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You do have that one scene where you're on the phone with Meryl Streep, who plays the top CIA official who first orders the husband's rendition.
[Laughs] It's my favorite line in the movie: ''This is my first torture.'' That may have been why I did the movie, that line.

When you shot that scene, was Streep on the phone with you?
No. I was on the other end of her phone, though. [Laughs] Due diligence, yes.

What are your expectations for Rendition?
A result, you mean? I don't really think you really look for the result, I think the result is forced on you. I wish that people love the simplicity of this movie, the parable-like quality of this movie. I hope that they see that there's no simple answer for both sides. Like, people say about Rendition, ''You made a political movie.'' And I'm like, well, I didn't think about that. Like I told you, I wanted to see what it was like when I wasn't the guy in the truck watching the other guy walk away and being torn up. I wanted to be not torn up. I wanted to see what that would feel like. I didn't want to be the boy in the bubble. [Giggles] I wanted to see something else.

This is maybe the most grown-up role you've ever had to date. Was that also part of your thinking?
It's nice to deal with issues a little bit ahead of yourself, you know? Things you don't totally understand. To struggle with those things, yeah, it feels a little bit more mature.

So, how many times have you been to the Toronto Film Festival?
Three.

And what was your first?
Moonlight Mile. 2002.

A lot of your festival experience, I'm sure, is this, sitting in a room talking with people like me all day. But have you noticed any differences between your first time through this one?
I think my first experience was just so thrilling. I hadn't been to many festivals except Sundance, and this was just a whole international world — and with just such an insanely wonderful cast, Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon and all those people. When I came the next time [in 2005], we had just come from [the Venice Film Festival], for Brokeback Mountain, and we had just such an extraordinary response. I thought I was being punk'd! [Laughs] And with this one, I think you find a calm in it. I know a lot of the journalists, I feel like I'm a little bit more part of the in-crowd, the club of people who know festivals very well and know what happens, and I like that.

Posted Sep 07, 2007 | Order Article Reprints

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