Dug In and Waging a Career ‘War’

Emilio Estevez, Part II.

For someone who’s been in as nearly many sequels as original films, a second act seems appropriate.

“I’m done doing movies that don’t challenge me,” Estevez said recently at his office at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. “No more ‘Mighty Ducks.’ ”

Ironically, the success of Disney’s “Mighty Ducks” franchise helped facilitate Estevez’s career redirection. When the studio came to him for a second sequel to the “Bad News Bears”-on-ice series, the 34-year-old actor-director was at first hesitant: “I was in an artistic free fall and I was dead set against continuing it.” But he did see a way to use the offer to his advantage.

Estevez had been trying to raise money to direct “The War at Home”--a Vietnam-era family drama adapted from the stage--for nearly three years with little luck. So he told Disney he’d once again play Coach Gordon Bombay and forgo his $3-million salary if they would use that money to finance “The War at Home.” The studio agreed.

Besides his passion for the project, Estevez saw it as an opportunity to showcase his professional turnabout.

“The jury was in on me and I was convicted,” he said. “It didn’t matter how small the budget was, people were convinced I couldn’t handle this.”

There was reason to doubt him. Estevez’s two previous turns behind the camera--”Wisdom,” featuring himself and then-girlfriend Demi Moore, and the 1990 comedy “Men at Work,” which he starred alongside his brother Charlie Sheen--were critical and box-office flops.

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“I was 23 when I did the first movie [“Wisdom,” released in 1986] and no one could tell me anything,” he said. “It looks pretty, but there’s no substance. ‘Men at Work’ was just a goof with Charlie. Again, there wasn’t much content there.” Each film was hamstrung from the start by a poor script, Estevez said, quite an admission since he wrote them both.

“I’m not a writer, and it was evident,” he said. “These films never had a solid foundation to begin with, and that was my fault.”

Seeking a powerful script, Estevez was introduced to “The War at Home” four years ago by his father, actor Martin Sheen. Three weeks later, Estevez secured the film rights and contracted the playwright, James Duff, to adapt the screenplay.

Two roles were cast from the beginning: Estevez and his dad would play celluloid son and father, the central relationship in the film that is combative from the start.

“I grew up admiring this man and his talent for so long, so telling him what to do was hard at first, and I think he was initially resistant,” said Estevez, who had acted previously with his father in two television films, “In the Custody of Strangers” (ABC, 1982) and “Nightbreaker” (TNT, 1989). “So there were a lot of times I was left wondering whether he was fighting the son or the director. But I think the underlying conflict might’ve helped the film.”

The director and actor saw the character of family patriarch Bob Collier differently, Estevez said. “I think my father was afraid of this guy being too arch,” he said. “He wanted Bob to be more unsympathetic but kind of unemotional.”

Sheen acknowledges some differences but adds they weren’t different from typical dissent between actor and director. “There were two scenes in particular we wrestled with, but in the end I think he was right,” he said. “I didn’t see the scenes as personally as he did but he fought me and it turns out it worked as he saw it.”

“His dad’s very proud of him,” said Kathy Bates, who played the Estevez character’s mother, Maurine Collier, in the film (his sister is played by Kimberly Williams). “Everyone’s really pulling for him, which made this a particularly close shoot.”

Bates, who, like the rest of the cast and crew, worked for scale, said Estevez’s quest for professional respect is no calculated act. “I came in with some doubts before I first met him, but right away I was taken with his sincerity,” said the Academy Award-winning actress. “This is a very sensitive, caring young man who is really serious about doing good, quality material.”

Working with a $4.2-million budget and confined to a 40-day shooting schedule, Estevez chose to film in sequence, which he hoped would also establish better continuity. “I did a lot of preparation for this film, and I studied two movies in particular: ‘Ordinary People’ and ‘The Stone Boy,’ ” he said. “I wanted this movie to have that same kind of feel.”

Shooting mostly within a fixed interior setting can be stifling for a director and visually repetitive for the audience. To avoid this, Estevez opted to use a Steadicam for mobility and a wide-screen format to cut down on cuts between actors. “When you’ve got this cast, you want them on screen as much as possible,” he said. “You want to let the camera linger.”

Estevez said the role of troubled Vietnam vet Jeremy Collier was his most challenging to date. For the first time in his career he enlisted the help of an acting coach.

Estevez plans on exploring more character-driven dramas in the future. He will star as cornet player Bix Beiderbecke (“the Kurt Cobain of the 1920s,” he said) in his next project and is planning to direct and act in an untitled ensemble piece about combat photojournalists in apartheid-era South Africa.

While seeking to reinvent himself professionally, Estevez said he’s mellowed personally as well. Though his brother Charlie has grabbed most of the tabloid headlines, Estevez’s high-profile relationships with Moore and singer Paula Abdul--the couple divorced last year after a brief marriage--haven’t escaped scrutiny.

“Hollywood’s a big playground, and I’m kind of at the point where I’ve been there, done that,” said Estevez, who lives in Malibu. He said he’s very involved in the upbringing of his two children (from a previous relationship), daughter Paloma, 10, and son Taylor, 12. And yes, both are interested in entering the family profession. In fact, Paloma acts alongside her father--in the climatic train station scene--in “The War at Home.”

“I had a very normal childhood and I want the same for my kids. I want to be there, and am there, at their Little League games and ballet practices,” he said.

“We all come to ourselves in a different way and at different times, but he’s maturing very well,” Sheen said of his eldest son.

It might take awhile to establish that credibility professionally, but already Estevez said he’s catching people off-guard. “The comment I hear most is ‘I’m surprised,’ which doesn’t offend me,” Estevez said. “It’s a pleasure hearing it, to be honest.”