In “Wild,” director Jean-Marc Vallée, Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon and Academy Award nominated screenwriter Nick Hornby bring bestselling author Cheryl Strayed’s extraordinary adventure to the screen.
After years of reckless behavior, a heroin addiction and the destruction of her marriage, Strayed makes a rash decision. Haunted by memories of her mother Bobbi (Academy Award nominee Laura Dern) and with absolutely no experience, she sets out to hike more than a thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail all on her own. “Wild” powerfully reveals her terrors and pleasures –as she forges ahead on a journey that maddens, strengthens, and ultimately heals her.
http://youtu.be/dHJDeIrq340
Read what Reese Witherspoon & Director Jean-Marc Vallée had to say about “Wild.”
Q: She finds herself. Talk about that experience just playing that.
Reese: Well it’s the greatest gift of my life that Cheryl let me make the story of her life. I honestly don’t even know how to begin to tell her thank you. I think it’s that I love that idea that we all come to this conclusion at one time or another, that you have to save to yourself. No one’s coming to save the day. No one’s going to rescue you on a white horse, you know. And that we are responsible for ourselves and our own happiness.
Q: Speaking of saving, there have been some headlines around that this film maybe saved you, saved your career. Is that a bit overly dramatic or is there some truth to that.
Reese: No I think it’s great that people are noticing that I’m very engaged with my work. I think there was a period of time where I was not as engaged, or artistically turned on, or creative. And about three years ago I just was determined to be more involved and take more ownership over the choices I made and it’s very important to me that the films that I put into the world are an expression and extension of who I am. These are ideas that Jean-Marc and I completely collaborated on and connected on, as human beings before we ever shot a frame of the film. There are stories and ideas that I think are important for people to discuss with their loved ones and their family.
Q: This couldn’t be more different though from ‘Gone Girl’, which is sort of like a wild ride, kind of a melodrama satire, and you also optioned that right away and that turned out to be this huge success. What was it about that book that you wanted to represent you in the world?
Reese: Well I think it’s an interesting dynamic woman on film. I think I just have been a little weary of seeing thin, poorly written female characters on the screen. I’ve read so many of them and seen so many great actresses be, sort of, chucked to the side because the part doesn’t really merit their participation and it’s really just that women are complex. I think they’re interested in seeing complex portrayals, whether you like her or you don’t like her, Amy Dunne is a conversation starter.
Q: And what about the idea, when you were talking to Oscar buzz, and you may be ending up competing with Rosamund Pike for the Academy Award or the Golden Globe for best actress?
Reese: We should both be so lucky.
Q: Have either of you gone off on some journey of self-exploration or had a period where you really looked at the choices you’ve made throughout your life and examined them?
Jean-Marc: Not in that fashion. I’m not a nature man. I’m not into hiking at all, although I really related to the book and what Cheryl went through and how she describes her story with words and prose. But, I got into a divorce at one point in my life, where I had to stop and think and have some sort of introspective journey about what I had done, why, where I am going.
Reese: Certainly. I mean I’ve been through things publically, I’ve been through things privately that really informed my character and really made me who I am. I think Cheryl does a beautiful job of finding the life, truth about it. I wouldn’t say life lesson that it is, but a journey to a truth. Once you figure out what it meant, like why did you go through that, if you don’t do some self-examination I don’t think you’re as aware of how – I don’t know you, know people who go through life and don’t ever look at themselves, they just blame other people, you’re responsible and that’s just not healthy. I think there is something beautiful about her reflection on her own behavior and her willingness to show you everything, even parts of her that really, make her very … seeing her self-destruction, see her way that she hurt her ex-husband by sleeping around, to see her hurting herself by using heroin, to see her being so rage filled. And those qualities make her sort of repellent. You sort of don’t want to see that, you don’t want to see her doing those things. I sat with my mom watching the movie and she goes, “Oh, that poor girl.”
Q: What were some of the nature stuff that was the worst like the smell and what was most beautiful to see?
Reese: It was all beautiful! We really kept saying that we were so lucky, although he got to wear a parka … It was a little chilly. I’d be the person in shorts and t-shirt and then turn around and everybody in the crew has a parka.
Q: What about the water?
Reese: Oh my gosh the water was a hard part. And the day where you throw the buoy, in the very beginning where you through the buoy that really heavy. Yves Bélanger the director of cinematography was literally on a belay rope, like suspended off the side of a mountain, with two men that were holding him on belay ropes. We all had to file a single line, like it was really scary.
Q: Did you worry about a broken-ankle or slipping and falling?
Reese: Yes! I’m sitting there like crying, screaming, shouting and closing my eyes; while this one doesn’t even go on the belay rope, he’s skipping around like a mountain lion.
Q: Did you get hurt at all? Or just bruises?
Reese: I had butt bruises.
Q: How difficult was it for you to show yourself naked on screen? How much were you actually really discussing it with your manager or director on whether this was a good move to do at this point? And how was it for you on a personal note to show yourself so authentic on screen?
Reese: The only person I had a conversation about it was Jean-Marc. Right before I shot, I called my attorney and said “put something in it”- because whenever you do nudity you have to sign a contract about it – and to just put it in the contract that I am doing it and he was like “what?”, I said I’m doing it. But part of the decision was inspired by the conversations with Jean-Marc and when I saw “Dallas Buyers Club” with the girls. It wasn’t about being salacious or titillating, it was actually to convey a deeper sadness [she was so vulnerable] and she just doesn’t care about herself when you see her. But then another sort of beautiful thing that you did in the film is that when she does have a relationship with Jonathan it’s not as explicit. There’s not just nudity or graphic sex.
Jean-Marc: There is eye-contact for the first time and a sexual encounter which there is absolutely no body contact.
Q: What do you think Reese’s transformation was?
Jean-Marc: Well look at her, how beautiful and how she’s used to being in this kind of film where we pay a meticulous attention to how we look in the lights, hair and make-up; and she chose this project for her. It wasn’t like a physical weight loss or something that drastic, but she chose this project to try something different, new, and something that she was going to be proud of, to be at the service of and go out there naked, literally or not; because normally, I think she feels and looks naked often … The way she acts and what she did. It was for her getting out of her comfort zone and just accepting the fact that we were going to serve the thing with no ‘let’s show off, or let’s not put some marks there and focus on this and tracks [and] lights and make up’. Let’s do it the real way, and if you’re outside on the trail and you have the sun in your face, well be it. It’s like this and your face may be funny…We are not going to do this voluntarily to have the sun in the back to have a nice backlight so often on the trail. It’s harsh, but yet look how beautiful, how naked, how simple you feel the humanity …and she wanted to do this, she picked this project.
Q: Would you worry about being called a chick flick, or a feminist film?
Reese: Yeah, because I feel if this was all about a man, you wouldn’t talk about it being a man’s film. We’ve seen these kinds of films with men at the center and we don’t call them “dude movies”. It’s really about humanity and I think every one of us experiences grief and loss and heartbreak.
Q: Why did you choose Jean?
Reese: I was blown away by Dallas Buyers Club and basically begged Jean-Marc to do this movie and I sent him the script. I think it’s worth remarking that he put aside another film in order to make this one. Because we were on a very narrow timeline, it was going to start to snow on the PCT and we had to start shooting in October. And he was so passionate and he called me and he spoke so honestly about his own experiences. And I think that’s what’s beautiful about Cheryl, I had to make a choice and Jean-Marc had to make a choice to make a very raw, gritty [and] honest film because Cheryl was brave enough to tell the whole truth. The parts of herself that are palatable, the parts of herself that are likeable and the parts of herself where it’s like “I don’t even want to know that person it’s so gross and disgusting,” but she told you the whole truth so you understand. I think he and I had to make a choice to be just as brave and to be just as honest as she was.
Q: Can you talk about re-teaming with Joaquin for the first time in 10 years almost in “Inherent Vice”?
Reese: Yeah, I haven’t seen the film so I can’t really talk about it much. I had a great experience working with Paul Thomas Anderson. He’s a great friend of mine and he called me up asking if I’d come in for a couple days and of course Joaquin and I saw each other and it was just like kids seeing each other after ten years, which it’s been.
Q: How has it been like as a producer compared to an actor? How has it been different?
Reese: Well I mean you always work, and your work is important and I feel really lucky to be a story teller. It’s just when I got more engaged as a producer, I started being more in control of my own material and seeking out what I think a certain white space in the market of creating great leading women characters, I felt much more inspired.
“Wild” opens in NY and LA on Wednesday, December 3 and in additional select cities on Friday, December 5, 2014.