One of the true breakthrough performances of 2011 is delivered by big screen newcomer Elizabeth Olsen, younger sister to the famous acting twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley, in the edgy indie drama Martha Marcy May Marlene. Writer/director Sean Durkin's feature film debut is a psychological thriller which finds Olsen playing Martha, an escapee from a cult who finds refuge with her estranged sister (played by Sarah Paulson) and brother-in-law (Hugh Dancy). After being completely immersed in a world in which she only interacted with other cult members, Martha's lost her ability to determine what's socially acceptable. She's also totally unable - or unwilling - to explain to her sister where she's been and what she's been put through physically and emotionally over the past few years. Needless to say, it's a difficult role but one that Olsen completely embraced.
Martha Marcy May Marlene has been getting rave reviews and was just nominated for four Gotham Independent Film Awards, tying for the most nominations with George Clooney and Alexander Payne's The Descendants. Durkin won the Director Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, with many more accolades sure to come as we enter the awards season. And in our exclusive interview, Durkin and Olsen talked about the success of the film, the script, the cast, and finding the right tone while avoiding cult movie clichés.
Exclusive Elizabeth Olsen and Sean Durkin Interview
Could you have picked a more difficult character to start off with for your feature film acting debut?
Elizabeth Olsen: [Laughing] "Maybe."
Sean Durkin: "The character picked her."
Is that what happened?
Elizabeth Olsen: "I think, literally, when I read it it was one of those things where I actually.... When I read scripts, I imagine this fictitious person in my imagination, even when I know which role I’m reading for. When I read Martha I was like, 'Oh my god, this is so perfect for me.' There was this thing that I connected with so much with her. I have, really, so much compassion for her. So, it was one of those moments where you're like, 'This is something I have to do. I have to play her.' And it’s not in your control, but I’m lucky that he wanted an unknown actress and all I could do was prepare and think about the character as much as possible. If that’s on the same lines of what he was thinking, then I could get lucky. But it's so out of your control. Instinctually, I did feel a huge connection to her."
Do you know what it was you connected to?
Elizabeth Olsen: "Yeah, I think I really understood her paranoia, if that makes sense. That was the first thing I connected with, even though that was just a way into her. It was really like her struggle of dealing with what she was seeing and what was real. That battle was the first thing I connected with."
Was it a difficult role for you to set aside at the end of the day?
Elizabeth Olsen: "No. Things might bleed over, like I might be drained. You know, when you’re doing something that is a lot of heightened emotions, your actual body - it's like a computer thing and your actual data gets moved around so you become more sensitive. So if someone would say something that usually wouldn't make me upset, that would maybe make me upset. Not in an irritable way, but maybe I would just cry more. I didn’t really notice that so much. There is something without you realizing that probably does change, but we had an amazing crew and cast and we all lived together. We really enjoyed each other’s company at night. We were all able to step out of it and then start over in the morning. That was really helpful. I also don’t think when I’m working that I’m not my character; I just keep it as separate as possible although it's me I’m bringing. In my head it’s not me, you know?"
How important was it to be pretty much alone on location and have that opportunity to bond with the cast?
Elizabeth Olsen: "I don't say 'perfect' loosely, but it was kind of an ideal situation because we didn’t have internet, we didn’t have cell service. It just so happened where we were we're in the middle of nowhere. We had six-day weeks, so we had one day off. I think some of the crew would go to the city, but all of us would stay. We did live in these dingy motels so we could laugh and bond over that. It was really important because the ease that we had on set while working and focus was really supported by the fun we had as well. There was something that connected us all."
Did you know immediately she was the right person?
Sean Durkin: "Yes."
How did you know that?
Sean Durkin: "I don’t know. You kind of feel it. I didn’t know what I wanted; I didn’t have a clear idea in my mind when I wrote it like who this person was, but I had a clear idea of the character. I didn’t see anyone and I didn’t know what she would look like."
So physically you had no idea what the character looked like as you were writing the script?
Sean Durkin: "No. I knew on her first read, her very first audition, that there was something there that wasn’t happening with anybody else. At that point I had probably seen about 50 people. I knew that the role required an ease, an effortlessness. With someone who has never been a lead in a film before your worst nightmare is that you will have to work really hard to pull a performance out of them and mold it. But there was already stuff she was doing in her first audition, like making little choices. I don't know. There was just an ease. There is no other way to put it. Her performance was conveying things without trying hard and just silently."
How close is her performance and what she brings to the character to what you wrote in that script? Did she take it somewhere totally new?
Elizabeth Olsen: "The script was really thorough and then things were taken away while we were filming and editing for every single character. I think everyone felt the same way."
Sean Durkin: "But there is still always surprises. Every day you shoot you're always either really worried or blown away by something someone does. It was fun to watch. I don’t like to micromanage. I don't get in and try to tell someone, 'Look here and do this exact gesture.' I’m very much like we understand what this character is and we all understand what we’re doing and what we are making, so it's like, 'Let's see what you guys do,' and then we mold it and think, 'Oh, what about this?’ I don’t get in and control the details unless it’s something very specific that is a transition. It’s a lot of her bringing what she brings to it."
I would imagine when you were shooting this, you had no idea what kind of hit you had on your hands.
Sean Durkin: "I had no idea."
Did the success of the film take you by surprise?
Sean Durkin: "You have to just do your best work and put it out there and get it to where you can get it to. After that, you are on your own. You have hopes but, no, you can’t expect anything. It's all surprising."
Elizabeth Olsen: "It took me by surprise, for sure. I mean, in a way because all of us love the script. Every single person who worked on the movie loved it and we all loved making it and so there's a sense that we were like, 'Well we really love it.'"
Sean Durkin: "Yeah, exactly. We all believed in it and we think so. but it’s a matter if other people will feel the same way."
Elizabeth Olsen: "But at the same time it's like, 'Well, this isn’t what people see all the time so I wonder what people will respond to it.' So it was surprising that people lots of the time have responded well."
It really isn’t anything like any other 'cult' type movie we’ve seen.
Sean Durkin: "That’s what I wanted."
How tough was it to find that tone and find something original to tell?
Sean Durkin: "It goes back to knowing what you don’t want. I knew at the beginning that I didn’t want something religious; I didn’t want the immediate visual red flags. I wanted something that was local and small but growing. Something that you could understand with wholesome values that someone could latch onto and then someone manipulates them and that’s where things go wrong. But there is a base there that people can relate to. The idea of wanting to get away from technology and live off the land and focus on the moment, these are good things that you can apply to your life but in this situation it is taking it further. I wanted to focus on that stuff, as opposed to something religious with robes and chanting and things that would be immediate red flags. Because then you wouldn’t follow Martha in. You'd be like, 'Oh, this place is obviously screwed up,' which you might think already, but there is a little bit of ease into it - and some good things as well."
It doesn’t put you off to begin with immediately. Was it more difficult for you to play her while she was part of the cult or while she was with her sister?
Elizabeth Olsen: "I think both had its challenges. The lake house definitely was trying to figure out a good balance of how comfortable she is and how out of body... It’s hard to put into words, I guess. Both provided its challenges, I’ll just say that."
Your scenes with John Hawkes are just incredible.
Elizabeth Olsen: "It was fun to work with him. He’s amazing to work with. I learned a lot from how much you can give another actor when you’re not on camera from him. He’s really a generous person when he works. Everyone was, Sarah [Paulson] was the same way for all of our scenes that required a lot. Same thing with Hugh [Dancy]. It was amazing to work with these actors who gave you more when they were off camera to help you. It’s not so much more, not like they held back for the camera, but something that would be very specific to help you react to something. It was really cool."
"Also, John didn’t drag the character into our personal relationship, obviously. He’s not that kind of actor, so that was also really helpful because he’s a really kind person. I felt really safe and comfortable with him, so for the moments that were very vulnerable, and even for the moments where I needed to find something safe with him - like when she cuddles up in bed next to him - it was just him being such a kind, great person that it made me feel comfortable in the whole spectrum of physical relations we had to have in the film."
Did you find it really difficult trying to be somebody who is just not sure how to act socially anymore? She completely loses that ability.
Elizabeth Olsen: "Yes, I think that’s what I was trying to say. Those were the words I was trying to figure out while we were actually at the lake house. That was when we got there, the first day of filming. I was telling Sean, I was like, 'Am I doing top much? Is this too much social unawareness?' He was like, 'Yeah, it is.' I'm like, 'Okay, so let the words tell the story and still have a very clear view but don’t feel the need to push it.' It's like when a character is really, really sweet, you don’t want the person to also act really, really sweet because then it's too much. So you had to release into the language also."
That’s a really fine line to walk there.
Elizabeth Olsen: "Yes, it was."
Sean Durkin: "That was the approach for the film, the sort of less is more. There was already so much going on without anything being said with the set up of the relationships that you never need to worry about doing anything extra. It's going to be there. Like the scene where Hugh and Lizzie are sitting in the boat in that scenario without anything being said says everything."
After doing something like this where you’re the lead character, how tough is it going to be to find other characters that draw you in as much as this one did?
Elizabeth Olsen: "It’s been pretty tough, but I’ve been choosing to do films recently... Before Sundance I was cast - I did five movies this year. Four of them I either made or was cast in before Sundance even happened. Only one of them was a thought out choice after Sundance and that was an independent film with Josh Radner [Liberal Arts] where I got to play someone who was a college student and loved theories and is really energetic and loves life and appreciates so much. I needed that for myself because it was such a dark three movies back to back. Even though in this movie Red Lights that I filmed in Spain I was a supporting role so it’s not so much like my character experiences too much of the dark part. Right now, it is a little bit of a struggle because I’m starting to think maybe you can hold everything to high regard, maybe you can... But then it's like, 'Okay, I can’t be to picky. I need to earn a living!"
You have to find that balance.
Elizabeth Olsen: "Yes, it’s like trying to find this balance right now. It’s difficult because I’m also trying to finish college. Right now basically nothing is worth leaving school for in the fall so far that have been presented to me. Or if I did want to do it, I wasn't cast in it. It’s been this interesting thing to figure out."
As a producer and having your own production company too, are you finding the climate less or more friendly to up-and-coming filmmakers?
Sean Durkin: "More. Yeah, I think it’s a great time. I think people are figuring out how to make stuff for less money and still make it really good. I think there is a lot of inspired content right now, in New York especially. It’s a great community. When you go to film festivals my favorite thing is connecting with other filmmakers in the same position as us - making shorts, first features and second features. You meet all these other people who are doing similar things and in all these different countries around the world. It's a really exciting time."
Has funding gotten harder due to the economy?
Sean Durkin: "Funding is never easy, at all. I can only talk about my experiences, and our experience is that we’ve been fortunate enough to find great people who are really supportive of us creatively. But we have turned down money because we made a pact that we would make our first features exactly how we wanted to make them, and that they wouldn't be cast reliant on the money and that we wouldn’t lose control of the edit. We’ve been lucky enough to find those people, but then you make the sacrifice financially because you're struggling to get by when you put a year, two years of your life into it."
But you’re not compromising.
Sean Durkin: "You’re not compromising there, but you're putting three years of your life into a movie and not getting paid anything. There are compromises on the other side, but it's worth it because at the end of the day it's all about the movie. All anyone remembers is what's on screen."
Elizabeth Olsen: [Laughing] "No one really remembers the weather."
Or that you had no money.
Sean Durkin: "It just matters what makes it up there."
Was it a three-year process bringing this to the screen?
Sean Durkin: "Yes, or even longer. I started working on the script...I think the first idea I had - actually a friend sent me an email the other day from 2006 and it was amazing. He sent me this email and we went to NYU together and in late 2006 I had sent him a short email saying, 'I know what I want to make my first movie about.'"
Elizabeth Olsen: "That’s so cool! He sent that to you?"
Sean Durkin: "Yeah, he sent it to me a couple of weeks ago. And I didn't remember that because how I remember it was I started writing it after we finished After School which was shot in 2007, which is our company’s first feature. I had the idea and then I think I started working on it. But I do remember the fall of 2007 was when I read this thing about a woman who escapes from a cult. The leader tracked her down and instead of threatening her and making her come back, he gave her money and wished her well and then she disappeared. So it was like that was the spark in late 2007. From there is when I really started writing, so it was about three years and then another year now of shooting, editing and touring."
How close was your original thought for the script to what you ultimately ended up shooting?
Sean Durkin: "The very first thought? Not similar other than that wanting it to be a New York regional local cult and have those principles I was talking about before."
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Martha Marcy May Marlene opens in theaters on October 21, 2011.
