Exclusive Interview with Devin Ratray – Talks Surrogates & Courting Condi

Surrogates hits theaters this Friday and I got to catch up with Actor, Devin Ratray to talk about his role in this upcoming film as well as his film, Courting Condi. We all know Devin best as Buzz from Home Alone and Mickey from Dennis the Menace, but right now it’s all about Surrogates, so you should buy your tickets in advance for the weekend! Surrogates is bound to be this weekend’s #1 movie in the box office!

In Photo: Radha Mitchell, Devin Ratray
Photo Credit: Stephen Vaughan

Surrogates
So tell me about your character in Surrogates.

I play Bobby Saunders, the head of FBI Surveillance for this new technology that has been developed. I can observe and monitor the behavior and whereabouts of all of the surrogates in Boston. When they commit illegal acts, I have to call in agents or sometimes take more severe actions myself.

Who did you work with the most in the film?
I worked most with Radha Mitchell and I had a great time working with her! I also had a great time trying to make her laugh in between takes, especially at the most dramatic times.

What was it like working with the director, Jonathan Mostow?
I cannot say enough good things about him. He is perhaps one of the easiest directors to work with. He is the most attentive to the actors’ needs. He has a demeanor about him where you feel that you can experiment with him yet he always has complete control and will guide you to where you need to be. He is very easygoing, he had everything done on time or ahead of schedule and did so much under budget, and he is just a tremendous person.

Were there a lot of rewrites?
There were a tremendous amount of rewrites. With a film of that scale, you want to make sure that everything is perfect. A lot of the technical lingo was rewritten. Also, originally this was supposed to take place in the distance future but they made the decision to bring it to modern day times, which I find to be a much better choice…it seems like it could happen now. It’s much more creepy.

If this was real, would you have gotten a surrogate?
I’m sure I would have but I probably would have trashed my surrogate very early.

Courting Condi
When you decide that you were going to create a documentary about Condoleezza Rice?

I was approached by Sebastian Doggart in 2006. He thought that I was the perfect person for the part and we worked on the songs, script ideas, and shot in 2007. It has won 25 awards to date!

I love music…tell me how the documentary came together from the musical aspect since it has musical, comedy, and dramatic aspects.
I was very interested in the blend of genres. Sebastian knew that I had done an MTV program a few years earlier and then he found out that I was part of a band and played 5 instruments. So I ended up writing 2 of the songs on the soundtrack.

The film starts out very comedic and is throughout however the tone changes as it spews out the facts about Condoleezza and gets to the nitty gritty about certain things so did you always know how you wanted to create where the documentary would take viewers?
We didn’t plan on it. A lot came out with the people that we interviewed. We had no control over what the people would voluntarily say so it was quite the journey that we went on. SO we had 5 alternate endings that we had prepared because the more background information that we found out about her, the more facts came to life.

What does Condoleezza Rice have to say about this documentary ?
She has remained silent but she did send her people out to us. We had tried several times to get her to do an interview or at least release a statement but she declined. Although when we were in Washington, D.C. the state department showed up at our door to make sure that we were not a threat.

Suppose she had accepted the offer for an interview, what would you have asked?
Will you marry me? Honestly, I have thought about that a lot. I have gained so much information about her from shooting the film so it’s a lot to think about.

Other
Do you have a subject matter in mind for a future documentary?

Yes, I’m thinking about Hillary Clinton. Courting Clinton would be a good sequel. No, I’m joking of course. There’s actually lots of subjects I could do.

What are your upcoming projects?
There is a film called The 2 Bobs and it is my first starring role in a straight up raunchy R rated comedy. That is making the film festival circuit right now. I am also writing more music and perhaps will have an album ready in a year or so.