Rory Cochrane (A Scanner Darkly) stars as a husband forced into making the most difficult choice of his life in the dramatic film, Right at Your Door. Writer/director Chris Gorak's gripping thriller examines the events immediately following the detonation of dirty bombs in Los Angeles, focusing the action on how the attack affects one couple in particular.
On the heels of the attack, authorities warn anyone already inside a building to stay where they are and securely close and tape up all windows and doors. Anyone unfortunate enough to be caught outside as the toxic ash showers down from the blasts must remain outside. Brad (Cochrane) was home at the time of the event, but his wife Lexi (Mary McCormack) wasn't. When Lexi finally manages to make it back home, Brad's faced with having to decide whether to let her in or follow the advice of authorities and lock her out.
Had you considered a situation like this, a terrorist attack, prior to reading the script and saying yes to the film?
“No. I try not to think about negative thoughts and possibilities and disaster and things like that. But when I read the script, I thought that it was a tight, well-written script that moved and was sort of a page turner. But then I had to tackle the idea of playing the husband who won’t let his wife in the house because he’s supposedly afraid and all that sort of thing, so that was difficult and very challenging for me to come to. I mean even after, you know, I was basically signed on to do it, I still was struggling with how I was going to make that authentic.”
So how did you figure out the right approach and the right mindset?
“I asked a bunch of my friends what they would do in that situation and I got an equally mixed response. So I figured at least some people were honest and…or even if the other people were honest as well…there was a mix there. Somebody would have done what my character did, which is basically self-preservation. And so then I just said, ‘All right, I’m going to play that guy and hopefully he doesn’t come across as just a complete a**hole, that you can empathize with him a little bit.’”
Would you have made the same choice as your character?
“I would have probably let my wife in, but it’s easy to say that. But for me, you know, if you’re going to make that commitment that’s your partner, your life, so I think it would be hard not to. But then again, there’s reality. I don’t know. There’s different scenarios, too. If she wants to jump off a bridge, are you going to jump off with her? I don’t know.”
How difficult was it to play a character locked up in a house for pretty much the entire film?
“It was stuffy, it was tight. The whole crew was in there and there was no air conditioning.”
So when your character is sweating, you really were sweating.
“Well, they would spruce you up a little bit. But, yeah, everybody was sweating in there – the crew… It was pretty intimate.”
It’s interesting the film’s a relationship drama but for the majority of the movie you don’t even get to touch Mary McCormack or even be in the same room.
“Yeah.”
Was it hard to work off Mary McCormack’s performance when you were physically restricted in that way?
“Yes. There were the physical boundaries that made communication harder, just in the simple realm of trying to make a movie where people can hear each other, at least. Sometimes Mary would have to wear an earpiece or something because you have to talk through plastic or glass or whatever. But yeah, I think that’s part of the dynamic and part of what’s interesting about the movie is that they have that between them the entire time. My character slowly sections off the house and it gets smaller and smaller. I guess you wouldn’t have a movie if there weren’t those boundaries there.”
Did the short shooting schedule help or hinder trying to get into this character?
“I was thankful that it was a short schedule because to be honest, if it was longer than it was I would have had to check myself into some sort of institution. It was very mentally and emotionally draining to keep that level up for six days a week for the amount of time that we did. And yeah, it takes a toll on you because you wake up, you go to work, six days a week, and you don’t have a break from that. On Sunday, you’re looking over your lines to go back on Monday. So you really didn’t have a break the entire time so you start to sort of lose your mind a little bit. If it was much longer, I don’t know if anybody could sustain that.”
Did you have much time to rehearse?
“Well it’s funny that you mentioned that. Chris wanted to rehearse, as most directors do, and I think me and Mary came up with the conclusion that there was no point in rehearsing it because it was such an intense shoot that if you can get to those emotions and you can get to that scene and do it authentically, then you might as well shoot it. Because there’s only so much that you can cry and there’s only so much that you can put across that your body just says no more. I remember Mary saying something when we were halfway through it. She said, ‘I can’t cry anymore. I just can’t… I just literally can’t. If somebody told me that my family’s dead, I just wouldn’t.’ [We would] just get burnt out.”
Do you take into consideration whether or not it’s a first time director when you’re looking over a script?
“For me, it’s usually about the character first and foremost, and then it’s about the material. And then it’s about… I mean, a director with a nice long resume of things you’re a fan of always is nice, but first time directors often are more passionate about their projects - especially if they’ve written them. It’s just not a money thing for them and something like that to pay their mortgage. It’s something that they really believe in so that’s nice when they bring their passion and their intensity to their own project. It makes it better for the actors because they know, at least, that they’re trying to do something from the heart. That’s good.”
