Opening on Friday is âP.S. I Love You,â the new dramedy starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler. Hereâs the synopsis:
Holly Kennedy (Hilary Swank) is beautiful, smart, and married to the love of her lifeâa passionate, funny and impetuous Irishman named Gerry (Gerard Butler). So when Gerryâs life is taken by an illness, it takes the life out of Holly.But before he died, Gerry wrote Holly a series of letters that will guide her, not only through her grief but in rediscovering herself. The first message arrives on Hollyâs 30th birthday in the form of a cake and, to her utter shock, a tape recording from Gerry, who proceeds to order her to get out and âcelebrate herself.â In the weeks and months that follow, more letters from Gerry are delivered in surprising ways, each sending her on a new adventure and each signing off in the same way: P.S. I Love You.
With Gerryâs words as her guide, Holly embarks on a touching, exciting and often hilarious journey of rediscovery in a story about marriage, friendship and how a love so strong can turn the finality of death into new beginning for life.
So to help promote the movie, I was able to participate in roundtable interviews witha lot of the cast and the one below is with Jeffrey Dean Morgan. In the film, Jeffrey is someone that Hilary Swankâs character meets in
If I tell you anymoreâ¦itâll ruin the fun.
During our roundtable interview Jeffrey covered a range of subjects â from playing the Comedian in the upcoming âWatchmenâ movie to trying to maintain a good Irish accent while filming in
As always, you can either read the transcript below or download the audio as an MP3 by clicking here. And if you missed the movie clips I previously posted, you can watch them here.
âP.S. I Love Youâ opens this Friday at theaters everywhere.
Question: What happened to your accent? I know. It was a good accent.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Q: How hard was that?
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: Well, for me it was hard because Iâd never done one before and you also donât want to sound like a Leprechaun so it wasâ¦Iâm not going to say it was easy but it was not maybe as hard as maybe I anticipated. I was very nervous about having to do it.
Q: But you did it in
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: I did.
Q: That had to be hard.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: I did and yeah I didnât want the cat-calls from the Irish you know? Crew guys.
Q: Are you saying you were more nervous about your accent than you were about your nude scene?
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: I was way more nervous about my accent. Yeah. The nude scene we could have brought a stunt butt in or something, you know.
Q: I thought you captured an Irish character. I donât know what Iâm saying but the spirit of an Irish person. When you were doing the accent did you meet people in
Jeffrey: Yeah, I ran my lines with every Irish person in all of
Q: Talk about working with Hilary. What is it energy? Does she prepareâ¦just talk about working with her?
Jeffrey: The best thing that I can say about anyone actory is someone thatâs present. Hilary is completely present and completely giving which is very rare. Iâve been around doing this for a long time. Nobody knew who I was until recently but none the less Iâve done this for a long time. Sheâs an incredible person beyond all the actory stuff, sheâs incredibly funny. Sheâs incredibly smart. Sheâs great just to hang out with. Sheâs the girl you want to go to the pub with and have a beer, you know? And then you meet her as an actress and here you are workingâfor me it was oh God Iâm working with a 2 time Oscar winner. I was intimidated. Iâd come from this kind of smaller world of television and to be working opposite Hilary Iâm not going to say I was petrified. Iâm not going to lie. Then you meet her and sheâs this great girl next door girl who happens to have won 2 Oscars. And then you work opposite her and youâll never seeâand Iâll always remember how present she was. I donât know if Iâve ever worked with an actor that was quiteâ¦that listened so well. She just listened. She was so there. So present and Iâll never forget working with her just because I rememberâ¦.she was so present it would make me forget what I was doing because I was like âfuck sheâs really listening to me here. Sheâs really buying my accent.â She was just completely there and itâs a rare thing Iâve found and thereâs a reason sheâs as good as she is and itâs I think because of that and sheâs a really goodâ¦you watch her how she observes people.
Q: For people who donât know youâre in âWatchman,â you play the comedian. So have you wrapped your work on that film?
Jeffrey: Hell, no. I go back Monday. I came in yesterday and I go back Monday.
Q: So can you give us an update as to how the filming has been going and what your experiences have been thus far?
Jeffrey: Well, you saw it.
Q: I canât write about it.
Jeffrey: Thatâs awesome. Itâs super huge, man. Itâs just like this kind of mind bogglingâevery day I go to work on that thing and itâs sort of overwhelming and I donât know if Iâve ever done anything thatâs quite like that before. Weâre shooting on the
Q: Can you talk about your character because I donât know the franchise? You playâitâs called the Comedian?
Jeffrey: Edward Blake is his real name and then the Comedian is the kind of superhero character he is. The character I play is 180 degrees from anything Iâve ever done before. A far cry from certainly William. A really far cry from Denny Duquette, which is why I wanted to do it. Itâs a whole other thing. Heâs an animal. But I think one of the reasons I got hiredâthe things he does, his physical actions are horrendous. Certainly the most horrendous things Iâve ever seen much less portrayed. But I think my job is toâyou donât hate himâso my job is to kind of be able to do these fucking horrible things and yet have the audience not hate his guts. Because you donât, you read the book and you donât hate the Comedian. Thereâs a reason he does what he does and you know he just takes it maybe to a level that most people wouldnât but for him itâs normal.
Q: You say that youâve been in this business for a long time but in recent times youâre now starring oppositeâyou know we didnât know what Katherine was going to be but Hilary and those people so what is it like working with these strong leading ladies?
Jeffrey: Well, theyâre easy to look at for one. Maybe to learn a lot. My kind of success has come a little bit later in life. Iâm not 20 any more and these people Iâve been working with have been successful and good at what they do for a long time. And theyâre notâyou know theyâre good peopleâtheyâre not the ones we see on Star magazine or whatever the hell theyâre doing. Theyâre not out clubbing every night. Theyâre normal folks whoâve been really successful at what they do and so for me itâs just kind of been a privilege to work with the people Iâm working with because Iâm learning a lot. Iâm learning a lot how to be good at what I do and also how lucky I am and take it all in and be grateful for all this late in life success Iâve been having and itâs good to have people that have been around and successful for awhile and work with them and see how they behave and itâs why they are who they are and why theyâre still successful. They havenât dropped the ball on the way. And other than that itâs just nice. Itâs kind of like playing a game of tennis with someone that can hit the ball back at you.
Q: Youâre the guy who at one point was hopping back and forth between 2 cities, juggling 3 series. I mean a back breaking period. Would you ever go through that again?
Jeffrey: I donât know. I mean, looking back at it now it was such a cool time being able to do 2 characters on 2 vastly different things. You know being Denny Duquette and then go and being John Winchester in the course of a day Iâd be playing both characters. As tired as I was at that time, itâs for one nothing compared what Iâm going through on âWatchmenâ. It was a vacation. The work Iâm doing on âWatchmenâ is mind bending and physically just hard. I thought that was hard. That was nothing compared to what Iâm doing now. Would I do it again? Maybe. Yeah, because it was so fun kind of juggling 2 characters. As much fun it was also kind of the hardest part but that was the challenge of it.
Q: And the material was good in each case.
Jeffrey: Yeah, the material was great in each case and they were so vastly different. The problem was the line would blur sometimes because Iâd be a little bit tired, and Iâd kind of forgetâJohn would get a little soft and have a little Denny thing, or Denny would you know want to shoot a doctor. So it was just lack of sleep talking. Yeah, it was exhausting but it was great. And what an opportunity and look whatâs happened now.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about the first time you put on the costume. Iâm going back to âWatchmenâ.
Jeffrey: I know you are. Every time, I know.
Q: Could you talk about putting on your costume for the first time and seeing everyone else in costume?
Jeffrey: It was awesome to see everybody in their costumes. You knowâmine isâ¦I got the coolest costume, Iâll say that. Like to look at, my costumeâs insane but it also takes the longest to get in and out of. Michael Wilkinson, the costumer who designed theâ¦again very true to the comic book, maybe updated a little bit but so true to what you see inâ¦and Comedian is spot on to the book. Spot on. His costume is exactly like it is in the graphic novel. But seeing everybody in their super hero outfits is well, I mean for one itâs hard to stop laughing initially because everyoneâs running around trying to be a super hero for Godâs sake. How can you not? Itâs really cool that experience, I mean for me as soon as I put on the outfit and stuck a cigar in my mouth, Iâm him. You donât even want to talk to me anymore. I turn into the character.
Q: Have you filmed the
Jeffrey: No, not yet. That will be coming up after I leave here.
Q: I was just going to say âWatchmenâ is committed to
Jeffrey: Iâm not entirely sure now. You know, thatâs a really good question. Iâm not entirely sure. I couldnât answer that being that Iâm not in thatâthatâs not my area of expertise. I donât know. I know a lot of stuff is still shooting there. Thereâs probably benefits of shooting there of which Iâm not entirely sure. I know for a while they wanted to shoot it in New York because again they had to build this very elaborate set of New York streets and it probably would have been easier to go to New York for that but you know, they also got tons of empty stages which I know they didnât have in New York if we were to shoot there.
Q: You need a lot of sound stages.
Jeffrey: Yeah, weâve got a whole row of them.
Q: And you, for one, like working there.
Jeffrey: Thatâs right. I canât get enough of
Q: I was going to ask whatâs Zack been like. Has he been able to maintain the enthusiasm every day?
Jeffrey: Yeah. You met him. Heâs not only incredibly passionate in staying true to the graphic novel but heâs also like a little kid. I donât know where he gets his frigging energy but weâre putting in some long hours and a lot of nights and God, every day heâs running around and smiling through all of it and not only that heâs just an amazing director. Heâs drawn out literally every frame of this movie before he shot it. I donât know if Iâve ever worked with anyone more prepared. Heâs got a copy of the graphic novel in his hand all the time. It never comes out of his hand. Heâs constantly referring to it. Heâll set up a shot looking at the novel. Itâs insane. Itâs crazy. I mean, again itâs one of those things that Iâm going to have to process when the whole thing is over and Iâll sit down with you and Iâll give you an in depth interview because itâs just so kind of mind boggling right now that I think I need to step away from it for a little bit and be able to kind of put into words because Iâm still kind of blown away by it.
Q: Back to P.S. Do you play guitar?
Jeffrey: I didnât. I didnât. I didnât sing, I didnât get naked, I didnât do dialects. I didnât do any of the things I did in this movie before I did it.
Q: You were lip-syncing that song?
Jeffrey: Oh I sang the shit out of it. I played guitar and I sang. Now mind you, I think they used someone elseâs voice in the final cut, but after a couple Guinnessâ I thought I was sounding pretty good on that. I was like you know this is alright.
Q: Any dreams of being a rock star?
Jeffrey: Of course. Yeah, are you kidding me? Actually thatâs not true. They went away the minute I got on stage. Any dreams I had of being a rock star went away when I saw the people and their expectations of me to be able to play guitar and sing. They all dissipated and that was the end of it. Itâs one thing by yourself in front of the mirror, which Iâm really good at but not so good at in front of folks.
Q: What was it like being in
Jeffrey: No.
Q: What did you do in between the shooting?
Jeffrey: We spent a lot of time just walking around the city of
Q: I wanted to know if youâd had any scenes yet with
Jeffrey: No, I havenât. There you go.
Q: When do you wrap on the film?
Jeffrey: Well, the schedule is changing right now all the time because of weather so I think mid-February.
Q: And are you prepared for going to Comic-Con next year?
Jeffrey: Someone else asked me that. I donât think so. To be honest with you I donât think any of us are going to be prepared. I think weâre just going to do it.
Q: I think Zackâs premiering footage at Comic-Con in front of 7,000 people.
Jeffrey: Thatâll be it. Thatâll be the first time everybodyâs sees it.
Q: So youâre definitely going though?
Jeffrey: Oh yeah, Iâll be there. I just donât know if Iâm prepared for it. Oh Iâll be there.