I imagine the book was from Solomon’s point of view. How much insight did he have into Mistress Epps?
She’s in the book, but again, it’s from his point of view, but that’s the story we’re telling so I tried to honor that as much as possible. I think he pretty much wrote about what he saw, so I don’t think it was an enhanced version of what she was. I’m sure she was that horrible.
As far as understanding that motivation you’re talking about…
Oh, he didn’t. I think for someone who’s going through all he’s going through and trying to stay so strong, I don’t think he was spending a lot of time figuring out the psychological motivations and impulses of Mistress Epps and why she was so deplorable. For me as an actress, I had to figure that out before playing it.
When we talk about Mistress Epp’s feelings about losing her husband, when do you imagine that turned into a sort of disgust with him?
Well, I think there’s probably varying stages of all that, but Patsey had been Mistress Epps’ favorite early on. She actually had great affection for Pastey and then when Mr. Epps starts to fall in love with her and is raping her, she knows that he’s doing this and sleeping with her. Of course everything in her changes and hardens and becomes impossible for her. He’s an alcoholic. There are so many things that probably happened to harden her heart to him prior to even all of that, but it’s all of a piece.
Had you read it prior to getting the part?
No. What’s so great about this movie being something that everyone can view is that I don’t think very many people were well versed in this story. To me, it should be required reading and maybe now something like that could happen.
What was your experience reading the book?
Oh, it was very important for me to read the book although there was a part of me that didn’t want to because the more ignorant I could have Mistress Epps be, the more helpful I thought it would be. The more I understood what Solomon was going through internally, the harder it was going to be for me as an actress to portray a person who didn’t have any regard for what he was going through. But I did read it, and I’m glad I read it.
It seems like Steve McQueen does the most harrowing scenes in a single take that just lasts and lasts. Can you take us through the setup and shooting of those long takes?
They’re sort of extraordinary in the sense that they do a lot to make you feel like it’s really happening, because there’s something awful about moviemaking where you’re constantly stopping and starting and resetting and changing lenses. You don’t ever get a real run at something to make it really come alive. Sometimes it happens anyway and sometimes it doesn’t, but sometimes the process of making a movie can get in the way of really making something feel authentic.
So when he shoots those long takes and some people are out of focus and then they come into focus, the thing I like about it is it’s sort of what would happen if you yourself were watching it. You don’t take things in in closeups. You take the whole image in at once which is what he’s sort of giving you with the camera. Those things were obviously difficult to shoot but in order to tell the story, it had to be done.
I was a big fan of “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” Could you have had a chance to go out for “The Newsroom?”
Oh, I would love to be on “The Newsroom” more than anything. Early on I had had an exchange with Aaron Sorkin over e-mail about Game Change because he was one of the first people to see the movie. He wrote me a very, very kind e-mail, then I wrote him back and begged him to let me be on the show and he wrote back a very sweet thing like, “Yes, come on!” with an exclamation point. He doesn’t know that I took it really seriously and he clearly has no intention of putting me on the show at all, but maybe next season.
I didn’t know if you were available when they were casting up.
I was not available and even if I had been, I had just done “Studio 60.” I might’ve been doing a play in New York and wasn’t really available but I think also, I don’t know whether they just wanted a British girl. I would love to have been on that show, but Emily Mortimer is a great actress.
See, you had your sights set on the MacKenzie role.
Of course.
There could have been any number of female characters in that cast. You could’ve been Sloan.
Yeah, I could’ve been Sloan, but I feel like she’s younger than I am, and hotter. Maybe they were looking for that, younger and hotter.
Well, I would see you in any of those roles for what that’s worth.
Thank you. Well, I appreciate that and maybe you can write that and Aaron Sorkin will decide to give me a job. Now he’s got to create a new part for me.
