Emilio Estevez Talks Martin, Organic Gardening, Community and The Way

Paving the Way

By Corine Gatti

When I talked to Emilio Estevez I didn’t anticipate that the rugged star of Young Guns and the director/writer of The Way grew his own organic food, kept bees or operated a vineyard-the Casa Dumetz. Maybe it’s not a surprise as the father of two is known as a blue-collar worker who stays out of the tabloids.

There wasn’t much Hollywood about the 49-year-old, who fled to his vineyard in Malibu to find solitude away to write a majority of the picture's script at Casa Dumetz. He’s a guy that would buy you a beer at a local joint and enjoy a deep laugh with you. In fact he made me chuckle a few times-no beer though.

"We’re going to make ourselves accessible because we believe in the film,” Estevez said about an upcoming bus tour to promote the film. “We believe in the message of the film and I think it would be hypocritical to do a movie about what we think is a working class, working man and woman film and not take the movie to the people. There’s a hell of a lot going on out there in places like Omaha and St. Louis and Phoenix, places we’re going to stop at the normally don’t get the stops. We’re going in and we’re looking to raise some hell.”

Watch behind the scenes footage of Martin and Emilio at the end of the gallery.

A Family Affair

Estevez is joined by his father veteran actor Martin Sheen, 71, who plays Tom a doctor from California who travels to St. Jean Pied de Port, France to pick up the remains of his free spirited son Daniel (Estevez) after he perished in a storm in the Pyrenees. Tom makes a vow to continue his son’s pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago (the Way of Saint James) in Spain where he learns make peace with his own demons. On the journey Tom bonds with a few souls struggling to find inspiration and acceptance through the ancient pilgrim routes from Europe that starts at the tomb of St. James in Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain.

Estevez’s son Taylor was also influential in making the film as the Camino called him during a trip with Sheen.

“My father had taken a trip to Spain with my son Taylor who was then 18 along with Matt Clark, a fellow actor and one of my father’s oldest friends. So along the way my son met a gal and they fell in love and later that year and moved to Spain. He’s been living there ever since, in fact they just celebrated their second anniversary. They got married in the summer of 2009 which was the summer the [producer] David Alexanian and I returned to start prepping the film.”

Communication

"Has anyone ever walked into you while they were talking on their mobile phone or texting? Or have you ever?”

Estevez asked. I gave a bashful “Yes,” wanting to hide my bad habit.

“You see people walking down the street and their faces are buried in their smart phones and iPads. They have stopped looking up. They’re all looking down. They’ve stopped being tourists in the world. When that happens, when we lose our sense of “wonder” and stop being tourists, that’s when we get in trouble,” said a fustrated Estevez, who showcased The Way at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2010.

“I know it sounds cliché but when we stop to smell the flowers, unless you do, you forget how good a rose actually smells. And it’s the little things that ultimately turn us on. And it’s the little things that-well actually like the scented rose and like the taking moments to watch a sunset. Those are the things that ultimately drive us I think as human beings.”

Finding an Audience

Estevez and his small crew started filming in the September 2009 for about 40 days. They walked about 350 miles during the filming and were cautious about using only natural light.

“It’s not a low tech movie; it’s a no tech movie. There’s not one CGI shot. There’s all the light is natural including the night scenes. So in terms of the production of it, it is zero tech and look how beautiful it is. “You don’t get people’s attention if there’s not a certain amount of sex or blowing something up every five minutes. I think that audiences are smarter and need choices. There is an audience out there. If you look at the numbers, the returns like on the King’s Speech, obviously there’s an older demographic that has been underserved for many, many years.”

Martin and the Backpack

Don’t argue with his yogi Dad, you will never win, said the older son of Martin. Sheen started doing yoga years ago that helped his legs from camping in the Pyrenees.

And Sheen was blazing over the terrain, while the crew was trying to catch up with him.

“Slow down and take off that 40-pound backpack. You’re leaving everybody in the dust," Estevez explained.

“You’ve got to slow down a little bit here. See Martin’s incredibly fit. And at times we were truly struggling to catch up with him, especially over the Pyrenees. He’s the kind of guy too who insisted on wearing a 40-pound backpack. The recommended weight is about 25 to 30 pounds for the Camino, so he packed it even heavier than that and he insisted on wearing it. Not in a macho way, but he felt that it changed the way he breathed. He felt it changed the way he moved and walked and so in fact the only day he got upset was when halfway through the film we decided to take some of the weight out of the backpack and he got very, very upset with all of us. Martin said “…you put that back. ...Don’t ever change it again…”

Estevez didn't.

Bus Tour

Emilio will be hopping on a tour bus to promote the movie with his father coast to coast before the movie opens on Oct. 7. Estevez said it would be hypocritical if he did a movie about the working class and he didn’t become accessible to the public.

“We’re going to make ourselves accessible because we believe in the film. We believe in the message of the film and I think it would be hypocritical to do a movie about what we think is a working class, working man and woman film and not take the movie to the people. And there’s a hell of a lot going on out there in places like Omaha and St. Louis and Phoenix, places we’re going to stop at the normally don’t get the stops. We’re going in and we’re looking to raise some hell.”