Natalia Cordova-Buckley & Ryan Kwanten talk to The Inside Reel about perspective vs. perception, physicality informing emotionality and the brutality (at times) of intimacy in regards to their new thriller from Saban Films: “The Portrait”.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 - We always come back.
00:19 (dramatic music)
00:21 - The thing is the portrait,
00:28 it's a very specific kind of movie.
00:30 You were talking about, it's almost about energy.
00:33 It has to have the right kind of energy.
00:36 Could you guys talk about it?
00:37 'Cause it's a completely different approach
00:39 on either side for each of your characters
00:42 and never the tween shall meet in certain ways.
00:46 Can you talk about approaching almost,
00:48 Natalia, I'd like you to start about, you know,
00:50 seeing the psyche of this woman
00:52 because it's about perspective and perception
00:55 in her own mind in many ways.
00:57 - Of course.
00:58 Yes, you are correct.
01:01 And life is all about perspective, right?
01:03 The more I think we learn other people's points of view
01:07 and whatnot, we realize that multiple things exist
01:11 at the same time and we're living in multiple realities.
01:14 Yeah, that was probably the part that drew me the most
01:18 to Sofia was what you said,
01:20 this complex psychological process
01:25 that she was going through,
01:26 emotional, psychological and everything,
01:28 the complexity of it all,
01:31 the fight between being a loving caregiver
01:38 and sacrificing herself
01:43 to bring her husband back to life,
01:46 but also riddled with grief and guilt for what had happened
01:51 and for not being able to achieve what she wants.
01:55 So yeah, to me, what drew me was definitely
02:00 all those complexities that were dancing all
02:03 at the same time and how to make them,
02:06 how to choreograph them all
02:07 so we could have a congruent dance
02:10 with all of them together.
02:11 - It's been a year.
02:14 The doctor's given up on him.
02:16 It only takes one memory, one memory to get him started.
02:20 (ominous music)
02:23 - You gonna be okay, just you and him?
02:28 - What?
02:29 - You gonna be okay, just you and him?
02:35 - Alex.
02:36 - 1937, Kelvin DeVoe.
02:42 What the?
02:50 - Did it come from, before I go over to Ryan,
02:52 did it come from,
02:53 'cause he would probably have to do it a different way,
02:55 from a very physical sort of reaction
02:58 or a very emotional reaction
03:00 because there seems to be a push and pull between the two
03:04 as the movie progresses.
03:06 - You mean a physical reaction to the script, to the story?
03:09 - No, no, physical reaction to how she is experiencing
03:13 this life and what's going on in the movie
03:16 'cause as it moves forward, it becomes more dire,
03:18 it becomes more wrenching, I think, physically
03:21 and you sort of had to put yourself
03:23 through the wringer in that way.
03:25 - Yeah, as I said in another interview,
03:29 I've realized through self-analysis that I love pain.
03:34 I was a classical dancer.
03:35 I danced with broken toes and stuff.
03:38 I just have that kind of personality
03:42 where the tougher it gets, the more I wanna do it.
03:46 So, I mean, she's going through it psychologically,
03:49 emotionally and physically.
03:51 I can't say that one weighs more than the other
03:53 and it depends on the scene and it depends on the moment
03:56 and it depends on the state of Alex's character,
04:00 where she's going to go,
04:02 but all those things for me were part of the process
04:07 as they are with most any character,
04:12 just being, after doing all your studying
04:17 of the psychology of the character
04:21 and everything you've done in your desk
04:24 or daydreaming outside or taking a walk
04:26 and kind of building them once they yell action,
04:30 I'm not really thinking of which one I'm gonna use or not.
04:34 I just sort of- - Yeah.
04:35 - Is everything all right?
04:39 - Oh, yeah.
04:40 I'm sorry, are we intruding?
04:42 - No, not at all, please.
04:44 - I found a painting in the attic.
04:54 - The self-portrait, you found it.
04:56 - It's Alex.
05:01 - Do you think so?
05:02 - They're identical.
05:05 - Hmm.
05:06 - What can you tell me about Calvin?
05:09 - Calvin?
05:12 - Why do you ask?
05:13 - I mean, they're exactly the same, right?
05:15 - Well, all art is in the eye of the beholder, is it not?
05:18 - I'm not talking about art.
05:23 - Ryan, could you talk in reverse?
05:24 Because your character,
05:25 you have to do something very different and very specific
05:29 and yet not give away too much of what's going on.
05:33 Could you talk about that in terms of just,
05:36 I'm not sure the process that you had to do
05:39 in order to get where you were.
05:41 Could you talk about the character?
05:43 'Cause I don't want you to give too much away,
05:45 but it's a very specific approach
05:47 with what you did with him.
05:49 - Well, it's interesting too,
05:51 because we're used to having trajectory,
05:54 both as an audience,
05:55 we're used to sort of knowing where a story is going
05:58 or at least being able to kind of
06:00 do a pretty good calculated guess.
06:03 And the same with a character.
06:06 I'm used to sort of having a trajectory,
06:08 but it's the classic kind of Emerson quote,
06:11 what lies behind us and what lies before us
06:14 is small matters compared to what lies within us.
06:16 So it was one of those things where if you don't know
06:21 what is happening,
06:22 if he's not able to sort of verbally articulate it,
06:25 you're kind of always left with this sense of,
06:27 well, where do we stand?
06:28 And for Sophia,
06:30 it plays with her own sort of psychosis.
06:36 It's not only the ability to cope with
06:38 this injury,
06:40 which is one of the toughest things
06:41 anyone could ever be asked to do,
06:43 but it's the insidiousness of a head injury
06:46 is that it can be quite difficult
06:47 for someone else to recognize
06:49 and then to be able to sort of articulate it.
06:51 She becomes the sort of the sounding board for him,
06:54 but when she starts to lose the ability to do that,
06:59 when he's sort of showing more and more signs
07:01 of someone that she doesn't recognize,
07:03 that's when our story truly becomes kind of,
07:07 it takes on the real,
07:09 the elements of a psychological kind of horror
07:12 where you, okay, this has really taken a turn here.
07:15 And it's the collision of generational trauma
07:20 with this brain injury
07:22 that I think is what makes this just as potent.
07:26 - Well, of course there are similarities.
07:31 I mean, we're all Dubeaux's after all, aren't we Alex?
07:38 - So why aren't there any photos of Calvin?
07:41 - Because he didn't exist.
07:43 According to some family members anyway.
07:47 - Why?
07:48 - Because,
07:51 oh, oh baby.
07:55 He liked to hurt women.
07:59 He was sick,
08:04 but he was a genius.
08:07 - Well, that's what the whole generational trauma,
08:09 especially with the way Virginia's character comes in
08:12 and sort of upends it a bit.
08:14 You know, those are those elements that, you know,
08:17 how much of that do you have to take into account
08:20 with the story and the mythos that you guys are showing?
08:23 Because this could play as Victorian horror in many ways too
08:27 if you look at it a certain way.
08:30 Did you have to look at it in any specific way
08:32 beyond the aspect of, you know, what the mythology is?
08:36 Did that come into it of what we're basically seeing?
08:40 'Cause I mean, I won't give away the reveal,
08:43 but it sort of plays on that notion of duality.
08:46 Who are we?
08:47 And, you know, have we always been this way?
08:50 Does that make sense?
08:52 - Absolutely.
08:53 You brought up a great point,
08:54 that Victorian sort of horror style,
08:56 which I think Virginia, you could put that character
08:59 in pretty much any one of those sort of Victorian horrors
09:02 and it would totally work.
09:03 And it's what makes that character kind of stand out.
09:06 She's a real odd kind of a presence
09:09 that only continues to add to Sophia's neuroses.
09:15 - That's an interesting sort of path for her to show is like,
09:18 does she believe what she's seeing?
09:20 Does she question it?
09:22 How much did you have to question it as the character?
09:24 - What you see on the screen is the script.
09:31 There's no part of the script that resolves it for us.
09:34 I had to ask David and Simon, but tell me the truth.
09:36 Is there a ghost in the house?
09:38 Like I got, and I was joking in some way,
09:42 'cause it helped never knowing, to be honest with you.
09:44 I just watched my favorite film of this year last night,
09:48 Anatomy of a Fall,
09:49 and you don't really know if she did it or she didn't ever.
09:53 And I watched this interview with the actress and she said,
09:55 "I never knew, the director and writer never told me."
09:58 And I'm grateful that they never really told me
10:00 what out of the three hairs of the braid
10:04 that we were braiding together, which was,
10:07 is she losing her mind?
10:08 Is her husband violating her?
10:09 Or is it a paranormal supernatural activity thing going?
10:14 - He liked to hurt women.
10:18 He loves his wounded birds.
10:26 Loves.
10:28 - Alex!
10:31 - He'll be back.
10:32 That's the thing about our family.
10:35 (woman screaming)
10:39 (dramatic music)
10:42 ♪♪