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Just Going for It: Malin Akerman loved pushing the limits but knew there were lines she shouldn’t cross with the character. “It is quite over the top for most of the parts. You don’t want to go too far or push too hard or else it won’t be believable. You do want to make sure that you sympathize with her.”
Farrelly elaborated. “Part of the actor’s job though is to go over the top, because when we’re making the movie we have a sense of where we’re going, but we we’re not positive. So you push them all limits. You push them this way, this way, that way and then get over it and come back again. So when you get into the editing room, it’s like having all different kinds of colors and you can try them all out. The worst thing you can do is get there and realize you should have gone further. So, basically, you try to pop that ceiling where you know she’s over the top. That’s what good actors do. They’re not afraid to embarrass themselves.
You don’t have to nail it every time. That’s why we try to keep a happy set where you’re not embarrassed to try it because if it’s stiff, everybody’s nervous. You want to nail it every time. We don’t want you to nail it every time. We want you to nail it and then push it and push it even further, so that we know perfectly where it is. We see it on the tape. ‘That’s the one. That’s the one.’ I don’t know when I’m filming. I kind of know it, but I’m not positive.”
