Because life is short and I could get hit by a van tomorrow. I want to make sure I do all my dreams.
But as a first-time director, it seems like that’s putting a lot of extra pressure on yourself.
Yeah, it was risky. But again, I just felt like in the spirit of the movie, if someone was going to let me do it, it would have been pretty cowardly to not go for it. So I just figured, “Well, I’ll take a risk and go for it.”
After you’d written the script, did anyone approach you about signing on someone else to direct – or was it always known you would act and direct?
No one ever had a problem with me doing both. It was always in my mind. I always knew I’d direct it. In my mind, I’d toss around the idea of not playing the main role. But then it just felt like it would have been impossible for me to get this part if I hadn’t written it. It would have gotten offered to a lot of other people in Hollywood, so I figured I could give myself a big break.
How much freedom did you give Natalie Portman and Peter Sarsgaard with the script?
A little bit. I always said if a line didn’t feel natural or they wanted to change it that they could. The most important thing is that they feel the lines are really coming out of their characters.
Are you more honest with yourself about the job you do as an actor or the job you do as a director?
I don’t know. I think I’m pretty honest with myself. As the director, you have to be critical of your acting and tell yourself when you suck and tell yourself when you’re good. That’s a unique challenge. You are sort of watching the whole thing and there were definitely times when I would rewrite or change a line when it didn’t feel right.
There’s a lot of animal references – dead and alive – in this movie. Why?
I think there’s a very subtle allusion to Noah’s Ark throughout the movie and so the animals were supposed to hint – along with the water that’s throughout the movie – that there’d be a coming rainstorm that was going to change the course of these people’s lives. When that actually comes in the quarry, that’s the big shift in the movie. And it happens while they’re on a rickety old boat so the animals were sort of a tip to that story.
And the locations in this movie are almost as important as the characters. How did you decide on the locations?
I grew up there. We shot the whole thing in Northern Jersey where I grew up so I knew a lot of these places and I had an amazing team of location people go out and find the perfect places.
Is it true one of the homes they chose was owned by your family?
It’s a funny anecdote that when the scouts were out looking for the houses that I would live in, they knocked on my father’s door, which meant the guy got a gold star for being in the right direction. But we’re not going to film at my dad’s house…
I understand the soundtrack’s coming out soon and you got permission to use the Coldplay song, is that right?
Yeah, I got it. Every song in the movie is going to be on the soundtrack, which is a really great thing. I’ve very excited about that.
How many takes did it take for you to do the scene with the dog getting friendly with you?
Many. Many. Actually there’s some funny behind-the-scenes stuff on that on the website.
How involved are you with the website? I know you do a blog on there, but how much input do you have as to what’s on the site?
I was very involved. I had a great team of people behind it, but everything was run by me and approved by me.
Are a lot of the extras on the site things we’ll eventually see on the DVD?
We’ve got so much stuff, we’ll probably put new stuff on the DVD since people will have already seen this stuff.
What type of new stuff?
I cut 45 minutes out of the movie. I’ve got tons of deleted scenes and tons of [behind-the-scenes] footage. There will be a commentary from me, Natalie and Peter. There will be a lot of good stuff.
45 minutes of extra footage?
I won’t be able to fit it all on the DVD but I’ll put the best of the best on there.
