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CuriousStranger’s Ben Bertolluci Omake
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GQ Magazine – October Issue, 2009
Ben Bertolluci Still Sobs Silently
When a Hollywood scriptwriter makes it big, one of the most obvious statements of their success is a new car. Some like it flashy, ranging from patriotic pride by nabbing a high performance variant of the classic Chevrolet Camaro or the historically beautiful Porsche 911. Sometimes they'll go for comfort instead of speed, and you'll see no end to the wide array of Benzes or Audis, or more rarely a Volvo for those keeping up the appearance of the stolid, dependable, yet financially comfortable worker.
Ben Bertolucci drives a Ford Cargo Van instead. Something that draws no attention and couldn't be picked out of a lineup here in Tinsel Town where hundreds if not thousands of identical looking studio owned vans go here and there loaded to the gills with the equipment that makes movie magic possible.
When he opens it, you're presented with more the sight of a survivalist's dream. A futon on the bed, a series of shelving and boxes strapped down and marked neatly with 'MEDICINE' 'RATIONS – WET' or 'RATIONS- DRY', and a case clearly filled with some sort of long gun, locked away yet visible in keeping with California's gun control laws.
Ben Bertolucci isn't just one of thousands of writers here in Hollywood, he's also a Raccoon City Survivor, and for him speed and comfort matter far less than his chosen vehicle's ability to serve as a mobile bunker.
"Katherine (his spouse) and I keep a Prius for the groceries and to be the daily driver, but to be honest there's something that feels really protective about being behind this wheel. Selfish, and more then a few probably hate me on the highway yeah, but… it's a selfishness I can live with," he says.
There are few that would disagree with him to his face. One of just a few survivors of what was once a thriving Midwest American town of one hundred thousand. The death of Raccoon City and the horrific 9/11 attack three years later proved to be the one-two punch that killed the idea of 'The End of History' after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and instead dragged America and the rest of the world kicking and screaming into a horrifying new millennium.
The events of Raccoon City are still largely a mystery. The broad strokes are known, as are the main conspirators, but it's hard to shake the feeling that what's been revealed to the public is just the tip of the iceberg, and as the War on Terror in the Middle East appears to drag on with no end, what had been dubbed the New Nuke seems to have been repurposed, and governments eager to play chicken with it once again.
While Umbrella has been broken apart and many sent to prison, people wonder if there's something of a modern Operation Paperclip going on, where scientists and researchers were secretly pardoned and set to work to refine their work into something less horrific yet just as tangible.
Human regeneration. Organ cloning. Age regression. Once the domain of science fiction, but as seen from reports of the T-Virus, not so impossible after all, and a more than enough of a juicy goal, especially with various branches of Umbrella abroad having been nationalized and with its former pharmaceutical rivals such as Tricell having purchased much of its copyrights for pennies on the dollar. A new nuclear arms race may just be burgeoning while the American public remains unaware. As casualties mount on a weary American populace still flinching from the horrors of Vietnam and skeptical of the successes of Desert Storm for Round 2 (or perhaps Round 3 or 4 depending on who you ask) in the desert, the idea of cutting down fatalities and combating Islamic Terrorism with the fruits of Bio Organic Weapon (B.O.W.s for short) research must be tempting. B.O.W. derived research had, after all, pushed Umbrella to the fore of cutting edge trauma medicine long before the Raccoon City Incident making them a blue chip in the world of finance.
When I ask Ben about these rumors, he merely sighs before shaking his head. "Maybe, probably, hell if I know. Ten, hell if it had been five years ago I'd have been out in the field trying to get the good word out and find the truth with my own eyes but now…"
His expression wavers, clearly fighting his own demons. "I'll leave the fighting to the others. Some of them even still return my calls you know? Alyssa was always better at this stuff than me and she keeps me in mind."
At that, the conversation turns to what the meeting had always been going to lead to. After all, Ben Bertolucci makes his living in Hollywood as a script doctor and as an expert adviser to the T-Virus for the purpose of films.
It's a touchy subject, but as time passed, the various studios of Hollywood leapt into action attempting to straddle the complex line between sympathy, entertainment, education, and more. Slowly, even if time has not yet healed the wounds of the Raccoon City Incident, it has at least become scar tissue. Mottled, ugly, and yet no longer as raw. Ben's touch can be found in various big productions over the past three years, turning the conflicting accounts and tangled narratives into something cohesive and touched by his personal experience.
"I used to get my thrills as a reporter not just because I believed in the truth, but also because it was fun for me. Making those connections. But now, I just don't have the taste for it anymore. But I still love the truth. It's funny that making fiction, making lies, lets me tell my own truth to the world."
Four years had served as a proving ground for him, to get studios to believe in his touch, and his last year was spent as the sole writer of this summer's biggest blockbuster, Bioweapon: Breach distributed by Universal Studios a few months ago in June. Its release has been met with no small amounts of controversy, with harsh reviews condemning not its production value, but instead its presentation, tone, and characters. Many nonprofit organizations dedicated to assisting the survivors of Raccoon City and educating the world of the dangers of B.O.W.s decried the plot as something out of an airport novel and the event treated with nowhere near the amount of reverence it deserves.
When it comes to cold hard cash however, Breach has been an astounding success, having performed over $700 million worldwide with over $500 million from domestic markets led by rave fan reviews from a younger generation who knew the tragedy only as distant news items.
Bioweapon Breach is the tale of former US Army Ranger Apollo Monroe making his way to the infected city after a mysterious note from a former comrade, unknowingly following the traces of Kaitlyn Drinkwater who arrived just hours before him in search of her half-sister, Jamie Pascal and Apollo's former comrade in arms. The two meet and team up as they recover Jamie and unlock the secrets of Umbrella and the reasons for the outbreak. It is perhaps one of the finest examples of the summer blockbuster with no small amount of praise for its action sequences.
And yet that was also virtually the only point of praise as people point out the incongruity of the action movie plot that's more Die Hard than Schindler's List being applied to a tragedy where one hundred thousand souls were lost before being annihilated by US missiles launched on its own homeland.
There's a moment in the movie where Apollo spin kicks a zombie so hard it caves in its chest before he literally crushes its neck with a stomp and then makes a joke-
"Sorry about your sore throat. Yes."
Don't you find it a little… inappropriate?
Ben taps the steering wheel, seeming more focused on the road than my question before he answers. "I'm not going to make light of those who died there, nor the survivors especially those whom I've never met. God knows what suffering they went through. For my own part, I was stuck in a jail cell licking at pipes and the bars for condensation to hydrate myself. I still wake up crying or shivering and it's only the fact that Katherine is there that grounds me. But you need to know, there are people out there who are trained for this. People truly different from the rest of the pack. I don't say this to dehumanize them or treat them like less than human. But they exist. And the man behind Apollo is one of them. If anything I toned it down.
The light in front of us turns yellow and Ben begins to brake before turning to me once the van fully comes to a stop.
"Once he entered the room, it was like you were somewhere else entirely because he took total control. Five minutes ago, you were terrified, and you just knew that you were going to die that night but then he comes in and he doesn't just save you by snatching you from the jaws of death, he beats the monster to death. Suddenly you realize that you're not just a victim and that these aren't unbeatable creatures. You're still 180 pounds of moving flesh with a lead pipe or a gun and you're fighting something that can be beaten. It's a rush and once he's there it's like it you suddenly feel a shift. Those jokes he made, they're there to get your mind off things and make you understand that you have agency."
Can you tell me more about the real life inspiration behind Apollo Monroe? What do you mean when you toned it down?
Ben continues to drum on the steering wheel, going from something random to a little more recognizable, a beat from a rock band that was popular twenty years ago.
"The thing about reality is that it's often even less realistic than fiction, and nothing really encapsulates this more than that man. When Ewan McGregor was cast people thought he was a little too pretty to act as a former Army Ranger. I took a lot of shit from some of the military advisors living here in Hollywood when after they'd get a few drinks in 'em after the casting went public. But you know what? I fought for that guy because he was something like my fifth choice because every name I thought of was considered too young, too handsome, too skinny, too unconvincing and all of the producers rejected my ideas there. But I don't know how to say it except for the fact that the real deal was just as baby-faced and probably could have made a name in the movies too if his acting was up to snuff."
"But when you see the real deal, it's like Dicaprio walked off the set of the Titanic with the gunslinging skills of the Man with No Name, the boxing abilities of Rocky Balboa, and the jokes of John Matrix from Commando all wrapped up into one package. That's what I mean when I toned it down."
So when Kaitlyn makes a move after seeing Apollo in action, did that ever really happen…?
"That part was a little embellished. We were fighting for our lives there, but when there was a chance to get a breather, well let's just say that the Suspension Bridge Effect is way stronger when you look like a model and you've just been wrenching people's asses out of the fire for a few hours straight. I'm not going to say it happened, but I'm also not going to say it likely didn't happen once we'd all left the city."
Where do you think the real Apollo Monroe is now?
"I know vaguely what he's up to. He threads the line between public and private and if you know the name, you can get a general idea. But that's not enough. He could be just a mile away getting a sandwich or across the world in the Alps for all I care, but that wouldn't matter at all. I just hope… I hope he's happy. That my work here might be cheesy or rude for the people watching, but if I've made his job a little easier in any way, if changing public opinion and awareness gives him the chance to catch a breath or give him the chance to actually relax."
(Interview continues on page 58)