Did your opinion about who Jeff was change as you were making the film?
Penn Badgley: That’s interesting. I think I sometimes struggled with the notion of him being such a romantic and the reality of it. Where we are in his life telling this story is when he was in some ways very shy and introverted and morose. He could melt into a wall and no one would ever notice he was there. Then he also had this ability to shock a room with a single utterance.
I always battle with: what was he really? What is anyone really? Sometimes I feel like he was just this kid, and then sometimes I feel like he’s a lover, and then other times it seems like he has no idea what he was doing. I would always battle with that and I think I probably struggled more with him after the film. For a year, I didn’t see the film and it was like this thing hovering over me.
Did it make you reflect on your past relationship with your father, and what’s your relationship like with him?
Penn Badgley: Oh yeah. I would say doing the things that I had to do to sympathize with Tim, I also sympathized with my father. In some ways, that I wasn’t aware of at the time but I see now, it actually brought me closer to him. We actually have a great relationship now and I wouldn’t say that we always did. When he came to the screening in Toronto, that was really moving.
It’s a father-son relationship and the relationship between any father and son is a potent one. In that way, I was very aware of the father-son dynamic and that archetype. I was working with those sorts of mystical human qualities much more than I was just working with Jeff, whether or not that matters, that was kind of in my head.
The record store scene is amazing. Was that your idea?
Penn Badgley: No, it was scripted but it said he does this song, he does that song, he then does the entire album and it’s beautiful. That was one thing that I shared with Jeff, there are a million people who can do that but they don’t all look like him, so it was a short list in that degree. That was a part that I understood, the retention of songs and lyrics and melodies. I actually knew most of that already, and if I hadn’t, I would have been in trouble. I couldn’t do it. You can either do that or not. You can’t learn.
Initially, when I was about to do it, I was like, “How am I going do that?” But I just listened to the songs and that’s about all you can do. What else? I can’t practice really. We did three takes and each one was really different, and I think they pieced two of them together. I remember when I was done with that I was like, “thank god I pulled that off.”
Was that one of the hardest things you had to do in this movie?
Penn Badgley: You know, in some ways it was like the easiest because it was so shapeless. It was the most daunting in a way, but in some ways the easiest because there were no guidelines. I could have done half of what you see and who’s to say that it wasn’t the right thing?
This movie represents a period in Jeff Buckley’s life where he realizes he wants to become a musician. What was the turning point for you, when you knew you wanted to become an actor?
Penn Badgley: My turning point when I knew I wanted to be an actor was through music. I always loved to sing and I did musical theater when I was nine. I was living in the sticks in Washington State, and it was a social outlet. It was a happy accident.
Are there any scenes that may have been deleted?
Penn Badgley: There is a deleted scene that I really wish was in the film, which is an audition scene where Jeff is singing a couple of his father’s song and mimicking his father, kind of like the record store scene. It’s me playing on guitar and just going back and forth and talking about my father. We shot it at eight in the morning after this 14 hour day so, it was just this weird place where there was no way to rehearse or prepare, but it was so much fun. That’s not in there because it didn’t really mesh well.
What are you doing next? Will you be working on a new album?
Penn Badgley: Maybe when I’m 35 or maybe tomorrow, but I just can’t tell you. I did a movie in December called Parts Per Billion, which has an apocalyptic setting for a couple vignettes of these different relationships. It’s got a pretty great cast, including Gena Rowlands, Frank Langella and Rosario Dawson. It’s another weird, little independent movie. I’ll probably keep doing those for a while.
That concludes our interview, but we’d like to thank Penn Badgley for taking the time to talk to us. Make sure to check out Greetings From Tim Buckley, which is now playing in select theaters. It is also available on VOD.