Has she seen it yet?
Yeah.
Is she flattered?
Oh, I think. I said, “It’s not a literal version. She’s a fictional character based on bits and pieces of you.”
You started writing the script three years ago, right?
Yeah.
Were you casting it in your head at all while you did it?
No, and I wasn’t even aware of how difficult it would be to cast. Amy was the very first actress that I gave it to read, and she said “yes,” and Jake was ultimately the very first actor I gave it to, but when I [first] started thinking, “O.K., who am I going to send this to?” I realized it’s very hard to find actors who can play … 20s and 40s and be believable. And Amy’s part, in particular, I wanted her to be sympathetic. It’s very easy to hate this character. “Oh, she has all these things and she’s so depressed. Poor thing.” (laughs)
Amy has such a soulful quality in her eyes. You can’t not be moved by her, because she is really a victim of her insecurity, her cultural background and upbringing. I also needed an actress that could say everything with her face, because we watch her read for a good part of the film and we need to know what this woman is feeling by her face.
How about casting the rest of the parts, because you’ve got Jake, who is also playing two characters…
He has a lot of range. Think about Jake years ago when he was playing young, idealistic, romantic [leads], which he does in this, and then think about Jake from “Nightcrawler,” because I needed somebody who could also go to completely destroyed, everything taken away from him, devastated. I needed someone who could play that range and was also believable in their 20s and in their 40s, so Jake was the [obvious] choice and I think did a great job. I thought he was terrific.
Yeah, he’s pretty fantastic. Did it ever occur to you to also cast Amy in multiple roles instead of Isla?
Yeah. I did think about it and I thought it was too much. I already have Jake playing both roles. I needed that because I needed the audience to understand, “Oh. O.K. This inner story.” And there’s a legitimate reason for it: As Jake’s character says, “Nobody ever writes about anyone but themselves.” He’s writing an autobiographical thing. He’s writing something that says, “This is what you did to me.” He’s the storyteller in the inner novel, so it made sense that Jake played both roles.
Having Amy play [the inner-story character], that would be like “The Wizard of Oz” where she wakes up and there’s the Scarecrow and there’s the Lion and there’s … I didn’t want to go there, but I wanted them to be similar enough that it was clear to the audience and clear to Amy reading that — well, Amy knows who it is because she knows the story, so she knows who this wife is supposed to be because she’s picking up on all the other clues in the book that are telling her, “Oh God. He’s writing about me. That’s me.” The audience needed to start to think, “Okay, these stories are related.”
What some people have noticed is that over the years, Isla and Amy have gone for the same roles. They’ve sort of like been pigeonholed as redheads who are of a certain age, same age.
How perfect for me.
I know. So my question is: Did they think it was funny they were ostensibly playing two sides of a character? Did Isla go like, “Wait a minute…”
They were never on the set at the same time.
Did it even come up?
Not really, except that when I cast Isla, she said, “Oh my God. I can’t wait because everyone always mixes us up.” So yeah, they were aware of it. And there was a reason, and their [on screen] daughters, of course, look [like] them too.
What I wanted to talk to you for a moment, too, was about Michael Shannon’s performance, because I’m a huge fan of his. I feel like there’s something in this performance that we have not seen from him in a while, and I don’t know …
Which part?
He’s a little less … mannered isn’t the right word. But he lets loose a bit more than we haven’t really seen from him in quite a long time. I spoke to him in Toronto and he told me that you had given him specific direction with the character: that he wasn’t supposed to be a [literal] version of a sheriff. That you thought of the character as sort of something else.
Well, it’s like the Wild West. I mean, he was really the sort of archetype “good guy in the white hat” voice in Jake’s head driving him forward: “Find these guys, find these guys.” But the thing about Michael, and it might now be what you’re talking about: On set, I became fascinated with him as an actor. I was already, but working with him, looking at his face, and I said to him, “I would love to see you in a romantic lead. I would love to see what you’re like soft. What you are in a romantic part.”
“Nocturnal Animals” is now playing in select theaters.