CrankyCritic® StarTalk: Craig Bierko

The face is not familiar, and the movie is being sold more as a clone of The Matrix than the pretty good murder mystery with a SF slant that it is, but we liked The Thirteenth Floor and so star Craig Bierko, joins the CrankyCritic® StarTalk pages.

13th floor graphic If you haven't been clued in, Bierko plays Doug Hall, computer designer of a jack in and live it virtual computer world. Six years in development, it's almost done, when top dog Hannon Fuller (Armin Mueller-Stahl) is viciously murdered after a test jaunt through the 1937 Los Angeles simulation. Hall finds bloody clothing in his hamper, has no recollection of the night before, and is totally befuddled by the sudden appearance of Fuller's previously unknown daughter Jane (Gretchen Mol).

Craig Bierko has been acting since the fourth grade, when his parents, who ran a community theater in New York, put him in a production of Gypsy (as a singing newsboy). Though he toyed with the idea of a career in journalism, he wound up at Northwestern University and took classes from the same professors that NU alum Cranky did, including the double Tony winner Frank Galati. We'll get that out of the way fast . . .

Craig Bierko: I did a scene for Galati. He said "well, that was a virtuoso performance" and a friend said "Now you can go to your grave." It doesn't get any better than that.

CrankyCritic: OK, more history. When you were a kid, SF or comic books?
Craig Bierko: Comic books. But I was an Archie/ Richie Rich guy. I was not a science fiction fan. Never have been a SF fan. When I was given the script for this movie and was told about it, my reaction was "I'm not going to be able to do this." I read the script and I didn't understand it because there are so many different character variations that I couldn't keep them all straight without some sort of visual reference. I read it again and it really intrigued me. All the SF stuff fell away. I really fell in love with this story, of a guy trying to understand his relationship to the broader scheme of things. That made sense to me.

CrankyCritic: Is that how you explain this to people who ask what The Thirteenth Floor is about?
Craig Bierko: I basically say it's a murder mystery with a Twilight Zone-y hook to it. Ultimately, like any story, if there isn't a story then people's minds wander and it's not engaging. We're at a point now with movies where we've come so far with our ability to create unbelievably convincing special effects that the effects now drive the story instead of the other way around. The thing that I did like from the beginning was that the special effects were going to be used with great restraint. They were going to be used to support the story. The story was about a man who was alienated and was trying to figure out the meaning of it all. That, I appreciated.

CrankyCritic: And your co-star is Gretchen Mol, dubbed by some media as this year's "it" girl. What was it like working with her?
Craig Bierko: She doesn't think like that, which I really appreciated because I have worked with people who think like that and they're nightmarishly awful. She doesn't believe any of the hype or the press. She was fun. She kept me sane. She's very down to earth. It was a big dark movie. There were plenty of times where between scenes we needed to keep each other laughing, just for our own sanity. She's not hard on the eyes, I'll tell you that much.

CrankyCritic: Is there any kind of concern that there have been so many movies about VR?
Craig Bierko: What are you going to do? in the early 80s it was fathers switching bodies with their sons. We're all just hoping we didn't make the Judge Rheinhold one. [laughs]

CrankyCritic: How are you with computer games?
Craig Bierko: I am entirely computer illiterate and I remain so. I tried to get on The Thirteenth Floor web page and it was humiliating. I was at a cyber café and it took me an hour to find AOL. There was a little German girl working on her thesis next to me, typing away and going in and out of all these rooms and every five minutes I was asking her for help. Finally she'd had enough of me and got her stuff up and was walking away and as she's walking away my picture scrolls up and it says "Craig Bierko, Computer Genius". She just looked at it and shook her head and walked away. I'm an idiot on those things. I don't know what the hell is going on.

CrankyCritic: Next up for you is The Suburbans starring Ben Stiller, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Saturday Night Live's Will Ferrell.
Craig Bierko: It's about a one hit wonder band from the 80s, like The Romantics with the rubber suits and makeup and stuff like that. We had one hit in 1982, broke up and our lives fell apart. My character has become a podiatrist. Ben and Jennifer become record executives who get us back together to wring the last bit of revenue out of our one hit. We all end up making fools out of ourselves. We're all 35 and look ridiculous in our suits. Our lives fall apart. It's pretty funny.
CrankyCritic: What do you play?
Craig Bierko: Guitar. I'm the lead guitarist. And I learned to play guitar a little bit. Liked it so much that I'm taking lessons now.

CrankyCritic: We've asked about Gretchen. Tell us about working with Vincent D'Onofrio and Armin Mueller-Stahl.
Craig Bierko: The major reason I took the movie was because Armin and Vincent were signed on. It's just fun to work with people who are that good. It challenges you and it's very scary. They have completely different styles. Vincent is very intense and will do anything to find a scene. There's a moment in the movie where Vincent's character has discovered something that nobody in the history of mankind has ever discovered and he had to have a believable reaction to it. I didn't know, coming to work that day, how he would do it. They started the camera rolling on me and Vincent stood off camera and just started yelling at the top of his lungs, for five full minutes until he was damned good and ready and comfortable to walk on screen and have this moment. I just thought that was incredibly brave. I was paranoid that the studio would be upset that I wasted all that footage. He could care less. He is in it because he is an actor who is hungry to get better and, I should say, to find truth in the moment.
Armin is so subtle and brave in a different way. What I learned from working with Armin, and those are my favorite scenes in the movie, is that just because the camera is pointing at you it doesn't mean that you have to do anything. You just need to behave and trust that you're engaging enough, responding honestly to something. I find him riveting. I don't see him acting and yet I can't take my eyes off of him. And he is a true, all around artist. He's not only an actor, in Germany he is a celebrated novelist. He's a playwright and director. I learned so much by working with him.

CrankyCritic: If you could question reality, what question would you ask?
Craig Bierko: Huh?
CrankyCritic: The poster is staring me in the face. I've got to ask a dumb question.
Craig Bierko: Like who my favorite Monkee is? Mickey Dolenz. I wouldn't know where to begin. I've had those questions since the doctor hit me when I first came out. It all feels pretty weird to me.

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	The face is not familiar, and the movie is being sold more as a clone of The Matrix than the pretty good murder mystery with a SF slant that it is, but we liked The Thirteenth Floor and so star Craig Bierko, joins the CrankyCritic® StarTalk pages. If you haven't been clued in, Bierko plays Doug Hall, computer designer of a jack in and live it virtual computer world. Six years in development, it's almost done, when top dog Hannon Fuller (Armin Mueller-Stahl) is viciously murdered after a test jaunt through the 1937 Los Angeles simulation. Hall finds bloody clothing in his hamper, has no recollection of the night before, and is totally befuddled by the sudden appearance of Fuller's previously unknown daughter Jane (Gretchen Mol). Craig Bierko has been acting since the fourth grade, when his parents, who ran a community theater in New York, put him in a production of Gypsy (as a singing newsboy). Though he toyed with the idea of a career in journalism, he wound up at Northwestern University and took classes from the same professors that NU alum Cranky did, including the double Tony winner Frank Galati. We'll get that out of the way fast . . . Craig Bierko: I did a scene for Galati. He said "well, that was a virtuoso performance" and a friend said "Now you can go to your grave." It doesn't get any better than that. CrankyCritic: OK, more history. When you were a kid, SF or comic books? Craig Bierko: Comic books. But I was an Archie/ Richie Rich guy. I was not a science fiction fan. Never have been a SF fan. When I was given the script for this movie and was told about it, my reaction was "I'm not going to be able to do this." I read the script and I didn't understand it because there are so many different character variations that I couldn't keep them all straight without some sort of visual reference. I read it again and it really intrigued me. All the SF stuff fell away. I really fell in love with this story, of a guy trying to understand his relationship to the broader scheme of things. That made sense to me. CrankyCritic: Is that how you explain this to people who ask what The Thirteenth Floor is about? Craig Bierko: I basically say it's a murder mystery with a Twilight Zone-y hook to it. Ultimately, like any story, if there isn't a story then people's minds wander and it's not engaging. We're at a point now with movies where we've come so far with our ability to create unbelievably convincing special effects that the effects now drive the story instead of the other way around. The thing that I did like from the beginning was that the special effects were going to be used with great restraint. They were going to be used to support the story. The story was about a man who was alienated and was trying to figure out the meaning of it all. That, I appreciated. CrankyCritic: And your co-star is Gretchen Mol, dubbed by some media as this year's "it" girl. What was it like working with her? Craig Bierko: She doesn't think like that, which I really appreciated because I have worked with people who think like that and they're nightmarishly awful. She doesn't believe any of the hype or the press. She was fun. She kept me sane. She's very down to earth. It was a big dark movie. There were plenty of times where between scenes we needed to keep each other laughing, just for our own sanity. She's not hard on the eyes, I'll tell you that much. CrankyCritic: Is there any kind of concern that there have been so many movies about VR? Craig Bierko: What are you going to do? in the early 80s it was fathers switching bodies with their sons. We're all just hoping we didn't make the Judge Rheinhold one. [laughs] CrankyCritic: How are you with computer games? Craig Bierko: I am entirely computer illiterate and I remain so. I tried to get on The Thirteenth Floor web page and it was humiliating. I was at a cyber café and it took me an hour to find AOL. There was a little German girl working on her thesis next to me, typing away and going in and out of all these rooms and every five minutes I was asking her for help. Finally she'd had enough of me and got her stuff up and was walking away and as she's walking away my picture scrolls up and it says "Craig Bierko, Computer Genius". She just looked at it and shook her head and walked away. I'm an idiot on those things. I don't know what the hell is going on. CrankyCritic: Next up for you is The Suburbans starring Ben Stiller, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Saturday Night Live's Will Ferrell. Craig Bierko: It's about a one hit wonder band from the 80s, like The Romantics with the rubber suits and makeup and stuff like that. We had one hit in 1982, broke up and our lives fell apart. My character has become a podiatrist. Ben and Jennifer become record executives who get us back together to wring the last bit of revenue out of our one hit. We all end up making fools out of ourselves. We're all 35 and look ridiculous in our suits. Our lives fall apart. It's pretty funny. CrankyCritic: What do you play? Craig Bierko: Guitar. I'm the lead guitarist. And I learned to play guitar a little bit. Liked it so much that I'm taking lessons now. CrankyCritic: We've asked about Gretchen. Tell us about working with Vincent D'Onofrio and Armin Mueller-Stahl. Craig Bierko: The major reason I took the movie was because Armin and Vincent were signed on. It's just fun to work with people who are that good. It challenges you and it's very scary. They have completely different styles. Vincent is very intense and will do anything to find a scene. There's a moment in the movie where Vincent's character has discovered something that nobody in the history of mankind has ever discovered and he had to have a believable reaction to it. I didn't know, coming to work that day, how he would do it. They started the camera rolling on me and Vincent stood off camera and just started yelling at the top of his lungs, for five full minutes until he was damned good and ready and comfortable to walk on screen and have this moment. I just thought that was incredibly brave. I was paranoid that the studio would be upset that I wasted all that footage. He could care less. He is in it because he is an actor who is hungry to get better and, I should say, to find truth in the moment. Armin is so subtle and brave in a different way. What I learned from working with Armin, and those are my favorite scenes in the movie, is that just because the camera is pointing at you it doesn't mean that you have to do anything. You just need to behave and trust that you're engaging enough, responding honestly to something. I find him riveting. I don't see him acting and yet I can't take my eyes off of him. And he is a true, all around artist. He's not only an actor, in Germany he is a celebrated novelist. He's a playwright and director. I learned so much by working with him. CrankyCritic: If you could question reality, what question would you ask? Craig Bierko: Huh? CrankyCritic: The poster is staring me in the face. I've got to ask a dumb question. Craig Bierko: Like who my favorite Monkee is? Mickey Dolenz. I wouldn't know where to begin. I've had those questions since the doctor hit me when I first came out. It all feels pretty weird to me. Cranky Critic Home Page *Review of The Thirteenth Floor* 13 Floor Website**