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Roadside Attractions releases Call Jane nationwide on October 28th, 2022. NYC MOVIE GURU: Between entertaining the audience and provoking them emotionally as well as intellectually, which of those elements was most difficult to tweak in the editing room? Phyllis Nagy: Since in most of the scenes that I didn't cut, those things are working in concert. It became a very delicate maneuver to privilege, say, one of the performances over the other in order to get to highlight the humor or the emotion which was certainly the case in the first abortion procedure scene. We weren't highlighting the humorous takes in that. But, by and large, it became this very precise routine with the editor and me: "What are we going for? What are we juxtaposing which scene is sitting next to the next?" That's how we went about it. NYC MOVIE GURU: Who do you think is ultimately responsible for opening the window into a character's heart, mind and soul? Which character's window in Call Jane was most challenging to open, so-to-speak? PN: It's probably, ultimately, a joint responsibility between the actor and the director---the actor in performance, but the director in, ultimately, making the decision over which take we use and when and how it cuts together. So, it's a great responsibility to shepherd that along. I think that in Call Jane, the characters that were the most challenging were the characters of the doctor and Joy's husband, to a lesser extent. In that Christmas scene, the character is not written as a complete baddie. Chris [Messina] brought what I'd known he'd bring which is this very unexpected take on that 60's husband who's also a lawyer. He doesn't yell, stomp his feet or demand things; it's a little more passive-aggressive than that, I guess. But, also, he's quite a nice guy, so balancing that was also a responsibility. Cory Michael Smith, who plays Dr. Dean, the trick there is that you like him despite his idiocy. He's just someone who keeps getting duped by much smarter women. That was how to present that, ultimately. NYC MOVIE GURU: Call Jane is a roller coaster ride of different emotions. Which emotion was most challenging to depict? PN: Certainly the most challenging to depict in any film in which politics is a component would be rage of righteous rage. I watched a lot of movies that depict this well, but they were all documentaries where you were able to just see the unvarnished person. Basically, it was important to present situations in their contradictory complexity in order to bring that out. Whose point of view is right? I don't know. But in this debate or discussion, the multiple voices being highlighted becomes the thing that's important. So, that was hard. So was, actually, fear. What do you feel about the point of view of the woman undergoing the abortion procedure? NYC MOVIE GURU: Dr. Susan Forward wrote in the book Toxic Parents that society often suppresses women from getting angry and men from crying. That was written back in 1989. Do you think that that's still an issue today? PN: I see a lot of anger these days, so I suppose that's good. I remember I had a conversation with Elizabeth Banks early on and she said that the one thing that she didn't want to do in her abortion scene was cry---not that it would ever have occured to me to do it, but I thought that that was interesting that most of what you see are women crying in much earlier films. There are a batch of films recently that don't, more or less, subscribe to that notion that women cry and men get angry. I'm seeing an awful lot of angry women out there being very vocal about not just abortion, but their lives and their work and the value that they bring. So, maybe Susan Forward is outdated. Who knows? NYC MOVIE GURU: What do you think that Joy sees in Virginia? PN: I've always thought of Virginia as the mother you've always wanted, but never had. She's cool and she's sassy, nasty and a little of a bully and persuasive. But I think that what Joy sees in her is that, first of all, she tries to impress her in the way that she tries to impress the doctors with her cookies. It's heartbreaking that that's what she thinks that she has to offer, but as time goes on, she understands that what impresses Virginia is just the act of being there and present and helping---which is, after all, what her husband also expects of her, but in a very different set of actions. So, it presents a dilemma for her that, ultimately, I think, if I were to ask, "Does that marriage survive?", I would say, "Yes, it does, but with some changes around the house, probably." NYC MOVIE GURU: How do you see the difference, if any, between Virginia's inner strength and Joy's inner strength? Do you think that they can detect their own innate strength? PN: Yes, I would say that they would both say that they're strong people. I think that their strength is very different. Virginia is old enough and wise enough to understand that inner strength comes from being afraid and not afraid. These two things exist together. I think that Joy's strength comes from the absolute conviction that she's right, at first. She's disabused of that notion when she has to question what she's been doing once her world unravels in that scene with her husband where the penny drops about 18 times. Then she becomes afraid and lets it stop her for a time and then rediscovers, "Okay, this is what I can do and this is my strength." Main Page Interviews Menu Alphabetical Menu Chronological Menu ______________________________________________________ |
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