Director Cory Finley’s finely tuned “Thoroughbreds” is like 1989’s “Heathers,” if that dark comedy was artsy, minimalist and contemporary. “Thoroughbreds” is a nasty little piece of business and Finley, a theater veteran, brings out the best leads, Anya Taylor-Joy, Olivia Cooke and the late Anton Yelchin. The trio becomes involved in a murder plot that is as highly unpredictable as it is stark and pitch black. It’s also a sleek and stylish film that sneaks up on you and hits you like whiplash.
READ MORE: Olivia Cooke & Anya Taylor-Joy Plan A Murder In Excellent ‘Thoroughbreds’ [Review]
Most impressive of all is the dynamic that both lead actresses, Taylor-Joy and Cooke, build upon the venomously-written dialogue meant to rile up, even infuriate, the viewer. These are not innocent teenage girls. In fact, Lily and Amanda veer towards being unequivocally deadpan sociopaths. Olivia Cooke is marvelous as the emotionless Amanda, but Anya Taylor-Joy is her equal delivering a staggeringly quiet performance with a character that, by all accounts, is a tortured, privileged and wicked little soul.
The Miami-born Taylor-Joy has proven her worth as an actress in just three years in the industry. She wowed in “The Witch,” played a young Barack Obama’s college love interest in “Barry,” was the heart and soul of M. Night Shyamalan’s comeback hit “Split” and is now making waves with this latest critically acclaimed endeavor.
I spoke to Anya about how quickly her star is rising, trying to bring about some empathy towards such an unlikable character and what exactly is going on with the tumultuous production of her next movie, the “X-Men” spinoff “The New Mutants.”
You are fast becoming a Sundance regular. “Thoroughbreds” was heavily buzzed when I was there last year.
I am the biggest Sundance lover because there is just something so unbelievably magic about that festival. Every time I go my life changes in one way or another. It’s like I go there and I come back to my life quite radically different. I also love the fact that you’re braving the elements because I’m just that kind of girl. It’s about the movies rather than just trying to look pretty. What was so extra magical about going back this time was that Olivia [Cooke] was also at Sundance 2015 for “Me, Earl and the Dying Girl.”And so, we were both very aware of each other as Sundance kids, so to go back together with a film that we had worked on together felt very sort of karmically correct, so that added to the magic.
“The Witch” and “Thoroughbreds” are actually two of the most pitch-black indie films I have seen in quite some time, you star in both of them, coincidence?
[Laughs] I never really make the conscious decision to make darker films, I’m always instinctually character-driven, I read a character, I hear their voice in my head and I feel like I belong to them and they belong to me. It just so happens that they live in dark worlds. That being said, working in intense movies is so much fun, your acceptable emotional levels are so much wider so you get to really go out and feel stuff, which, for me, I am addicted to intensity, so I had a really good time with these films.
Because of the emotional baggage that comes with such roles, I was reminded of a scene in “Thoroughbreds” where Amanda shows Lily a technique in how to cry on cue, gulping, focusing on the eyes, is that actually how you do it?
Both Olivia and I tried it out and we found that it doesn’t actually work but it does give you an intense panic attack [laughs]. So I’ll give you a quite frankly pretentious sounding answer, I cry in movies from a place of empathy, I don’t usually draw from my own emotions, I try and really feel for the other person. When I worked with M. Night Shyamalan he told something to me that really changed the way I acted. I was working with Casey on a scene where I was hysterically crying and he came up to me and said “you know, what you’re doing is really beautiful but I’ve seen you as Anya cry, so don’t be selfish and give your character her own tears” and that really stuck with me and I take great pride in that all of my characters cry differently, none of them cry like I do, which makes me happy [laughs].
How different was it working with Cory Finley as compared to Robert Eggers and M Night Shyamalan, both of whom, quite frankly, seems like darker personalities and more serious-minded filmmaker?
I very affectionately refer to Cory Finley as my “Unicorn,”[laughs] only through doing this press tour has he expressed how nervous he was when he was filming. He conducted himself with such quiet grace, always very calm, incredibly collaborative, and he has a very beautiful way of handling his actors, and I think that comes from his theater background when you’re discussing things and he’s giving you notes in between scenes. He takes you aside and you have a very intimate, quiet conversation where he just really respects the fact that you very emotionally connected to this character and he doesn’t really want to remove that from you. He makes all of his notes very “how would you feel if I went in this direction” etc. and I find that very kind. Because it is very vulnerable to be a character and I see the characters I play as real people, and I go on the defensive for them. I find Cory really respected that.
It’s interesting how they all live in a kind of suburbia from hell. There are almost no emotions, and if there are they do feel artificial.
I like that, “Suburbia from hell.” It is just that.
You can tell this was a play and that Cory comes from a theater background. The structure of the film, the way the camera is placed, the way he uses space in such minimalist ways.
The house is actually massive, and we only really show, or filmed, 1/3 of it. The house also suggests a very affluent neighborhood, but at the same time, none of it feels lived in. You know, you don’t look at any of the furniture, other than really the couch I guess, and think “oh yeah, people live here.” And that idea of a cave feeling empty, I find that as a wonderful metaphor for Lily herself, not feeling empty but, in fact, quite cold. This perfect veneer girl, that has this kinetic bull of rage and confusion and desperately wanting to be perfect. I felt like the house was a nice setting to put her in.
By the time I had read the script for the play, Cory was already envisioning it as a film. The play version that I read didn’t change too much to the shooting script. What I was so enticed by and enthralled by was the intelligence in the dialogue but also how deliciously nasty the conversations that these two young ladies are having with each other and I really wanted to say these words. The moment I read Lily’s voice in my head I was very excited and Olivia Cooke was already attached, and so I wanted to have the opportunity to play alongside a strong, very talented actress. Plus the tone of the movie was cool, I always wanted to make a bitchy, female-driven thriller.
Bitchy? Well, the characters are surely not likable. That’s always a risk when you make a film like this, there’s not much empathy for them, but as the film comes to a close you do feel something.
It’s interesting with empathy. I can empathize with all of them in a certain way because they are not stereotypes, even with Amanda, in that scene where she’s inebriated, I love movies that don’t really provide answers, and you look at her in that scene and you question whether you can take her at face value? Does she really not feel anything? As an actress, I love all of them and you have to be able to defend all of them and their choices. So when I was on-set, crew members would tell me “God, Lily is such a bitch,” and I was, like, “you can’t talk about my character that way, [laughs] leave her alone!” It was only after I had a bit of separation from the character and the film that I realized our Lily is a bit toxic.
How was it working with the late Anton Yelchin? Because he was only blossoming as an actor by that point.
I’m glad you phrased the question that way because he’s my friend, the hurt doesn’t go away but as a performer, it’s just so easy talking about him, because he was unequivocally talented. He took a role that could have just been a minor character but Anton sizzles on the screen. It’s the perfect counteract to the quite measured, central performances from Olivia and me. Arguably, he’s the moral compass of the film. That was the beauty of Anton, he could pick these bizarre characters and infuse them with a lot of heart. When I watch the film I really feel for his character Tim, I really want him to make something of his life, and it’s only possible to deliver that with a person that has so much heart just like Anton does. He was universally loved. It’s really quite extraordinary and beautiful how much people care about him and how much of an impact he had on-screen with so many different individuals.
Taylor-Joy also told us that she’s done shooting M. Night Shyamalan’s “Glass” and the movie is in post-production. You can read her full thoughts about the “New Mutants” drama and her frustration behind it here. “Thoroughbreds” is in theaters tomorrow, Friday, March 9.