Thank you for talking to me about this film.
I adore this film.
I think it's so strong and so powerful.
So congratulations on producing such an amazing movie.
This is such a female driven film.
I think from the acting to the script to the director.
Was this a major draw when you took on accepted this role?
Yeah, definitely.
I feel like this story being told by a man,
it just wouldn't.
I don't know if it would have the same sensitivity and the same.
I don't know.
I feel like every single woman I spoke to on this new
Alice had been Alice had loved Alice
in one capacity or another in their life and their own personal life.
And had experienced it.
And I think sometimes, you know, and
I think
I think I think men just don't necessarily believe us
that this is this happens and it happens regularly, you know?
Yeah, absolutely.
Is this really come forward
that so many women have these stories, even if it's not their own stories.
Of a person's stories that they know?
Yeah, definitely.
Absolutely.
I really love the character Sophie, because especially at the beginning,
she's a seemingly, like, calm,
levelheaded, kind presence to her friends in her life.
How did you find that aspect of her character?
How did you establish that?
I honestly, I feel like Sophie
felt very close to me personally.
Like I just feel like I, I, I'm
definitely like the mother hen in my in my friendship group.
I'm definitely
the one who tries to
keep things sweet and, you know, like,
you can bitch about each other to me, you know, do it to each other.
Don't argue, you know, like.
But yeah, so I just felt I felt really.
I felt like she was a part of me 100%
like and, and I was really excited to play someone
similar to me because I don't really get to play,
you know, young, bubbly, kind of
just a, you know,
loving friend.
You know, there's always drama.
I mean, there is drama, but for her, it was just kind of like
trying to keep it light.
And that is definitely something I lean
into in my personal life that kind of trying to keep it light.
Absolutely.
It definitely comes comes forward.
She's a really fun loving character.
She's got my favorite line in the film,
which is about charity being full of narcissists.
Yeah,
I like that too.
And it's interesting because even though she's
this kind of lovely presence, you can still see her anger
and her distress at watching the situation unfold in front of her.
So how is that developing?
Because you keep it kind of underneath.
For a lot of the film,
you can kind of see that she's she's and she knows what's going on.
There's something more dangerous happening to her friend.
Yeah.
I mean,
I've seen it. I've been there.
I we... you know,
I have seen people hold their tongues trying
to protect the people that they love from the people that they love
and trying to stay present
is really like it's so important.
But it's also really hard because if you speak up too much,
you might your friend might disappear on you
and might choose the,
you know, their abusive partner, which happens. And
yeah, so it's that balance of
trying to keep it and keep the person close,
but also
trying to pick your moments
of like questioning or and
or just a slight challenge that wouldn't.
And hopefully, I don't know.
It's weird because it's like sometimes I feel like Sophie
can be a bit of an enabler by ignoring like by not speaking up,
but then at the same time, Alice is so... Alice and you know,
she distances, distances herself or she's already distanced herself already
and you can see her tense relationship with Tess with someone who speaks up.
So I think she has to choose the kind of
and gentle approach
or else Alice will have no one, you know.
And yeah, it's definitely a choice of like,
trying to keep the balance to make sure she's...
She's not, so she doesn't disappear from us. And.
But yeah, I've seen it.
I've done it.
Like how to stay close to someone who's in danger,
who doesn't,
and who doesn't know like
that, that that
they're not picking themselves, you know, they're picking
at picking pain.
I guess they're not picking their happiness.
Absolutely. Which makes her a turning point.
I think Sophie's turning point even more powerful at
I don't want to give away what happens, but.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
It's just that she's about to leave.
And especially after her back, her
quiet rebellion and coming on holiday with her friends.
This could be.
This could be the last moment they see her.
Really could be the time when she just chooses him
now, because
she's gone against all of his rules.
Like this.
Could be this could be it, like.
Yeah.
So Sophie is like
it's now or never
really well done.
And what I find really beautifully done is, is this
friendship feels so real on the screen.
How did you develop that with the other actresses?
Because it's just so great.
And we were in we were filming in Canada,
and when we arrived in Canada,
we had to quarantine for two weeks
and we all lived on the same property
and our own old cottages.
So we were allowed to leave,
stay on the property.
But we could, you know, we could commune outside.
So we we just got to know each other for two weeks.
We swam in the lake every day and, and
we had rehearsal outside on the,
on the, on the porch and.
Yeah, we, we could, it was like, it was still like socially distancing,
but we were able to just be together, get to know each other.
We spoke from day one about relationship with coercive, controlling relationships
or, you know, all abusive relationships that we've seen and
and and had to navigate people
living through them and getting through them and finding themselves again.
And, you know, we're all women in our mid-thirties
who have seen this at least once.
And so we've
we just
connected and spoke and just got to know each other.
It was really yeah, it was really special.
I mean, because we didn't
we really went to Toronto for the last week, so we had like
we had
five weeks in the lakes just living next door
to each other and seeing each other every single day, but quite easily.
Yeah.
And that really shows the show in the film.
It's so beautiful.
And also I want to talk about working with Mary Nighy, the director,
because I spoke to her last week and she's just phenomenal, phenomenal
praise and all of this.
How is it working with her?
I was just great. She's so lovely.
And so she kind of gently leads you and is, you know, she takes
she takes her time to figure out the scene together,
to find all of the nooks and crannies of the scenes.
We don't we didn't have it didn't feel rushed or anything
and didn't really feel like we had the space to to rehearse
and explore each moment and make sure that each moment was like
we to
to kind of mark each moment in the scene and in each scene.
Yeah, I didn't feel like working with first time director, actually.
She felt very confident and calm
and we had a really great crew as well.
And so I just felt like it felt really
it just felt really easy.
Yeah, it felt really easy.
And I feel like I remember feeling
unsafe and and confident and insecure.
I don't remember feeling any of that.
Like, just feeling like
this is this is this is rough, but we're just doing it, you know,
just living and breathing together like the cast and crew together felt ready
and just, I don't know, is that organic?
Is the hand gestures is so
for me, anyway, but that's all I have time for today.
But I this has been an absolute pleasure.
Talk to you today.
I think you've created such an important and really visceral, emotional film
that really I loved hopping on about it.
Congratulations. And she's like, no worries.
And thank you so much for talking to me today.
You too.