TIFF 2013 Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal and cast talk PrisonersPosted by Wilson Morales
September 9, 2013
Making its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival is Prisoners, the Denis Villeneuve-directed thriller starring Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Terrance Howard, Viola Davis, Melissa Leo and Paul Dano.
Keller Dover (Jackman) is facing every parent’s worst nightmare. His 6-year-old daughter and her young friend are missing, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a dilapidated RV that had been parked on their street. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) arrests its driver, but a lack of evidence forces the only suspect’s release. Knowing his child’s life is at stake, the frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. The desperate father will do whatever it takes to find the girls, but in doing so, may lose himself, begging the question: When do you cross the line between seeking justice and becoming a vigilante?
Attending the Toronto Film Festival, the cast along with Villeneuve and producer Broderick Johnson spoke about their roles in the film.
Can you talk about preparing for the role?
Hugh Jackman: I loved working with Jake and I think you can see it in the movie. For two characters who are kind of lone wolves on their journey, their relationship is really important to the story, but they only have four scenes together. We talked about that a lot. We talked and rehearsed and really wanted to make the most of those. It was one of those occasions where, as actors, none of us really wanted to leave the scene. There were pressures to move on, but we really wanted to dive in and investigate them because there was a precious little time we had together.
Jake Gyllenhaal: I keep saying I’ve done a lot of preparation for this movie. I remember a number of times I would spend the evening letting go of what we did during the day. We were shooting in Atlanta, and there were so many wonderful restaurants and that was like a little therapy. Food became a therapy in a way. Then I remember, especially on the way to work, what I’d try and do is meditate on certain things in the scene, but I would always start to watch videos of interrogations, certain police videos and sometimes really horrific videos that I wouldn’t really want to go into. And there were a number of times when I went to work where I could feel myself resist how dark this world was, even in reality. because you have to throw yourself into them since they were all real videos. I could feel that push and that pull inside me on my way to work and sometimes it would panic me. Sometimes when you see things and you watch something like that, you don’t even know how to respond, it’s so visceral. Interrogations or police footage or whatever it might be, and it really broke me into this world. Then you’d spend the day trying to use that work as a therapy out of it. And eat more.
What was your tick in the film?
Terrence Howard: My tick was pretty much trying to keep my bra on right. (Laughs) I guess if there’s any sort of tick, it’s that non-stop heartbeat; that mean streak of morality that was constantly running up his spine and preventing him from taking necessary steps to provide for the safety and returning of his child.
How would you best describe your character?
Paul Dano: I’m intimidated to talk about my guy because everyone made such great choices and somehow it all worked, which is really something. The first time I met Denis, I believe my first impression of the character was about his voice and I said, ‘If I’m gonna do this, I have this impression of somebody who stopped at a certain age and almost everything stopped then.’ I think the voice was my first gateway to the character.
How demanding was the role for you and how did the wardrobe get into character?
Maria Bello: Also, as a mother myself of a 12-year old, the only other choice that I could make for my character was falling to my knees in grief. I just can’t imagine going through it. Any parent that’s going through it, I have such compassion for them. I would also like to think, as an actor, that all of the things that have happened to us in our lives that aren’t so good is scattered all over the table like garbage. Real artists can take that garbage from our grief and our pain and our shame and sculpt it into something that is so beautiful and give it to the world.
As for the costumes, for me, and I said this to Denis right away, my costumes are really important to me. I said when I was doing the costume fitting that it doesn’t feel right for her to ever change her clothes. She is stuck in this moment, in this day. It’s a week and you see my hair get greasier. I really did not shower, but the greasier and more tired look came through our awesome makeup artist. It was those little details that you loved because they were really specific. Having those clothes and then changing when we went to the hospital was really interesting for my character.
