Radford was hounded by the film's financiers to cast a 'name' actress in the role of Portia. After viewing Collins' audition tape, Radford campaigned for Collins to play the role. Once the producers saw Collins' tape, the battle was over. Lynn Collins snagged the part which, as she reveals in this interview, turned out to be a real life-changing role.
INTERVIEW WITH LYNN COLLINS ('Portia'):
You’ve done Shakespeare before but never this character. Did you find much in her that you could relate to?
Oh God, so much. For me to be 25, it’s interesting how she’s so much more mature and intelligent than the other characters I’ve played, like Juliet and Ophelia, so it was really gratifying to do it at this point in my life.
Is this role one you could have done at a younger age, or did you need to be this mature in order to play her?
I think it happened sort of at the same time. My personal life and my professional paralleled each other. I’ve heard some actors say that that only happens once, maybe twice, in a career. And I think that’s what this was for me.
Is it true you actually auditioned for a smaller role in this film?
Originally I was asked to choose between auditioning for Jessica or Nerissa. And [writer/director] Mark Radford saw the tape [in which] I choose Jessica. He saw the tape and he said, “No, this is Portia.” And then I put myself on tape for two of the main monologues. Michael loved the first one and then told me that the second one was total crap (laughing). So he had me put those monologues back on tape, including many other scenes of Portia’s. That was the tape that they ended up sort of showing to all the producers, and showing to Al Pacino. They all approved me and just began to really fight to cast me because, you know, they needed a name in some ways they had decided. So for them to cast somebody who was relatively unknown was a really big step for them.
What was your reaction when Radford told you your second monologue was crap?
Well you think like, “Oh my God,” and then you think to yourself, “At least he’s honest with me. At least there’s not going to be any bulls**t going on.” So I welcomed it. I said, “Tell me exactly what you want.” That’s my strength as an actress, is to sort of adapt to what a director wants. It’s usually when a director doesn’t know what he wants where I end up not doing the best job I could do. But he knew, so it was good.
Once you got into the rehearsal process, how long did it take for you to get over the fact you were squaring off against Oscar winners?
Michael actually had to take me aside and tell me to stop pinching myself. He’s like, “Look, I’m depending on you. You’re the rock of this production. You have a lot of work that needs to be done and I can’t have you in awe of these people. In fact, I need you to not be afraid to do your best, if that shows them up in any way.” So there was a period of time where I had to make that adjustment.
It was very difficult because, as a woman in a group of men, I had to stop relying on anything other than my intelligence and my talent. And that was a big lesson for me that actually pretty much changed my life.
What specific advice did Radford give you to get past being in awe of your co-stars?
It wasn’t really advice. I think it came out of frustration. He’s just like, “You’ve got to stop and not worry about that. Portia is the high status in this story and she’s also, in the end, the most powerful person. You have to embody that.” But what I realized by that, and I don’t think he even knew he was saying this, but it meant that I had to find that in myself. Portia starts out as sort of a powerless, naïve girl, which is the way Lynn Collins was. Portia ends up having claimed her power and intelligence, and really having the one person that she answers to is herself. That’s basically where I had to go to be able to do the part.
