Carrie Coon, the star of “The Leftovers” and “Fargo” returns to the screen this week with the release of “The Nest,” acclaimed filmmaker Sean Durkin’s first film in almost a decade. The Emmy and Tony nominee plays Allison, who moves to England with her husband Rory (Jude Law), and children Sam (Oona Roche) and Benjamin (Charlie Shotwell).
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After its Sundance premiere earned raves, the film was picked up by IFC for a limited theatrical release. The charismatic star gave us a call from her place in Chicago, where she’s holding up during the pandemic, to talk about what 2020 has meant to her industry, shooting “The Nest” in a centuries-old house, the staying power of “The Leftovers,” and even a bit about “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.”
Is everyone healthy and safe in your world?
Yes, we’re very fortunate. My husband [Tracy Letts] was actually doing a play before the shutdown and he drove home just in time for my 2-year-old’s birthday. We had been apart for four weeks, so it was this “forced reunion,” and my son had two parents for the first time in a while. We have a really comfortable home in Chicago, and a basement full of DVDs. And all my husband has really wanted to do for years while we’ve been working is just be here and watch movies, which is what we’ve been doing. And we recognize the extraordinary privilege we have in our lives to have space and a strong economic foundation and to be healthy.
How do you think everything that has happened this year changes your job?
I think my industry has changed irrevocably. Most of the theaters will not come back. Definitely not. But the wonderful thing about art is that life will out. New theaters will take their place. And young people will have a voice in that world in a way that maybe they haven’t if those institutions had been able to continue. When a theater goes under, another takes its place, but it’s going to take a long time to get people back in the room. I think people will be hungry for that face to face experience when it’s possible again. Meanwhile, we’ve had such attrition in our industry. So many of my friends are actors and waiters, so they lost two jobs. And there is very little government support for the arts in this country. It’s not a country that values the arts. And what we’re seeing is the impact of that, which is when children are not given creative outlets, something will fill the void, whether it’s white supremacy, gang violence—there’s an emptiness without the arts. I hope what we see after this pandemic is how important those outlets are for everyone.
Obviously, the networks are clamoring for content because people have watched everything available to them. But when we go back to work, it’s not like a set we’ve ever been on before. We can’t interact the same way. I have no idea what to expect. I’m going to be one of the first productions back in New York with “The Gilded Age.” I have to say that I’m very impressed with how upfront HBO is being with their protocols, and the union seems to feel confident that we’re ready to start. But, let’s face it, it’s an experiment! And we don’t know what the rules are until we start. And no show is worth dying for! So I’m a little trepidatious about it! But I have to trust that people are doing their due diligence and we can always stop it if we don’t feel safe. At the same time, we’re accustomed to having small talk and getting to know each other and rehearsing and having all of those artists and actors and craftsmen around us to do their jobs. And now everyone has to stay away from each other!
You’re on such a big production with “The Gilded Age.”
It’s massive. We’re block shooting. And we have pods. If there’s an outbreak, we can shut down a pod. But the actors are the ones unmasked on the set! You can’t have a mask in the Gilded Age. I asked them if they had a special effects budget for all of the mask lines on our faces [Laughs].
You said in an interview at Sundance that you’re offered a lot of exasperated wife roles. On paper, “The Nest” could have looked like that. So how is it not?
I’ll tell you how. I had never seen a marriage in a script written this way. What I mean is that oftentimes when women are the shared lead, there’s some tragedy. There’s divorce or death. Infidelity. There’s some inciting incident. This was a truly egalitarian marriage in the ‘80s when it was more unusual to have that. And Allison is an entrepreneur. In some ways, making the transition to England has made her play more of a domestic role than she ever has. It’s not very comfortable. And so it’s about the tacit agreements that make up every marriage, and what happens when they need to be renegotiated. Let’s face it, most of those people stay married. They don’t get divorced.
There’s an aspect of this script that’s about going to the edge in a marriage and pulling back, which is much harder to write than just going over it.
That’s right. And that’s how most people live! There’s not this great big comeuppance. There are very subtle negotiations going on all the time in marriage and family. And the relationships as Sean wrote them were so specific. On paper, I was so impressed with how Sean had written each family relationship. And then it was cast perfectly, and we had such an amazing rapport and a great time shooting.
How do you develop that family dynamic? And what makes Jude different as a scene partner?
Jude is a theater man. Jude comes from the theater. And because of the way Sean and Mátyás Erdély, our DP, shot the film, there are a lot of shots where they are quite far away from us and it almost felt like we were in a theater during a scene. And that, for us, felt very familiar to the way we’re accustomed to working.
An independent film shoot is really short. You don’t get a lot of time to build rapport or rehearse. We actually had a meeting before once Jude signed on to do the film. We had some time to sit down and talk through our back story with Sean, which was really helpful because there’s so much psychological realism in the script. It’s helpful to mine some of those moments and talk about their background, and history. That was really nice. But then once we got there, Sean had built in some time for us to hang out as a family. But we just liked each other so much. He had been so thoughtful about the casting process. It felt immediate. And the way that Oona was relating to Charlie. She’s just a really warm and loving person. Charlie is this gift of a boy, who’s an extraordinary actor and a really smart kid. We just fell into it really quickly. And, of course, we were in these marvelous settings—an extraordinary country house in England with horses! All of the ingredients for a strong bond.
There are scenes that almost have a horror movie language, wherein the house feels so much bigger than the people in it. Did you know it would have that aesthetic? Did Sean talk about how it would almost echo ‘70s horror movies in its visuals?
I’ll say this—I believe it was in the script. When those elements are that strong, and you have a script that’s well-written, it’s on the page. I think we all felt that possibility and then we got into that house. And that house is used for weddings and things, and our production team went in and made it looks shabby and run down. There are secret passageways in that house! We would be shooting a scene and one of the owners would pop through a cabinet! I just needed to come and grab something! It was just so…I’ve never been anywhere quite like it. And, of course, there’s a chapel on the property build in the 1300s. It has a history. The rooms had a weight to them that we were able to feel while we were there. That bedroom—I’ve never seen a room like that bedroom that we got to play around in. And the grounds, of course. So Sean very intentionally found a place that suited what he had written. I think that’s very intentional, the sort of isolation that happens when they’re there. The way the space sort of represents what they’re all feeling, which is sort of further apart than they’ve ever been.
Let’s talk about writing. “Fargo,” “The Leftovers,” “The Nest.” All remarkable scripts.
They really are. It’s on the page. Frankly, when something is well-written, it’s much less work! It’s much easier to act. You’re not filling in any holes. And so Tracy and I have learned by saying yes to projects that if it’s not on the page then it’s not on the stage, and it never will be. As much as you think you’re going to be able to improve it in the moment, it never turns out. And so writing is paramount for me.
How was Sean different from other collaborators? And why did it take him so long?
[Laughs] You can ask Sean about that. You know, it’s hard to get a movie made. Sean had a couple of other projects ahead of this one and he finally sat down to write this story, which he had been thinking about for a long time. I don’t want to speak for him, but there are some personal things about it, although it’s not a biography by any stretch. Sean had been thinking about it and it fell into the hands of Rose Garnett, who is an old friend of ours. She had produced my husband’s plays in London. Launched his career. My husband’s career really started in the U.K.
So when Rose read Sean’s script—she was working at Film 4 and now runs BBC Films—she thought of me because of “The Leftovers.” She really liked my work and we’re friends. She introduced me to Sean.
What’s extraordinary about him is he feels more like an auteur European director. He’s spent a lot of time in the U.K. He’s steeped in that visual style and working with Mátyás Erdély, who’s an extraordinary DP. What was astonishing about their collaboration was that they almost never spoke. It was wordless. I’ve never experienced anything like their telepathy. The would stand there with their hands on their chins, looking at the shot, and every now and then catch each other’s eye and nod a little bit and a decision would be made, and we would move forward. It was slow and silent and calm. And, eventually, we all started to change the vocabulary. So, at one point, Mátyás would look at me and say “Carrie,” and I’d say “yes,” and he would nod, and I would do it! I’ve never experienced anything like it and it was extraordinary!
Let’s talk about how “The Leftovers” suddenly became relevant in weird and unexpected ways. But I have to say that even before that, people know my feelings on the show, and would reach out about how much they love it again and again. So why does this show have such staying power? Why do people keep talking about it?
I think it’s fundamentally truthful. Although the premise is somewhat supernatural or extraordinary—we’re coming to find out it’s not outside of our experience, unfortunately—but the fundamental questions are very much the story of the human condition. It’s about how people grieve—the individualism in grief and collective grief, which we are all going through right now, grieving the loss of normalcy, our routines, loved ones.
When I have the great privilege of encountering fans of “The Leftovers” who found it at a particular time in their lives, I can’t tell you how there’s nothing trite about my exchanges with “Leftovers” fans. It’s always deeply meaningful. ‘I was just going through a divorce.’ ‘I just lost my parents.’ ‘I lost my son.’ And they feel the truth in our expression of grief in that show. And I think the performances are very grounded even though the world is extraordinary. Regina King, Chris Eccleston, Justin Theroux’s work is extraordinary. Every single person. Kevin Carroll. My mom always tells me that Kevin is her favorite actor. People feel that what we’re doing has real truth in it. And it’s hopeful ultimately about love. I love hearing it was impactful. That’s the only kind of work I want to make.
Can you tell us anything about “Ghostbusters: Afterlife?”
Nothing. [Laughs]
I had to try.
Of course. I can tell you that I think that Jason Reitman is absolutely the best person to continue this story. He was a boy on that set! And to be part of that symmetry, to watch that come full circle, is really moving because my son was on set with the Ghostbusters and all the puppetry and things. One of the things that Jason did that was so wonderful is that there’s some really old school filmmaking happening in that film. It’s artisans. It’s puppetry. It’s the old school way. My husband always jokes, “I want to see a zipper on a suit in a monster movie!” And there are zippers on suits in this one. That was so much fun! And, as an actor, I can’t tell you how much more satisfying it is to have some dry ice instead of a big green screen. It really matters! It feeds the imagination!
“The Nest” is set to arrive in select theaters this weekend and will hit VOD on November 17.
