How do you feel watching Kevin become a character like that?
Well, honestly, I think his work over the last couple of years has just been astonishing. I have always been a fan, but lately, “Mystic River” and this, he’s been able to commit to his characters in a way that I think he never at the same level was he able to do before. I just think that now, it’s almost like he’s old enough. Like he opens his heart and he just goes, “Okay, just take it.” And I really see that in his work.
He was so amazing in “Mystic River” last year. He was just so solid and so in that character, and he became that character and everything. His eyes, the history, he was so embedded in that guy in such a quiet way without a lot of bells and whistles.
I think in this movie, every time I see his work, I’m blown away by it because he, to me, he really embodied the character so powerfully and so real, so truthfully to me. So it’s painful for me to watch. It’s very painful for me to watch this, and it was painful for me to work with him in this because he’s carrying around so much shame as the character. And it’s really palpable and it was very sad. It’s hard sometimes to remember we’re just acting.
Did you try not talking about work at home?
We really have to because when you’ve been in a scene together and you’ve been shooting all day, that scene or a couple scenes, you know, when you’re in the same movie together, it’s hard to say, “God, I thought I was crappy in that scene.” Or, “I thought the director did a terrible job directing it,” because the other person’s like, “Well, I was in that scene and I didn’t think it was so bad and I don't know, was it bad? Oh my God.” And you just send them into a spiral with you. Whereas if you’re not in the same picture, if he comes home from work and tells me, “I had a shitty day and I feel like the director didn’t know what the f**k he was doing and I don't think I was up there and I didn’t do my best work.” I can say, “Honey, I’m sure you did. I’m sure it was great and how can we talk together and decide how you can talk to the director tomorrow and make it a better day for yourself or whatever?” I can be more supportive because I can be objective. But when you’re in something together, it’s very hard to be objective and you’re very subjective. Like he couldn’t come home after shooting a scene in “Loverboy” that I was in and go, “God, you know, I just didn’t get it. I just didn’t get that scene.” And I’m like, “Well, I was in every frame of it. What do you mean you didn’t get it?” That’s the other thing. You sort of keep things from each other, so that keeps you separate.
Kevin said you didn’t originally want the role.
Yeah. I guess I was afraid that I didn’t want to… First of all, I wanted him to get a bigger star than me to be perfectly frank. I just thought, “It’s a great script, it’s a great part. Let’s get you somebody great and hot and sexy to work opposite,” because it’s a business and I’m very aware of this business, you know? And there was also, I was concerned that people would be distracted in some way. I knew that he would be so amazing in the part and I knew that he would commit himself so utterly. I knew that he would be able to be transformational. And I didn’t want to confuse the issue by being in the film with him.
How did you overcome that?
Ego probably. I probably was just like, “Look, it’s such a good part. I just can’t turn it down.” But also Nicki was very instrumental in just saying, “I want you in this movie. I wanted you before I wanted Kev.” If she was here, she’d tell you that she saw “Personal Velocity” and really wanted me to play this role desperately. And so I think that her belief in me really made me feel confident. I also started to think, you know, maybe we could pull it off. We’re good actors, we’ve been working a long time, maybe we can do it. Honestly, the first time I saw the first cut of it I was so relieved because I thought, “I really buy them. I buy Walter, I buy Vickie. It’s all good. Thank God.
