by Gill Pringle
A divorced mother and father find themselves trapped in a living nightmare when their daughter confesses to murder in The Lie, a gripping psychological thriller about the lengths parents will go to in order to protect their child. Written and directed by Veena Sud (The Killing showrunner), The Lie stars Mireille Enos, Peter Sarsgaard and Joey King.
When FilmInk catches up with Enos (World War Z, Hanna, The Killing) on Zoom, we both apologise for the messiness of our respective domains – ours from a cluttered office with barking dog and hers from her bedroom, newly discarded bathrobe tossed over the duvet – before getting down to business.
You first worked with writer/director Veena Sud on The Killing. How was it to be reunited again on The Lie?
She’s one of my favourite humans. I just think she’s remarkable; I have such admiration for her. This was her first full-length feature, both writing and directing, and she is a lesson in grace and preparedness. I would come to set and marvel at her all day; transitioning from talking to the actors about narrative and then talking to the lighting designer about image and then talking to the crew. It was completely seamless. I think she’s awesome.
The Lie depicts many snowy scenes. Were you caught in an actual snowstorm during filming outside Toronto?
It was sooo cold!! Yes, we were in Toronto in January/February and it was freezing. There were some scenes where we would have to stop because our teeth were chattering. There’s a scene with Peter [Sarsgaard] and I where we’re having an argument outside in our backyard and we kept having to take mini-breaks because our teeth were literally chattering, trying to have this argument. But it was such gorgeous backdrop. It was a happy accident because originally Veena had imagined shooting it in the summer but production got pushed and ultimately she was so grateful that it was a winter scene.
You play the divorced mother of a teenage girl, Kayla [Joey King] – and in real-life you have a pre-teen daughter. What is your take on The Lie, where these parents are led down a path of no return?
I think that’s part of what is so chilling, that you can absolutely see how they arrived there. Obviously, there are some leaps that the adults take that hopefully most parents in their right mind wouldn’t take. Because when we get to the end, these tiny bits and pieces, all the tiny lies stack up and create this snowball effect. When I was watching the film with my husband, he said to me, “I want to throw up”. And it was because you can imagine it happening in day to day life; these little white lies, these little stupid details missed, and they end up being just dummies and not understanding the bigger repercussions.
I love how we first see you looking so immaculate and put-together and then slowly we see her unravel, so she’s no longer even combing her hair. We’ve seen you do this before on screen and I appreciate how you have no vanity. Is this your own personal choice or Veena’s direction?
Veena definitely had strong opinions about that, to have me completely stripped down, but that’s my taste as well. I think that’s part of why we love collaborating so much, because the closer you can get to what’s true – like the messiness of life – I think the more affecting the story is. I love a story where there’s no obligation to beauty. It’s just permission to go to any ugly place. In life, we make weird faces and somehow when the camera rolls, we’re told those weird faces are not appropriate to the story, and I think that we miss out on humanity if we deny ourselves to be unattractive. Personally, I always think that people look their most beautiful when they have a cold. There’s something about somebody in that vulnerable place that I find very beautiful.
Joey King – who plays your teenage daughter in The Lie – is so believable. Did you bond beforehand?
Yes, she’s very easy to bond with; she’s gregarious and open and obviously very talented and very willing to try anything, so that bonding process was easy. We didn’t have a lot of time before we got on set, maybe a week of rehearsal, but there were dinners and afternoon conversations about story. I think part of an actor’s process, especially in film, is that you have to get a shorthand. You find things that you’re drawn to about a person very quickly and you attach to those things and then you build on that to build a relationship. Being a mother myself, that was an easy way in and then Joey is so lovable that we just fell right in together.
How has lockdown been with your real-life husband Alan Ruck [Succession, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off] and your two young kids? Have you been creating together?
For me, everything is creativity. Watering the plants is creativity; doing homeschool is creativity, it’s just a different part of your brain. It’s like, how do we create a school environment and make our minds active and productive in that way? Many baking sessions and, luckily, we have a piano in the house and my daughter and I both play. My husband has various guitars and an accordion, so there’s all kinds of creative outlets. One of the things I love about being an actor is that everything in life is fuel; anything you absorb can be used in some role down the line, so we’ve had lots of family conversations about situations through history where people had to go to extreme measures and that’s been really illuminating to open that up for the children and lots of conversations about gratitude; it’s been an interesting and rich time.
You’ve enjoyed a very busy career. Do you have any secret desire to write or direct?
No I don’t. I’m not a writer or a director. I think it’s amazing that there really are people who are triple-threats and can move between those different worlds, but I’m not one of them. For my own creative writing, I can put words down on a page that I like the way they go together, but to write narrative is such a specific skill and not one that I have. In terms of directing, when I read a script, I do not see where the camera goes. I don’t read a scene and see the pictures. I see it from the inside, the inner emotional workings, and when I’m on a set, once the camera is there, I know how to fit myself into the image, but I wouldn’t know how to create the image. So, I wouldn’t want to extend myself into a position where I wouldn’t serve the story. But never say never.
You’ve worked across many diverse genres from your kick-ass role in Sabotage to girly TV drama, The Catch. Where’s your soft spot?
I think my happy place is in real moments of human connection. It doesn’t really matter to me what the genre is, as long as the story has people making connections in a real human way. I had a ball shooting Sabotage, but it’s not like its one that gave back to me as much as some others. The Killing was a crime drama but there was such humanity in it and the relationship between Linden and Holder was so rich. Storytelling like that makes me very, very happy. I keep wondering if there’s some more laughs for me down the line. I mean there’s not a lot of laughs in my work. It might be nice to put some lightness into my storytelling, but I am very drawn to the dark underbelly of people’s complexity.
Are you returning for another season of Hanna?
Yes, we’re starting Season 3 in the fall. Production starts in November in the UK and then I join just after the new year.
Can we expect to ever see a sequel to World War Z?
Heaven knows! I really hope so. I think there’s such potential for a sequel and the powers that be keep trying to get it done, so who knows? It’s been a long time now, ten years. Our movie kids will be quite grown-up by then!
The Lie streams on Amazon Prime Video on October 6, 2020
