Uncovering the true horrors of a person’s mind, particularly after
they determinedly bury their most daunting memories in order to heal,
can be a truly traumatizing experience for anyone. The sudden and
unexpected remembrance of a terrifying and deeply unsettling past can at
times become even more agonizing as the situation itself.
Co-writer-director Ed Gass-Donnelly’s new tense psychological thriller,
‘Lavender,’ alluringly shows how even with the power of the subconscious
to forget past pain, that previous stress can still haunt people in the
present.
‘Lavender’ follows Jane (Abbie Cornish), a photographer who has
captured the images of old and abandoned farmhouses for as long as she
can remember. Jane’s former hobby, which has bordered on obsession, has
transformed into a successful career. Her seemingly ideal life
unexpectedly changes, however, after she photographs a particular house,
and is involved in a tragic car accident that leaves her with severe
memory loss. She’s then forced to come to terms with her mysterious and
tragic past, as strange boxes begin appearing on her doorstep with clues
to events she doesn’t remember.
With the help of her husband (Diego Klattenhoff), her estranged uncle
(Dermot Mulroney) and her psychiatrist (Justin Long), Jane must weave
together scattered strands of memory, in order to once again take
control of her life, and solve a mystery hiding 20 years in her past. As
Jane must confront a mysterious lurking force and grapple with a
history that continues to haunt her, she’ll soon learn that some things
are worth forgetting.
Gass-Donnelly and Cornish generously took the time to sit down for an
exclusive interview in New York City on the afternoon after ‘Lavender’
had its World Premiere during the Viewpoints section of the 2016 Tribeca
Film Festival. The drama’s co-scribe-helmer and lead actress discussed
the process of crafting the emotionally-driven character and story arcs
of Jane struggling to decipher her limited memories, and how she and the
audience discover the actual, frightening truth of her past together as
it unfolds onscreen.
The writer-director began the conversation by explaining the genesis
of the story, as well as the process of co-scribing the script, for the
psychological thriller. “There was an original script that my friend,
Colin Frizzell, had written that had the overall arc and reveal of the
character. But I felt that there wasn’t a character that was truly
meaningful to me yet,” the filmmaker revealed.
“So far, I have written everything I have directed,” Gass-Donnelly
also noted while further explaining why he was interested in
collaborating with Frizzell on the script. “Personally, I see filmmaking
as three different stages. First, there’s the actual writing stage, and
then the directing process is like rewriting what I had done as a
writer. Then I go into the editing room and think, what have I done,” an
idea that the filmmaker and actress shared a laugh over. “During that
last process, I’m writing the whole film again. I don’t necessarily
separate those jobs. For me, they’re all part of the filmmaking
process.”
But the scribe-helmer added that he has recently been thinking that
“it may be fun at some point to have someone else direct a script that I
have written. I would like see how the process is different, and how
the film would evolve. At some point, I would also like to direct a
script for which I wasn’t involved in the writing process at all. But so
far, that just hasn’t been the way I have worked. I just see each job
as an extension of the other.”
While further discussing the lead character and story arc in
‘Lavender,’ Gass-Donnelly explained that “The biggest questions that we
were asking were, who is this person, and why are these events happening
to her now? That took us a very long time to answer.” In exploring that
query, he realized that in a lot of genre movies, a tragic occurrence
is explained to be happening because it’s marking the anniversary of
another meaningful event. “There’s a seemingly arbitrary reason why
something’s happening in most films. But I think chance is a good reason
to have a turning point in a movie.”
Gass-Donnelly added that the psychological thriller’s protagonist has
been subconsciously struggling to find answers for a long time. But he
added that he thinks that “Jane’s in a place in her life where she’s
trying to deal, and reconcile, with her trauma. That’s probably the
single biggest thing we contended with over the course of development.”
Cornish also delved into the reasons why she was interested in
portraying Jane in the drama, and bringing her emotional struggles to
the screen. “The though of playing (the lead role) in a genre movie
that’s very story and character-driven was very exciting to me. The idea
of playing a character who lost their memory and is seeing ghosts, and
exploring the psychological implications of that, was appealing,” the
actress revealed. “I felt like it had a really strong vision for a movie
that was bordering the lines of certain genres.”
In addition to signing Cornish to play the protagonist, ‘Lavender’
features an intriguing supporting cast, including Klattenhoff, Mulroney
and Long. Gass-Donnelly discussed the process of casting the rest of the
actors in the thriller. He revealed that “the trickiest thing from a
casting perspective for this movie is that there are a lot of twists and
turns that I don’t want to give away” through the actors who signed on
to star in the drama.
So the director felt that “manipulating audiences’ expectations, and
how they’re going to perceive certain actors within the scope of this
genre, required a lot of thought. So if we cast someone who always plays
a bad guy as the villain in this film, audiences would automatically
know that he’s playing the bad guy.” As a result of that thought,
Gass-Donnelly felt it was important to cast actors against type in
‘Lavender.’
As a result, the casting process “was really about trying to find a
palette in which I could use what the actors naturally bring to the
table, by either who they are or how they look. These were all of the
questions that went into the casting process,” the filmmaker explained.
“There wasn’t any kind of secret formula. Once we found Abbie, we tried
to find other actors who would not only be believable in their roles,
but also work well with her. We also wanted to find a way in which we
could bait and switch the audience’s expectations of who did what.”
Gass-Donnelly added that one thing he likes in ‘Lavender’ is that
“both the protagonist and the audience know about the same amount of
information. So as Jane is pursuing answers, so are we alongside of
her.”
After signing on to portray Jane in the thriller, Cornish had to find
a way to connect with, and understand, her character’s emotional
struggle of trying to uncover her past, like the director mentioned. “At
first, I think (that process) was just about going back to two
things-one was being an artist, and the other was being a mother,” the
performer explained. “So I had to think about what those two things
mean. If you strip all of that away, and go on a journey that’s much
deeper and more violent, gruesome and messy (than what you’re used to,)
you might want to bury that away. But you’re forced to deal with, and
overcome, it. So I was thinking about that process.”
Once Cornish and the supporting actors were cast in ‘Lavender,’
Gass-Donnelly revealed that they didn’t have much rehearsal time
together. “We did spend some time reading the script together. One of
the helpful things that Abbie suggested that we do was read the script
out loud together. That was hugely beneficial.” The director and actress
both laughed as he then said, “I obviously had read the script. But
once I heard the words coming out of my mouth, I thought, wow, that was
terrible dialogue!” The filmmaker also admitted that “as beneficial as
it was to hear the words, it was great to have to say them. As much as I
have ideas of who the characters are, my initial choices of how I
developed them weren’t always right.”
After explaining the process of building Jane’s emotional struggles
throughout ‘Lavender,’ Cornish also spoke about the process of also
approaching the character’s physicality, and creating the way her quest
to regain her memories physically affects her. “I wanted her to feel
open and feminine. But at the same time, I wanted her to carry a weight
that she may not have known existed,” the actress divulged.
Cornish then began discussing the process of working with ‘Lavender’s
costume designer, Anne Dixon. “We really collaborated on what colors
and prints” Jane would wear throughout the course of the film. They also
discussed what the character’s feel was as she embarked on her journey.
So the two decided to have Jane wear such clothes as “skirts with the
boots, which created a timeless, but also poetic, feel for her. She was
walking in her own world, which needed to be busted open, so that she
could really grow.”
Further speaking of how the physical aspects of making the drama
influenced their filmmaking approach, Gass-Donnelly also discussed the
experience of shooting ‘Lavender’ on location in Canada. “It was more of
a budgetary thing, frankly,” he revealed. “We would have preferred to
film all of the interior scenes on sets, but we couldn’t afford to build
them to the quality that we wanted.” If the crew did build the sets the
way they had envisioned them, “we would have had to cut off three
shooting days. So we filmed the majority of the scenes in practical
locations.”
Following up on the shooting schedule for the thriller, the director
said he felt like ‘Lavender’ had an average number of shooting days for a
movie of its size. He asked Cornish about how the schedule felt for her
as the lead actress, and she revealed that at times, it felt short and
compressed. “There were moments when I thought it would have been nice
to have had more shooting days,” Cornish revealed. Gass-Donnelly then
inquired, “We had what-about 26 or 27 days?” The performer agreed,
saying they had about four weeks for the drama’s principal photography.
“But (the schedule) didn’t hinder us. There’s something about that
momentum that’s beneficial, because it pushes you to work,” Cornish
divulged. “Although, it would have been lovely to not have always been
thinking about how we had to run away from this scene to get to that
scene.”
Gass-Donnelly then added that “It’s all relative. I’m remembering now
that it was 27 days. During the shoot, we were trying to accomplish
quite a bit, and at times, it was difficult. So I would have liked to
have a few more days.”
Cornish agreed with her director, saying “Yes, having even just five
more days would have been helpful. It would have been nice to have those
weekends to rest and recuperate. On smaller films, everyone works so
hard, because there are less people to do the work. So it can be
slightly exhausting, but it can also drive you.
The actress then discussed her experience of bringing the
psychological thriller to the Tribeca Film Festival, once the movie’s
production was completed. “I always like the process of letting the film
go, and knowing that there can be nothing else that can be done,”
Cornish divulged. “Like using the metaphor of the helium balloon, you
let it go, and where ever it ends up, it ends up.”
Gass-Donnelly revealed that he has a “love-hate relationship with
festivals. I love sharing the movie, but I don’t like being in the
theater and watching it with other people. That’s just my own personal
anxiety, and I’ve been that way for everything I have ever done.”
But the filmmaker added that “you don’t make movies to put in a shoe
box and keep them hidden. You make them to share with an audience. This
process is when the experience gets real. Before the film is released,
it’s feels like it’s a hobby that I’ve been tinkering with, but now it’s
truly real.”