Nick Nolte and James Coburn--sounds like a match made in macho-movie heaven. They are two of the screen's favorite tough guys, albeit from slightly different generations. They're both big men, still ruggedly handsome and imposing.
In his wide-ranging career, the 57-year-old Nolte has been an aging football player in "North Dallas Forty," a drug runner in "Who'll Stop the Rain," a combat photographer in "Under Fire," a world-weary cop in "48 HRS.," and a bum in "Down and Out in Beverly Hills." He's also currently appearing in a lead role in Terrence Malick's World War II film, "The Thin Red Line."
For Coburn, 70, "Affliction" is a significant departure from the kind of action roles that made him famous, from "The Magnificent Seven" and "Our Man Flint" to "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid" and "Hard Times." He recently completed a role in the upcoming NBC miniseries "Noah's Ark."
The two of them are paired for the first time as father and son in Paul Schrader's "Affliction," which opened Wednesday. The film is generating Oscar buzz despite its downbeat tone and disturbing theme: domestic violence and its ugly legacy, often passed on from one generation to the next.
Nolte, a previous Academy Award nominee for "The Prince of Tides," has already won best actor honors from the New York Film Critics and a Golden Globe nomination as best actor for his work in "Affliction." Coburn's performance also has been widely lauded.
Based on a novel by Russell Banks ("The Sweet Hereafter"), "Affliction" casts Nolte as Wade Whitehouse, a small-town New Hampshire cop whose messy personal life complicates his investigation into a shooting that may or may not be a hunting accident. Coburn plays Pop Whitehouse, his alcoholic father who--as we learn in shocking flashbacks--regularly beat his sons.
Also factoring in the story, set during the freezing winter months of New England, are the sour relationship Wade has with his ex-wife (Mary Beth Hurt) and the deteriorating one he has with their daughter; a promising dalliance with a local waitress (Sissy Spacek), and his strangely distant brother (Willem Dafoe).
Nolte and Coburn recently sat down at Nolte's Malibu home to discuss their roles in "Affliction," violence (on- and off-screen) and playing such difficult and often unsympathetic characters.
Question: Have either of you encountered people like Wade and Pop Whitehouse?
