Way Too Indie caught up with Mary and the rest of the Alex of Venice stars during the San Fransisco International Film Festival premiere. You can see Mary’s interview below and check out the rest of the cast interviews by clicking the link above.
Also, Mary and her husband/director Riley attended the Maryland Film Festival to promote their film Faults. You can see a photo of it in the gallery.
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.
AwardsCircuit.com sat down with Mary during the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival where they discussed Alex of Venice and future projects. Be sure to read the full interview by clicking the link above!
JM: When this came about, were you offered the part of did you audition?
MEW: I auditioned. It was actually one of those things where I met him and I’d heard things, but I’d loved the script and wanted to audition, not just to meet. I think he was concerned that I wasn’t the right fit, age wise, the character was written to be 35 and at that point I was 28, so it was the sort of thing where he wanted me to come in and prove that I could be a mom and, you know, this character, who’s been in this role her whole life, a young, working mother. The first time I went in, they wanted me to come back looking frumpier, so I went shopping and changed my look head to toe, so it took some convincing, but it was one of those roles that I knew that I just needed to play, you know? It just felt very right for me, so I wanted to prove that I was right for it.
JM: Going forward, what are you looking to do? You’ve hit almost every genre, short of maybe a zany comedy…
MEW: I know! It’s kind of weird, I sort of feel like I’ve reached a point now where I’m looking for the best roles I can find. It’d be nice to find something that would reach a wider audience but I was also really proud of, but it’s really hard, and it’s always kind of a risk. You can do something that reaches a wider audience and it turns out terrible, or with indies, they’re fun and a bit safe, in that if it doesn’t work out there’s less risk, but you wish it would get seen on a bigger scale. I’m certainly proud of this one, but yeah…you just wish they would get seen on a bigger scale.
JM: Definitely. It’s fun to watch how people evolve, and you certainly want to support people you’ve enjoyed in prior works. I know that Scott Pilgrim is pretty much universally loved, but I wonder if that had made $100 million if things wouldn’t have gone a different way, maybe even a worse way?
MEW: Absolutely. That’s totally true. I think I’ve been almost lucky in a way, in that I never broke out completely, especially at a place in my career where I’d be boxed in or wouldn’t really know what I wanted. I’m really only now at a place where I know what I want to do, so I’m really excited that I got to this point sort of on my own.
JM: So to wrap up, what do you have coming up next?
MEW: I have a couple movies coming out. I have a movie called Kill the Messenger with Jeremy Renner coming out, and it’s such and interesting story and he’s fantastic in it. And I just did a movie with my husband called Faults that I’m super proud of. Hopefully that’ll be out soon. And I also just did a pilot, so I’m hoping to enter the TV world soon.
In an interview with Backstage.com, director and also actor of Alex of Venice star Chris Messina praised Mary’s acting ability in his new film:
The film follows the titular character, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, as she fights to keep her job as environmental lawyer, her role as a mother, and her eccentric father (Don Johnson) in check, without the support of her husband.
A fan since seeing her on “Smashed,” Messina felt Winstead’s talents were well-suited for the film. “When I saw her audition, I was blown away,” he admits. “The trick with Mary is just to stay out of her way because she doesn’t need my direction…If I have to guide her right or left, that’s fine, but she was connected to the part, she didn’t need me—she just needed me to shut up.”
He kept his silence when directing Winstead, but Messina’s voice and vision as a director comes through loud and clear in the first five minutes of the film, carrying through to the end. Supported, but not driven by dialogue, much of Messina’s storytelling is visual, dropping clues about the storyline in degrees. It was a choice partly achieved by not stopping the recording between takes.
“It created some moments that didn’t have a lot of acting in it and it was helpful for me when I was in editing to find some truth,” he says.
UInterview talked with Mary, Katie Nehra and Derek Luke about Alex of Venice.
The actors each gave Uinterview some insight into their characters, and revealed what they believed was at the core of the film.
Winstead plays the lead, Alex, an environmental lawyer and mother of one, whose husband, played by Messina, leaves her at the beginning of the film. Winstead revealed that her character is forced to redefine herself as “a mother, and a lawyer, and a sister, and a daughter and a new woman.”
“It’s just sort of her, I guess, sort of dealing with all of these relationships, and some new relationships, and some old relationships, and trying to figure out her new life,” Winstead added.
Anthem Magazine also talked with Mary about Venice, Faults and how she sees her career going. Click the link to read the full interview. Be sure to head to the gallery to see a new photo shoot Mary shot for them as well:
How did you get involved with Alex of Venice?
It’s a script I got through my agent like anything else. It wasn’t an offer… I immediately loved it. It was one of those things where I cried like 5 times when I first read it. I just felt really connected to the role and thought it was so beautifully written. I just had to play this part. I just felt like it was very specifically right for me. I knew I was a little bit young, so I auditioned a couple times. I tried to prove to them that I could be a mom and age up a little bit. [Laughs] We haven’t been married this long, but I’ve been with my husband for 11 years, so just imagining him leaving me was so devastating to me. Instantly, I could go there in my head.
This is Faults, directed by your husband Riley Stearns. Did you develop the film together?
He created this himself. I was definitely involved from the beginning, starting from the first 10 pages, so I was excited immediately from the beginning. I was like, “This is the movie. This is the movie that you’re going to find your filmmaking voice with.” I was so excited for him. I never imagined that we’d make it so quickly, so we got lucky. His producers read it and they wanted to make 6 months later—it was insane. I couldn’t be prouder. It was so much fun to work with him and super rewarding.
What’s left to explore? You have such a colorful filmography.
I just want to play complex, relatable characters. I want to find really good material. When I look at female characters from the ’70s from Ellen Burstyn or something like that, that would be the perfect world I would want.
Variety also raved about Mary’s performance in Alex of Venice.
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.
The Arts Guild has posted their review on Alex of Venice. As always, you can read the full review by clicking on the link:
While the direction had a level of refinement, this film offers interesting, sophisticated performances. Mary Elizabeth Winstead successfully captures the broken Alex that we expect to see, slowly piecing together both her character and her life as the film progresses. Winstead ensures there is a balance of emotion, while not hiding her characters fragmented state.
Messina has created a film that does successfully look at a characters growth out of chaos, creating a story that isn’t exaggerated and characters that aren’t just found in fiction. Everyone experiences life’s brutal complexities and this film highlights that in a sincere and artistic fashion.
Crave Online caught up with Mary as well where they talked about Alex of Venice, Kill the Messenger, Faults and her possibly coming back for Die Hard 6:
I also felt for Alex with her sister when she’s all, “Man, why do you have to take your kid to school everyday?” As if you’re the bad guy for wanting to fulfill your responsibility. Did you relate to her in that scene?
Yeah, and I know a lot of mothers in my life and mothers who have a lot on their plate and they’re really just trying to hold it together. So I could see a lot of those women that I know in Alex, and how you do snap on your family. There were times where we discussed that scene before doing it. We don’t want her to be too mean. We don’t want her to yell at her sister and people won’t like her.
I was like, “That’s so real. People in families yell at each other. They freak out on each other.” To me that scene felt very real, in that moment when you’re so stressed, you have so much on your plate and you’re just trying to get your family to help you out and they’re screwing it up. So I felt like she was very validated in screaming at her sister at that moment, even though in the long run she was maybe being taught a lesson that she needed to learn. Man, that was frustrating. I felt the frustration for sure in that scene.
The latest Die Hard 6 talk is that they might be trying to get Samuel L. Jackson back. Has there been any mention of Lucy yet?
Not to me, no. I haven’t heard anything about it but that would be cool. Samuel L. Jackson coming back would be awesome. I’d like to see that.
Maybe you can have a sizable role, something in between 4 and the cameo in 5.
Right, exactly. If it keeps getting smaller it’s just going to disappear. I’ll be on the phone in the next one maybe.
And what do you get to play in Kill the Messenger?
I get to play the editor to Jeremy Renner’s character. We sort of together come up with this story and decide to print it. It’s a true story and it’s quite a crazy, crazy one. Basically Jeremy Renner plays this journalist Gary Webb who sort of discovers this link between the government and the crack epidemic in Los Angeles and did this big expose on it, but it was for the San Jose Mercury News which was a small paper.
They realized quickly that they were in way over their head because it was a story that was way beyond them, so eventually everyone was kind of forced to recant the story or to say they got things wrong, even though the story was true and Gary Webb ultimately, well, bad things happened. I don’t want to give too much away for people who don’t know the story but it’s an incredible story and Jeremy Renner’s amazing in it. I’m really excited to be a part of it.
Is the role of the editor a big part?
It’s definitely Jeremy Renner’s movie. He’s the star and there’s a big supporting cast, so it’s a supporting role but it’s a great one. She’s his boss and he really had a young female editor boss that he had to run everything by. She did end up making some minor mistakes which is part of their downfall in the end. It’s kind of a sad story about the two of them having this huge story that could potentially make their careers and it ends up crushing them in a lot of ways.
Two new interviews with Mary discussing Alex of Venice have been released. The first one is with Zoomin.TV Movies. It’s a little NSFW in the language department but other than that, it’s a short interview.
Den of Geek also spoke with Mary, Katie Nehra and Derek Luke about the film. Below are some highlights, you can read it in full by clicking on the link above:
How was Chris [Messina] as a director for all of you guys?
MEW: He’s wonderful. Like Derek was saying, just getting to work with an actor-director was so great. I’ve worked with a lot of directors who have great communication, but there are those times where the communication is really not there, because they don’t know how actors approach what they do, and they don’t know how to get you to do what they want by using the right language; they don’t know how to use it. He knows exactly how to express that, because he’s an actor. So, it cuts out any sort of communication issues. And he knows what actors like to do, which is to get to play and go every direction possible. He’s like now do it this way, now do it this way, now do it this way.
Mary, Chris said at the premiere that you did the ecstasy scene so much that you threw up. Could you talk about the process of that scene?
MEW: Well—it was a mix of things that happened. The first thing that happened was that was the day they had an ice cream truck on set. Ice cream sandwiches literally this big [gestures large sandwich]. And I had two of them. I don’t know why, but that night I decided to have two giant ice cream sandwiches. And then—
KN: I had tequila on set.
MEW: Katie was drinking tequila.
KN: I was making mixed drinks.
MEW: I literally had only two sips of the tequila, but it was just enough, I think, with the ice cream. And then I didn’t really realize, the way that Chris shoots, that it was going to be crazy. I mean it looks so mellow with the music and the slow-mo, but we were jumping to really fast-paced music, and Chris kept going, “Jump! Keep jumping! Keep jumping everybody!” It was just half an hour of jumping.
You have a great a quality of mixing comedic elements with dramatic moments. I saw it in Smashed and I see it in this film. Is that hard to balance or does it come out naturally?
MEW: Thank you so much. Well, I think that’s the kind of thing I’ve grown into as I’ve gotten older and further into my career: bringing myself as much as I can, and knowing that that’s a good thing. I think when I was younger, I thought that wasn’t really acting. “No, I have to create like this mysterious person who is totally different from me! That’s the only way I’ll be a real actor!” As I’ve gotten older, I realized that it’s the opposite. That’s what people want to see. They want to see you. They want to see your personality, and your heart, and your soul, and that’s what actually makes me people relate to you. So, I finally kind of realized that and I just try to bring myself to it.
I’m just thankful people like Chris—when I watch it, I’m like “I do so many weird things!” But thankfully, someone appreciates it. There are so many faces I make where I’m like “I have no idea why I’m doing that.”
As the title reads, The Playlist recently caught up with Mary during her time in New York for the Tribeca Film Festival and interviewed her about Alex of Venice. She also talked briefly about Kill the Messenger and the TV pilot she filmed for ABC called Exposed.
The site also gave their review on the film:
Well-intentioned and intimate, “Alex Of Venice” has its heart in the right place; its pains and struggles might be small stakes and personal, but they’re very genuine, relatable and universal. There’s a lot to admire, which is why the movie’s uneven grasp of narrative fundamentals is so frustrating. Led by a terrifically vulnerable performance by an unadorned Mary Elizabeth Winstead, the cast, which includes Derek Luke, Katie Nehra and Reg E. Cathey (Freddy From “House Of Cards”) is uniformly quite good. Don Johnson is particularly great, playing all restrained and in the pocket as Alex’s father who might be suffering from something more than just acute absent-mindedness (this would be his second great performance of 2014 after playing a impulsive lawman in “Cold In July” which screened earlier this year at Sundance).
Final Grade: B-
You can read the full review by clicking on the link above.
I’ve added lots of new photos (over 100) of Mary at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of her new film Alex of Venice. Head to the gallery to check them out.
Also, I’ve added the first poster to the gallery as well.
Additionally, the Tribeca Film Festival Q&A with the cast of Alex of Venice is now online: