Originally Published: 2003-11-16

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"I don't know. It was always funny when we read it. I'm a parent now, but I wasn't a parent when I fell in love with it years ago. So I'm not sure I really identify with all that stuff but it just struck me as really accurate, really subtle, and the specific challenge of playing Dave is that no one ever says what they feel, or what they mean. It's all kind of underneath. He's a very passive aggressive guy, and so the challenge becomes how do you mark a performance and make someone engaging when they don't communicate? Obviously, he has his alter ego, played by Denis, which is good for laughs but it just seemed like a cool challenge to me."

I was watching this with some other film critics, and the women loved it, and the guys didn't.
"You know, some people call Dave heroic, which always kind of surprises me, and other people call him a passive-aggressive pussy. I don't identify completely with the guy at all, but I bought it. It seemed very accurate to me. And, I'd go along with that."

Let's say that you're married, you have a family, you suspect that your wife is having an affair, you love your wife and your kids. Would you have reacted like Dave?
"Absolutely not, no. I'm not at all like him. I think I would have gone in and addressed the problem. One of the things I think Alan loved about the script and the story is that, unlike what we usually get, the woman is the enigma. She has the mystery life, and you don't' really know what it is. You never know, really. And usually that role is held for the man, and we all liked that. You know, it's fascinating that you said that the women got it and men didn't, because in script form, all the women disliked this script, and all the men got it and liked it. Hope was one of the few women who liked it. I wonder if it's because, when women read it, they didn't like the fact that the woman seemed to be almost a villain."

Was not telling us where she went, or if she was having an affair a conscious act?

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