PITCH BLACK:STARLOG
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\tqc\tx4320\tqr\tx8640 \plain\f16 \par }\pard \plain\f16 \par STARLOG ARTICLE WITH COLE
HAUSER \par April 2000\par \par \par \'93I grew up in the country,\'94 explains Cole Hauser. \'93The
darkness never really scared me. I\'92m used to not having any lights on in the house. I actually enjoy
turning the electricity off. I can be at peace in the dark. People from the city often have a problem with
the dark, but, to me, the dark can be as good as the Sun. Sometimes you can sit there in the darkness
and silence, look at the stars, at the ocean, whatever, and you can just relax.\'94\par \par On the other
hand, darkness can unnerve. It can kill. Or, more specifically, what lurks in the dark can unnerve and
kill. Such has been the basic premise of many a genre film, the latest being \plain\i\f16 Pitch
Black\plain\f16 . David Twohy\'92s SF thriller begins as a tale about a group of survivors who
crash-land on an unrelentingly hot and sunlit planet, and strive to figure out a way to get off the
unfamiliar world. Their efforts are further complicated when an indefinite nightfall descends, and the
darkness unleashes vicious, ravenously hungry, light-hating creatures. The group must then fight
desperately to survive until a questionable dawn appears or until they can escape.\par \par \plain\b\f16
HUNTING BY DAY\plain\f16 \par Truly an ensemble affair, \plain\i\f16 Pitch Black \plain\f16 stars
the 24-year-old Hauser as Johns, a lawman ferrying his prized quarry, crazed murderer Riddick (Vin
Diesel), back to his fate. Riddick is an imposing, fearless figure who can see at night thanks to
surgically enhanced eyes. Radha Mitchell is Fry, the pilot who crash-lands the ship and becomes
over-protective of her fellow survivors--a curious reaction given that she initially tried to jettison
everyone at the film\'92s opening. Also on hand are Lewis Fitz-Gerald as Paris, a thoroughly selfish
antique dealer; Claudia Black as Shazza, a gutsy geologist not too dissimilar from Aeryn Sun, her
\plain\i\f16 Farscape\plain\f16 alter-ego; Keith David as Imam, a devout Muslim whose faith in Allah is
rigorously tested; and Jack (Rhiana Griffith), a teen harboring a secret as dramatic as that of anyone
else marooned on the nameless planet.\par \par While great genre aficionados may rightly compare
elements of \plain\i\f16 Pitch Black\plain\f16 to \plain\i\f16 ALIEN, Starship Troopers, Lost in
Space\plain\f16 and a galaxy of other familiar films of varying quality and originality, that aspect meant
nothing to Hauser. \'93At the beginning, I was looking \plain\i\f16 only \plain\f16 at my role and the
relationship that Johns had with the different characters,\'94 he says. \'93That\'92s what interested me
the most. I saw Johns as three characters in one. He has an interesting arc. He starts off as the hero
and then he slowly becomes this guy who is very methodical and very sick in the head. You see that
he\'92s a drug addict and learn who he \plain\i\f16 really \plain\f16 is. And, by the end, Johns is
\plain\i\f16 definitely \plain\f16 not the hero anymore. I remember reading the first 60 pages and
thinking he was going to be a good guy from beginning to end. Then, suddenly, you get this shift. David
had that in the script, and I loved it.\par \par \'93As far as the story is concerned, I never saw
\plain\i\f16 Starship Troopers\plain\f16 . I probably haven\'92t seen \plain\i\f16 ALIEN\plain\f16 in at
least five years. I don\'92t see a lot of SF films. I\'92ve just never gone out of my way to see them. I
honestly don\'92t know that I would go to see \plain\i\f16 Pitch Black\plain\f16 if I hadn\'92t been in it.
Now that I have done SF, though, I might be more inclined to see other SF films. I just think this film is
very fresh. It\'92s fresh to me, at least. I certainly haven\'92t seen it before.\par \par \'93I developed a
lot of backstory for Johns, working with David and Vin. Johns has been chasing this guy. They have a
history,\'94 reveals Hauser. \'93He has caught him before and also has been caught by him. He got
stabbed by Riddick, I would say, four years prior to the events in the movie. It\'92s a cat-and-mouse
game, kind of Tom and Jerry. These guys have been at each other\'92s throats for years and years.
Riddick keeps escaping from maximum security facilities and they keep hiring Johns, this mercenary, to
go and get him, because they know that Johns is the best man for the job. He knows Riddick best. Vin
and I talked a lot about where these characters have been, where they came from. We came up with
cool stuff that helped us both.\par \par \'93Of all the twists and turns, I most appreciate the
Johns-Riddick relationship. When the movie starts, Johns is way up here and Riddick is way down
there. As the movie goes, it levels off very slowly and they become--not friends by \plain\i\f16 any
\plain\f16 means, but guys who are at least on the same page and the same footing. It\'92s no longer,
\'91You are in chains and I have control of you.\'92 It is now criminal and mercenary together. That
surprised me when I read the script and it works on the screen too. I like that Johns loses the upper
hand. That works physically and morally too. Losing control makes him crazy, in a sense. He still has
the gun, but he no longer has control of the group. I think that\'92s why he ends up snapping.\'94\par
\par Twohy takes tremendous advantage of the fact that his cast is comprised of relative newcomers
and workhorse veterans. They each possess plenty of talent, but none are marquee names earning big
bucks per flick. The casting of all the central parts with actors of almost equal stature translates to this
bottom line: anyone can perish, anyone can turn bad and any such occurrence can happen at any
moment. \'93If it was Kevin Costner playing my role and, let\'92s say, Arnold Schwarzenegger playing
Vin\'92s role, you could have used the same basic premise, but you would kind of know what the
outcome would be before the movie even started,\'94 Hauser notes. \'93The way David has cast it,
it\'92s totally fresh. You don\'92t know who is going to die. You\'92ve got to give credit to David for
that and also to [executive producer] Ted Field and Interscope. They let us be part of a film that cost a
lot of money, that doesn\'92t have a huge name as a draw. The weight of that money is on our
shoulders. Hopefully, \plain\i\f16 Pitch Black \plain\f16 will succeed. We\'92ll see.\'94\par \par Principal
photography on \plain\i\f16 Pitch Black \plain\f16 took place on location in Australia, in an area called
Coober Pedy. Twohy and the film\'92s other actors have spoken of their individual trials and
tribulations, and now Hauser takes his shot at it. \'93Shooting the film was tough. I won\'92t lie to you
about that,\'94 Hauser says. \'93Coober Pedy was rough when the Sun set. The first two weeks there
it was supposed to be sunny and hot, and it was not. It was hard to juggle everything around those two
weeks. They were spritzing us down with water to make us look sweaty, and it was 42 degrees. And
the planet is supposed to be 120 degrees. Then it would rain, so they put sheets over our heads to block
that. When it got really cold, we could see our own breath. We ran into some obstacles--let\'92s just
put it that way.\'94\par \par Fortunately, Hauser got on well with Twohy and his co-stars. \'93The film
was really David\'92s baby. He wrote and directed it, but he also gave me a lot of freedom. He knew
that I came down to Australia with an idea in my head and that I was passionate about the role and the
film. He was really quiet at times and just let me do my thing; then, when he wanted something
different from me, he would come and whisper in my ear. He would say, \'91Remember this\'92 or
\'91Remember that.\'92 We worked really well together. He\'92s a very out-there guy. To create this
story, you have to sit and wonder and imagine all of these things. Picking his brain, at times, was
fun.\par \par \'93Radha and I hit it off right away. She is from Australia, so when I got there, she gave
me the grand tour. And I taught her how to drive. I had a car, and because there really were so many
areas with nothing and no one around, she could drive all over the place without hitting anything.
Anyway, I think she does a wonderful job in the movie. I really like our scenes together. Vin and I
worked very hard, and we challenged each other, acting-wise. We would talk to each other about
certain scenes, even during close-ups and green screens. We both also did nearly all of our own stunts,
and we worked together on those too. I had a great time working with Vin, and I would like to work
with him again actually. Keith David kept me laughing. His smile makes me smile. He brought joy to
the set every time he came onto it.\'94\par \par As for the final product, Hauser likes that, too. In fact,
his experience on \plain\i\f16 Pitch Black\plain\f16 whetted his appetite for more SF. \'93The genre is a
challenge,\'94 he says. \'93It is not an easy kind of film to make. It\'92s not easy to react to something
that isn\'92t there. Much of it is in your mind. And that was fine with me. I want to be continuously
challenged as an actor. I don\'92t want to be bored. I don\'92t want to do the same thing over and over
again. I don\'92t know if I would do another SF movie right away, but I\'92m definitely interested in
genre films now. I think SF is a wonderful creation. Like I said, I have \plain\i\f16 not \plain\f16 seen
\plain\i\f16 Pitch Black\plain\f16 before. I was thoroughly entertained. It takes you on a ride. It is not
the greatest acting piece in the world, but you get the fireworks, effects and action. Ships get ripped
apart and creatures come flying out of the woodwork. It\'92s scary. It\'92s entertaining. I think it does
what it\'92s supposed to do.\'94\par \par \plain\b\f16 DYING BY NIGHT\plain\f16 \par Hauser even
got a kick out his death scene, a violent sequence that elicits loud cheers form the audiences. Either
they are reacting the bravura dispatching or to the fact that Johns gets what he deserves. \'93It could
be a bit of both,\'94 Hauser notes, laughing softly. \'93I jumped out of my seat when I saw it for the
first time. To see your head explode on screen is a pretty crazy thing. It is sick. But it\'92s also very
cool. I had done a few death scenes before, but this one definitely takes the cake. There was no
surviving it.\'94\par \par The son of Wings Hauser, an actor whose credits range from \plain\i\f16 Night
Shadows\plain\f16 to the B-movie classic \plain\i\f16 Vice Squad \plain\f16 and from \plain\i\f16
Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time\plain\f16 to Michael Mann\'92s acclaimed drama
\plain\i\f16 The Insider\plain\f16 , Cole was born in Laurel Springs, California and began acting
professionally at age 15. After making his big-screen debut in \plain\i\f16 School Ties\plain\f16 , he
went on to appear in \plain\i\f16 Higher Learning, Dazed and Confused, Good Will Hunting\plain\f16
(which was written by and starred Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, pals of Hauser\'92s since the three
worked together on \plain\i\f16 School Ties\plain\f16 ) and \plain\i\f16 The Hi-Lo Country.\plain\f16
Hauser also co-starred on \plain\i\f16 High Incident, \plain\f16 the critically lauded but short-lived TV
action/drama.\par \par \'93I\'92ve been acting since as far back as I can remember, probably since I
was lying about something to get out of trouble at school,\'94 jokes Hauser, who, on a more serious
note, only met his father at age 11 and has not seen him for more than five years. He and his mother, a
writer of children\'92s stories and other books, are close. \'93Acting was an easy way for me to
express many things when I was growing up. I got to see a lot at a very early age. I grew up really
fast. I had a bunch of brothers and sisters who I took care of. So I had a lot to express, and there was
just this immediate love I had for acting. As soon as I could see people react to what I was doing, after
I got that first ovation, it made me feel really good. Everybody wants to be acknowledged.\'94\par \par
Hauser will next be seen in \plain\i\f16 The Cup\plain\f16 , a sports drama co-starring and produced by
Robert Duvall. \'93I play an American goalkeeper from West Virginia who\'92s drafted to play for a
small soccer team in Scotland,\'94 he says. \'93Basically, my character is a rookie. He doesn\'92t start
right away, but when the regular goalkeeper gets hurt, he gets thrust into playing the position. He is a
good guy, a good-hearted person, which was a very nice change after playing a character like
Johns.\'94\par \par As the conversation concludes, Hauser contemplates how far he has come in his
career and what awaits him down the road. Though he has yet to rocket to stardom like Damon and
Affleck, Hauser refuses to complain. Slow and steady is fine by him. \'93To be honest, it has been one
step at a time. I am really not much for taking elevators,\'94 Cole Hauser explains. \'93I believe that
with hard work and by continuously giving 100 percent to everything I do, I will get to where I deserve
to be. I\'92ve been acting now for nine years. It has been perfect. I could not ask for anything more. I
am doing what I want to do and I am taking my time doing it. I am acting and I am living life, too,
traveling and seeing the world. It has been fun. And the rest of it will happen when the time is
right.\par }
