PETER KOSMINSKY ("White Oleander" Director)
What attracted you to “White Oleander?”
The film's about a young girl who tries every way she knows to be what everyone else expects her to be - first her mother, then the foster parents she stays with throughout the movie. All she's ever trying to be is be who they want her to be. At the end she realizes that it's okay to be who she is, who she wants to be. I found that to be incredibly moving. That's what attracted me into making the film.
What message will audiences take away from this film?
The message is that there comes a point in all of our lives where we have to stop being who everyone else wants us to be and we have to start being who we want to be - who we are going to be in our adult lives. That was something that happened to me, it happened to my brother, it happens to men and women, and it happens to Astrid in this movie. She had to dump the personas that everyone else wants to put on her shoulders and start being who she really is.
The film is told from Astrid's perspective. What style of shooting did you use?
I used my own documentary experience for over 10 years. We shot the movie entirely with a handheld camera. Our D.P. carried the camera for every frame of the movie. We never got ahead of Astrid through any situation. We always followed her and let her be the guide to lead us through the movie. That way you get a very realistic sense of being there, of being present.
And your thoughts on casting Michelle Pfeiffer?
I remembered her in “Scarface” and in “The Fabulous Baker Boys.” There was a kind of simple directness in those movies and I talked to her about that when we met. I said "That's the starting point for Ingrid Magnussen, that directness, that laser-like quality, that locking you in and focus." She reacted well to that and that's where we started filming the movie, was from that point.
You describe yourself as an actor's director. What do you mean by that?
The main thing attraction for me in the filmmaking process is working with the right actors. I see my job as 90% getting the script right and choosing the right actors. I take weeks and weeks in casting. Once I get them cast - correctly, I hope - in the roles I see my job as just to give them the space, give them little bits of help as they need it - or not - but give them the space to make the performance that they have within them. My job is to create the right ambiance and the correct atmosphere with the crew, so that in the end, they can give their best work. In that sense, I suppose I'm an actor's director.
Is it true that you don't like to do much in the way of rehearsal?
I rehearse in the rehearsal room for a week prior to shooting but once we get on-set, I just like to shoot. I don't want to run the risk that I might get the best performance during the rehearsal and never recapture that again. I just start shooting start away. It's a bit rough-and-ready.
