Buddhism and 'The Bells of St. Mary's'

Matt Dillon's signature roles--his glowering, disaffected youths and drug-numbed thieves--leave the impression of a guy who would have a spiritual life if he could figure out how to steal, cheat or beat someone up to get it. In real life, Dillon, not yet 40 and a 25-year veteran of Hollywood, is hesitant to discuss his spirituality, as if refusing to equate his celebrity with profundity. But when we spoke to him about "City of Ghosts," the movie he co-wrote, starred in and directed, Dillon expressed his admiration for both the Buddhism he encountered during filming in Cambodia, and the Catholicism he knew growing up. He also turned out to be comfortably conversant on faith, prayer and the power of redemption.

You just directed your first movie, "City of Ghosts," set in Cambodia, and it's full of Buddhist ideas. How did that happen?
I took a trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and it was the first time I encountered Buddhism on any kind of scale. In Thailand, I visited the Reclining Buddha, and I met some monks and it was there that I discovered monks who had been criminals and monks who had a history of drug abuse. I was exploring this sort of redemption with the protagonist in my film, Jimmy, who has lived a life of a liar and a crook and who is spiritually dissatisfied. He's not sure what he's looking for, or where he was going to find it, but he's looking for something else.

I always knew I wanted that to be a part of the movie. But it's one of the most difficult things to convey in a film. You don't want to be heavy-handed or insincere. You don't want to be caught doing it.

How much did you know about Buddhism before you started filming?
I'm not a Buddhist, or a card-carrying member of any religion. But it was important to me in making the film to be respectful in dealing with Buddhism. I had the help of this guy Heng Mony Chenda. He was our consultant on Buddhism, and he had an amazing grasp of the lore and history of Buddhism in Cambodia.

For instance, in the movie a body is burned on a pile of rubber tires and wood sticks. That might seem gruesome to Westerners, but that's considered a respectful Buddhist burial. The Cambodians said it was important to treat the body in a respectful manner. So we did that in the film. We went through the whole process of the cremation, taking the teeth and bone fragments that remained and washing them with goat's milk, and putting them in cheesecloth and tying them and putting them in an urn.

Continued on page 2: »