©Courtesy of Netflix
Q: What was your first impression when you were told the script had been written for you? What were the first discussions with Azazel Jacobs?
Elizabeth Olsen: I was surprised. It’s different when someone says: “I wrote something for you” versus: “I want to do that”. Because when I make the choice, if I want to do that, I try to find something that is removed from myself, I try to learn how to navigate a character. I’ve never had the experience of: “I wrote this for you”, it was interesting because I don’t see myself as a nurturer, but as someone who leads with a bit more brightness or aggression. I had this awkward conversation about him seeing me that way, so empathetic, kind, and gentle. I was excited when he said: “I also wrote for Natasha and Carrie”. And I was like: “Well, if those two women are involved, sign me up. I don’t care”.With this swing of opening the film with those monologues, there is a syntax and a rhythm to the script that we don’t get to see that often. The relationships show themselves in the writing, which tells you how he’s going to shoot it.
Carrie Coon: I absolutely could see myself playing Katie, that wasn’t a surprise. I can be controlling. When I heard that Lizzie and Natasha were on board I was: “If they’re doing it, I’m doing it”. They are actresses I wanted to work with. I hadn’t seen relationships written this specifically, and this realistically in a long time. With a sense of humor and awkwardness, I just don’t think there’s that much good writing out there, frankly. There aren’t that many great scripts and there’s a lot of arbitrariness in art, especially if you’re working in TV. It was nice to have someone delivering such a specific vision.
Natasha Lyonne: I was very surprised too. For me, it has been a high-level experience working with this team of artists. Mine is a role where you have to be ready to be scared, to jump over the cliff. There was no place to hide behind. I was like: “Okay, well, do I need to really play?” Carrie and Lizzie helped me a lot by always doing something funny. A light switch went on, It was very seductive. We were very happy that it happened because it meant we would like each other.
Q: How quickly in the rehearsal period did you find the family dynamic that ends up defining the three characters?
Carrie Coon: The family dynamics were in the script. Most of the answers were there. The script is good, and the dynamics were written. As far as intimacy, that’s our job to find that state, having a rehearsal period was such a gift because you don’t ever get rehearsal anymore. We had four days. It wasn’t a full week, to hash out the things we didn’t understand and talk about those. Then once we were in the room we were all very prepared.
Natasha Lyonne: I married a special character, a woman who is split between her own space and the one which was our shared. This double reality within the movie had to create a weird effect, not only for us but also for the audience. I liked trying to kind of create an imaginary series of odds.
Elizabeth Olsen: To portray these three big personalities was necessary to give all our attention to Azazel, our trust over with. He knew what he needed from us at all times. If we had a question, there was always a tangible answer. That brought. very quickly to change the energy in the space that allowed that net, those connections to be developed.
©Courtesy of Netflix
Q: How did filming in that apartment affect the performances?
Natasha Lyonne: That place has been an incredible gift to all of us. It was like working again in an analog world, where digital was completely absent. There was no phone, no emails. We could do telegrams and faxes. It helped to shape our performances, it made them more solid and grounded.
Carrie Coon: I liked that apartment because it meant sitting on each other’s laps. There was no space to retreat to, so we were eventually physically forced to relate to each other like siblings.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about staging that last scene with Jay O. Sanders? Because that’s really where the film shifts…
Elizabeth Olsen: We shot it almost at the end after we’ve been through all that stuff with our characters. It was amazing that we still had more to learn. Watching him do that and for us to participate as the viewers of this amazing performance, he was getting over and over and over again, allowing us to learn something more. I don’t even remember if we were supposed to end up in the chair, we didn’t make those decisions because we weren’t playing with written emotions or something that someone else wanted us to feel. I don’t know if I would’ve been able to understand what the outcome was going to be until we shot the scene with Jay. It was simply amazing.
Carrie Coon: It occurs to me that the heart monitor was always playing in the backroom. So we always had a sense that Joe was there, even though he actually wasn’t there for most of the filming. He was so familiar actually, he took the space and we’d all been relating to him emotionally for so long. The other three people in the film always felt like infiltrators. Jasmine, Rudy, and Jovan. Jay instead took the space like somebody we already knew and that was a profitable thing for us.
Q: The three of you have gone through this experience and made this together. What sort of personal aspects have been brought up by making it and just by being together and acting?
Natasha Lyonne: The three of us got very cozy, we started immediately feeling very safe. We went together so deep in terms of what you’re drawing for your characters and their relationships. We worked with honesty. I’ll never recover from experiencing this kind of a safe spot.
Elizabeth Olsen: Earlier in the day we’ve been talking about sharing this curiosity and obsession with the act of being alive while at the same time you are going through the potential loss, a real loss, a goodbye period. There’s always loads of grief to draw on that. We’re always navigating this perpetual state of grief that we all dislike, so sometimes we ignore it. This way the movie got personal. As an actor, it’s boring to share with people things that you draw on the specifics of a role. That’s your secret, those are the more powerful things you kept for yourself. That’s why this work is so moving and special. If you make something with the right intentions and you thoughtfully piece it together. It’s very hard to convince people to help you make it, but when you do what a privilege it is. How lucky we are to be in this job. This movie really celebrates the ethos, the heart of why we all want to do this job. And I’m really happy that Azazel created that space for us all.
©Courtesy of Netflix
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