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THE
PLAYERS
DANNY
OCEAN
George Clooney plays Danny Ocean, the recently-paroled and recently-divorced
ringleader of the complex, daring - and some say suicidal - raid
on Terry Benedict's casinos.
"The
reason George Clooney is perfect as Danny Ocean is that George is
a born leader," producer Jerry Weintraub says. "He's a wonderful
actor and he helped keep the sense of fun during filming - even
after we wrapped for the day."
RUSTY
RYAN
Brad Pitt plays Rusty Ryan, Danny Ocean's confidante and right-hand
man. "Danny and Rusty are old school," screenwriter Ted Griffin
explains. "They're guys who live by a code, which now seems a little
outdated. They're like modern gunslingers after the west has been
civilized. Danny is the idea guy and Rusty is the detail man. Danny
can sell you anything, but he has a lot of blind sides and Rusty
tends to watch out for him. He knows when Danny's going to screw
up about two steps before Danny knows it."
"Rusty
wants to be part of the team," says Soderbergh, "because he's been
out of the big game for a while and is anxious to get back working
on the level that he knows he ought to be working. When we meet
him, he's doing things that are beneath him. This is an opportunity
for him to step back into the game that he ought to be playing."
According
to Pitt, "the reason Rusty agrees to the caper is that he's flat-lined
in his life. He's gone from the top of his game to running a poker
school for teen heartthrobs. When Danny shows up with his plan to
rob three casinos, Rusty's ready to jump in. Even if he does think
it's impossible."
"Brad
Pitt is perfect as Rusty," Weintraub comments. "He's not only a
cool guy, he has that devil-may-care attitude that Rusty has."
LINUS
CALDWELL
Matt Damon plays Linus Caldwell, the talented newcomer with a legacy
to live up to.
"Matt
Damon's character, Linus, is the new kid on the block," Griffin
says. "He's the pledge who usually gets the worst things to do.
But he earns his stripes through this heist."
"I
wanted to play this role because I didn't want the movie to come
out and not be a part of it," Damon says. "Linus, whose father was
a well-known grifter, has been around the con his entire life. He's
got very quick hands and can lift anything from anybody. When Danny
looks him up, Linus is small time, working alone picking pockets
on the El in Chicago. He wants in on this heist because it will
be the biggest score of all time and if they pull it off, people
will be dining out on their names forever. They'll be set for life.
And everybody wants to see Vegas get taken to a certain degree because
everyone's got his own Vegas tale of woe.
"What
makes the story more interesting," Damon continues, "is that as
the movie continues we realize the entire scam was never about the
money for Danny. The whole thing is about getting his wife back,
getting his life back. So at the end of the day, it's a great romance."
TERRY
BENEDICT
Andy Garcia plays Terry Benedict, the target of Danny Ocean's heist.
"Benedict
is a megalomaniacal control freak and ruthlessly expedient," says
Soderbergh. "When he was negotiating with Reuben Tishkoff to take
over his hotel and didn't feel they were moving quickly enough,
he just cut Tishkoff off at the knees. He didn't think twice and
he didn't look back."
Garcia
was intrigued by the idea of playing such a vibrant villain. "Benedict
owns three of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas," Garcia says. "People
in that position didn't get there by appointment. He's worked his
way up and has a tremendous amount of self-assurance as well as
a healthy ego. He's running an empire and likes to be in charge.
And he can be ruthless. His character is so strong, so vivid, I
thought I could do something with it and have some fun with the
role."
"Because
Terry Benedict is the enemy in the film," says Clooney, "it meant
Andy had to come into a room of 11 guys who had been working together
and bonding for a long time and be the character nobody likes. That's
hard to do. Andy did it with reckless abandon. Between takes we'd
be waiting around and making jokes. Then Steven would say 'Action'
and Andy would become this rat. He really made you want to get him!"
"Andy
Garcia's Terry Benedict is the perfect counterpoint for George Clooney's
Danny Ocean," states Weintraub. "They're both excellent actors.
And you can imagine Julia Roberts' Tess being with Andy and then
you can imagine Danny taking her back."
TESS
OCEAN
Julia Roberts plays Tess Ocean, Danny's ex-wife who has rebuilt
her life in the wake of his arrest, working as the curator of Terry
Benedict's Bellagio art gallery. She is also dating Benedict, a
fact that is not lost on Danny.
Clooney
and Soderbergh initially sent the Ocean's Eleven script to Roberts
with a $20 bill and a note attached that read: We hear you make
twenty per film now.
"Don't
tell Jerry Weintraub, but to work with Steven Soderbergh again,
I would have done it for twenty dollars," Roberts says with a laugh.
"At
our first read-through, Julia couldn't be there and I read her scenes
with Ted Griffin - which by the way, didn't work," Clooney says.
"When you have other people reading the lines, it's funny. But the
minute you put Julia Roberts into the mix, the stakes begin to soar.
She just lights up the screen."
"When
I read the script," Roberts recalls, "I was even more pleased because
my part was such great fun. The dialogue is so sharp and exacting,
it's like a 1940s movie. Danny and Tess are so precise in the way
that they speak to each other that you can see all the levels and
emotions that go on between the two of them.
"Those
scenes were the most fun to play," she reveals. "Except that it
was really hard acting with George, because we have similar personalities
and are like brother and sister. I'm supposed to be steely and serious
and I was laughing like a 12-year old. Around three in the morning
one night I think Steven was beginning to ask himself why he had
brought these two people to the table together."
"Our
scenes are really fun," says Clooney, "because they're like an old
Howard Hawks film where they're both going at each other and nobody
really wins. Which is the way it should be."
"George
is just this charm monster," Roberts adds. "I spend most of the
movie pretending that it has no effect on me whatsoever. Which was
fun to do because I'm probably the only girl in the world to do
that. It was good to show George what that feels like - when a girl
doesn't get weak in the knees and swoon."
Roberts
also enjoyed exploring the complexities behind her witty, glamorous
character. "Steven and George put together the most enticing cast
and made me the only girl," Roberts says. "But Tess is more than
just the girl. There's intrigue and she has some difficult crosses
to bear. All of the relationships in the film are so complicated.
Tess and Terry are supposed to be boyfriend-girlfriend, but then
Tess has to keep evaluating her relationship with her ex-husband.
So nothing is as it seems really. It was interesting to find her
way."
Soderbergh
relished the opportunity to work with Roberts in an altogether different
genre. "Part of the fun of having Julia play Tess is that she and
I had come off Erin Brockovich, a character who was working class
and didn't have a lot of money," Soderbergh says. "In this film,
Tess is the classic leading lady. She wears spectacular clothes
and is very sophisticated and refined."
"I'm
sort of a stealth actor in this film," Roberts describes. "I come
in, I go out, the boys say nice things about me, they get into fights
about me. It's been fabulous."
BASHER
TARR
Don Cheadle plays colorful explosives expert Basher Tarr.
"Basher
is brought in by Rusty," Cheadle says. "Basically, his job is to
take out the power in Las Vegas for a very exact period of time.
What stands in his way is the limitations of the technology they
have to work with and the fact that they don't want to get caught.
He has to figure out a way in which do it that's ingenious but at
the same time undetectable."
Cheadle,
who starred opposite George Clooney in both Out of Sight and Fail
Safe, has been described as "disappearing into his roles." When
Soderbergh first approached him, Cheadle knew that he didn't want
his role to be confused with his portrayal of Sammy Davis, Jr. in
the acclaimed HBO movie The Rat Pack.
"Don
was aware that in an earlier version of the script, Basher was a
Cockney," says Soderbergh. "When he suggested going back to that,
I agreed and it worked out very well."
"Basher
is probably the most expert at what he does of the characters,"
says Griffin. "I think he has a wild, political anarchist history.
I believe he's there less for the money and more for the joy of
pulling off an enormous job."
LIVINGSTON
DELL
Eddie Jemison plays surveillance specialist Livingston Dell, whose
anxiety threatens the success of the heist.
"Our
ambition was to not have everybody be really cool in this movie,"
Griffin says. "And Eddie Jemison took that to heart. Livingston
has had about five too many cups of coffee at all times. He's like
the AV geek in high school."
"Livingston
is the 'cool relief' in the movie," says Jemision, who first met
Soderbergh seventeen years ago when he attended college in Baton
Rouge; the director subsequently cast him as Nameless Numberheadman
in Schizopolis. "Stylistically, Livingston doesn't fit with any
of the guys. He's not cool in any way, he's the antithesis of cool.
But they need a specialist when it comes to computers and surveillance
and he's a specialist. He just doesn't do well with people, which
is why he's married to his machines. I think in the script he was
described as having a continual flop sweat."
Aside
from working with Soderbergh again, Jemison was attracted to another
aspect of the project. "The appeal for me was that there is not
a lot of violence in this film," he says. "There's tension, but
hardly any gunplay. It was neat to be part of a big movie with lots
of plot turns and cons, but no easy violence."
FRANK
CATTON
Bernie Mac plays Frank Catton, a card dealer in Atlantic City and
Danny's first recruit.
"Frank
is a con man looking for some action when Danny looks him up," says
Bernie Mac of his character. "Because of time spent in the pen,
he's been working at the Trump Plaza under the assumed name of Ramon
Escalante. Danny approaches him because he needs an inside man at
the Bellagio. Frank is looking to get out in a big way, so he arranges
to be transferred to Las Vegas."
"Bernie
was the first actor of the group that I worked with," remembers
Clooney. "We were in New Jersey and we were just starting the film.
I'd seen him in a couple of his films and he was very, very funny.
But this was an acting job. He had to play a character, and he had
to play him straight yet still be funny. Bernie came in and he knocked
this role out of the park. He is this incredibly talented actor
who looks you straight in the eyes and makes you howl."
REUBEN
TISHKOFF
Elliot Gould plays Reuben Tishkoff, the former Vegas hotel kingpin
who is unceremoniously muscled out by slick entrepreneur Terry Benedict.
"Reuben
is from another era in Las Vegas," Gould explains. "At one time
he had been the king of Vegas, but Terry Benedict effectively put
him out of business. He couldn't compete with the Mirage, the MGM
Grand and the Bellagio, so he had to sell out. And sell out for
what Benedict wanted to buy him for. The final insult is that Benedict
plans to demolish Tishkoff's hotel in order to build another monstrosity
on the Strip. Tishkoff agrees to bankroll Danny Ocean and give him
the necessary resources to accomplish the heist. The money means
nothing to him - he wants to be a player again and he wants revenge."
"Tishkoff
has a personal investment in this heist," says Soderbergh. "He's
been burned by Terry Benedict and wants to see him taken down. That's
another thing that's fun in movies, to see a figure of authority,
especially a figure of authority with a lot of money, get taken
to the cleaners. It's hard not to be happy about that."
Having
Gould join the cast was a bonus for George Clooney, his former castmate
on the 1984 TV sitcom E/R. "E/R was the first series I had ever
been on, and Elliott taught me a lot about your behavior on the
set," Clooney says. "He was the lead on that show and he treated
everyone nicely and with respect, whether they were a regular cast
member, a member of the crew or a guest star. He was a class act.
Elliott showed me how well a set could be run if you're inclusive."
SAUL
BLOOM
Carl Reiner plays Saul Bloom, the ulcerous old pro who is brought
out of retirement to play a crucial role in the heist.
"I
always imagined Saul to be like a woman who used to be asked out
a lot and now isn't asked out at all, and hasn't been asked out
in a long time but is still very proud," says Soderbergh. "When
Saul is approached by Rusty, he feigns disinterest when in fact
he desperately wants to be in on it. He's trying not to let on how
much this caper means to him."
"Saul
is a loser," explains Reiner, who had previously worked with Jerry
Weintraub when he directed the producer's comedy, Oh God! "Saul
jumps at the chance to be a part of this winning team. In his heyday
he was probably a brilliant con artist. When Rusty finds him, he
doesn't even have enough money to play the horses - he's become
a down and downtrodden dog track player. But Danny and Rusty know
that he was a first-rate scam artist and they know he's an actor.
And they can use that."
In
order to gain the confidence of Terry Benedict, Saul transforms
himself into Lyman Zerga, a fierce businessman of indeterminate
origin. "Saul knows exactly how to play Lyman Zerga," Reiner attests.
"He's fully enjoying the role playing and being an integral part
of the scheme. Mostly he loves being a big shot and placing his
bets at the gaming tables in the high roller room. He can almost
forget that it's not really his money!"
TURK
& VIRGIL MALLOY
Scott Caan and Casey Affleck play twin brothers Turk and Virgil
Malloy, respectively, experts with cars and transportation.
"The
Malloys just want to drive cars around and argue," Soderbergh says.
"That's what they live for. Being paid to do that is a fantasy for
them."
"Turk
and Virgil have five or six incarnations during the course of the
heist," says Griffin. "Their principal ability is driving, but they
also become quick-change artists. These guys are based on a number
of long drives I took as a kid with my brother in the back seat."
"Throughout
the film," says Affleck, "Scott and I are arguing, fighting and
pushing each other's buttons, which was really fun to play. But,
despite their competitiveness, the brothers are a really effective
team."
"Casey
and I like to work the same way," says Caan. "We started hanging
out together and discovered that we both like to improvise - which
Steven let us do from time to time. My favorite part in acting is
the moment to moment. And that's what Casey is so good at. He one-ups
me every time."
YEN
Chinese acrobat Shaobo Qin makes his motion picture debut as Yen,
the crew's remarkably agile "grease man."
"Yen
is named after a kid who was picked on more than any other in my
grade school," confesses Griffin. "This is my way of making it up
to him."
"My
specialty is the Chinese pole act and the barrel act, in which I
contort my body into a very small cylinder," Qin explains with the
aid of a translator. "I was cast mostly because I can do that. They
needed somebody who could fit into a very small place and go where
no other man could go."
"When
we hired Shaobo," says Weintraub, "we didn't even know if he could
act. We simply needed an acrobat with his particular talent. We
were lucky because even though he doesn't speak much English, Steven
would give him direction and George would show him things, and he
somehow understood and would do it. I'm still not sure if [he] knows
what the story is about."
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