I want to talk about the house, because it’s amazing. How did you guys find that, and also did you shoot the interiors there as well?
Ever since I saw The Shining, I’ve been obsessed with the idea of location as a character. We spent a lot of time searching for the perfect house. I remember walking into where we shot the film, looking around and thinking, “Oh my God! It’a Hitchcock film. It’s North By Northwest.” It’s fascinating because even though you think being in that all-glass modern space would make you feel integrated into nature, you’re actually very vulnerable because, at night, it feels like you’re in a glass display case. Which was Hunter’s experience that she was kind of a captive in this invisible prison, and I think the house reflects that nicely.
Then, of course, the interior of the house and everything in it was designed by Erin Magill, our incredible production designer. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Hunter is decorating the baby’s room, and she puts this red gel on the window. It was such a great idea of Erin’s that this red can come out. That part of Hunter’s true self can emerge. What was also so fascinating about Haley Bennett’s performance is Haley is so good with layers of emotion, and Hunter wears multiple masks throughout the film. The first mask is her plastic smile, reflecting normalcy. Her second mask is her pain, her doubt, and then the third mask is her true self, her primal self emerging. Haley Bennett can show all those layers with just the touch of her hair or the twitch of her eye, so there was this great synergy between performance and location.
“I didn’t think she would because it’s so different…”
Did you always have Haley Bennett in mind for Hunter, or how did she come to the project?
During the casting process, I saw her performance in Girl On A Train, and I thought it was amazing, and I really wanted to see her in a lead role. I thought she might be interested in a bold, daring role. So I wrote her a letter and offered her the part and hoped that she would accept it. I didn’t think she would because it’s so different from everything else she’s done, but amazingly, she met with me, and we had this fascinating conversation, and it was a real meeting of the minds. Right away, I think we knew we wanted to make the film together.
What film or films did you see when you were growing up that made you want to be a filmmaker?
Oh gosh, there were so many, but I would say that when I was in high school, about 14 or 15, there was this student who was one year older than me, and he said, “I think there are two movies you should see.” He invited me over to his house, and he showed me The Shining and Akira, and seeing those two films back to back was deeply inspiring because they’re so psychologically intricate and visually beautiful. That classmate turned out to be Jordan Peele that went on to make two of the great masterpieces of horror, Get Out and Us. I was always very grateful to Jordan for taking me under his wing and showing me those movies at kind of a critical juncture in my life.
