The Arts Guild caught up with Mary, screenwriter/actress Katie Nehra and actor Derek Luke at the Tribeca Film Festival where they talked about their new film Alex of Venice. You can check out the video interview here.
BlackFilm.com chatted with Mary’s co-star in the film, Derek Luke, and he talked about how he enjoyed working with Mary. Read in full at the link above:
How was working with Mary Elizabeth?
DL: Mary reminds me of a couple of women that I have either met or had the opportunity to date. What I love about Mary is that she is complex in a sense that she’s sophisticated but she’s an artist. She comes to set to work and I think that when you come to set to work, all gender goes away and the respect evolves. I have a true respect for her. My wife threw a party for me and part of the party was doing monologues. I didn’t want to do a monologue but my wife got up and did a monologue and she blew me away. It’s the same admiration I had for Mary. There are some incredible powerful actors that happen to be women.
Also, The Sag Harbor Online did a lengthy interview with Mary where she talks about AOV and touches a little upon 2011’s The Thing and her earlier work. Be sure to click the link to read it in full:
DP: In the press notes, Chris Messina says this is a slice-of-life drama. That means characters don’t have to change. But the movie is about change. Everyone changes for the better.
MEW: It’s one of the major themes of the movie.
DP: About a third of the way through the movie I was liking your performance, but I was asking myself, “Do I like her character?” When you read the script for the first time, did you like Alex?
MEW: I really liked her in the script and as I played her, But there were a few moments when I was thinking, “I hope people stick with her through some of this stuff, because she’s really high-strung and nervous for a good majority of the movie.” She’s not connected, not really present, and making bad choices as well.
DP: Actors are usually protective of their characters, so were you seeing good stuff in her?
MEW: Absolutely. She’s so relatable, in terms of people that I know and love. I have a really big family, so there’s all sorts of types of people in my family. So there are Alexes in my family. Especially when you’re a mother and you’re very busy and just trying to keep your life together, you don’t want to look at or think about or address things that aren’t going well. Because there’s too much going on. I think that’s easy to relate to, particularly for women today who are trying to balance so many things in their lives. Alex, in some cases, would rather things just go on in their own broken ways because it’s easier than addressing the real problems.
DP: I saw most of your early movies without realizing they all starred the same actress, you. It wasn’t until The Thing that I knew who you were. Was that a pivotal movie for you, in terms of audience?
MEW: I’ll always really love that role. It was not a movie that did well necessarily, but I was attracted to the idea of playing a smart action heroine at the time. I still am. I loved the character, and the project, and the director [Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.] and it’s still something that I look back on fondly.
The final screening of Alex of Venice at the Tribeca Film Festival this Saturday at 6:30 at the SVA theater on 23rd Street between 8th & 9th Avenues.