Girl,
Interrupted
Hollywoodmovie.com, December 26 1999
By Jarratt Carson
The 1960s proved to be a tumultuous
and changing time in our country, both politically and socially. It was
the time of Woodstock, a cultural event that defined the generation.
Americans were encouraged to live life with total abandon, indulging in
sex, drugs and rock-and-roll; the code by which all young people lived.
This era is the setting of Susanna Kaysen's best-selling memoir, Girl,
Interrupted, the basis for the new film by writer/director James
Mangold (Copland, Heavy).
Academy Award nominee Winona Ryder
played the 17 year-old Kaysen. After "downing fifty aspirins and
chasing it with a bottle of vodka," Susanna explained to her
friend-of-the-family psychiatrist that she "just had a headache". She
was quickly diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder based solely
on ambiguous symptoms, and to her bewilderment, checked into Claymoore,
a private mental institution.
Once there, scared and unsure, she
found herself in a world inhabited by seductive and disturbed young
girls. Lisa (Angelina Jolie) was the charming but unpredictable leader,
Daisy (Brittany Murphy) a pampered Daddy's girl, Polly (Elisabeth Moss)
was a self-inflicted burn victim, and her roommate, Georgina, a
pathological liar, played by Clea DuVall. Susanna was the sanest of
them all, but had no choice other than to go along with the program of
the institution. The story then followed Susanna and the other girls
and how they became connected with one another, sharing their
experiences in the institution.
The novel touched many people, and
remained on the New York Times best-seller list for several weeks,
catching the attention of a much-younger Winona Ryder. "I read the book
when I was 21, in galley form. My father is a writer, and he's friends
with a lot of publishers, so he got it before it was ever printed. So,
I was able to read it early and I just flipped out. I had a really
strong reaction."
The acquisition of book rights in
Hollywood is a tough, competitive venture, and when Ryder set out to
acquire the rights, she discovered that they had already been optioned.
As Ryder explained, "As soon as I read it I called to see if I could
option it." Fortunately for the actress, that person, producer Douglas
Wick, (Stuart Little, Wolf) ended up producing the film. She continued,
"Doug had just optioned it when I read it, so I kind of teamed up with
him immediately and he was gracious enough let me come on board."
Wick added, "This was an odd case,
because all the studios had turned down the book. Everyone gets the
manuscript so early. Someone told me it was very good, it was actually
just coming out within a day or so. I read it that night and bought it
the next day with a discretionary fund I had at the studio. I was able
to buy things the studio didn't want. That book thing works a million
different ways."
What attracted everyone associated
with the film to the novel was the story and real-life characters said
the film's star, "I was really captivated by the book and I was really
drawn to the character [of Susanna Kaysen]. She was one of the few
characters I've read who was so brutally honest without being self
indulgent, which is pretty rare in literature, especially for female
characters. I was [also] drawn to the edginess of the book and the
honesty. It has a really edgy humor, and I thought that if there was
any way that it could be brought to the screen, I would really want to
be involved."
Doug Wick obviously agreed, as he
added, "The book is such an exquisite piece of literature, the writing
is really gorgeous." He continued on a more personal level, "When I
read Susanna's book, it felt so much like I completely connected to it,
like finding a place in life. The other thing which I connected with is
that the book is so smart, and tough, and funny. That, in no way is it
a kind of sentimental, and what might be considered an ultra-girlish,
story. It's neither boyish or girlish, it's just really good, clear,
smart work. It evades any categorization. It's just fine writing."
Young, upcoming actress Brittany
Murphy (Clueless) who played Daisy, expressed a childlike fondness
about Kaysen's novel, "You have to read this book. I recommend it to
everybody. I recommend it all the time. I buy it for people all the
time. It's such a fun, quick, insightful, witty, tear-jerking, great
read. I read it in the kitchen with my mom out loud before we filmed
the movie."
Each of the actors found the making
of Girl, Interrupted to be one of their most unique experiences, due to
the subject matter of being in a mental institution. Ryder, for
example, had to deal with her own bouts of anxiety during filming.
Ryder explained the challenge of going to the edge of sanity in this
way, "It's something I wondered if I could do [or not]. I was terrified
to play a character that was full of fear and anxiety knowing that I
[too] had been full of fear and anxiety. Certainly, it's not something
that is past tense for me - it's something that you battle with your
whole life. It's not something that I'll never experience again."
She goes on to equate the act on the
set, "To play an anxiety attack, you have to get an anxiety attack. You
don't know how to put a lid on anxiety attack; I don't know how to put
a lid on anxiety attack. When the director says 'cut', I don't know how
to end the attack. So, in some of those scenes I would go back and
recall these anxiety attacks, and then Jim [Mangold] would say 'cut'
and I would not know what to do. My heart would be going million miles
an hour and I would be sweating, and I would be feeling like I felt
when I was 19. It was kind of scary."
Ryder was not the only performer in
the film that dealt with such problems. The actress found that Brittany
Murphy also had such an experience and explained how it helped both of
them during filming, "I can say that Brittany Murphy was prone to
anxiety as well. We sort of bonded on that, and it's a wonderful
feeling, kind of in a sick way, when you meet somebody who has anxiety
like you. It's like 'Oh, you too!'" she added, relieved, "In a way, the
one thing you learn about is, say I was having one and you told me that
you were having one too, I would immediately start trying to help you,
therefore mine would go away. So I would immediately apply myself to
you. So you could just fake having one and mine would go away."
Director Mangold, whose films have
all been character-driven dramas with strong central characters,
discussed his thoughts concerning what his actors had to go through in
tackling these difficult roles. In particular, Mangold talked about the
experience of working with Winona Ryder. "I consider myself Winona's
friend. From the first day I met her, that was one of the attractions
of working on the film; that there were tastes that we shared. And
there was a trust, a kind of an easy rapport we had from the beginning."
When asked about Winona's bouts with
anxiety during filming, he responded with a calm resolve, "I would
worry about her as I would a friend. It wasn't anything that a hug, or
a kind word, or kind of settling her down, like reading a book or
listening to a good album wouldn't fix. There is a difference between
visiting these places and having them take over. I think the anxiety
that can take over while shooting a movie is your impatience at how it
takes three months for you to carry this character through this
journey. You're just left with way too much time to think about the
next day's work, and the next day's work, and so on."
When asked to explain her personal
experience taking on the character of Lisa, Emmy-Award winning actress
Angelina Jolie (George Wallace, Gia, The Bone Collector) responded by
saying, "I don't think she is a sociopath. I don't think she is. [And]
I do feel like I was there. I do feel like I knew those girls." She
went on to explain how she chose to play the character, "I just stayed
in her. I was just like her during the film. She was just a certain
kind of character." Films that have an ensemble cast tend to develop
stronger professional and personal relationships, because the actors
appear in so many scenes together. Each of the stars was so close to
the character they played that they soon created a unique bond on the
set. Angelina Jolie had this to say, "I was really silly with the other
girls. We took over my trailer. Even some of the other girls [with
smaller roles]. All these people were so honest, so we spent time
together and were all in character. I was Lisa, and would just come in
and say 'Let's go to New York. Let's just go, right now.'" She
concluded, "It was a great experience and we took care of each other,
we all liked each other and learned from each other. I learned so much
from them."
Many who see Girl, Interrupted will
find it easy to compare to the multi-Academy Award-winning One Flew
Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975) starring Jack Nicholson and directed by
Mangold's one-time mentor, Milos Forman. Mangold elaborates on the
inevitable comparison, "Milos Forman was my mentor. I wrote Heavy under
his tutelage. I knew this story was very distinct, and I had my own
strategy about telling the story. I saw it as a kind of fairy tale.
Milos' film was a very important expose on one level: a real-life
penetration into something awful on in this country at the time, in
state institutions." Mangold described his film, "My movie is about a
troubled young woman. There is no cleverness involved. She's tried to
kill herself and she finds herself dropped in this other universe; not
a government-run dumping ground, but a very fancy, Harvard-like
expensive place."
Both films took place in the 1960's.
Cuckoos Nest was a box-office and critical success, but as producer
Douglas Wick points out, that can be a double-edged sword, "I'll tell
you where it helps you. It was in the early stages of the project's
life. The shorthand in Hollywood is that everybody's always looking for
a quick reference. There's twenty funny examples which come to mind,
but when they quickly say, this is a "Female Cuckoos Nest," that quick
reference helps you because you're being referred to a hit movie. It
has a practical effect. On a creative level, I think we all would
rather it weren't so - because this is totally it's own creative
source, so we try to serve the book. We were never saying 'Let's do a
"Female's Cuckoos Nest," let's go imitate one.' What we want to say to
the audience, is that good work has happened, come and see these
performances, come and see this story, come and see exciting new work."
Mangold also appreciated his actors
as he said, "In my mind, a director not learning from his actors isn't
directing. The whole idea of you arriving and putting a wet rag on your
head, and you know what every frame is going to look like and that
every actor is a puppet, is ridiculous to me, to my way of working.
Sometimes, the ideas you get are ambiguous and you need help to ferret
them out, and when you have the best relationship you have with your
cast you can achieve that and much more."
The cast members credit the director
of capturing the essence of Kaysen's novel, despite having to cut
certain aspects from the film, "Jim did an amazing job," said Jolie.
"He had to make certain choices, but he did an incredible job, and
captured so many things."
Mangold responded, "I can't take all
the credit. My job at times is that I have to see the movie. A great
actor will see things through their character. I might see things
different than Winona, than Angie, than Vanessa, because I'm seeing the
[whole] picture. There's only one way for an actor to completely
understand their part of the work, and that's to fully and completely
inhabit this person."
Co-producer Kathy Konrad, described
the method she and husband, Mangold employed for casting Girl,
Interrupted, "In this movie, we had such committed actresses coming in
to read. Everybody felt very deeply about this film and it brought out
the best in everybody. It was hard because there were so many people to
consider." When deciding upon the final cast, she commented, "It just
happens in the moment. They just came in and they just were. It was an
instinct thing."
Mangold described the instinct of
filmmaking as a kind of inspiration for this movie. "The way I think
about it, I think I am after things that only happen once. That it's
unique, specific, and it's what makes movies magical. You could never
be this close and have it be the same. The whole magic of film to me is
the entering that kind of intimacy. You're watching this film and get
to sit closer and look deeper into the eyes of Angelina or Winona or
Vanessa Redgrave that most of the people you exist with in the world.
It's a strange kind of intimacy and a very magical one that this camera
and this lens can push so close and can reach right into someone's eyes
and into their heart. Never can happen in another medium."