Known mostly for his role as medical intern John “”J.D.”” Dorian in NBC’s sitcom Scrubs, Zach Braff has an enthusiasm for acting that can be traced back to his childhood in South Orange, NJ, where, at eight years old, he recalls watching his attorney father participate in a local theater group.
Three years later, Braff could be found cultivating his own show-business skills at Stagedoor Manor, a renowned children’s acting camp. Which was also attended by his “”Garden State”” co-star Natalie Portman. Now after finally finding success on the hit television series, “”Scrubs,”” Zach has branched out to do write, direct, and star in his first film – “”Garden State.”” The film is garnering critical acclaim, and taking the festival circuit by storm.We recently caught up with Zach and participated in a roundtable interview. As usual, me being a big mouth, I dominated most of the discussion (unintentionally, of course). All but four questions below were asked by myself, for snicks see if you long time readers can guess which four weren’t my questions. The interview went a little something like this:EMWhat challenges did you have directing yourself?ZBThere are a lot of pros and cons. The pros are that when there are smaller scenes, you could direct from the inside. I could steer a scene the way that I wanted to go. I also saved a lot of time because I didn’t have waste time telling the actors [myself] how toplay a scene, because it was all in my head: The bigger scenes, like the pool scene where it was raining and cold, with 50 foot cranes, where I felt like I was in over my head. All in all, I had a good time and would do it again.EMWhen directing yourself, did you find it harder or easier on yourself?ZBHarder on myself. But then as an actor I’m always harder on myself. I promised myself that I would give the other actors more time than myself. I would try and shoot them first so they would have the max amount of time. We spent a lot of time shooting 3 or 4 shots, and then going back and watch the monitors, so that I would take mental notes.EMSo, you watched the monitors? Some directors don’t like using the monitors.ZBWhen you are in the movie, you really have to. I don’t see how you cannot use them. Usually on a movie with this size of a budget we don’t have the luxury of a playback system. EMThis was a really good film. The trailer for this really sells the film – especially the music.ZBWe’re about to close the soundtrack with Sony tomorrow. It’s miraculous that we’ve been able to get all the bands signed because the labels are kind of kooky about licenses. EMHow did you get the clearance for this music to use in your screenings? If you didn’t have a contract, how did you manage to use the music in the film?ZBThe soundtrack started as a mix that I made, that I sent around with the script. I thought it would set the tone for what the movie would feel like. Some of the music cues was actually written into the script, like the part with “”The Shins.”” During editing, I put all my dream music in, assuming that we wouldn’t get all the bigger bands like “”Coldplay,”” “”Simon and Garfunkel,”” etc