Category: Interviews

EW has debuted a brand new clip of Mary in writer/director Eva Vives’ All About Nina, hitting select theaters in New York and Los Angeles tomorrow. Additionally, Entertainment Weekly talked to Eva about how she turned her real life trauma into this film, which is loosely based on her.

There’s a distinct rage coursing throughout Nina and the film, too. I don’t mean to probe into your past, but is that what inspired the script: a personal rage from a similar experience?
I wouldn’t say it was the rage that sparked me wanting to tell it, but I certainly didn’t want to shy away from the rage…. Until very recently it wasn’t really allowed in women, but that doesn’t mean we don’t feel it. We’re certainly feeling it a lot more in the last year — specifically this week. I’m incredibly triggered by what’s going on with the Kavanaugh hearings and how Dr. Ford is being treated. I’m upset that it feels like she’s being bullied into testifying and it’s a bunch of white, straight men trying to overpower her and not believe her! I was, funnily enough, trying to write a movie that’s somewhat hopeful for survivors. At the end of the day, she’s somebody who has a passion and does what she does well, and hopefully by the end of the movie you feel like she will at least be able to open herself up to love. I also didn’t want that to mean she wasn’t in touch with her anger and her rage. Keeping that stuff down is really hurtful.

You’re a survivor as well?
It’s very much my story, except I’ve never done stand-up comedy. Everything else is very much taken out of my life. Definitely in terms of everything she says on stage during her breakdown is me. I was abused by my father for eight years.

Was writing Nina’s liberation liberating for you?
The liberation happened already; that’s why I was able to write about it because I didn’t have to create that much. She’s similar to how I was in my twenties. I’ve calmed down since…. The bulk of my recovery — not that it ever ends — was 10-12 years of living in New York, exhibiting [destructive] behaviors Nina does…. I was able to write this with some distance because I’d recovered and healed enough. I also had a son five years ago, and becoming a parent gave me that kind of power. I want to be strong and good for him in the way my parents weren’t able to be for me, and that gave me strength and security.

It was more empowering to write in the sense that I don’t really think about my father anymore. As Nina also says in the movie, he committed suicide years ago, so he was already not part of my life. For me, maybe it will be liberating soon enough…. We’ll see what happens when it comes out. It was empowering to at least have some say on how I told the story, because for so long he defined me, what he did to me or what he was how I had to live.

Yesterday I posted four interviews of Mary promoting her new film ‘All About Nina’ and as previously mentioned, more interviews with her have been released. As I always do, I will add excerpts, but be sure to click on the links to read them all in full.

Variety also interviewed Mary, where she talked about potentially doing stand-up before filming:

“We talked a lot about how Nina is so confident onstage. I knew how to do that as a character in front of a camera because I know how to tap into that confidence,” she says. “But strip all that away from me and put me at an open mic night somewhere, I just would have bombed. I would have been terrible.” It helped to have comics in the film, such as Jay Mohr, and Jamie Loftus, who served as comedy consultant. “I was nervous, I would come in early on the days we shot those scenes and work with Jamie,” Winstead says. “By the end, it actually started to be really fun.”

Front Row Features also had a really in-depth interview with her where they talked a lot about the film Some highlights:

Q: Did you go to comedy clubs to watch comedians on stage?

Winstead: A little bit. I signed onto the movie and then I went to shoot (the TV series) “Fargo” almost immediately. Then I came back and we shot the movie almost immediately so there wasn’t a lot of time in terms of preparation. Also, I was so nervous and so nervous and so overwhelmed that I started trying to go to as many shows as I could. I was trying to find that one person who was going to be my inspiration. At a certain point, I had to sit back and figure out who this person is and let the comedy come out of that because if I try to copy somebody else then it’s not going to feel authentic to me. So, I had to take a step away from all that stuff and focus on Nina.

Q: Was your stand up act all scripted or did you improvise or create some of your dialogue?

Winstead: It was a bit of both. The structure of it, the majority of it that’s in the film, is scripted. We would come in early and work on it on the days that we shot the stand up routines. We had this comedian named Jamie Loftus who was our stand up consultant. So, the three of us—Eva, Jamie and I—would get together and we’d go over it and I’d say it for them. We’d talk about which things were working, which things could be better, and we’d just riff. We’d take things out and add things in and mix things up and make them feel how they needed to feel for me to feel confident. It also was really fun to be riffing and improvising raunchy comedy with a couple of other women. Typically, in any comedic space I’ve been in, it’s always been only men. So, it was a totally new experience and I loved it.

Q: Did you relate to Nina as a performer coming to L.A. from somewhere else to realize your dream?

Winstead: My experience was so different because Nina’s coming from New York. I came from Utah when I was a kid, so I had a much more wide-eyed point of view. I did have that slow falling in love with L.A. It took me a long time to do. I loved working here and I loved that I was able to do what I loved but as a city, I didn’t really get it or figure that I fit in. But now I really love it. I had to surrender to it in some way which I kind of see Nina do in the movie.

Mary recently completed two days worth of press for her film All About Nina and brand new interviews with her, co-star Common as well as writer/director Eva Vives have hit the web. Be sure to check out the film in New York and Los Angeles this weekend if you’re able to. You can check to see if the film is playing in a theater near you by going here. In related news, Mary will be at the AMC Empire 25 in NYC this Friday at 7:30pm participating in a Q&A for the film. Be sure to check back for even more interviews in the coming days!

Mary also did an interview with Awards Circuit. I’ve added parts of some of the Q&As below, but be sure to click the link to read it in full since it is a great read.

JM: What made this part attractive to you? There’s a lot of stuff that people seem interested in you for. At the same time, you don’t sign on to a lot. So, you definitely have an idea of what you want to do. What made this something that sounded like a good way to spend six months of your life?

MEW: Yeah. This one, you know, because these movies are so fast and furious, we shot this one in 21 days. It was a much shorter time spent in the character, but a much more intense time than most others, you know? But, it just was, from the first page, so intriguing to me. It opens with this huge, long, stand up monologue. I don’t get that many scripts that open with just one woman talking for three pages, you know? Right off the bat, I was curious about it, at the very least, since playing a stand up comedian seemed like such an incredible challenge.

JM: Has working with Eva made you think about directing?

MEW: I think, for a few years now I’ve thought about the possibility of directing. It might be something that I could be good at. Of course, it’s something you don’t really know about until you try. Hopefully one day I’ll find the time and the people who want to work with me, because I’d love to try it. But I don’t know. It would all have to come together in the right way. We’ll see. But I hope that it does!

JM: What do you look for going forward? Between great work on television, “All About Nina,” which deserves awards attention for you, and how every few weeks you’re rumored to be up for a blockbuster, does it impact what strikes your fancy when looking at potential gigs?

MEW: Well, I mean, I kind of just go with my gut feeling on whatever I do. Usually, I’m just looking for something that I think will feel good to do. Usually that is based on the material and the people and the story we’re telling. That means for me that character is complex, that we’re trying to say something with it that’s going to make us feel good and stand behind at the end of the day. So, that’s kind of what I look for. If it’s not saying anything, if it won’t make me feel good, I’m not interested. But, if it is, if it has a point of view that’s interesting to me, or if we’re trying to say something that might matter at the end of the day, that could capture my interest.

JM: Luckily, that’s starting to include certain large scale projects too now.

MEW: It is! It’s exciting. It opens things up for me a little more. More diversity of storytelling, in all facets of filmmaking, is really exciting.

Additionally, Mary spoke with Entertainment Tonight about the film which you can read after the cut:
Continue reading Four New ‘All About Nina’ Interviews

In a new interview with Ion Cinema, director Eva Vives revealed how she decided to cast Mary in her new film All About Nina, hitting select theaters on September 28. Be sure to click the link to read it in full:

I was wondering what characteristics, sensibilities, perhaps even previous roles help shape your casting choice for Mary Elizabeth Winstead? What were those first conversations like about the character of Nina like?

Vives: Well, most of her work really because I think she’s fantastic and versatile and layered and subtle, which is not valued these days as much as it should be. Specially in women. But the moment that made me fall in love with her (and I told her this) was the scene when she pisses herself in SMASHED. And even more specifically, a particular moment right after she pees when she actually looks relived and happy for a second! I love that. I rewatched it again when I was thinking about casting her and I thought: someone who can play all those emotions so quickly, can also play Nina.

The biggest question for Nina (for any actress) was anger. The very first meeting I had with Mary she said the over-riding emotion for her for Nina was rage. The minute she said that word, I knew we saw her the same way. We had a lot of conversations (on set specially) about how much rage she was keeping down at any given moment. She’s a tough character to play because of all the things she doesn’t say. That’s what I think Mary excels at – and that’s saying a lot because she’s such a great actor overall. I also particularly enjoyed seeing her come to her anger with Nina because Mary is SO not like that. So it was really an amazing transformation to witness.

I would say “action” and she would just… turn into someone else. I remember one day, when we were shooting the first scene with Jay Mohr and Mary said her line: “Have fun jacking off to me tonight.” Jay asked her to say it again and Mary was like: “No, fuck off!” And Jay was like: “No, I just need to get my line right.” We all started laughing because she was so in character that she told him to fuck off which is exactly what Nina would have done.

 

Lavallee: Can you discuss the collaborative process you had with your cinematographer?
Vives: Thomas Scott Stanton, my wonderful DP, was seminal in helping me choose the look of the film, of course. But also, and since we are acknowledging the contributions that key people have on film, I want to say that Thomas was so so great in dealing with actors.

or example, in the scene in which Nina cries in the bathroom… I went to see Mary in her trailer and as soon as I saw her, I realized she was ready to go. So I left and ran back to the set and the bathroom where Thomas was lighting with his team and I said: “She’s ready. We gotta go.” And he saw my face and understood, I didn’t want to miss it, to let the moment pass with Mary. So he said: Ok.

She came in, I said lets just do one shot and let it go and see what happens and the minute I said action, she started crying like… she hadn’t in years (the character I mean). We let her cry as long as she wanted, until she was done. I checked in with Thomas a couple of times. He gave me the thumbs up. And that was that.

It sounds simple but he could have fucked that up by adjusting lights too much or being precious about something in that moment. He understood that Mary’s performance was integral to the film and if he didnt get that, the rest didnt matter.