| By Fred Topel
The upcoming action movie Domino features former Beverly Hills 90210 teen idols Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green playing themselves. The duo are supposedly hosting a reality series about bounty hunters, which leads them on an adventure with Domino Harvey (Keira Knightley) and her gang of action heroes. But more important than the self-referential cameos or the Tony Scott style action is the fact that the actors can finally play characters their own age.
“That’s great,” Ziering said. “That’s brilliant. That’s really good. It’s nice to play a character my own age. I may have to say that again because that’s just too funny. Well, not only do I look like this guy, I actually am the same age.”
It was not such a big deal to Green. “You know, I was pretty close to my own age on the show. I was 17 when I started doing it, so I wasn’t that far off. That’s a question for Ian.”
The versions of Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green in Domino are not accurate representations of their real life personas. In fact, it was the extremity of his portrayal that attracted Ziering to the film.
“I embraced it actually,” Ziering said. “There have been other opportunities to portray Ian Ziering in other vehicles but none were as extreme and as distant from the real me as this was. Didn’t really care to do the others because it wasn’t a challenge. But there’s a great dichotomy in Ian Ziering and Ian. Ian Ziering, not speaking in third person but the character, is edgier than the real me. It’s more of a caricature, but not in necessarily a humorous way, but just a different way. So there is some opportunity to stretch and to grow and to work with some great people, and this was the fact that yeah, I’ve spoofed Ian from 90210. I don’t have to do it again. I think it’s pretty interesting to become a bit of an icon of pop culture when all of a sudden you’re spoofing yourself. You’re making fun of yourself in public forums, and now I guess I can say I’ve been there, I’ve done that and I’ve got a sense of pride in that, but it enables me to move on and to continue growing as an actor.”
Green noted the heightened version of himself, but did not find it as extreme as Ziering’s. “In the film I don’t edit myself at all. I say whatever’s on my mind and I pay the price for it. That’s kind of the extreme of it. It’s not that far off. There’s nothing written that’s too far off. There’s always a bit of me in everything that I do. So, I chose to play what people would think somebody from 90210 would be like. It’s kind of a battle I’m always up against. People always meet me and expect me to be a prick and, you know, be cocky and think I’m the shit because I did a show for ten years. So that’s just sort of what I’ve gone with, played with. If you’re going to do something like this, you can’t be afraid to poke fun at what’s written. If I just show up and worry about how I’m portrayed personally, it’s going to be boring for people to watch. I still want to entertain people with this.”
Both actors received Richard Kelly’s script without being told they were featured as characters, and they had similar reactions when they got to the part where Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green walk out of a limo. “I had no idea,” Green said. “My manager called me and said that casting had sent over a script that they wanted me to read and obviously, if I wanted to do it, the part was mine. I thought, ‘Well that’s nice. Who knows what this movie’s going to be. I get these all the time, you know?’ They always end up being your run of the mill Cinemax films.”
Ziering added, “I don’t remember what page it is, but on page whatever, out of a grey Mercedes walks Ian Ziering and Brian Green. And I immediately closed the script. ‘This is a joke.’ So I called my agent and he said, ‘No, this is the real deal. Look who the writer is, here’s who’s directing, here’s who’s attached.’ And I said, ‘Are you serious? You’re not trying to pull the wool over my eyes?’ And they said, ‘No, this is the real deal.’ So I said, ‘Okay, yeah, I’ll finish reading it’ and really liked the script.”
Domino was not a reunion for Green and Ziering. They are still friends outside of work. “Brian and I are very close,” Ziering said. “Working with him for 10 years, it kind of turned us more into family than colleagues. Brian’s just a great guy. I’ve known him for 13, 14 years now and we’ve remained close. I’m close with all the people in the cast.”
Green added that other 90210 veterans are excited about their project. “I talked to Luke [Perry] and he was jealous of the fact that Ian and I got to work together again and then something as cool as this,” Green said. “I talk to Jason [Priestley] every once and while and he seemed excited about it.”
With Domino Ziering finally gets the chance to live his dream of being an action hero. “I’ve been fascinated for years. Steve was never unleashed. I wanted to swing through the jungles of Beverly Hills and rescue fair maidens and repel all the monsters and fight off the bad guys, but I haven’t had the chance to. Action adventure is one genre that I dream about all the time. Romantic comedy is another. That’s the thing that’s so great about being an actor. I started this career, really, in fourth grade as class clown and parlayed that into what I have now. Whether it’s standing on Venice Beach on a soap box or Broadway or a Tony Scott film, there’s so many different mediums, there’s so many different genres within those mediums to perform in, it’s really like a playground if you can get into the playground.”
His costar was not so happy to take on the genre. As both characters get beaten up through the film, Green takes it far worse. “I get the sh*t end of the stick,” Green said. “Keira [Knightley] breaks my nose, she punches me. Sort of from there it’s been the gag of how bad can this guy get it.”
Ziering got so deep into the character that he’s even added fake tattoos that represent 90210. “I asked, ‘Can I put some tattoos on? In an effort to be a little more edgy.’ [Scott] said, ‘Yeah, you can have all the tattoos you want. Just make sure it pertains to either 90210 or your past life or something that is relevant.’ I got this tattoo across my arm that is tribal artwork that says 90210. But you can’t really read it in one glance. You have to look around my arm and it might not even read on camera. It’ll read as a tattoo, but on closer inspection… to me the character is in the finer details so even though you can’t see it says 90210, it’s part of the intrinsic education of me forming who the character was and creating a jumping off point from Ian to, if you will, Ian.”
Both Green and Ziering appreciate the opportunity that a big budget Hollywood film provides them, even if they are playing themselves. Having struggled in the casting scene since 90210, Green will simply continue to pound the pavement.
“I tried, when the show ended, planning my career, to sort of be in control of it,” Green said. “It hasn’t really worked that way as I’ve found. You just sort of go along for the ride. I don’t know. I mean this was a complete surprise for me and so hopefully I’ll have more of them. But if not, then I’m not supposed to. My only job is to show up at auditions and whatever and do the best that I can.”
Having explored options such as voiceover work and putting some personal time into building a house, Ziering feels he’ll always have something to explore. “Certainly it helps to have a Tony Scott movie on your resume,” he said. “It will give these casting directors and producers an opportunity to see me in a different light, where they may not have the imagination to do so by just meeting me face to face. Everything is career-building in this industry. Anything that you do that’s different than what you’ve done before is career-buildin |
