Interview: Actor Elliott Gould on His New Film The Caller

In Richard Ledes' new suspenseful thriller, The Caller, legendary actors Frank Langella and Elliott Gould team up to tell the story of two men whose lives turn in strikingly different directions but whose common past brings them back together. Reached on the phone in California, Gould took some time out with us to discuss the film, which opens Friday.

Some of your more recent projects have been satirical and/or comedic, but in The Caller you stray away from that, playing a private detective with a tragic past. What compelled you to play this character?

Mind you, I see almost everything as being funny. Richard Ledes had asked to meet with me and offered me the picture, and I do serious work but I don't consider the work itself to be serious. I saw that the film was interesting; it was originally a French piece called The Telephone and when we started to work on it, it was being called On the Hook. I wanted it to be called And You're John Doe.

What other elements of the film attracted you to it?

Richard Ledes told me that he was expecting Terence Stamp to be playing the guy. Then he was not available and they had two suggestions for me: Christopher Walken, whom I've known for a very long time, and the other was Frank Langella. And to be able to do it on the streets of New York was very interesting and enticing to me.

What was it like working with Frank Langella?

Oh it was great. He was doing the play Frost/Nixon at the time so I got to go and see him at the time we were working on The Caller. We do very little together in the picture. We had a few scenes together, and it was very good to work with him. He was totally prepared, completely professional, and very good at what he does.