Peter Sarsgaard will take the leftovers, thank you.
One reason for his eclectic role choices is that the well-written, non-controversial ones “get taken up in two seconds.”
“I would easily do one of those. It’s not like I’m trying to be provocative,” he says. “But out of the roles that are left over, they’re either controversial or poorly written, and I would rather do one that was controversial.”
So he usually takes offbeat, edgy supporting parts in movies that aren’t box-office blockbusters — meaning a lot of moviegoers haven’t seen him. But for those who have, his performances can satisfy like a sumptuous meal — nothing resembling a leftover.
In “Kinsey,” the almost-famous actor co-stars with Laura Linney and Liam Neeson, and has a sex scene with her — and him, complete with full-frontal nudity.
It’s always awkward at first to play a sex scene, the 33-year-old Sarsgaard concedes. “And then you kind of just get used to it. ... It’s like: Is it awkward sometimes at the gym and being naked? Sure, but you get over it. And that’s really what it turns into on a film. Because if you’re doing your job as an actor, you’re not really thinking about the fact that a lot of people are going to be seeing it.”
His riveting performance as bisexual sex researcher Clyde Martin — who helped Alfred Kinsey yank the covers off human sexuality in mid-20th century America — follows his wonderfully cynical grave digger (and robber) in Zach Braff’s “Garden State” earlier this year.
He’s sure to get raves for his latest movie (Associated Press critic Christy Lemire says he’s “excellent ... believably magnetic”) on the heels of receiving best supporting-actor citations from several critics circles and a Golden Globe nomination for his performance as Chuck Lane, the New Republic editor who busted journalistic jivemeister Stephen Glass, in last year’s “Shattered Glass.”
Lane’s just one of several real-life characters he’s played, including his film debut a decade ago as a murder victim (seen in flashbacks) in “Dead Man Walking.”
“I get inspired by the fact that I’m representing a real person,” says Sarsgaard, who did so in 1999’s “Boys Don’t Cry” as rapist-killer John Lotter and 2002’s “K-19: The Widowmaker,” in which he also co-starred with Neeson. “It makes me work extra hard in terms of bringing a real humanity to it ... There’s a responsibility to it, but it’s also inspiring.”
Dodgy charactersHe has a knack, too, for portraying dodgy characters (in “The Salton Sea” and “The Center of the Universe”) with great empathy.
“I mean, even for someone like John Lotter, we’re all victims of our circumstances. It’s not an excuse for what we do, but it just explains what we do. And if you try to really understand why someone did something — versus just call them an axis of evil — if you really try to understand, and even if it’s not something you agree with, that understanding creates a full human,” Sarsgaard says. “Because I think in order to deal with evil, we have to understand evil.”
Not that he can relate to every evildoer. “If I can’t find empathy for the character, I don’t accept the role,” he says. “I just did that recently.”
The movie he was offered was well-written and had a great cast “but my character did some things in it that I just didn’t think I could ever find a way to understand.”
Turns out, he was a pedophile.
In person, the 6-foot Sarsgaard come across as pleasant and personable — traits which “Kinsey” director Bill Condon thought would dovetail in his film.
“There’s an interesting tension between the character he’s playing, who is so of his time, so guileless and open, and Peter, who is all those things but in a very contemporary way,” Condon says.
Sarsgaard didn’t turn to acting full time until late in his undergraduate studies at St. Louis’ Washington University. He wanted to become a writer, but got disenchanted because he couldn’t sit down and concentrate. With acting, the great thing is somebody makes you do it, he says. “If I’m acting in a movie, they call me down and they say ‘action’ and they say ‘cut.”’
No turning backWhile he’s been working on a screenplay for four years, there’s been no turning back for Sarsgaard, who sounds sanguine about his lack of supernova status.
“It’s all right if people have name recognition ’cause that helps put (people) in seats — but the less people know about my personal life,” he says, “then the more convincing each role can be. Because I’m not the kind of actor that it’s the force of my personality that carries the movie. So I’m comfortable being who I am and letting that subtly infuse itself into each role. ...
“At a certain point, it gets harder and harder to keep that, though. Because studios want you to help sell their movie, and it helps sell their movie if you’re more personable and all that kind of stuff. If you want to keep playing more significant roles in more significant movies, then your personality becomes important. Like, can he tell a joke, is he this, is he that, tell us a story about your vacation...”
That’s why he avoids TV talk shows, except he once did “Charlie Rose,” which is different from Leno’s and Letterman’s shows, where they want to hear anecdotes and get you to tell funny stories on yourself — oh, and eventually “get around to talking about the movie.”
There’s a personal benefit, as well.
He’s dating Maggie Gyllenhaal, and they manage NOT to pop up on the cover of Us Weekly, unlike the erstwhile Bennifer. Lots of famous people don’t get tawdry tabloid coverage, he notes, citing Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman as a prime example of a celebrity couple who escaped the gossip mill over the years.
“I try to see things in a positive light, so I always go, ‘It’s great dating Maggie, even though she’s famous, because I walk down the red carpet and I have to answer half as many questions.’ ... It deflects a lot of attention away from me.
“As long as you are comfortable living with the repercussions of where you’ve drawn the line and you find a place to draw it, I think it’s all good. I just have drawn mine rather tightly around myself.”