EM’s very own LA correspondent Lora Bofill had a chance to catch up with Seth’s MacFarlane’s acting coach Aaron McPherson who talks about “A Million Ways to Die in the West”.
Can you introduce yourself?
Aaron McPherson: Sure, I am Aaron McPherson and I’m acting in Seth MacFarling’s “A Million Ways To Die In The West” playing Ben, one of the bad guys with Liam Neeson, and I’m also Seth’s acting coach.
Well, let’s start off with the film first and we’ll go more into you being Seth’s acting coach. I’ve seen all the posters all around LA. This looks really exciting! I love all the humor in every poster I see … Can you tell us more about the plot?
Aaron: Yes, absolutely… You know Seth likes to poke fun at us when we take ourselves too seriously. In that vein, we romanticize the west. The west was actually really a harsh time to grow up you know when we were expanding to the west. It’s him poking fun at that, but in essence it’s a love story. And Seth is the heart of the movie. I teased him about it when we first started working on it. I said, “Aw you softie” when he first came in to coach. I said, “You’re a romantic. You wrote a romance.” He said, “Shut up!” (laughter) So it’s kind of fish out of water. Seth’s character is someone that doesn’t really fit in his environment in this old west and Liam Neeson plays the bad guy. He created a really gritty western and then he has himself and Giovanni Ribisi running around poking fun at it. He is able to achieve to create two worlds very well.
Tell us about the role you’re playing, your character, and how you got involved in it .
Aaron: Well the role I’m playing is Ben and we’re of the gang with Liam Neilson won plays Clinch and we ride into town. We’re strangers and we’re trying to figure out who we are. Clinch’s wife ends up meeting Seth and she sees what life could outside of the wrong side of the law and he sees what his life could be if he had true love and it kind of goes from there. We have a lot of cool chase scenes on horseback and chasing trains.
I got involved by just really a phone call. Seth’s people called and said he wanted to talk. We sat down and talked a bit and hit it off. And we worked on a few things before this. He decided he was going to be doing this movie, so we broke down the script and of course on set we just bounced things off each other and I helped him any way I could.
So going back to Seth, I know you worked with him as a coach? How did you and him end up in a coaching relationship?
Aaron: Well, Seth was stepping in front of the camera for the first time in a really big way. You know, Seth’s someone to cover all his bases. The great thing about Seth too is that he cares and strives to be the absolute best he can be, so he put together a team and I was a part of that team as far as helping him onset for on camera.
We all know what a great voice over artist Seth is, and what a great singer he is, and comedian and host, but this is a little different, a little more particular, right? So we addressed that. We worked out the physicality.
How does Albert move through the world? Behavior, intention, point of view, things like that. And Seth was like a duck to water. By the end of the movie, you just saw. His learning curve is so fast. You just saw it, it just happened right there in front of you. And the other thing I want to say is that he was just so open “What do you think? Tell me what you’ve got.”
There was never any drama about it. He’s just a worker. And on top of that he’s talented. So those two things combined make my job a lot more fun.
Seth is amazingly talented. Just as you said, voice over, acting, singing, everything. Plus he also wrote this film that we are going to be seeing.
Aaron: Yes, he wrote it with his two writing partners Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild. They’re a good team.
How long have you been working with Seth, because I know you coached him…
Aaron: Well, like I said, we had worked on a bit before this, for a while now. It’s been a ball.
You’ve worked with other celebrities as well. I know you do a lot of coaching. That’s what you’ve been doing for quite a while. Any interesting stories coaching Seth or any other people that we know?
Aaron: Ones I can talk about? (laughing) Well one with Seth which I love, well, two with Seth. One was late night we were filming in a prairie and it was like 3 am and me kind of punching in and I leaned into him and said, “You know I bought a horse.” He said, “Shut the F__ up.” And I’m like “Fine”.
An hour later I sat on the horse and rode into video village and he did start laughing. I did buy a horse on set. It was a really cool horse. The 2nd one with Seth was, there’s a scene in the movie where Seth’s leaving and he is packing his bags to go. It is a scene with Charlize and he has to talk about how he is hurt and he keeps trusting people who keeps letting him down. I just thought Seth really delivered it, so much so that Charlize ended watching it and said, “What was that? I want to reshoot my side!”. As a coach, I was really pleased with how well he did.
The only other one I can tell you, is I was coaching Dolph Lundgren one time and we’re in an apartment. We’re working and we have this big monologue, and we’re doing it, and it’s not becoming what he wants so finally I say wrestle me and say the monologue. So here I am with Dolph, 6’4” and built like an Adonis. He and I are wrestling in his apartment working on his monologue and the doors are wide open, the windows are wide open, people are walking by. It either sounds like I’m being killed or possibly being abused.
Oh my gosh! (laughing)
Aaron: But he did great too! So that was important fight.
That is so funny! You were talking about horses. Now in the film there are horses. So you ride the horses and you do your own stunts? You don’t have a stunt double?
Aaron: I did have a stunt double. We all did. Because these guys went full out on these horses. Full out. And we did chase a train. And we were on the horses when the train was there. One of those old steam ones with whistles going and stuff. The train goes by and we have to ride across the tracks. We get stopped by it. The horses aren’t using to seeing that, right? The old steam engines and the whistles. They got a little freaked. But on top of it the wranglers … Great guys. You really needed professionals, because they are hauling ass across the desert on these horses. There were gopher holes to look out for. Loose barbed wires… All kinds of things can happen. But we did a lot of riding. There’s one day in particular, I spent 12 hours on a horse. We did not get off. I never thought that would happen. I was pretty broken after that. (laughing)
The things we do for our art!
Aaron: Yeah, right? (laughing)
How did it feel going from an acting coach to actually being a part of your client’s cast. Was that a unique transition?
Aaron: I’ve done it a couple times before. It’s kind of a happy marriage that I’m an acting coach that also still acts. It also keeps me honest, you know what I mean? As an acting coach, because it is easier to sit in this chair and say you need to do this and this and this, but then have it flipped it on myself and I have to do it myself, you realize and you stay sensitive the vulnerability of putting yourself out there. And I don’t take it for granted. Ever. I really like the way it’s turned out for me. That I still act. And also coach. Uta Hagen did the same thing. I think it is healthy.
And you studied with Larry Moss?
Aaron: I did, and I do! (laughing). Larry is the one that got me into coaching. He and I are doing a play this summer. LA Premiere of In A Dark, Dark House. Larry is directing. It is something I always wanted to do. We worked together for over 20 years now. It is a great cherry on top for our friendship and working relationship. I stayed with Larry for quite a long time. The only other person that has taken more acting class in this town than she (wife) was me. Larry made the most sense to me. He is my cornerstone of what I teach.
I read a quote somewhere, that when you coach, it is not specifically one method, but based more on the actor themselves.
Aaron: It just makes sense, right? Every actor is different and every person is different. I don’t want to try to put a square peg in a round pole. You have to be sensitive to who you’re working with. I’m not going to play the violin the way I play guitar or drum. It is one thing that I picked up from Larry was watching him working with people. Understanding when people can take a note and they can’t. When they need to hear something and they don’t.
I try to be very sensitive to who I’m working with and what they’re giving back to me. That’s what makes it interesting. I’m not just teaching out of a book. It’s very interactive. It’s very close and very vulnerable. We share things with all my clients. It is such a personal journey to create a character. So I try to honor that and respect that and support that.
And the fact that you’re able to work on this film that’s coming up with Seth, one of your clients. It must be an amazing opportunity and a lot of fun for you.
Aaron: It’s a blast. It says a lot about Seth. He is very supportive himself. I’ve seen him give hands up to people all the time. And he really lets people do their job. If you’re the camera man, or the DP, or the script supervisor, whatever it might be… Seth’s like “That’s your job”. He’s definitely in control. He lets people have the space to do their job. It’s not a power thing with him, which is refreshing.
Everybody works together as a team to make one collective film.
Aaron: Right. You get the best results that way.