Matthew Modine, who famously played Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam War classic Full metal jackethe spent months working with the director and became a close friend. Even then, like Kubrick, he had a clear vision of war and peace. Today, these opinions are stronger than ever.
“If Stanley were alive today, in the current state of the world, he would make a black comedy,” says Modine The Hollywood journalist Rome at the Lucca Film Festival, where he was awarded a lifetime achievement award. “Not many people know that Kubrick had a fantastic sense of irony and humor. If he were here, he would be great at creating a comedy about the grotesque absurdity of leaders like Putin and Donald Trump. It would make great comedy with those characters.
Modine is in Lucca to host the Italian premiere of his new film, The Martini Shotdirected by Stephen Wallis. The independent film, shot in just 14 days between London and the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, stars Modine as a terminally ill director determined to make his last film.
“It's a reflection on life and death,” Modine says of the film, which also stars John Cleese and Derek Jacobi. “I learned from Marcus Aurelius and Cicero: we are born with death next to us. And instead of running away from it, we should make it our friend. Learn to live in the moment, in the present. We don't know what will happen in 10 minutes, so we live in the here and now, enjoying this conversation.”
As for the upcoming presidential election, the actor didn't hesitate to share his candid thoughts on Trump.
“Even eight years ago I said that Trump was not the right person to lead the United States, and now I am more convinced than ever,” he says, adding that Trump's attitude towards women is “barbaric, uncivilized, ignorant” . and rude.” He also wholeheartedly supported Kamala Harris: “When we think of the president of the United States, we think of him as a father figure. Well, now it's time for a mom: Kamala.”
He continued to support Harris' cause by pointing out Trump's multiple felony convictions. “How many charges was Trump convicted of? If someone gets out of prison for committing a crime, they hardly find a job, even in a bar. They say, “Sorry, we can't hire you, your record is tainted.” So how can someone convicted of so many crimes be considered president of the United States?
On Netflix Day Zerodirected by Lesli Linka Glatter, Modine plays the White House press secretary alongside Robert De Niro as the former president. “Angela Bassett is the current president,” says the Stranger things actor, “and the United States is under attack by a force that shuts down all computers and electronic devices. We don't know who is responsible. Day Zero it's when all the planes stop at the same time or all the computers crash. It is a pause in the flow, in the breath of the world. Something terrifying. That's where the story begins.
Among Modine's most recent films is Christopher Nolan's Oscar-winning Best Picture Oppenheimera project that raised many questions about the consequences of nuclear energy. “We live under the constant threat of nuclear catastrophe,” he warns. “What strikes me, however, is the hypocrisy of the United States in pointing the finger at countries with nuclear weapons when they were the first to use them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We cannot come out of this situation with the “I'm right, you're wrong” mentality, without considering the pain we inflict. I want peaceful solutions to the world's problems. We must respect diversity, even diversity of thought. Otherwise, on this overcrowded planet, we would be 10 billion people destined for extinction.”
The actor concluded the interview by returning to Kubrick. “Once again Stanley Kubrick was right,” concludes Modine. “Remember the opening of 2001: A Space Odysseywhen the monkey uses a bone to hit another monkey, and that weapon transformed into a bone turns into a spaceship? In a few seconds Kubrick has condensed thousands of years of human history, the very nature of man: violence. But the message is clear: if we want to evolve, we must solve the problem of violence. This is the thing we must learn to free ourselves from.”