Thomas Haden Church Interview

It's fair to say that Thomas Haden Church had never experienced anything quite like filming Spider-Man 3. This Oscar nominated actor has applied his considerable talent to many diverse and challenging roles over a career spanning more than two decades. But nothing is quite like working with Sam Raimi on the Spider-Man set.

"Sam is a fantastic guy and great director and he creates this incredible world with Spider-Man and it's quite unlike anything you've ever experienced," he says.

And nothing, he emphasises, could possibly have prepared him for watching the extraordinary sequences in the film when he appears (with the help of CGII) as awesomely destructive Sandman who proves to be a formidable foe for Spider-Man.

"It's this whirling dervish of practical photography and computer generated photography and they just stitch it together and it's an amazing thing," he says. "Some of the fight sequences were physically gruelling to film but to see how they expand that into these super human action sequences is extraordinary.

"I don't fully comprehend how they do what they do with the vast layering of the computer imaging - they lay things in and go back and go back and everything is built up - and when you see yourself up there, well, it's kind of mind blowing."

The physical challenge of his dual role as Flint Marko, the small time crook who transforms into Sandman, was, quite simply, one of the hardest professional endeavours he's ever undertaken. And one of the most rewarding.

"You know, it was hard but it was also great fun," he says. "It starts with Sam. Sam is a very playful personality and he likes to laugh and he likes to make people laugh.

"Sam is almost like an old country gentleman. He is very gentle natured individual, he is very kind and he has a very polite and respectful approach. I've worked with directors who on the surface are team players and they are gentlemen but whenever you get to the bare knuckles of it they become passive aggressive and sometimes, forget the passive, just more aggressive! And with Sam he was never that way.

"And Tobey (Maguire) is clearly the star of the movies and he is very good natured. He and I picked up a lively and engaging banter with one another.

"When I was first approached about the role I was flattered because the Spider-Man movies are very, very good films. They happen to be superhero movies but they also stand alone as dramatic stories with excellent performances. And this was a very interesting story that I wanted to be a part of."

To prepare for the role Thomas, now 46, embarked on a fitness regime which would have taxed a man twenty years younger. He was first offered the role at the beginning of 2005 and started training in March that year - in preparation for shooting in November 2005 which would continue throughout 2006.

Church, who lives in his native Texas where he has a cattle ranch, would make a 90 mile round trip to the gym each day for his rigorous workouts. A nutritionist devised and supervised his high protein diet.

"I prepared extensively and intensively," he explains. "With a strict diet and a weights programme in the gym. In the pre-production phase I did another movie (Broken Trail) with Robert Duvall and I had to maintain my fitness throughout that.

"I worked with personal trainers in Texas and whilst I was making Broken Trail in Canada. It was hard work but it was worth it and absolutely essential because I needed to be in the right shape for Spider-Man 3.

"I've always been a very physical person but they wanted a very specific look and that's not the way I normally look. I'm six one and I'm usually 180lbs and they actually wanted me to get to 220lbs and for it to be all muscle.

"But I just couldn't. I got to 200lbs and I just wasn't physically able to get bigger than that. And yes, at times it was very tedious, you know because I had to drive 45 miles to the nearest weight training facility.

"So every day I would drive 45 miles from my ranch, train and then go back to the ranch. It was an hour and a half commute every day just to do what I had to do. They would deliver my meal to the gym and I would have to eat right before I trained and right after I trained and that with driving and two hours give or take at the gym, that was the day.

"I gained 20lbs of lean muscle which is fairly significant. And when I started I was 43 and to make that kind of change to your body when you are a guy in your forties is not easy."

Once on set, that hard work paid off handsomely. Under the expert supervision of stunt coordinator Scott Rogers, Church's level of fitness meant that he could take on most of the action sequences needed for the role.

"Whenever I did those scenes it was a lot easier because of the physical resources I had developed," he says. "Because you are stronger and more physically fit.

Church was born and raised in Texas and as a teenager, discovered the two passions that would remain as constants throughout his life - his love of the outdoors and acting. "My love of the outdoors came from my Dad," he says. "We hunted and fished in Texas and my Dad had friends that were ranchers and there was this kind of nobility to that community that I really admired.

"My Dad had a friend who was a rancher and I worked for him one summer in between school years and that's how it started. There was a code of honour and a stoicism that I really admired in those people." There was never any real doubt, though, that his chosen career would be in acting. He started at High School, where he also loved watching movies and going to the theatre. After college there was a brief spell doing voice work in advertising before he secured an agent and headed to Los Angeles to try his luck.

Once on the West Coast, he established himself quickly with guest roles on TV shows like 21 Jump Street, Cheers and Booker. By the 1990s Church had established himself as one of the most successful actors working on US television thanks to starring roles in hit shows like Wings and Ned and Stacey.

In the late 1990s Church combined television work with film roles - including George of the Jungle, One Night Stand, Susan's Plan and Free Money.

Along the way, he realised that other childhood dream by buying his first ranch back home in Texas - he now has four. He enjoyed living in LA but the lure of home and the call of the outdoors was too much to resist. These days, when he's not filming he's back home in Texas with his wife, Mia, and their much-adored two year old daughter, Cody.

"Oh yeah, she's the apple of her Daddy's eye," he smiles. "She's just wonderful and I hate being away from her and my wife."

There's a popular misconception about Chruch that suggests that when director Alexander Payne, who told him he was interested in casting him for Sideways, called him he had virtually given up acting for the life of a rancher.

"Unfortunately I have to decry, that's a little bit of a fabrication," he says. "I really was not retired, I was just working in lower profile projects. Moving to Texas was just a great opportunity and I was never in love with Los Angeles as a place to live.

"Even in the early 1990s when I had the financial wherewithal, I started buying houses and going to Texas as much as I could. And then in 1998 I bought a ranch which was really always a career that I wanted. But I knew that I could commute back to LA when I needed to."

Church beat out other high profile A list stars - including Brad Pitt and Matt Dillon - to secure the role of Jack opposite Paul Giamatti as Miles in Payne's bitter sweet comedy about two middle aged men embarking on a pre wedding trip through California's wine country.

Church was a revelation and was nominated for an Oscar for his moving, funny and painfully honest portrayal of Jack, a TV actor determined to have one last fling without fully appreciating the consequences.

Since the film was released, in 2004, Church's career has been re-invigorated and he's now working with top directors like Sam Raimi and, ironically, getting to spend less time on the ranch he loves so much.

"But you know it's worth it when you get the chance to work with someone like Sam. This guy is one of the best and the experience of working on Spider-Man 3 was one of the best of my life. I'll never forget it and I'll always be grateful for it."