By James Mottram
How was the experience on Nocturnal Animals? “It was good! It was very surreal, because it was shot in different segments. So they all shot sort of this dark, heavy part, and then I arrived on set, and I was playing an art dealer. It was a completely different world from the world that the whole crew had come from, and I was by myself a lot, because I was shot, reading a story, essentially, and sort of reacting to memory. It’s told in a very interesting way, in and out of the story, and in and out of memory. It’s intense!”
Do you feel like there’s a connection between your two new films, Arrival and Nocturnal Animals? “I think that I was attracted unintentionally to the fact that choices can lead to isolation…and that there are always consequences for your choices. Both films deal with that in a way…both films deal with the past, and the concept of memory.”
How is it working with Tom Ford? “Really, really good. He’s a really, really wonderful director. He has a fantastic eye for detail, of course, we know that, but that goes into the characters as well. He does such a great job. In the fashion industry, he’s the king of his domain, right? And so he gets to dictate, but in film, it’s such a collaboration, and he does such a great job of moving in this collaborative spirit, and really taking into account everyone’s opinions. You’re dealing with a lot of energy on set, from a lot of different sources, and he handles it. It’s clearly his passion, and you can feel it in the film. He did an amazing job. I read his script, and it’s very difficult. I was like, ‘How are you going to do that?’ And then I watched the film, and I was like, ‘You did it! Well done! Congratulations!’ I like complicated films. I read them, and I’m like, ‘Wow! That’s going to be hard! Let’s do it! Let’s go for it!’”
Tom Ford also designed the clothes in the movie? Did you keep anything? “You can’t steal from Tom Ford! No way! I didn’t take anything. But I liked one of the dresses that he designed so much that I wore a long version of it to the premiere of Batman V Superman in New York. I liked it. I was comfortable in it.”
Who are your favourite designers outside of Tom? “I don’t know. It depends. I’m more attracted to specific dresses and fabrics, rather than designer. I love the art of fashion. But I’m 5”4, so realistically, it’s not really designed to be perfect on my body, so my fashion ends up being a little bit more practical…I’m not 5”10 and sixteen-years-old. There’s no going back to that.”
You can’t tell on a movie screen though… “That’s one of the comments that I get most! It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re so small!’ I don’t have my heels on, but I’m short. Ben Affleck said that. He said, ‘You’re short! A lot shorter than me.’”
These films have been well received. Are you interested what professional critics say? “Yes, they’re our audience to some degree. I’ve made the statement before that I’m not making films for the critics, but I didn’t mean that as any sort of insult. It meant that when you’re making the movie, you don’t spend time thinking, ‘Oh gosh, I hope the critics like it.’ That was my intent behind that statement. I understand that critics are also a great way of communicating to an audience what to expect, and so in a way, you pay attention, only because I’m curious to hear what the interpretation is, because when you’re making the film, you’re in a bubble, and you don’t know how it will be received, or how an interpretation of a film will be. But it’s one of those things where you can’t let it get to you too much, because it’s almost like, ‘Too little, too late.’ That would have been helpful when we were making the movie, but outside of that, it’s more like, ‘Oh, well.’ But at the same time, you definitely hear it and receive it, but you just can’t take it on. Does that make sense?”
Nocturnal Animals is released in cinemas on November 10. Click through for our interview with Amy Adams about Arrival.
