REZNOR: You thought, why’d they pick that take?
DASTMALCHIAN: Why did they pick me? To me, it was the only part of the movie that didn’t look like a real movie. It almost looked like home video. But process is everything to me, because I have no control when I walk away. If I love the process, which I really did on Late Night with the Devil, I genuinely let go. And then when it’s time to see the thing, I have no assumptions. I can think fondly of the experience making it. I’ve had experiences that were quite negative and then the product turned out fine, but I don’t really care for it.
REZNOR: That’s interesting. I had read long ago, at least I think I did, De Niro being asked, essentially, why are you in shitty movies? And his response was similar to yours. “It’s the process. I haven’t even seen some of the films, but I’m doing it because it was exciting to me, regardless of the context or the film that’s contained within. And I thought, “Really?” It felt like a stretch from my own perspective of being so attached to the work I do. But then again, scoring has opened my eyes to a lot of that same thing of, I’m part of the whole, I’m not the whole whole, and there’s a futility involved in trying to control things you can’t control.
DASTMALCHIAN: Yes.
How David Dastmalchian and Trent Reznor Tamed Their Demons
GUGINO: I’ll say two things, and then I’m really curious about your experience. One, on Red Hot, I was 18 and I was working with Donald Sutherland. He played my dad and, at one point towards the end of the shoot, he said, “Carla, do you know that feeling when you finish a job and you think you’re never going to work again?” I said, “Yes!” and I’m waiting for this advice, and he says, “It never ends.” That was great advice because he’s Donald Sutherland, he’s worked for his entire life, and if this man feels that way at this age, this is really good for me to remember.