SUBURBAN BLIGHT: An interview with The Safety of Objects stars Dermot Mulroney and Jessica Campbell.
By Warren
Curry
3/2/03
Part 1 of 2
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SUBURBAN BLIGHT: An interview with The Safety of Objects stars Dermot Mulroney and Jessica Campbell. By Warren
Curry Part 1 of 2 |
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By now a film veteran, Mulroney's career has constantly alternated between high profile, big-budget films (Young Guns, My Best Friend's Wedding) and more intimate projects (Living In Oblivion, Lovely & Amazing). A relative newcomer, Campbell had a recurring role in the most criminally neglected television show of the past decade, Freaks and Geeks, and made her big screen debut in 1999's Election, the film that launched filmmaker Alexander Payne into the public eye. Mulroney can currently be seen in Payne's latest work, the critically acclaimed About Schmidt. The Safety of Objects ensemble cast also includes Patricia Clarkson, Joshua Jackson, Mary Kay Place, Kristin Stewart and Moira Kelly
CinemaSpeak spoke with Mulroney and Campbell at the recent press day for The Safety of Objects. IFC Films will release the film on March 7 in New York and Los Angeles. It will open in more cities nationwide in the following weeks.
(Note: This interview was conducted
as part of a press roundtable, therefore not all questions were
asked by CinemaSpeak.)
(Read Dan Tester's review of The Safety of
Objects.)
How did the project come to you?
Dermot Mulroney: Rose basically relentlessly pursued me. I think that she just saw me in this part. I loved the script and was hoping to do it, and she just stuck me into it. She won me over. (laughs).
Did she say what she liked you in previously?
DM: I don't recall. She was interested in me for this part in that I hadn't really played a father and it would be different for me in that regard. I don't know exactly what she had seen, but she's a film buff and I'm sure she's seen almost everything.
How about for you, Jessica?
Jessica Campbell: I was actually in an international law and diplomacy camp, and my manager sent me the script and said, "If you like it, you've got to hop a train and go up and meet Rose and read on tape." I flipped through the script, really liked it, hopped a train, skipped a day of camp, met Rose and we really clicked. I guess she liked me and had seen me in Election. I did well in the audition and she cast me.
Were either of you familiar with A.M. Homes book of short stories prior to coming aboard the project?
JC: I have to admit, no.
DM: I wasn't either. I read it as soon as I got cast.
Do you feel the script was a faithful adaptation of the book?
DM: Very much so. It's even smarter than that in that (Rose) combined certain characters. I know that my character was based on characters from two separate stories, which she made into one and then, roughly speaking, each of the other families is a separate story, but it's beautifully combined. That was a tough job, I think, to adapt the stories into a cohesive script.
JC: I do have a reason why I haven't read the book. It's because when I read a story the characters become something else for me. So for me to have read Julie before trying to be Julie would have been much more difficult, and it's difficult for me to embody a character I've already seen as a separate entity. But I think the time has come for me to read those stories.
Have you two compared notes about what it's like to work with Alexander Payne?
DM: We just were! I talked to him the other day and learned about (Jessica's) world travels, so we keep up through Alexander. And, of course, Mary Kay (Place) was in Citizen Ruth.
Dermot, your character has such an extreme reaction to not getting a promotion at work. What kind of back-story did you give him that would justify that sort of reaction for you? Also, were there scenes of you and Glenn (Close) that didn't make the final cut, which may have depicted more of a connection between your characters?
DM: No. Actually, all of my answers were in this script and in the book. Take a look closely at the family -- certainly with a son like that there has to be some brain chemistry situation in that household. I just thought that he was a closet obsessive-compulsive. He had it in check when he had an identity he could attach to his job. When all that went away, madness kicked in. It was an extreme reaction because of how little reaction he has in the rest of his life up until that point. A lot of these characters you get to see a moment before the real (issue) kicks in and then they solve it, or at least address their feelings. In Jim Train's case, it was about my needing to have a purpose. This also tells you how that mind would work if so much is resting on being productive or purposeful. When that goes away then anything can happen.
How much would you both say you personally relate to your characters?
JC: I very much sympathize with (my character) sending off anger and trying to disguise what's really sadness and what's really guilt. I can understand being angry and confusing those two emotions. When I read this role I just really sympathized, because this incident has happened that no one knows about really and she has to hide it and deny it, but at the same time she's upset about the result. I just liked how complicated the character was. It's very similar to my own life; I feel very torn in multiple directions at once.
DM: I just liked Jim Train. (laughs) I thought for him to make that extreme leap automatically makes for an interesting character to play. Again, the good thing is you get a glimpse of how bland he is and what a simple life he's leading until this normal thing becomes some catastrophe to him. The Trains are new to the neighborhood, and so some of the film you see from their perspective as their learning about the other families, and they don't know yet what the tragedy is that they all share.
Jessica, you mentioned being pulled in multiple directions. Can you elaborate?
JC: Well, for instance, when I was in high school there was this really big pull between taking two months off to film this or staying in school and trying to graduate at the top of my class. It's decisions that you have to make every day in your life and which emotion you want to feel. I don't think anybody can go through a day and feel just one way. I think we're presented with these situations and there's multiple reactions we could have. Choosing between them is so hard.
Jessica, what did you learn from Glenn Close?
JC: I was a little scared, to be honest, when I heard I was going to be working with Glenn. I was intimidated and I guess I was expecting some sort of primadonna attitude. I was very, very wrong. She's one of the kindest people I've ever met, and I was really impressed by her attitude during the filming. She never took the high and mighty road and never acted like she was better than anybody else.
DM: And this is a hard movie to make. There's a lot to get done in a little amount of time. If you look at the number of characters, the number of scenes and the number of locations, it's incredible that it even got done. It was really high stress to get everything shot.
JC: We
had to shoot overnight at a mall when it was shut down. And (Glenn)
just kept her head about it the whole time. I was very impressed.
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