|
Q&A – AMBER TAMBLYN
Why take on this film, this role?
This role for me, was a personal endeavor. It was the first time I had the opportunity to be inside the mind of such a beautiful and fragile character. Stephanie is a wonderful example as a small part of the greater story of humanity- which is the struggle and search for self and life. She is one of my favorite characters to date. What was the most interesting part of the shoot?
For me personally, every single day I was able to work with Tilda Swinton. I would say that was a defining experience for me. Most surprising moment or aspect of the film?
I think how wonderfully everyone has responded to the film, since it's debut at Sundance last year. It has grown a strong audience and wonderful supporters. I am not incredibly suprised, as its nature is intended to reach people on a deep level, and I think the film did that quite well. What about the film or the making of it, will you most remember?
I think, how beautiful the Catskills were, in the Fall. The way the world seemed to be changing, getting a little colder fragile.Somehow mirroring so many things. Representing so very much the language of the film. And my own personal journey. It was really a miraculous project for me, in many rights..
STEPHANIE DALEY Q&A with Hilary Brougher Why did you write this script?
I made a film in 1997 called the “Sticky Fingers of Time.” It was playful with lots of clever plot twists. After that, I wanted to challenge myself to write something more naturalistic, more character-driven. I became interested in telling the story about a person who has stepped off the PATH of “who they think they are” and the resulting split of identity. I became interested in the idea of concealed and/or denied pregnancy in teens. I did some research and found it happens even more often than reaches the headlines. The task I gave myself in developing Stephanie’s story was to without judgment, observe HOW it could happen. Meanwhile some of my peers (grown-up women) were getting pregnant – and I began thinking about what they were going through and the resonances to Stephanie’s storyline -- the things unsaid, superstitious thinking, and a sense of feeling powerless in the face of biology. This wasn’t an easy script for me to write and I thought about shelving it many times. But then... I hadn’t seen quite this film before, exploring the shadow side of pregnancy, and so I thought it worth taking the chance. Is the film based on a real incident?
No. It’s well-researched and the context is intended to feel plausible and ring true. But it’s entirely fictional. How long did it take to write the script, and get it made?
The script took forever (check out the “making of” timeline) to write and find the right team to produce it. But once we were up and financed, the time from first day of prep to premiering on-screen at Sundance was a miraculously efficient six months. Are you trying to make a political statement?
No... and yes. What I wanted to do was open up events that we are accustomed to dealing with in the media in an emotionally charged yet superficial way – and rather than delivering a verdict about it, open up the gray areas for discussion. I hope audiences engage and make the film their own. And if there is a moral to this story, it’s that small things left unsaid can add up to big hurts, and conversely small moments of real connection can start to turn things around. In the spirit of this, I want people to leave the movie talking to each other! Why did you cast Tilda, Amber and Tim?
I’ve been watching Tilda's films for years and I’ve always been struck by the intelligence and spirit she brings to her work and that she can tap strong emotions without sentimentality. We met briefly in a coffee shop last Fall and talked mostly about our own pregnancies and kids. The script was somewhat secondary to our conversation – and that turned out to be the nature of making the film, conversational, warm, and curious. What struck me about Amber when we first met was her honesty. She's confident and happy in her own skin, brain & spirit and thus can navigate anything in her work. She’s fearless, real and writes beautiful poetry entirely her own. She's also very funny (as is Tilda) and I think that was a blessing on the set.
Tim had an immediate connection with Paul (Paul's an architect and Tim's a carpenter in his own right). We met and talked about living in the country, trust, marriage and parenthood. Tim brought to Paul a wonderful mix of vulnerability and resolve. Deer/Cats/Water?
Pregnancy is a biological state – and the deer/cats/water tie into Lydie and Stephanie’s growing awareness of this. Also, the deer are a reality of living in a rural/suburban area. They are fragile, quiet things and they often end up dead under our wheels, reminding us of the randomness and force of death. They are one of the “signs” Lydie and Step look for/read into... Cats. Steph and Lydie are both characters “keeping their feelings to themselves.,” Interacting with the cats, they reveal themselves without being expository. I also use animals in films because I think they belong in human stories.
Water. Like Lydie’s driving. It’s habit. A cycle. I’m interested in observing the big shifts that take place in small moments... The Earring?!
I’m going to try to address this in a way that doesn’t spoil it for folks who haven’t seen the film yet. I think a big question the movie is asking: how do we deal with that which we can’t know or control. We face this blatantly in PREGNANCY – when though we do our best to be on top of things, ultimately BIOLOGY is in control... Also some of this “you’ll never know” stuff also occurs in marriage and the earring ties into that. Talk about the bathroom scene...
Okay. But it’s all Amber. Seriously... She prepared for this scene and the meat of it we did in about 4 long, hand-held exploratory shots (2 thru the door, 2 within the stall). The thing I did right was not get in the way. We shot this near the end of our production schedule – and I’m glad, because there was a sense of comfort and trust among us all by then. Amber’s performance was incredibly moving while we were shooting it, and I remember thinking... This is the film’s chest cavity wide open, and its heart beating here in front of me. I think this scene moves people because it speaks of concealment. At some time or another, ALL of us (male or female, old or young) have struggled to stifle hurt behind a thin door beyond which, goes on life as usual. About the “ending.”
I’m not going to get specific in consideration of those reading this without having seen the film yet. But I can say this. We did toy with various other endings. This one simply FELT right because it’s actually a beginning... not an ending. That’s what I wanted to audience to leave with – the sense that a small, real human connection that has been made, and from here these women will move on. For more on the making of the film, see our “MAKING OF” TIME LINE and CINEMATOGRAPHY NOTES.
| 
