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Page 18 Saturday, September 9,1995_Medicine Hat Newsin filmKATHERINE MONKon a different level ofVancouver SunKASLO, B.C. — A giant green monster sputters in the middle of Okanagan Lake. The entire town gathers. And everyone waits for the magic moment when fact and fiction fuse together — when we believe, for just a moment, that what we see is real.It’s not, of course.It’s just a movie — like a hundred other projects that roll film around the province, capturing B.C.’s snow-capped mountains and clear blue lakes like so many postcards taped together.All the same, there is something different about the set of Magic in the Water, which opened recently in Vancouver.Maybe it’s the fact that a crew of close to 100 people removed themselves from the “real” studio world and called Nelson's next-door neighbor, Kaslo, home for six weeks.Maybe it’s the fact that ‘80s hunkster Mark Harmon is shedding stardust around the town of 800.Maybe it’s just the near-surreal sun-drenched weather.More than likely, though, it’s the man watching the fake lake monster with the unhinged attention of an expecting father, Rick Stevenson.Writer, director and coproducer, this is without adoubt, Stevenson’s baby. He sits up at night, paces the floor and feels the passion of creation — Da Vinci or Dr. Frankenstein only time will tell.“I don't think I've ever felt so excited. The chemistry just feels right — some sort of harmonicconvergence or something,” Stevenson says during a set break, sitting on the deck of the dry-beached paddlewheeler, Moyle.“I've never really been in the position where people really listen to you like they do now,” says the former producer and onetime Rhodes scholar.Magic In The Water is Stevenson’s directorial debut, and as such, the whole experience is takingmeaning.An insatiable learner, Stevenson is not only building another layer ofknowledge, he’s trying to get to the centre of his own soul.After all, this is his story. “In the big picture it’s about the loss of innocence and, I guess, the actual nature of innocence — is it naivete or is it a conscious belief in the possible?“As adults we tend to rule out what we can’t see. We no longer have the ability that children do to see what isn't there. I was interested in that process and what happens somewhere around puberty — that time when we become jaded and cynical and immune to mystery,” Stevenson says as the grips and gaffers bustle around him, putting the final touches on the mock reality unfolding for the camera.The on-camera version of Stevenson’s story is told through Harmon's character, Jack Black, a separated and burnt-out professional who's trying to reconnect with his two kids.He takes them to a small town with a legendary lake monster when funny things start to happen.“In a way, it’s built like Local Hero in terms of the story — a slow rediscovery of what makes life important and beautiful,” says Stevenson.Sharing a certain physical resemblance to Stevenson himself, leading man Harmon says the story’s subtle structure was the very thing that attracted him to the role of Jack Black.“I don’t do things for the money anymore — I do them for the story and the people who are involved.“I found Jack Black to be a familiar sort of character for me. Sometimes we all have a tendency to get sidetracked by our own vision and our own forms of control,” says Harmon, the former football jock who’s still charismatic as ever — even if Brad Pitt has usurped his “sexy” mantle for the ‘90s.wrapped up filming in the Okanagan recently.— Southam photolt;fiTo me, there’s the premonster Jack and the postmonster Jack who’s rediscovered a certain responsibility towards his children and the world.“And to be honest, I thought the post-monster Jack was going to be a lot easier to find than it has been,” he says between shots — some time between midnight and 2 a.m. on this balmy summer night.“I had to find this character in layers and I realized just how intensely personal a story it was — I’ve found myself picking Rick’s brain to get the pieces in place.”Harmon says as a result, he looked inside himself, too.“I realized you can’t just sit back and play it safe. This is a business thatdemands a certain amount of risk — usually, I’ve rushed out to meet it, says the man who took a gamble on playing serial murderer Ted Bundy, a decision which many insiders think ruined his career because he played the part “too well.”None of that seems to faze Harmon, however.“I like this way of moving through life. As anactor, you’re constantly synthesizing other viewpoints and becoming different people. The one thing you have to watch out for is keeping some perspective on it all and not losing your sense of humor.“As the years go by, I think I just get better at what I do because I work hard at it. It’s a job, it’s not Rwanda.”
Newspaper Details
Medicine Hat News
Medicine Hat, Alberta, CA
Sat, Sep 09, 1995
Page 42
Full Page
Clipped by
Kevin S.
CA 19 Aug 2020
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