Well, I'm going to give you an idea of what it was about this film
and this character that initially appealed to you.
And then what did you what made you want to get involved?
I needed a job.
Well, no, I'm kidding.
I did.
No, I'm not kidding.
I did need a job.
I really loved Tim Sutton's work.
I loved his movie Pavilion, and I thought it was so cool and loose and free and
very beautifully shot.
And the script was just very well-written.
The dialog was very natural, which doesn't always happen when you read a script.
It was just like, ready to go.
So I.
I was into it.
And also there was a yelling scene, and I love to yell
out really well, actually, thank you.
I love I love yelling my husband always when I get an audition
where there's a yelling scene, he's like, You're going to get this.
I got I'm sure I speak on behalf of many people,
but she was my favorite character in this.
I think she's compassionate and diligent.
She's very strong willed.
And if he wouldn't, he couldn't survive without her being by his side.
And it's taking time and well,
and when he's obviously sort of in the early stages of the film,
it must be a great part to get your teeth into.
There's so many nuances to this role. I love.
Thank you.
That was really nice.
Yeah, I really loved it.
And I also it was very easy.
I think Colson Baker and I is natural dynamic is
is kind of like that.
He's like a big, sweet, sensitive kid
and you want to take care of him and I, I don't know.
I think I come off as steady. I'm not.
I'm a very anxious wreck of a person, but I come off as very steady and in control.
So our dynamic was already what our characters were.
I mean, when acting opposite him, did it blur
the line of reality and fiction for you?
Because obviously he's playing a character page.
He's also playing a version of himself.
So when you were sharing a scene, did it feel at times like, did you
was it hard to tell if you were sharing a scene
with the real Colson in the fictionalized version?
Yeah, I think that's the great
one of the greater parts about the movie
because it is him or a version of him, a past self
and some current parts of himself that he doesn't love.
And it was really interesting, like the yelling scene.
He really didn't want to do
because he was like, This is such an ugly past part of me.
I don't want to do it.
It feels too vulnerable and it was so cool to do it with him
because I don't know, doing something that's
so, so vulnerable I think can produce the best
work.
I don't know. It was special.
And he radiates charisma.
I mean, he was just we just interviewed him
and as an audience member, you can't take your eyes off him.
Is it quite like that On set?
You get a sense that everyone around
the place is all just kind of transfixed by his presence?
Well, he's also like a giant, you know, He's a giant and he has this,
like, white blond hair that, like, catches the light
and he's always wearing, like, hot pink and has all these tattoos.
So I think it's the rock star energy and just his size
and demonstrating that the character on the script
was quite different to the one he'd written in the first place,
because obviously Costar sort of brought so much of himself to the part.
How was that for you?
Were you almost having to adjust daily on set?
Because obviously what you might have prepared
for in your head to envisage in your mind
was this or was it different to the to the kind of the character
you were faced with when you were shooting?
And was that quite a fun process to have that kind of,
I don't know, authentic play, I suppose?
Yeah,
Tim keeps things really, really loose.
We improvised a lot and I would be like on a break somewhere, not in a scene.
And he would be like, Maddie, come into this room
and he would just have me come into a room as the character and we would have
a conversation and a scene that's not at all in the script.
So I think that kind of set the tone for what we were doing.
We were all just kind of going with the changes.
And I, I also don't come into something thinking like,
this is who this is going to be and I'm going to be this way.
And I, I try to just wait and see and, and what the natural dynamic is.
I'm having a long answer, I promise,
And I replied, I like long answers. I do.
Have you met
many is a lot isn't it was gets longer isn't it a line a lot.
Have you met many Alanas in your time through your work?
I know maybe it's more of a music scene, maybe more of a rock star ease of.
But you know, in this industry of publicists and sort of people that work
alongside the stars, have you encountered many people like had any question?
you're I thought you were asking about the name.
no. Have you ever met in Alana?
Yeah. No, no, no.
I meant as in people like that. Yeah.
I think this industry is full of people like her
because we're all just avoiding our own shit.
And I think that's a lot of this whole thing is that she is so focused
on his side of the street, and her side of the street is a fucking wreck,
but she doesn't have to look at it because his side is a wreck.
But she can
control this wreck without,
you know, having to be working through her own emotional stuff.
I think it's much easier
in a way to take care of someone else than it is to take care of yourself.
Yes. his crystal - do you have anything?
Maybe a good luck charm or anything that you sort of any
that thing is sort of superstitious to you that you carry around
to take to important auditions or anything?
I don't know.
It could be a yes no, but
I'm trying to think now.
When I was 16, when I first started out, I had this stuffed animal.
It's this stuffed cat that I had when I was a kid.
And I would take it every time I flew on the plane from North Carolina to L.A.
because I was scared of flying and still am.
And I thought, like, if I have this with me,
everything is going to be fine, but I don't have anything anymore.
This cat is there's a sweet could wine gums get one?
So my mum used to give me them as a kid when I used to on planes.
And every time I get on a plane I have to have wine.
Yeah.
And snacking helps when there's turbulence.
I have like eight snacks with me to just eat through it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Having coming up is it fixation is when you've got I mean
fixation is a movie I have coming out and then I'm going to do a
I don't know if I'm allowed
to talk I'm going to do a Netflix show in Montreal in a little bit.
I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about it.
So we'll see if that's bad.
But the fixation looks quite brilliant.
And have you shot that one? I shot it. Yeah.
It was really fun to do.
So how did you fit into that story, Michelle, your character?
My character is in
a sort of insane asylum and she doesn't have a really good grip
on reality and she may or may not have committed a murder,
and she can't piece together her memories as sort of trauma response.
And she's been there for a month and hasn't been eating.
So to prepare for the first time ever, I did this like very method thing
where I like fasted and ran
ten miles a day and lost like 30lbs.
And I was a nightmare.
I was a my husband came with me to Canada and he was like, okay,
okay.
Do you need anything? No.
Okay.
And they're shouting scenes in the movie.
You have to shout, yeah. good.
God, I loved it. Shouting, crying.
It was mainly shouting.
Which, you know,
it's my final question
because Colson was saying before he put so much of himself into this project
and it's a very lesson, so be so vulnerable and scream.
I was wondering, would you do you think you'd ever be able
to put that much of yourself into in a semi-autobiographical sense?
Because I think it takes it is a lot.
It's quite courageous, isn't it, to be to be to bare yourself like that.
I think in so publicly,
as he has done in this, I just wondered if that's something you would ever do.
Yeah.
Anything scary I would like to do.
I think again, that produces like the most interesting stuff
is something, you know, that you're really, really scared of and you're like,
Fuck it, I'm going to do it anyway and just see what happens.
And like, you know, losing all that weight and crying
and and yelling every day and being miserable was scary.
But I'm very
I came home after work feeling very accomplished.
I was physically miserable, but like, creatively very
accomplished, which is all that matters.
Yeah, I think so. Your health, Who cares?
Well, thank you so much for your time and good luck with your next project.
Have you got your old stuffed cat to take with you for that flight?
No, I had this shitty boyfriend.
I had his stupid dog ate it.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are watching.
Hey, you guys.
Yeah, you guys are you guys?
I That's what they all say.
You guys.
Hey, guys.