WGTC: The entire cast was great, but Tuppence Middleton’s performance especially stood out to me. Why did you decide to cast her as Mickey?
Softley: I had spent a couple of years putting the film together at a higher budget and had attracted a number of actors who subsequently became very well known, but the timing didn’t work out. So I decided to start the casting process from scratch in London. I did a number of call backs and saw actors in different combinations. Tuppence and Alex came to the top of the pile in that process.
WGTC:  I noticed in both this and The Skeleton Key there are people who may not actually be who they physically appear to be. That’s certainly not a common thing to see in films. Is there a reason you keep coming back to that theme of identity?
Softley: The theme of identity in film has always intrigued me, whether in classics like Vertigo or lesser known films like Jacques Rivette’s French film Celine and Julie or Donald Cammell’s Performance. Cinema is the ideal place to explore these themes as a big attraction of film is the opportunity it gives us to project ourselves into other worlds and other lives.
There are identity themes in my other films like Backbeat and Wings of the Dove where the characters are on personal journeys to discover who they are and who they want to be.
WGTC:Â Anything exciting coming up that you can tell us about?
Softley: I’m just editing a thriller called Curve, which is produced by Jason Blum for Universal Pictures. I shot it in LA recently. It stars Julianne Hough, who is amazing in the lead role.
