I met Abel Ferrara in a caf� on Mulberry Street. In an hour?s time, he didn?t once take his seat. The filmmaker makes a couple of phone calls, goes to the bathroom twice, shows me the new Web series that he?s developing with Vice TV on, and points me to two different articles about his movies. Unkempt and energetic, the Bronx-born director of such New York notorieties as Ms. 45, King of New York, Bad Lieutenant, The Funeral and this week's 4:44 Last Day on Earth is exactly what you?d imagine he?d be like if he were one of his movie?s characters.
In a way, he is. 4:44 features Willem Dafoe and Shanyn Leigh as a couple spending their last hours together before the world ends. They?re each in their own separate but related worlds: she paints and listens to Buddhist philosophy while he talks to friends via Skype and decides if he should end two years of sobriety by getting high one last time. The loose nature of 4:44?s scenario speaks to the Cassavetes-inspired, improv-oriented nature of Ferrara?s dramas, which are often collaborative processes between actor and filmmaker. This is especially characteristic of Ferrara?s working relationship with Dafoe. ?If Willem wasn?t going to play it," Ferrara told me, "I don?t think I would have wrote the script.?
The film marks Ferrara and Dafoe's third film together, coming after 1998's New Rose Hotel and the 2007 ensemble piece Go Go Tales (which itself almost became a series on HBO). But more importantly, 4:44 further refines a working relationship that involves Dafoe co-creating not only his character, but also the scenes that, as Ferrara tells it, the actor is "comfortable with, that he believes in, that he understands.?
?[We have] confidence with each other…
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