Interview: Into The Wild

By J.I. Cuenca

Interview with Emile Hirsch
Star of the film Into The Wild

Emile Hirsch went into the wild with help from Sean Penn

When did you first meet Sean Penn?
I had a film called Lords of Dogtown that was about to come out. And Catherine Hardwicke, the director, flew up to Marin County to show Sean the film and hopefully get him to do another film that she wanted to make. He had just, after ten years, acquired the rights to the book Into the Wild and was looking for an actor to play McCandless. He liked my performance in Lords of Dogtown and wanted to get together with me, and we did. I was very surprised.

What did you know about this story?
Not that much. I had seen the 20/20 episode when I was about 8 years old and it made a big impression on me, but I hadn’t seen it again in years. When I started reading the book - after Sean told me about it - I thought: “Wow, this is that memory I had from being younger!”

What impressed you the most about it?
What struck me about it was the epic adventure of one guy traveling to all these places, living in these rugged terrains and environments and really going for it. And that was something that I was not doing at that particular moment in my life. I wanted to be living a fuller life.

Where you concerned about the physical aspect of the role?
Sean needed that big physicality, because it was such an outdoors role. I knew I could do it, but also that it would take a lot of training and weight lifting.

Weight lifting and weight loosing…
Yes: diet and exercise. I started out at 156 pounds, and I had some fat on me, so I then went down to 130 for the bulk of the movie. And then I finally dropped to 115 pounds.

What was the biggest challenge for you?
There were moments when I would do something I never thought I would be able to do, like kayaking down the Colorado rapids. I also balanced on these logs that were pretty high of the ground and other dangerous outdoor things.

Of all those places you went to, which was your favorite?
Alaska! It was the most challenging physical terrain, and I was by myself as an actor.

Who was Christopher McCandless?
I think he was really driven guy who was pissed off about a lot of things from his youth, and was trying to do things differently and to find truth he didn’t feel he had growing up. And he did some selfish things as a result of that too! I see him as a wild soul who just decided he had had enough and went on this beautiful exotic adventure. He hurt a lot of people along the way and helped a lot of people along the way too. I think he ended up at a transcendental beautiful place and learned a lot about himself.

What did you learn with this role?
I learned a lot about endurance and on how to keep on going to try to do my best work, and to have patience.

What was it like to work with Sean Penn so closely and intensely?
Sean is a fireball! He is an intellectual, artistic demon on wheels. It was an honor to get to work with him and play this part. I was lucky.

And you had a great supporting cast around you.
Yes I did. Hal Holbrook, to me, delivers one of the greatest performances in this film. He is such a funny soulful personality and I feel he gests a lot across of that in the film. And he is 82, nearly four times my age, which is pretty extraordinary. And to climb that hill the way he did!

What was it like to meet Chris’s family?
When I met Chris’s parents I didn’t want it to come across as an interrogation, so I just let them say whatever they wanted to say. Talking with Carine, his sister, was a great experience: we sat on the couch for 10 hours and just talked. She really loved her brother.

Apart from his adventurous spirit, what made Chris so unique?
It was his courage to go into the wild and live like that that made him unique, which is something most people don’t do. We all have problems, but we don’t walk off into the Alaskan wilds by ourselves for 113 days. It was his courage that defined him.

How close do you feel to him?
 Sometimes I feel really close to him and sometimes I feel I am not close to him at all, as if I were a completely different person. It depends on the moment, but I don’t think I would ever go into Alaska on my own with hardly any supplies, a map or a plan. I just can’t see myself doing that. I am not that kind of person; but I do relate to his quest for truth and adventure.

Christopher McCandless starts off as a solitary person, but slowly learns the value of sharing things.
No man is an island and he learned it. I think it’s important to be around people - we are a social animals.

And what about being around bears, like you are in this film?
That is pretty crazy! You have to trust the bear and recognize that he could eat you at any moment, but that he probably won’t. You have to trust that the “probably” is closer to “definitely”, but it still is tricky. When the bear was released I knew I had to just stand there and not run. It was pretty nerve-wracking.

There is humor in this film too.
Absolutely, I think there are many funny performances. And a lot of what McCandless does is very funny. Some of the things he does are odd and loopy, because the guy isn’t totally there. In Krakauer’s book he explains how Christopher has gaps in his thinking and the movie shows it, and some of that can come across as comedic too.

How close is your portrayal of Christopher McCandless to the one in the book?
I think mine is probably a little more vulnerable. In the book he comes across as more stern and angry. After talking to Carine for a while it seemed natural to make him a little more vulnerable.

And you followed in his steps…
Yes, I followed his trail; but not just me: the whole crew too! We were like a big traveling road family. And we all got along, had a great time and did all kinds of stuff together.

What did you feel when you saw the movie completed?
I just thought of Chris McCandless the whole time and of what it must have been for him. I was blown away in my mind by how similar what we did probably was to a lot of the experiences he went through. So much of the film is so authentic! I think about this with the hope that people can take positive things from it for themselves.

INTO THE WILD out on DVD March 27