Entertainment

Magnificent ‘basterd’

Film Still, Inglourious Bastards. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, Christoph Waltz, 2009. Ph: Francois Duhamel/©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection (©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Ever)

He won an Oscar for playing sadistic Col. Hans Landa in “Inglourious Basterds.” Now Christoph Waltz is facing off against something far more intractable than Nazis: Brooklyn parents. Black comedy “Carnage,” opening Friday, finds two high-strung couples (John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet and Waltz) spending an afternoon bickering after their respective children are involved in a fight. It’s based on Yasmina Reza’s Broadway play “God of Carnage” and directed by Roman Polanski. Waltz plays a short-tempered, ethically challenged lawyer for a pharmaceutical company.

The Austrian-born actor, 55, has comfortably made the transition to Hollywood films and spends much of his time in the US. He phoned from Los Angeles and mercifully spoke English — one of his three languages, along with French and German.

Where you keep your Oscar?

I keep it in a cupboard behind closed doors, because I find it intimidating to look at it all the time. I was burgled, and they did not take the Oscar. That shelf was untouched. The other [shelves] were cleared out.

Do you think the thieves had respect?

I doubt that, the way they turned over every drawer. But they either knew they couldn’t sell it or didn’t want to [try].

What’s it like filming a movie that takes place in a single location, a Brooklyn apartment?

Fantastic. I saw “Glengarry Glen Ross” when it came out, and that only takes place in more or less one room. Spacial confinement does not mean uncinematic. On the contrary. If you have an old grand master of cinema like Roman Polanski, of course it means the cinematic drama will be heightened in a confined space. We don’t need vast landscapes and thousands of extras to make a movie.

Why was “God of” dropped from the title?

I think [Polanski] didn’t want a quote from the dialogue. He didn’t want that moment of, “Ah, that’s where the title comes from!” So he dropped it.

Was there any soul searching on your part whether to work with Polanski because of his legal troubles?

Completely on the contrary. There is no soul searching called for. I have a very strong opinion about that whole thing. I wish the whole approach would be factual and not emotional, because you would arrive very quickly and very convincingly at something completely different than is running around right now.

The theme of “Carnage” is that adults can be more childish than their children.

This is not a new thing, but the observation is enlightening. I believe it. I see adults teaching children the infantile behavior. Children are far more common-sensical and mature, and adults dictate to the children what behavior they should assume. If you talk to children normally, they respond normally. If you talk to them in this idiotic kiddie language, they’ll respond to you in that manner, but not because it’s their mode of communicating. They think it’s your mode of communicating.

As for the infamous vomit scene, what was going through your mind when you’re watching someone as classy as Winslet puke?

I remember our hysterical laughter that was going on while we were shooting it. The prop guy coming in with a bucketful of vomit. This in itself is hilarious. And Kate was making the best of it. It was a lot of fun that day.

Do you get tired of playing villains?

If I may be so frank, the questions about it are more tiring, because this is not a villain. This is one of four characters in a very tightly knit constellation. It’s like a string quartet, with a lot of contra and counter punctual implications. In the name of drama, you want them to pull in opposite directions, that’s clear. I don’t think that makes him a villain.

Polanski called the “Carnage” cast “non-competitive.” What’d he mean?

That’s the one compliment he paid us, and I value it so highly. He said he’d never worked with a group of actors where there was no “one-upmanship.” That’s what he said, and I like that word. We just weren’t tempted to outdo the other. Everyone approached the others with great respect and with wonderful and healthy pragmatism. We were there to do a job.

Is this lack of one-upmanship unusual?

From my experience, it is.

How would you describe your character in Tarantino’s upcoming “Django Unchained?”

Not at all. I never do that. Lately, that’s one of the aspects of how my life has changed [after “Inglourious Basterds”]. Now I refuse with confidence. Before, I felt guilty, but still refused.