He’s full of surprises

“I am very attracted to losers and people who flounder,” says Danny Huston, the youngest son of the late, Oscar-winning John Huston. Though he initially followed his father’s path, directing the features “Mr. North” (1988) and “Becoming Colette” (1991), and even directing the main title sequence for his father’s 1984 film “Under the Volcano,” the burly 43-year-old Huston has found success as an actor who is not afraid of playing losers and villains.

Huston’s performance as a high-living talent agent who is murdered in 2000’s “ivansxtc” is the project that put him on the map as an actor. He also has appeared as Naomi Watts’ ill-fated husband in “21 Grams,” a down-on-his-luck investigator in John Sayles’ “Silver City” and the tightly wound fiance of a woman who believes a young boy is the reincarnation of her late husband in “Birth.”

In his newest film, Fernando Meirelle’s “The Constant Gardener,” which opens Wednesday, Huston plays Sandy Woodrow, the boss and good friend of a minor British diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) stationed in Kenya, who is secretly in lust with the diplomat’s young wife (Rachel Weisz).

Elle magazine describes his character as “suave meets slime.”

Huston is in Croatia filming “Fade to Black.”

So what is “Fade to Back” about?

It’s about Orson Welles in 1948 and I am playing the man!

This is around the time he was working on “Macbeth.”

He was just about to start “Othello,” and he is working on a film called “Black Magic.” It’s a thriller of a kind. It’s very dramatized, and he gets caught up in his own sort of intrigue. Oliver Parker is directing; he actually directed “Othello” with Laurence Fishburne.

Did you ever meet Welles?

I met him a couple of times, but obviously later in his life than the age I am playing. It was in L.A., and it was a hot, hot summer, and he was eating a lot. I remember my father being slightly taken aback by the amount that was being consumed. They worked together on a picture called “The Other Side of the Wind” that was never released. They are still trying to get it released. Unfortunately, it was one of the brothers of the shah who financed that.

It is true you turned to acting to help you become a better director?

Absolutely. I enjoyed spending time observing my father at work and felt very at home doing that, and as a director you really don’t have the opportunity to spend time at anybody else’s sets, so [acting] was as a way for me to spend time with friends on film sets.

Are your surprised how your acting career has taken off?

In a way I am surprised, but as far as my work is concerned, I feel as if it’s the same gig. It is storytelling, and that is sort of the angle that I take and approach it. A writer has to inhabit a character to be able to write a character.... I remember my father would make gestures behind the camera that the actor was making in front of the camera, so it’s really understanding what makes the character’s heart beat and where the character is coming from.

You’ve seemed to have found your niche playing dark, complex characters.

One is looking for different dimensions one can play, and that is kind of what is exciting with regards to playing a character. But in a way, it might be family tradition. I am especially attracted to losers who fail again but somewhat valiantly. I am more interested in those type of characters. I can probably play those types of characters better. It’s more what I can do.

Why is that?

I think they have a certain sense of gravitas. There is something you can chew on. In “Birth,” my nemesis was a 10-year-old boy, which was intriguing in itself. There are some actors who can play a hero beautifully. I don’t think I would be greatly cast in that regard unless it was something exciting that I could find a take on it -- maybe a swashbuckling pirate. I could have fun with it because he could also be missing a hand or doing something that I could work on.

I love playing a character with his cards close to his chest and reveal things that are unexpected.

In “The Constant Gardner,” he is quite delightful in a way because he believes in his own hypocrisy and thinks that he inhabits a world where he’s got to do certain things a certain way. So he’s very much of a diplomat in that regard. But he’s also suffering a midlife crisis and has in a way fallen head over heels over Rachel Weisz’s character.

I think it’s quite romantic and heartfelt for him, but when he realizes his career is on the line and she’s been murdered and there’s nothing he can do about it, then he wants to save his job.

You actually got the opportunity to direct your father in the TV movie “Mr. Corbett’s Ghost.” What are your memories of that experience?

I was in my early 20s.

I was just thinking about it the other day. He was so kind and supportive to me.

There was a situation where he fluffed a line and he said “cut” in front of the camera, and being young man I had to sort of assert myself. I said, “Dad, you can’t say ‘cut.’ I am directing.”

And he was so kind. He said, “I’m ever so sorry. I’ll never do it again.”

Of course, he could say “cut.” How stupid of me to tell him that he couldn’t.... It was so generous of him to do so.”

-- Susan King