Those she's hard at work balancing films and TV, Preston took the time to talk about her current projects for this one on one interview with the Georgia-born actress:
That Evening Sun did so well at SXSW, have you heard anything about a wider theatrical release?
Carrie Preston: "No, but everywhere it goes it keeps winning awards. I mean it won South By Southwest and got the Audience Award and then went to Sarasota International and won the Audience Award there, and then it’s just won the Atlanta Film Festival yesterday. So, it's doing good."
What do you think it is about this particular film that's winning over audiences everywhere it plays?
Carrie Preston: "You know what? I'm really pleased to see that they are because when I first saw the film I said, 'Oh my god, this is such a beautiful character study and such a gorgeous film, I'm not sure who’s going to watch it?' You know, because it’s just not what you immediately think of a movie starring an 80 year old man is what people are going to grab onto. But I think it might just be that, you know? Because it is something that you don’t get to see that much and Hal Holbrook, I think, is pretty riveting. It’s just a really universal story about raging against death and also about regrets, and I think people can relate to it."
And it's from a first time director?
Carrie Preston: "Yes. He’s done some short films that are really good, and then he adapted it from a short story by William Kay called I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down. And he adapted it from that, and he had adapted another one of Kay’s short stories into a short film so I guess he really relates to that material. He really expanded it but yet he really honored the story too, so I think he did a great job."
Can you talk a little about your character in it?
Carrie Preston: "So I play this woman called Ludie Choat who is a lower-class Southern farmer’s wife, really. Her husband is played by Ray McKinnon, a bit of an ne'er do well, but he’s just trying to get by, you know? He's just trying to make it in life. And that's what kind of makes the story interesting because he butts heads with the Hal Holbrook character, because Hal Holbrook’s character has been put in a nursing home at the beginning of the film. He sort of blasts himself out of the nursing home only to find out that this, you know, sort of what he calls white trash family has rented his farm from his son. So it is very much about males butting heads, trying to claim what's theirs, and I'm the wife who’s just trying to keep the peace - especially with my husband being a bit of a short fuse and has been abusive in the past."
"We have a daughter who’s played by Mia Wasikowska and I'm just trying to protect her and myself, and trying to support my husband. It’s kind of nice when you see movies usually where there's an abusive situation, the wife is usually kind of weak or she's been beaten so much that she doesn’t have a spine anymore. What we really worked hard for in this movie is to show that they actually have a lot of love for each other and that they are just trying to make it and they have so many things going against them."
And that love is why she stayed with him, even though he’s abusive?
Carrie Preston: "I think so. I mean he hadn’t been abusive for a long time and it’s like the sort of age old, 'Oh well, he hasn’t hurt me in a long time...,' but things are really looking up for them until the old man comes back."
It sounds interesting.
Carrie Preston: "It’s really good and it’s really beautifully done."
You've done a great job of going in between huge studio films and independent productions. Do you have a preference when you're picking projects?
Carrie Preston: "No. I really just try to go for the roles and however they land, whether it’s a big film or a small one. You know, I'm happy for the work most of the time especially in film and TV, just because I have done a lot of theatre in the past and then over really the last, I would say, three years, really just 100% focused on film and TV. That's been really great because it actually has paid off."
Do you miss the stage?
Carrie Preston: "Honestly, not right now. I'm really enjoying doing these other things. I don’t know if you read that I'm also a director and a producer, but I also direct some theatre. That, in some ways, kind of gets my theatre desires fulfilled - and I don’t have to do eight shows a week."
Page 2: On Directing, Her Production Company, and True Blood
