3:10 to Yuma: Interview of Peter Fonda and Ben Foster

Peter Fonda and Ben Foster attended the 2007 Comic-con International- San Diego for promoting 3:10 to Yuma. Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, the two main actors of the movie, did not attend the event. Peter was very happy to come to the convention because he could not make it during the promotion of Ghost Rider. Peter and Ben attended a question answer session where they talked about their characters and their experience about working in the movie. In the movie Peter plays the character of a bounty hunter carrying a double barreled shotgun. Peter Fonda worked in western movies and he knows a thing or two about horse riding and gun fighting. However, it was entirely a different experience for Ben Foster, who played the bad guy, Charlie Prince. He always fascinated about western movies and finally he landed with a role. While shooting the movie, very often he lost his hat and gun. movies.ign.com reports:

The film has got fans of the Western genre excited, with some saying that it is going to bring the form back in vogue on the big screen. Fonda, however, just seems interested in talking about the shotgun he uses in the film…

"There are some gun fights involving me, and interestingly enough people have asked me, 'How can you use a shotgun?'" he says. "I have this sawed-off, double-barrel shotgun … and I quickly point out we're shooting buckshot and each shell carries nine 30-caliber balls, lead 30 caliber. So one barrel has that and the other barrel has that, so that's 18 30-caliber bullets on their way. I pop it open, two shells drop out, two shells drop in, ready to rock and roll again! And the other cowboy's loading their gun, one bullet goes in, another bullet goes in. By that time I've got out 38 rounds. This guy doesn't have a bloody chance! So I'm shotgun, you bet!"

Right, Peter. Regardless of any fetishistic shotgun talk, however, Fonda says that it was Mangold's vision for the classic story that got him and the other cast members most excited about joining the project.

"Jim Mangold's take on the original 3:10 to Yuma, he takes it to a new level," says Fonda. "He's improved on the story, he's improved on the aspects of all the personalities involved. He's made deeper characters out of this script. The Christian Bale character was really small in the original 3:10 to Yuma. It's been [expanded]. It's character-driven, but full of action. So being able to mix those two -- sometimes action is not character-driven at all, or character-driven is [like], 'Ohhh, when are we going to get some action?' It's got it all. It's got character drive. It's got incredibly good action, very well-shot stuff. The stunt work is fine. We all went to cowboy camp -- I didn't have to, I knew how to ride and I know how to shoot. But everybody learned how to do all this stuff."

Foster says it was a childhood dream fulfilled to play "cowboys and outlaws," and the time at cowboy camp alone was an interesting experience that he won't soon forget.

"The whole bit," he laughs. "It's horses and guns, man, so there wasn't a bad day on the set. I had never ridden a horse before, and that's the great thing about genre pictures. You have to learn the specific talent or skill. And knowing nothing about horses, you learn very quickly. One of the cool things is the stunt guys, who make up most of the outfit. They have their own rules, so if you lose a hat in a take, you have to buy drinks. If you lose a gun in a take, you have to buy drinks. So I bought a lot of drinks!"

If you are not happy reading the interviews, no problem. I have found two video clips of the interviews of these two actors in about.com. Enjoy them

Peter Fonda Interview:
http://video.about.com/movies/Peter-Fonda-Interview.htm

Ben Foster Interview:
http://video.about.com/movies/Ben-Foster-Interview.htm