Features August 2, 2010 By Nika Knight

Marian Seldes and Paul Dano in The Extra Man.

Marian Seldes and Paul Dano in The Extra Man.

filler129 Paul Dano Interview
Do you think there’s a common thread between all the roles that you’ve played?
Well I’m sure there is, but for me I guess I like a lot of parts that I feel like where I get to be in a world, or explore. If I’m just playing myself, just a normal guy in Brooklyn, that’s like…unless it’s something really honest, like an intimate, small film, you know. I guess I like just characters that have some things that I don’t have, that I get to figure out.

So you don’t identify with your characters?
Oh yeah, I do. I mean there’s always something. But the idea of playing someone who’s interested in women’s clothing [as Louis, in The Extra Man is,] is like a turn on, not a turn off. That guy is a hopeless romantic, which I get — I am too.

Isn’t your next film, Cowboys and Aliens, sort of like those Schwarzenegger films you could never envision yourself being in?
Sort of, but it’s like a Western. It’s, like, period. And I have a really fun part.

What’s the part?
I don’t know if I’m supposed to say. They get really touchy these days about keeping things secret.

The Extra Man opened in theaters nationwide July 30.

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