IndieNYC sat down with director/actor Chris Messina and the rest of the Alex of Venice cast during the Tribeca Film Festival to discuss the film. Below are some highlights and as always, you can read the full interview by clicking the link posted above. And thanks to Paige, I’ve added a new outtake from Mary’s Anthem Magazine interview which you can read HERE. Head to the gallery to check out the full-sized pic:
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is known for roles that are very different from this one, from “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” to “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” Were you [Chris] ever apprehensive about casting her?
No. I saw her in “Smashed,” and I was blown away. And then she came in to read, and her reading was incredible. And she also just had a lot of passion for the movie. It was clear that she connected to the material and wanted to do it. When you’re directing your first movie, or maybe any movie, you need a support team around you, and you need leaders. Nobody was making any money. A lot of these people have families, a lot of them had opportunities to go make money on other jobs. So they had to want to be there. That was something that I required. Mary wanted to be there, and she was an incredible captain of the ship. She set a tone and a precedent for the film that I think the crew, and myself, and the rest of the actors really followed.
Mary, you’ve played roles very different from this one–for instance, in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Moving forward, how are you going to be choosing your roles?
Mary: I’m drawn to characters who get to be very human, in that they are a lot of different qualities, instead of just a few or even one. Earlier in my career, I felt like I would play a character, and the character would be [a specific] thing, and fit inside [a specific] box. And I would just try to be that. Now I’m trying to bring all my own qualities to characters, to make them as complex as possible. And if I can find roles that allow for that and don’t box me in too much, that’s the most fun for me. This was kind of perfect for that. And I’m not always going to get that, as much as I try.
