Luke Wilson is not nearly as exciting in person as he is on the big screen. Luckily, his roles make up for the energy deficit -- especially his hugely entertaining turns alongside his brother, Owen, in Wes Anderson classics like Bottle Rocket and The Royal Tenenbaums, and comedy gems like Old School and Legally Blonde. This week, he's back on the big screen in Henry Poole Is Here as a dying man who returns to his childhood neighborhood to wallow in his impending extinction.

Cole Haddon: This is easily your most emotionally challenging role to date. What did that mean for your development of the character?

Luke Wilson: It was mostly just there on the page. I'm always nervous whether you can convey what's written, but I wouldn't take a job if I didn't think I could do it. I don't know, I tend to think about Old Yeller when I need to get emotional. [smirks]

CH: Considering how emotionally draining the character of Henry Poole was, did wrapping the movie come with more relief than you normally would experience?

LW: Yeah. It was kind of a long shoot --

CH: And you did carry the whole movie on your shoulders.

LW: I was in almost every scene. It was just one of those things where, like the rest of the crew, I was just worn out.

CH: Your co-star, Radha Mitchell, seemed to feel bad for what you went through and recalled a day where you actually found relief in getting two hours of rest during one of LA's infamous traffic jams.

LW: That was the first time I'd ever been in a traffic jam where I was like, "Ahhhh." [grins] It wasn't even my fault that I showed up late for work.

CH: Henry Poole Is Here poses an interesting question about the nature of faith, since the character seems to come by it against his will.

LW: Definitely, he was forced into believing. I thought that was kind of interesting, too. There are people who, when something horrible happens, they lose their faith. But others, when something amazing happens, they find that faith. It can often turn on a dime.

CH: Do you believe in miracles?

LW: I'm kind of a believer in fate. [thinks] I don't know. Doing press [for this], I've been being asked that a lot ... but I don't know. It's an important question, in terms of the movie, but I can't believe I don't know the answer to it.

CH: You have Tenure coming up, co-starring Gretchen Mol, but your slate after that looks surprisingly wide open. Anything on the horizon to get a fan like me excited?

LW: I'd like to try and get this movie made, based on a book I adapted a script to called White Widow.

[This would be Wilson's second time behind the camera, after writing The Wendell Baker Story, co-directing it with his brother, Andrew, and, of course, starring in it.]

LW: It's about a bus driver in Texas in the '50s who kind of falls in love with this unattainable woman. It's not going to be easy to get the funding, though: bus driver, Texas, period piece.

CH: Sounds like a guaranteed blockbuster.

LW: [laughs] Exactly.

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