Page 2
Joey, how much of this story was autobiographical?
JOEY LAUREN ADAMS: “…It’s more emotionally autobiographical. I wrote the script seven years ago now, and it was things that I was dealing with at the time. But, my relationship with my father is pretty non-existent. The film is receiving some criticism because not enough happens, but my dad didn’t molest me and I don’t have a problem with heroin. My life isn’t that dramatic. My dad really loves me, he just can’t talk on the phone. He’s too crippled and shy, and that’s almost harder. He’s there and he loves me, and I try and try and try, it’s just impossible to have a relationship. So, that’s definitely affected my relationships with men. Because we don’t talk, I never felt like a guy would be interested in anything I have to say.
My dad would hold me as a kid and tickle my ribs, and that sort of stuff, so once I hit puberty, it became physical. That was the only way I felt like I could really connect somehow and work to get past that. But I wasn’t in Arkansas. I’ve had relationships. I’ve had two-year relationships. I wasn’t as extreme as Lucy.”
Did you ever want to play the role of Lucy yourself?
ADAMS: “That was the original idea - to act in it. I was never one of those people who thought, ‘What I really want to do is direct.’ It never occurred to me. It was just that, once I finished the script, it had become so personal and I worked really hard. It was really hard, even in writing it. I really tried to stay honest and true to what my experience is, and do a portrayal of the South that isn’t a spectacle, but is just honest. Once I finished it and we started talking to directors, we obviously weren’t going to get Bruce Beresford or Michael Apted, or someone I would have wanted, to come in and direct it because it’s just too small and personal. The directors they were talking to, rightfully so, were people who had done a lot of music videos and were trying to break into film.
I guess I figured out that I’m a control freak. I couldn’t stand the idea of someone else interpreting it. I just kept having this image of being on set and the director saying to one of the actors, ‘Why don’t you say one of those funny country sayings?,’ thinking that would be really cute. That would have just been hell.”
Ashley, are you in a pretty rough place when you’re doing a movie like this, or can you just turn it off and on?
ASHLEY JUDD: “The answer is both. I think I can really turn it on and off, but there is a level of my consciousness that stays pretty open to the character, and I can tap into it easily. I found on Bug, for example, which I shot after this movie, there was a certain piece of music - the movie is very extreme and whacked out and paranoid schizophrenic with extremely bizarre behaviors, on the part of the character - and if I started to listen to it, I was just blown wide open. It was like the portal to the character. I can no longer listen to that music. I listened to it on a plane recently and I thought, ‘This isn’t good for me,’ because it took me way, way, way down. I like working that way. It worked really well on Come Early Morning because the shoot was short. My character was pretty much working on consecutive days so I could just be in a flow, but still go home at night and take care of myself or go for a walk. In my neighborhood, the roses were in bloom, which was really pretty. I enjoyed life, but [didn’t get] very far away from what I needed to access for Lucy.”
What do you think is the overall message that dating singles can take away from watching this film?
JUDD: “No one is going to fill you up. It’s an inside job. No person, place or thing can possibly take care of that lonely place inside. And you can’t really borrow someone else’s God either. You have to find a God of your own understanding.”
Ashley, do you want to write?
JUDD: “I love to write and I’m endeavoring to adapt a book into a screenplay. I may fail spectacularly, or succeed modestly. I don’t know. But I’m certainly looking forward to sitting down and taking a try at it.”
What book is it?
JUDD: “It’s a book called The Burning Time by Robin Morgan, and it’s historical fiction. It’s about Lady Alyce Kyteler who is a 14th century Irish noblewoman. An ambitious emissary of the Pope was sent to bring her, and the whole of pagan Ireland, to heel, and she was really a match for him that he did not expect. Her protégé was the first person burned at the stake for practicing the Old Religion.”
What made you want to adapt that story?
JUDD: “I saw the whole movie in my head as I was reading the book. Then, when I finished it, I realized that not only could I act in it and it would be an incredible role to play, but I could write it. I didn’t sleep for three days. I was like, ‘I’m so, so f**ked. I could totally do that. I’m so screwed.’”
ADAMS: “What’s going to happen is that I’m going to end up playing the role and Ashley’s going to direct (laughing).”
JUDD: “It is such a great, great book. This is a story that she started telling her son when he was a child. She’s a great and accomplished writer and political rabble rouser, who has a lot to offer. And then, finally, after her son was grown and on his own, she thought, ‘Well, I could write all that down. I’ve been telling this story for 30 years.’ So it’s really a great book. I’ll see how it goes. I’ve got some people in mind to reach out to. I’m certainly not going to try to do it all by myself. But, it might work out. I might end up doing it on my own. I have no expectations in that way.”
