Hamm: A damsel in distress.
Hall: Yeah.
Hamm: I play law enforcement, basically. I play the cop to Ben’s robber, but it’s not just black versus white. Ben is playing the lovable rogue. My character still thinks he’s a piece of s--- because he’s a horrible criminal. That was fun—to be the counterpoint to Ben’s charming rogue.
Hall: The film is old-fashioned—proper Hollywood. There are thrills and there’s violence and there’s action and there’s a significant romance.
Hamm: It’s an adult movie. Those are in short supply. I hope that there’s still an audience for that kind of film, where you can go see adults behaving like adults.
W: And it deals with adult themes.
Hall: It’s an age-old tragedy setup. Can you do bad and get away with it, or does it always come back to bite you in the ass?
Hamm: No one is 100 percent good and no one is 100 percent bad. What’s interesting is that many bank robbers don’t think they’re doing anything bad, because the money is insured. They don’t consider themselves criminals.
W: What was Ben like off-set?
Hall: He’s kind of what you expect: He’s incredibly smart; he’s good fun. It’s got to be odd being that famous, especially in Boston, where he can’t walk a block without having to put his hood up. He is Mr. Boston.
Hamm: I mean, the guy is a patron saint of that city. [When you’re] walking around with him, everybody of every walk of life is like, “Hey, Ben!”
Hall: And to be in every frame of a movie as an actor and a director—
Hamm: That’s a huge accomplishment.
Hall: And a bit schizophrenic as well because you are having to wear two different hats and be quite clear about which one you’re wearing at any given time. It’s very rare that actors can direct themselves.
Hamm: Without just turning into a raving lunatic or an a--hole.
W: Rebecca, your father, Peter Hall, is a director. Is there a particular moment from his work that stays with you?
Hall: I remember being far too small to see The Gift of the Gorgon, with Judi Dench. She puts razor blades in a bar of soap and that haunted me for a long time. And I’ve worked with him a few times—the last thing was As You Like It, when I was 20—and I’m going to do it again. He’s 80 in September. Sixty years of being a professional theater director! As part of his birthday celebrations, the Royal National Theatre has said he could do whatever he wanted for however long he wanted to do it. He said, “I want to do Twelfth Night with my daughter.”
