Interview with Boyd Kestner

JS: What was it like? The parts in the box. It looked extremely confining.

BK: I just let the surroundings take over. That's what made it wonderful. If you had to do something like that outside of the box and make it confined, it never would have worked. You get thrown into a box like that, it's 110, 115 degrees in there. And you're in there for two days on a 8 hour, 9-10 hour day. I just let it physically take over. I just let myself go and use the situation. Let that be the work. And that was the work, just opening myself up to that. Not fighting that and not trying to create something that's not there. Just be, just be in the box and really think about not getting out of it. I guess it's much easier said than done. I just let myself go and use my imagination and the rest is elementary.

JS: What was the working relationship with [costar] Paul Hipp like? Especially considering that the two characters are polar opposites.

BK: Actually he was wonderful to work with. Funny thing, he actually had to audition for Zack. That's what he told me. We always had running jokes about that. He was great to work with. It's wonderful to do things like that because there's no egos. It's not about money. It's about the piece. I found everybody to be extremely supportive. He's such a wonderful actor on top of being extremely funny. He kept a real light mood around the set. It's good that he was around, he made it much easier. And Radha Mitchell was great and so was Bitty [Schram].

JS: In Hannibal, what part are you playing?

BK: An FBI agent. I open up the film, with Julianne Moore.

JS: I read the book, is that the gun battle that starts it?

BK: Yeah, they kinda switched the roles around a bit. Brigham gets killed and the other guy Mendez is now the part I'm playing, Burke. And actually he lives. I had three and a half weeks on that. I had worked with Ridley doing G.I. Jane. He had just offered me a part in that so I couldn't refuse.

JS: How did you like working on it?

BK: It was amazing. A set like that is always a lot of fun. You get to play. Especially when you have all the time in the world to play cops and robbers. You get a week to shoot a scene, a shoot out scene between FBI agents and gangers. Julianne Moore was great to work with, she's wonderful. Always love working with Ridley. He's fun to work with. Got a good relationship with him, it's fun. It's fun to have relationships with people like this in Hollywood. You kind of know what to expect. I'm excited to see the final product on that.

JS: It must be nice to do a shoot pretty close to home [Hannibal was shooting in Richmond, Virginia].

BK: Oh, it was a lot of fun. Actually my mother and grandmother got a chance to meet Anthony Hopkins. So that made her year. That was enough for them. They didn't want to watch me work. They just wanted to meet him. So, I'm just happy that that took place. That's exciting, when that happens. It makes the struggle worth it.

JS: Do you spend much time online?

BK: I don't actually. I spend most of my time auditioning. After that it's business as usual. Staying in shape and auditioning is basically what I do. I've got a G4 here, so I'm trying to do some editing and filmmaking on my own. That in itself is fun. But I don't spend a lot of time, no.

JS: Do you have any plans to make movies of your own?

BK: I'd like to eventually. I'm going to start on the digital level and play, see what I can come up with. So if I'm on the computer I'm usually doing that.

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