Are you comfortable sitting at a computer reading this website, updating your Facebook status, and checking friends' Twitters? Try to be careful warns Jordan Belfi, of the upcoming technology-themed thriller "Surrogates," with Bruce Willis. Belfi gave Starpulse insight into the movie (out September 25th), which exists in a future where humans interact solely through robotic versions of themselves.

Starpulse: You're also in the new Bruce Willis movie "Surrogate," out in September.

Jordan Belfi: It's a massive science fiction thriller. I'd call it a thriller over a science fiction movie. It's from a graphic novel of the same name. I read the script and it was one of those scripts you read and you just think, "I want to be a part of this," it was that good. You just believe the world of the movie. You're just lost in it. It's so clearly and vividly delineated and drawn, this dark futuristic reality. Every one in the future has these mechanic surrogate robotic versions of themselves that they're plugged into and that's how they interact with the world.

SP: Tell us about your character.

JB: I play Victor Welch who helps run the company Virtual Self Industry that manufactures the surrogates. When Bruce Willis starts investigating things he comes to me to get information. It was so cool going one on one with Bruce. What's really cool about the script and the story is how interesting science fiction is when it takes current issues and dilemmas and takes them to an exponential conclusion.


SP: So the movie has a message or societal critique?

JB: It takes what has happened in the last three to five years with how we interact with social networking sites, and we as people kind of keep retreating back with how we interact with each other. I have friends that won't talk on the phone anymore. They only text or IM or respond through Facebook. So the movie is the idea of what's the exponential conclusion of that. What if we physically don't interact with people? We have this physical manifestation, whether it be Facebook or whatever, that is this barrier between us and the real world and other human beings. And in "Surrogates" that's even how you have sex with people. The surrogate does it, and you're experiencing it in a first person type of way, because you're plugged into it, but I just thought, what are the philosophical and societal implications of this retreating that's occurring? In a way social networking seemingly brings us so close together because you're constantly updated about people's lives, but you can peek into people's lives without ever actually having to talk to them. So it feels like we're closer than ever before, but we're also more disconnected than ever because you can sit alone in your house and feel connected, but never actually talk to anyone.

SP: Sounds pretty heavy, do you think audiences will be turned off?

JB: The movie is a cool science fiction movie with Bruce Willis that comes from a graphic novel. I think the movie will work on several levels where it's a big holiday weekend movie but has all this other stuff going for it as well.

SP: Have you read the graphic novel?

JB: Yeah, I looked at it. It's really cool. The thing that makes graphic novels so cool is they're really illustrative and have vivid images and tangible visual representatives of the world they've created.

SP: Were you involved with any of the big action scenes?

JB: No jumping off buildings for me. Just cool going head to head with Bruce. What was so cool with that is that it's Bruce Willis, one of the biggest stars in the world, somebody I grew up watching, I've always loved watching him, and all the sudden you find yourself in the scene with him face to face.

SP: Did you freak out at all at first?

JB: No, when I got to set he was there and we were introduced. He doesn't come over right away and shake your hand and say, "Hey, I'm Bruce," he just kind of looks at you and gave me the quintessential Bruce Willis squint and gave me a little nod. You have a flash of a moment where it's like "oh Jesus Christ this is someone I grew up loving" but at the end of the day you're sitting down looking at each other face to face and all of that dissolves away, and all you are is two actors playing a scene and trying to make it interesting. Not to say that in that moment you don't have a respect for who they are and their work history, but most of it goes away and you're just two actors. There's a reason why he is who he is. He's got that sense of humor that makes him so much fun to watch. It was a great experience.

SP: In the film you're playing the surrogate version of your character, did you play the role like you would any normal human? Or did you have to keep in mind that there is a mechanical element to this being?

JB: It's a subtle thing, (director) Jonathan Mostow defined some of the rules. He really gave a lot of thought to keeping the world consistent and wrote a whole kind of manual to describe what defines the surrogates physically, and how they move, the way they behave, their physical presence, to keep a general consistency for all the actors in the movie, whether they are lead roles or background actors. The whole movie is populated by people that are playing surrogates so there needs to be a universal feeling to everything…not as much as to how they talk, but there is a general feeling. It's difficult to articulate, but you kind of feel it when you're in that sweet spot. It's kept grounded in reality, but it's just a little off.

SP: So was there a lot of help from hair and make-up to keep this consistent?

JB: The thing about casting, and I'm not speaking about myself, but everyone in the film to a certain degree has to be attractive. The whole point of the surrogate is that it's a better version of yourself. Event the background people can't just look like your average person, they've got to look more like a model version of the average person.

SP: So what's next for you?

JB: I'm working on a Showtime mini-series that's basically about all of our lives being captured in every moment on security cameras. It's this project with about 20 stories told exclusively from surveillance cameras. It's an experimental project and makes the stories feel like you're peeking in on real lives. It taps into our voyeuristic nature as an audience.



SP: So what will the audience observe you doing?

JB: Some not so nice stuff. It's the story of this television weather man trying to become an anchorman, and I play this guy who's brought in to produce the program and trying to hip up the broadcast, and try to get this weatherman fired.


Story by Michael Mellini

Starpulse contributing writer