On Impressing Jeff Nichols and Preparation as Magic
“I’m a big believer in ‘right time, right situation.’ I don’t know if I did anything different, to be honest. I think we misunderstand performance as these golden fingers that come down and choose people. For me, it’s a craft, it’s work, and sometimes it doesn’t work out, but this time it did. I think the thing he recognized in me and also in Joel Edgerton, who plays Richard Loving, is a willingness to work, to prepare, and there’s something lovely about preparing, because if you do all the work beforehand, between action and cut something lovely happens. All the social baselines have been sorted out, so something magical happens. I think he recognized that we were those kind of actors. This job is something that is luck.”
On Having a Screenplay with No Prewritten Emotions
“I think there is a place for all kinds of acting styles. Every story that comes along, you have to relate to that, and figure out how you want to approach to that. It’s very individual. Jeff had written a script that had no business. By that I mean there was no indication of what actors should do. Usually there are things like, ‘She cries there,’ or ‘She feels very upset’ or ‘She feels very happy.’ There are indications of what one must feel, and this script is entirely devoid of that, and I only realized that afterwards. It just vibrated off the page, and it was like reading Shakespeare or Ibsen or Chekhov. It was complete, and that’s a very rare thing in screenwriting. I didn’t want to change anything.
When we were actually filming, there was very little chat. It was a very strange experience, because it was actually a reflection of the symbiosis of this couple, which was a couple of little words. They just didn’t feel the need to be verbose in their interaction with each other, and that’s how we felt making this film. It was a weird sort of beautiful psychic energy that sort of descended on the set, and it was really extraordinary.”
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One of the most talented groups in hollywood. The diversity is incredible and the talent they all share is greater than anything measurable. Cant wait to see what future lies ahead for this talented group of individuals. Keep up the great work!!