By Kara Warner

For director James Gray, Christmas came early this year. Last week marked the end of a five-year project and self-proclaimed labor of love, the Director's Cut DVD release of his critically acclaimed film The Yards. We were lucky enough to talk with him about the experience, as well as plans for his next film.

DVDFanatic.com: So tell us why it took so long to produce this DVD? What was the process like?

James Gray: It was brutal. Disney did it basically because we needed a new transfer of the movie, it was so poorly transferred originally, but also because I had been whining for a long time and had really wanted it to get out there. It’s really hard to see somebody change what it is that you originally had in mind [referring to the original cut of the movie]. They agreed finally to do it because I promised I would get the actors together for a round table, which was a lot harder than I anticipated. It’s a hard thing to do, because it was very much a labor of love for us, this DVD. As a consequence we had to really ask favors and that sort of thing.

DVDFanatic.com: How do you feel about having put together such a dynamic, wonderful cast, whose careers have now skyrocketed?

JG: Isn’t that weird? When I made the movie they [Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix and Charlize Theron] hadn’t done really anything. Joaquin had done To Die For, and had just shot Inventing the Abbotts, Mark had done nothing. I was trying to get the picture made for some time with a variety of different actors and then finally, openly, I said “This is nonsense. What I should do, is just make the movie with people that want to do it, that really care about it.” And so that’s how the movie came together. These are the actors who were most passionate about it and then I just had to fight the fight for them. Believe it or not, it was not easy to get the studio to cast them. Which is rightly so in some ways because they had never done anything. So the movie just fell into place that way. I think Mark became hot because of Boogie Nights, which was shot, but had not yet [been] released. And Joaquin, of course now, he’s something else. I don’t know if you’ve seen Walk the Line, he’s fantastic. You knew it would eventually happen for him because he’s just brilliant.

DVDFanatic.com: One of the things Mark says about Joaquin in the roundtable is that “He’s got a lot going on in his soul.” I thought that comment seemed to fit him perfectly.

JG: Mark, the great thing about him in another sense is he has what I call “blue-collar earnestness,” he’s very authentic. In a way, Mark has been undone by the fact that movies don’t really care about class anymore. He’s the kind of guy you’d believe in On the Waterfront as a long shore man. He picked up his strength. Joaquin’s is an inner-turmoil, which he really brings to an audience.

DVDFanatic.com: What was your inspiration for the story?

JG: I wish I could tell you it was a bolt of inspiration from heaven, but really it was my father’s business growing up. He would sit there and tell me stories, so basically I just collected a bunch of them and put them in a movie. It’s a combination of my father’s business and a bunch of people I knew growing up in Queens who went to public school with me in the ‘70s. What eventually happened to a lot of them was that they wound up dead or in jail. It’s mostly a combination of those things. It’s a very autobiographical movie in a lot of ways.

DVDFanatic.com: Was making the DVD a forethought for you?

JG: I don’t think about it. You used to have to think about a thing called TV Safe, which was a little box inside the viewfinder of the camera. You’d have to remember to shoot something in TV Safe. You don’t have to do that with DVD anymore. It gives you the whole aspect ratio. You can film a widescreen movie and you know the audience is going to see it in it’s proper shape. I don’t make any concession for the DVD and I don’t feel like I have to.
DVDFanatic.com: What do you like about DVD’s, both personally and professionally?

JG: DVD’s are fantastic. First of all, the whole idea about the transfer itself. You can improve mistakes you made during filming, both photographic mistakes, but more important than photographic mistakes you can actually correct the color. You can make it look better than it did in the movie theater. And now you can transfer to High Definition, it’s a fantastic medium. Also, in the theater they like to say that directors have the final cut. Directors don’t have the final cut, the projectionist has final cut. Today we have a situation where people are watching at home with these incredibly elaborate home theaters and they’re really hearing the movie better than they could in the theater. They’re seeing it in focus, which is a lot of the time not the case in a movie theater. They’re seeing it the way you want them to see it. I think it’s a great medium, it reaches many more people. In a sense, the movie’s release is an extended trailer for the DVD. I’m a huge fan of the medium. This really made my year. I became so happy that I was able to do it because it’s the movie the way I’d intended it to be. It looks better than it ever looked before and it’s just a very gratifying feeling.

DVDFanatic.com: How about the featurettes? Do you enjoy putting together the Director’s Commentary and deleted scenes?

JG: One thing I don’t like is the Director’s Commentary. I feel like it ruins a bit of the mystery. You tell the audience exactly what you’re thinking and how you did things. You want the movie to stand on its own whether you hate it or like it. It’s their [the audience’s] job to figure out what the movie means. But, you do the commentary because people really love it. Viewers and the studios really want you to do it, so that’s why I agree to do it, to help out the video companies because they want it so badly. I like the inclusion of the original trailers and I love the transfer process. The picture can actually look the way it’s supposed to look. I love some of the featurettes. If the movie is really great and there’s a documentary of the making of it, that’s something I really like.

DVDFanatic.com: What can we expect to see from you next?

JG: I’m about to start pre-production on a picture I wrote. I think it’s going to be with Joaquin Phoenix and I’m very excited about it. I think it’s the best thing I’ve written. It’s called We Own the Night and it’s another New York crime story, although I think it’s going to be the last one I do - I’ll move on to something else and do another type of movie. This one I think is more classical in tone. [In The Yards] I experimented with Mark’s character a lot - it was very nonverbal and slow and dark. This one is a little more explosive in nature. It has a character with a big arc.

DVDFanatic.com: Speaking of New York, is it hard to shoot here?

JG: New York is a great place to shoot. Logistically it’s a hard place to shoot, you have to deal with the parking and the permits. But it’s great because you’ve got great actors from the stage and you also have fantastic, authentic locations. People always say “What about shooting the interiors in Toronto?” But the interiors in New York are great and you have all those New York extras who have those amazing faces. Movies are about faces and places, that’s what the audience sees. I love it. You have to have all this time to park trucks, but I have to tell you I wouldn’t have it any other way.

DVDFanatic.com: Well maybe someday you’ll be able to split time living between New York and L.A.

JG: I wish. Unfortunately New York has just gotten so expensive. For my family to live there comfortably, I’d have to be making lots and lots of movies and some of them really bad. I try to make movies I care about deeply and take my time, doing the best work I can. If you’re hostage to your mortgage you can’t always do that.

DVDFanatic.com: That’s a good point. Well, we’ll hope you keep doing what you’re doing. It’s obvious there is a lot of genuine emotion behind what you do. It’s great that you’ve stayed with that.

JG: I’m trying my hardest, I really am.

DVDFanatic.com: Well thank you so much for your time.

JG: Thank you.

Well he’s just made a fan for life. What a wonderfully nice, genuine person he is, that James Gray. And along with his obvious love for film and storytelling, he seems to have a genuine respect for his audience - something that’s getting harder and harder to find these days. All things considered, it’s great to know there are still people in the business motivated by true passion for the medium, rather than financial security. Keep up the good work James, and we’ll keep watching.

Check out amazon.com for a copy of The Yards: Directors Cut released on December 13th.