh, God, I'm just so bored. I want to go home. I am just dying watching you. I want to go home and have dinner.’

For Juno, this would have been a terrible thing for her to hear but I would actually find this funny. I think school of hard knocks. I'm an old lady now. I've been doing it for a long time. I can handle it. I don't mind the honesty as long as someone's not mean which he never ever is.

He'd say this thing of being bored and then he would also offer to show me how he would do it. ‘Would you like me to show you how I would do it?’ and he'd give me this coquettish little look like this. Then I would just stand back and I'd watch. Then I would say, ‘Got it Woody!’”

On how Allen actually directed more women to Oscar performances: “I actually think on some level Woody is a woman (laughs).  He's very in touch with that side of himself. He understands his female characters that he creates exceptionally well. On some level, he plays out aspects of his own personality through these characters that he creates. So I always felt with Woody that he would know how to help me. I would ask for help from him and I would jolly well get it.  

On what love means to her: “Ah my husband's [Ned Rocknroll] in the room. The man who got me up the mountain is at the back of the room. I can't look at you now, Ned. He'll start crying and then I'll start crying. It's absolutely everything. It's the underpinning of a family. It's the underpinning of my whole life. It's every adventure that oh God, why did you ask me that? (Starts getting teary-eyed) Oh, Ned, go out.  It's everything. Quick move on. Sorry, I can't say anything else otherwise I'll fall apart. It’s a happy thing.”

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE (“Mickey”)

On his character Mickey who was also the narrator in the film: “I don’t think I’ve every played a character where I actually narrate the film. It’s Woody so it very much reads like a play. As I was reading it, I found the Eugene O’Neill references not as ironic as I thought they would be. But clearly the character was an aspiring playwright so I felt that probably was close to home for Woody himself. So I felt he was a really good reference for me to talk about how ambitious this character was.”

On whether he suddenly wanted to break into a song at one point because of the very colorful set: “I don’t know that that crossed my mind, but when I first walked on set to do one of those monologues, sitting up on that lifeguard chair, I had some really surreal moments. You look around and you see all these extras. You immediately just feel like you’re in another time.

“I get what you’re saying because the performance of Mickey is a performance because he’s talking to the audience. The trickiest part, to be honest, was to almost dial it back because I felt like my character. He’s in the story but he also has to be indifferent. He has to be indifferent about the morals of all the other characters because he’s evolved as well.

There is something a little more grandiose about being 10 feet taller than everyone else around you, literally on a lifeguard chair and speaking into the camera. You’re speaking to a theater full of people the same way you would on stage. It’s your responsibility to tell the story in a way as to not influence the audience one way or the other. As the story goes on, you see that Mickey gets a little more honest about what he’s dealing with.”

On why he does not jump more into acting: “I guess the same could be said about my albums. I went solo in 2002 and in 15 years, I’ve only released three albums. Because the last one for me was a double album. I guess you could call it four albums technically. I can only tell you where I’m at now. I can tell you that it recently dawned on me that I actually really am a dad.

“I just really enjoy that. I feel lucky to have worked with such great people. As it pertains to the film industry, David Fincher, the Coen brothers, Woody Allen, I’m getting to work with artists who have changed the way I thought about and felt about movies. So to get to work with them, I feel like I owe it to myself to work with people who make you better at this point in my career, as far as it pertains to films.”

JIM BELUSHI ("Humpty")

On working with Kate Winslet and Woody Allen: “Kate and I did a scene in the bedroom. I am used to rehearsing and then going to make-up and coming back and shooting. Kate and I walked on a live set! Woody said (imitates Woody), ‘well, here’s the camera and we got the whole bedroom and if you go over here, you will be out of frame. So you kind of want to stay away from that area. You guys just do what you would like to do.’

“He goes, we have the camera ready, should we just shoot it?’ Kate and I are learning the lines! I looked at Kate and she looked at me and we looked at each other and we were like, we got this. Action. We did the scene. Woody calls cut.

“Woody walks in and he goes (imitates Woody) ‘oh, okay, that was probably the single best example of apathetic acting that I have ever seen. If I put that take into the movie, the audience will be in the lobby in three minutes.’ Kate and I went, so you want us to pick it up? He goes ‘yeah, talk like normal people.’ I don’t take that personally. Woody is very charming and cute about it.”

JUNO TEMPLE (“Carolina”)

On working with Justin Timberlake and if she ever wished she had a kissing scene with him: “I know (laughs). Kate got lucky. (Laughs) I’ve not seen him perform as of yet. Hopefully, I will one day.

“Working with him was amazing. He’s such a giving actor and was also so open to running lines and talking scenes through, as was Kate and Jim. I thought we were all in this position of being quite nervous and really wanting to be on our A game with each scene, with each moment.

“I found Justin an incredibly giving actor to work with on camera. He’s just in the scene so profoundly with you, which I think is so amazing when you forget when you’re shooting something, which I also felt that with Kate too. They had this incredible energy about them. They were in high spirits always which was lovely.

“I had an amazing time working with these actors who are really brave, really giving people that I’m very thankful I got to work with. I’d work with each one of them again in a heartbeat.” — LA, GMA News