WGTC: Robin Williams seems like a strange choice to play the quiet, lonesome neighbor, Roger. How did you decide on him for the part?
AP: I felt like I needed somebody who you would remember from the first moment you see him. [Williams] plays an increasingly dramatic role in the movie because she’s not telling anyone about [her romance with her husband’s double]. [Roger] is not only her closest friend and has been harboring a secret crush on her for a long time, but he’s also her neighbor, which means he can come over at any moment and see these things she’s doing with the double. I wanted someone who could make an impression.
But, there are these other emotions running through it: grief and loss. I did not want the movie to have a maudlin tone. I wanted the audience to know that it’s ok to enjoy this movie and there’s a lot of laughs and a lot of joy. That was the reason why I thought Robin would be perfect for the role. He kind of makes it safe for the audience to sit back and enjoy this story. I can’t think of anyone else who can combine this like Robin does. He has such emotional sensitivity and vulnerability, as well as a presence of humour. He accomplishes everything. He makes you feel deeply but he also lets you know it’s ok to enjoy what you’re watching.
WGTC: There are so many wonderful scenes with longer-than-usual takes of Bening, Harris and Williams. When you are directing such fine actors, how much did you let their own instincts guide their performance and how much did you work with them in finding the right way to play a scene?
AP: With any scene, it’s very much about having choices in the editing room. Once we’ve shot everything and get to the editing room, then all of the questions you’ve been wrestling with from back in the script stage, they all arive again. What is Nikki thinking during different parts of the story? How suspicious is Tom that there’s something else going on that he’s unaware of? You want to give him his suspicion but don’t want to make him a fool, that there is something so obvious that he doesn’t realize it. How obvious her growing confusion is and his reaction to it… all of that needs to be fine-tuned. I find in the best movies, the audience is slightly ahead of the movie. Not too much, but not behind so that they’re lost. If they’re too far ahead, they’re bored as they know what’s going to happen.
In directing them, they show up and they have a strong opinion about what the truth is for their character, and they’re supremely talented and can deliver a great performance. The joy of my job in that situation is to say, “ok, Ed, let’s do one [take] with just a little bit more suspicion. Let’s do one when he’s holding back a little bit.” With Annette, how much is she in the present moment, versus let’s do one where she’s in a little bit more in her head and in her memory, consumed by that. That’s the wonderful thing with them.
I found myself in the editing room with sometimes six, seven, eight takes that were superb. My number one job is to just be the lie detector. Do I believe in the truth of what I’m seeing? To be able to land in the editing room with a half-dozen takes that are all true and authentic and believable and yet shaded so differently with a little bit more empathy on this [take] and a little less empathy on that [take], that’s the gift of working with actors this good. It gives me the freedom to really craft the story in the strongest way I can.
WGTC: There is such a subtext to these roles and their performances that shows up onscreen. There is also lot of dramatic irony in this screenplay. I kept thinking he was going to find out prematurely that he looked like her husband but every time, she found a a way to get out of the situation. Did you always know how the truth would be revealed?
AP: The shape of the story is in the script. I had in mind those great romantic films of the 40s and 50s, whether it’s Douglas Sirk or Alfred Hitchcock. They were romantic movies but they were infused with suspense. They were tense. In the best cases, they were edge-of-your-seat tense. And I hadn’t seen that in a long time. [The Face of Love] does not have a premise that is obviously full of suspense. That’s a tone that I wanted to try to find in the making of the movie. That goes back to the writing and the script. Hopefully it’s as unpredictable as the best thriller. Is he going to find this secret? And if so, how? And, then what happens? Do they get past that? What happens to their relationship? Along the way, there’s a lot of dramatic irony, a lot of tension. I believe that keeps an audience involved in the story.
WGTC: Who drew the amazing paintings featured in Tom’s gallery at the end of the film?
AP: There’s an artist named Tracey Sylvester Harris – no relation to Ed Harris. We looked at hundreds of contemporary artists. We wanted to fill the art gallery at the end with paintings, but we wanted to make one painting ourselves for the movie. When we found Tracey, it was a huge relief. You already have a lot of paintings that have oceans and water, visual themes that are in our story world. A lot of the characters are in period clothing, the men have hats. So it feels like it’s from another age. And we have a lone figure in the middle of that. It felt like the kind of work that the character of Tom, the artist, would have made in the year he was painting. We commissioned Tracey to create that final painting at the end of the movie. But, please don’t give away what’s in the painting. It’s a spoiler.
That concludes our interview, but we’d like to thank Arie very much for his time. Be sure to check out The Face Of Love, which is now playing in limited release.
