Beneath the pulpy mystery aspect of this series, what deeper themes are being explored in Disclaimer?
I think there’s the question of truth, fact, lies . . . the ease that it is to believe something because of your own biases — and the danger of that. Also, it’s sort of exploring outrage; when people are outraged, it becomes much easier for them to do things that they once would’ve considered outrageous. And obviously, the nature of family; what does it mean to be a good partner, a good husband, a good wife, and a good father or a good son?
With the sort of literary structure of the series, it also seems to be about the ways in which we craft our own stories . . .
Yes, and how important — or unimportant — the truth is sometimes. It’s sometimes better to tell ourselves a story where we are the morally virtuous one . . .
What precisely intrigued you about Robert, and the dynamic with his wife?
So, there was a little phrase that I asked Alfonso [Cuarón, writer-director] to put in, which was: “I always love being your plus one.” That’s the key. He’s supportive, he admires his wife — but at some level, he’s the “plus one.” He’s on a secondary status to his wife. And this incident that happens allows him to reassert his dominance and become an alpha male. The fact that he can do that while he believes that he’s doing a noble thing . . . you can say that there’s nothing more dangerous than a person who’s absolutely convinced that they’re in the right. It’s a guy who is deeply insecure — and there’s a pleasure, after the hurt, in actually destroying her.
As a creator yourself, when working with a filmmaker like Alfonso, do you watch and try to pick up some tricks?
That’s part of the reason why I work with directors occasionally like Alfonso or Scorsese or Tim Burton or Tom Hooper. It’s weirdly . . . I want to do the role, but I also want to learn stuff. They’re some of the greatest directors who are living, and you come out of it and say, “Oh, this is a great way to rehearse the scene, and to transform the scene.” When I did a movie called Hugo with Martin Scorsese, I asked whether I could sit with him for the scenes that I was not in. I was really kind of a student.
How does an acting gig like this one compare to Who Is America? or Borat?
Oh, it’s completely different. With a show like Who Is America?, half the job is trying to get out without being arrested or go to the hospital. Here, there are different challenges. There’s a lot of pressure to put in a good enough performance, but the risk is never there. The risk is humiliation . . . just being crap in a piece of art [laughs].
Even without that risk, it must be intimidating to step in front of a camera opposite Cate Blanchett . . .
It’s nerve-wracking. You’re performing in front of one of the greatest living directors and one of the greatest living actors. And some of these scenes were incredibly demanding. There’s one scene that was 15 minutes long; I can’t remember what it ended up as [in the final edit], but Alfonso was adamant that we had to shoot it in one go [with no cuts]. It was the scene where he confronts her with the photographs, and I’m shouting in it and crying. I think we did, like, 17 takes in a row. So, yeah, it was demanding — but I did have a trailer with a bed in it, so I can’t really complain.
Disclaimer, streaming on Apple TV+.
MEMORABLE ROLES:
The British funnyman has appeared in such hit films as Sweeney Todd, Talladega Nights and The Trial of the Chicago 7. But he’s most famous (or, perhaps, infamous) for his work as a boundary-pushing satirist, inventing characters like wannabe rapper Ali G, Austrian fashionista Brüno and rabble-rousing Kazakhstan reporter Borat — then unleashing those larger-than-life creations upon the real world to run amok.
CURRENT GIG:
This seven-part thriller from Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity) casts Cate Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft, a TV journalist whose own dark secrets are brought into the spotlight when she’s sent a mysterious novel inspired by her sordid past. Cohen plays her conflicted husband, Robert.