Compared to the typical Hollywood movie that has tons of equipment and people going back and forth, I imagine the production for this film was a lot smaller with a lot less people working on it. Did that help free you up as actors, not having so much equipment and not as many people surrounding you?
Earl Lynn Nelson: I don’t think the equipment had anything to do with it. I think it was a family. We got to know each other very, very well. We shared showers, we shared shitters, we ate together, we drank together, and it was a family.
Paul Eenhoorn: It was first and second camera and then Anthony (Enns) on sound and then Martha and Aaron, and there were some Iceland interns. I don’t think it would’ve worked with a 60 member crew and lighting and shit like that because it would have delayed the spontaneity. It would’ve made a directorial statement rather than just… Martha and Aaron spent a lot of time, and I’m remembering the geyser scene and they would just have a chat together and then they’d talked to Andrew and Ben Kasulke (one of the camera operators) would help with that. We got to some of those places and we weren’t prepped for what was actually to happen. I think that made the film that sort of loose thing that just kept rolling. We rolled man. We shot that thing in 18 days or something like that.
Earl Lynn Nelson: When I did the Eastbound and Down segment, there’s 350 to 400 people there and people going all over the place. It was a nightmare for me because there wasn’t any personal relationship with people, you know? When you have a personal relationship, it seems like to me that things move easier because you understand. Somebody says go over here, then you know that they mean would you please go over there versus go over here or go over there and you walk around this way to get there. But the same words by someone you know, you know what they mean versus somebody you don’t know.
Paul Eenhoorn: And I think there’s more pressure on a bigger set because you’ve got more eyes on you. It’s drier and colder and more detached.
Earl Lynn Nelson: Definitely.
Paul Eenhoorn: This was not detached. This was really that single mind amongst us I think.
Earl Lynn Nelson: It was a group of people that made one great movie as far as I’m concerned.
Yes, it deftly has a family feel to it as well as an intimate feel as well.
Earl Lynn Nelson: This is not just for people in our age group, because people go through the same thing at other ages and find out how to go on with their lives. I think the Pineapple Express people will love our movie.
Paul Eenhoorn: Liam Neeson is only a couple of years younger than I am and look at what he’s making. There’s stuff out there to do.
That concludes our interview, but we’d like to thank Paul and Earl Lynn very much for their time. Be sure to catch Land Ho! when it hits theatres this Friday!
