Known for her supporting roles in movies such as "Man on Fire," "Phone Booth," and "Finding Neverland," Mitchell grabs the spotlight as the leading lady of Allen's "Melinda and Melinda," a film described as a mix of the typical Woody Allen elements including "the fragility of love, marital infidelity, sophisticated romance, the inability to communicate."
INTERVIEW WITH RADHA MITCHELL:
Woody Allen is known for keeping his scripts a secret. Did you get to see the entire script before shooting “Melinda and Melinda?”
I did. I’m glad that I did, too, because there’s a lot of dialogue. I mean, it’s dialogue-driven. I remember one day he said, “Can you come in and do that monologue?” And it’s like a two-page monologue and it wasn’t on the schedule. (Laughing) I’m like, “Okay…” I was glad that I had had access to the script and that I’d been reading it, and it had become a part of my life before coming to set.
Was there a rehearsal period?
We didn’t rehearse. We weren’t really even supposed to meet each other. Chiwetel [Ejiofor], one of the actors in the movie, had come in from London so he called everybody – everyone that was around and we all had brunch. It was sort of this never-ending brunch we had with Will Ferrell that went from like 11:00 [am] to 1:00 in the morning (laughing). It went from uptown right to downtown. So we did get to know each other at first. But if was the way Woody planned, we wouldn’t have at all. We would have just come to set and said the lines.
Did you have to sneak that brunch?
I don’t think he minded. He just wasn’t just going to foster the sort of environment where everybody knows each other. He didn’t really mind how we dealt with it. I think part of that is to create an environment where it’s like real life, where you don’t really know what’s going to happen to you in a certain scene. As much as most of the actors were kind of curious to know what their character meant in relation to the script and to the plot, they really were quite happy to be part of the adventure of not knowing. So they’d sort of ask you, but they didn’t really want to know.
Was it because it was a Woody Allen movie that you signed on to the film?
Well, obviously I was excited by the idea that Woody Allen was going to direct it. But at the same time, the script itself and the character was really interesting.
Can you describe your character?
It’s a dual story, so there’s two stories. It’s the same character in two different stories. She’s almost like two different characters. It’s sort of a meditation on attitude, in a way. In one story, it’s like a tragedy. It has tragic elements and everything bad happens. And in the other story, it’s a comedy. But essentially both stories are coming from the same background. It’s just their attitude. One is sort of happy and accepting of the tragedies that have befallen her, and excited about the things that are about to happen. Whereas the other one can’t believe the crap that went down, and is completely afraid of what’s going to happen next. And in that case, bad things happen. But she’s also sort of a dramatic figure who has these ideas about romance. They are both – well, her in particular – are sort of Madame Bovary-type characters.
Which was more fun to play?
I guess the Madame Bovary-type character was more interesting. But the other character was more fun because on that set it was like Woody Allen and Will Ferrell, which is an interesting combination. And there was a lightness. It was almost like two different movies. One story was very serious and everybody was very serious on set. Although there’s a very dark humor that runs in that story, and it’s quite funny, everybody was playing it completely straight. They were very serious about what they were doing. And the other story, there was a lightness and it was just funny and more relaxed on the set.
I can’t even imagine a set with Woody Allen and Will Ferrell.
(Laughing) I know. At times they would sort of anecdote each other so you wouldn’t get a sense of either of them. But at other times they’d both be on, and it’d be hilarious.
Did Will Ferrell stick to the script?
In this movie, he did. Woody would come up to us and say, “Just say it however you want. Do whatever you want.” Then he’d come up to us and say, “Is that how you’re going to do it?” That would make sure that we’d both stick to the script (laughing). You don’t really want to change [the words]. It’s a genius who’s written them. So there’s something about them that you want to keep.
"Melinda and Melinda" opens in New York on March 18th and expands in limited release on March 23, 2005.
