Charlie Weber Talks ‘The Painter,’ Acting Growth and Madison Bailey Collaboration

Now playing in select theaters, The Painter centers on an ex-CIA operative named Peter (Charlie Weber) who falls back into his past career after a mysterious woman (Madison Bailey) enters his life. Co-starring Jon Voight, The Painter is a solid action thriller that features a well executed third act. Charlie Weber (How To Get Away With Murder, Soul Mates) talked to Deepest Dream about his latest movie, working with Bailey and Voight, and why he wants another installment of The Painter!

First of all, I really enjoyed The Painter. My mom met Jon Voight at a plane years ago, and she said he was the nicest person. I’ve interviewed him over the years and had the same impression.  What was it like just creating that world with him and just acting opposite him? 

Charlie Weber: I can vouch for all that. He’s a great guy, a phenomenal actor. And very in tune with himself, with the character. He’s very generous as an actor. Very playful as an actor. Keeps you on your toes. Likes to make interesting choices and move the scene around. It was an absolute pleasure. He’s this legend, and I’ve had the pleasure, the honor, really, of standing across from a handful of legends over my years as an actor. 

And it’s always just an incredible experience that changes you as an actor. 

I appreciated the world building behind The Painter. Was that a big draw for you? 

Charlie Weber: It was a huge draw. I responded to Peter immediately. I’m at a place in life, in my career where where it’s pretty easy to play a guy with a haunted past. 

And we all have our demons and our moments in life that have shaped us. To take that into a guy who is buried so much; I’ve tried to, in my own life, let those things come out and deal with these things. Whereas this is somebody who has buried major trauma for 17 years, and it’s going to be put in a position when Madison Bailey’s character shows up that he has no choice but to sort of let it all out at once. 

I wanted to explore what that would look like.

What was it like having Madison Bailey as a scene partner and just navigating the story together? 

Charlie Weber: She is talented beyond her years and a very worldly girl, and she was an incredible scene partner. She’s very talented. Very smart, and makes really solid choices. It was a pleasure to work with her. 

Really enjoyed her working with her and also just knowing her as a person. She’s a very special actor.

Listen to our CinemAddicts review of The Painter:

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Where was the house where Peter lived located? It’s a beautiful house. Or maybe it’s movie magic?. 

Charlie Weber: No, no, we just got lucky. It was this really incredible cabin this guy built himself. This beautiful, big, huge log cabin house. 

We shot in Vancouver, and I couldn’t tell you where it was because I was staying in central Vancouver – they had me all squared away and we had to drive. It’s about an hour and a half away from where I was staying, so I couldn’t tell you exactly where we were. 

(It was) way outside of town and up this hill a bit in a mountain. And it was record snow. Vancouver had never seen snow like that. It just so happened to be snow covered. When we first started filming, I was (thinking) what are we going to do when the snow melts? And luckily it never did. 

So we just got this beautiful snow covered cabin to be in the whole time. It was cold always. But it was worth it to have such a beautiful location. 

Acting is one thing, but doing the choreography for something like this, does that feel like another job? 

Charlie Weber: Yeah, it’s a complete other thing. I grew up an athlete and that’s what you have to tap into. The parallel is my dedication to my performance and then also the physicality and the stunt coordination. You have to have that same drive and you have to want to compete because it’s very challenging mentally and physically to learn and perform those sequences.

I’m a huge fan of this movie called The Hunted, where it’s Benicio del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones. Lee Jones. Like The Hunted, your movie has a really memorable knife fight scene.

Charlie Weber: Yeah, it’s so much fun to learn and those routines are so cool when you see it on screen. 

What’s so interesting is that, you know, it’s me versus this henchmen and I’m (fighting) him. But at the end of the day, we’re hugging because we’ve been rehearsing together for weeks.

And it’s just your partner. It’s such a cool thing. 

Do you get nervous doing that? Because it’s really on you guys to make it work. 

Charlie Weber: Oh yeah. We had to move really fast and learn them quick and perform them quick. We didn’t have a ton of time even when we were shooting them, so we had to get them right. So there was a lot of pressure. 

But everybody rose to the occasion and we really  just made it happen. I’m so proud of the movie. 

I would like to see you guys again in another installment of The Painter. I know, obviously it can be a closed story and everything should be fine, so that’s not a cheat, but is there ever a possibility that you’d be open to that? 

Charlie Weber: I’ve made it very clear. I’m open to it. I would love to do a sequel to The Painter. I love this character. You mentioned world building. I love the world we created, and that doesn’t always happen. 

So to play that character in that world that we’ve created would be a joy. I would jump at it. 

You’ve done film and television, and as you mature as an actor, do you feel like you’re much better than you were before? As your life changes and you grow, does that lend itself to the projects that you do moving forward? 

Charlie Weber: It does absolutely. On all counts, I think. You know, doing this for this long, you learn a lot of lessons. 

I think the biggest lessons I’ve learned is starting to let go of things and not try to milk a scene and not try to force a moment and just let something live and breathe, which is the hardest thing to do, because you want everything to have this weight and you want everything to be this thing, and not everything is this thing. 

I think once you start doing that, these moments just start happening. They’re beautiful. And when they do happen, they’re incredible. Everything sort of is a great moment. That’s, I think, (is) my takeaway. 

I really do love this movie, and I’m very proud of my performance, because I think it’s the first time I truly did just let a character live and breathe. And I think what came together was really beautiful. 

On the flip side, my podcast co-host (Eric) has been pumping this movie called Soul Mates, and I haven’t seen it. He loves the script and I’m clueless because I never got to cover it. What can I expect from Soul Mates?

Charlie Weber: You’re going to see a very different guy. I had so much fun on that movie. (It’s) Annie Ilonzeh and I. It’s a two hander. It’s a great thriller. I wasn’t able to promote it when it was in theaters because we were on strike. 

But it just dropped on VOD on (January 1), so it’s it’s out there. I highly recommend it. It is a fun, fun movie. 

Right off the top of your head, can you name one of your all time favorite films? And what is it about this movie that still resonates with you on a personal level? 

Charlie Weber: I have an endless list of movies I love. I’m a cinephile, but as far as my favorite movie, I think I would have to say Pulp Fiction, and I think it’s because of that world building aspect. It’s such a unique, crazy, endlessly fascinating world that they’re all in. 

And I think that’s what sort of drew me and wanted to be an actor was the world building of Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese. Just the incredible world that’s built around these incredible characters. And so I think that’s like a good reference for me. 

Also before Pulp Fiction really sort of took hold for me, True Romance came out, (and that) was really sort of the first movie that changed my scope. This is the coolest movie I’ve ever seen, and wouldn’t it be cool to live in that world? 

And then Pulp Fiction came out and I was totally in. I didn’t even know Quentin Tarantino had written True Romance untilI had seen Reservoir Dogs.

That’s the kind of writing I’m responding to. I think it’s the world that gets created that’s so special. 

When you saw these movies, maybe you were a teen or maybe early 20s, way back in the day? Was it a big jump from being that youthful cinephile to being that actor? Was it a huge leap?

Charlie Weber: I don’t think it was that big of a leap. I think once you make that choice . . . I remember watching Pulp Fiction for, I don’t know, the 10th time. 

I’m probably 17 years old (at the time but) around 15 I started thinking like “can people go be an actor?” But that’s the movie where I was like, “you know, all of these people came from somewhere. No one was born inside the world.” 

They found their way to it. And I think once you find that inspiration to go do it, you’re still the same person. Just on a new path. 

I really, really enjoyed The Painter. Thank you so much for taking the time. 

Charlie Weber: Thank you. I really appreciate it. 

The Painter is now playing in select theaters and it will be available on Digital January 9th.

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