Marin Ireland tells THR on the Spirit Awards red carpet what it was like working with Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie in 'Eileen.' Plus, she dishes on her appearance in 'Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans.'
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00:00 I was just talking to Jason Weinberg about the big year you've had, I mean the big career, but also just this year.
00:06 I mean, congratulations on first of all being a nominee for Eileen, a special movie, intense scene.
00:12 Very intense, very intense. It was like jumping off a cliff, yeah.
00:16 Tell me what it was like in that basement with Thomas and Mackenzie and Anne Hathaway.
00:21 You know, it was a little bit of a fugue state that I think I entered into.
00:25 I will say that gearing up for that day felt like nothing else I'd ever experienced.
00:30 Running the lines, I almost couldn't ever get through them. It was really hard to run them.
00:36 And then we had a lot of rehearsals beforehand with Will and Annie and Thomas in like a month before.
00:40 And I think if I hadn't felt like we were prepared to that degree, I don't know how I would have done it.
00:46 But Annie and Thomas in particular were so unbelievably supportive of what I had to do that day.
00:51 What a bizarre thing, right? Like it's sort of their movie and then they're like,
00:56 "Okay, here's this for four hours tonight in the middle of the night. Let's do it in the freezing colds,
01:01 you know, in New Jersey in the middle of winter."
01:04 And the grace that they gave me and the space to kind of be in that difficult place was so beautiful
01:13 and I'm grateful to them beyond words.
01:16 So beautiful, so intense. My jaw was on the floor. I think that whole scene, I saw it at Sundance
01:22 and I just was like, "Wait, what?"
01:25 When you're on a set filming a scene like that with an actor like Anne Hathaway and Thomas,
01:31 what is your relationship when cameras aren't rolling?
01:34 Do you like to stay in character? How do you hold on to that intensity?
01:38 You know, I try to just keep my own focus however I can, but I feel like the more open I stay,
01:48 which involves gratitude to them, so I don't stay in character per se
01:53 because I find that makes me feel a little bit too insane.
01:57 But I try to just maintain a sense of being grounded and like, "Thank you. Hello. I'm here."
02:03 I just try to keep myself open so that I'm not overwhelmed by, you know, I don't actually lose my actual mind.
02:10 So I try to just stay grounded, grateful, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, everybody."
02:16 You know what I mean? I just try to like stay grounded and connected to them and they made that very easy.
02:22 Well, you nailed it. Speaking of reveals, you were another reveal in "Swans" recently.
02:28 Tell me, that show has just really taken off and I know that the fans are so devoted.
02:33 I know there was a big response to the twist of you being chosen.
02:37 So tell me what it's like to be a part of the "Swans" fandom.
02:40 You know, that was such a wild thing. It was like, I know Robbie Bates a little bit,
02:45 and so he was like, "Will you come and do this crazy thing?" And I was like, "I guess so."
02:48 And then it was like to be in not only a world of that show, but then it's like,
02:54 "Oh, and Zac Posen's going to make your dress and it's this iconic moment in time."
02:57 And like, "There's footage of her at the ball." You know, like, it was like, that was like,
03:02 I actually felt like Katharine Graham, I think, felt in that moment, if I can be so bold as to say.
03:07 I remember reading her memoir and she's like, "What the hell was I doing there?"
03:11 You know what I mean? And I felt a little bit like, "Here I am for, you know, this brief moment."
03:15 So it was, it was actually, I mean, I think I had maybe a little more fun than she did that night
03:20 because I could only enjoy it. I could only enjoy myself.
03:23 And Tom Hollander, it was, to be that close to what he was doing, I was like marveling. Yeah.
03:29 Now, Maren, you're, what's so amazing about you is you're able to move seamlessly from a project like Swans to
03:34 something like Eileen or even Birth/Rebirth where it's these really gritty indies.
03:38 What's the most indie project you've ever been on and what's the, like, what's the grittiest kind of,
03:44 you know, bootstraps film, indie film project you've done and what have you had to go without?
03:49 Oh my God. I'm trying to think. I feel like there's been so many.
03:53 I keep, I feel like one of the first movies I was ever, I ever did, this little indie called The Understudy,
03:58 which was wild. But that was a lot of, like, changing your clothes in the pizza parlor bathroom.
04:04 There's a lot of that. Also, you know, there were a couple films I did with these amazing producers
04:10 that we did, I did 28 Hotel Rooms with them and Glass Chin and Sparrows Dance with them.
04:17 These, like, incredible tiny movies where, like, you know, they're like Louise Runge and Sam Hausman
04:23 and they're, like, they're the producers who are also, like, making you peanut butter sandwiches for crafty.
04:27 You know what I mean? They're like, "Lunch?" You know what I mean?
04:30 Like, when the producers are also making you lunch and picking you up and driving you.
04:33 When I did 28 Hotel Rooms with Chris Messina, Matt Ross' first feature, I was, I don't live in L.A.
04:39 and I was staying in the hotel rooms that we shot in every night after we wrapped.
04:43 Because they were like, "Well, we can't put you up." And I was like, "What are we going to do?"
04:46 And then I was like, "Wait a minute. We're shooting in hotel rooms every day.
04:49 So after we wrap and after the camera's gone, I'll sleep in the hotel room overnight.
04:54 You pick me up and take me to the next hotel room the next morning."
04:56 So that was an ingenious moment. That was actually one of the good stories, I think.
05:01 My last question for you two. One great thing about Independent Spirit is championing the work of others.
05:05 Seeing your work in these two movies, particularly this year, mind-blowing.
05:09 Is there a performance that really changed your life this year?
05:12 Or an indie film performance or film in previous years that you remember seeing
05:17 that really just changed your idea of what an actor could do on screen?
05:21 You know, there's a couple answers to that. One is Greta Lee in Past Lives.
05:28 And that is actually just very personal just because I feel like I've known her through the New York theater community for so long.
05:33 And getting to see her do something that, in contrast to Eileen, wasn't about being covered in blood
05:39 and screaming and crying and all of that, but was such an incredible range
05:44 that was just this simmering under the surface, beautiful, the most delicate performance
05:51 and yet so kind of steely, that was really sensational to me.
05:55 Not a flashy performance at all, but so beautiful.
05:58 And also Andrew Scott, because I'm obsessed with him.
06:01 And All of Us Strangers was also a movie that I was like, "What is happening?"
06:06 It's like a poem, like a fever dream poem.
06:10 Just really moved me. So unexpected and beautiful.
06:13 Great answer. A fever dream poem is exactly the perfect thing.
06:16 You're sensational too. So nice to meet you. Thank you.
06:19 Thank you.
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