By Gill Pringle
In the new thriller, Split, The Witch star, Anya Taylor-Joy, is menaced by a kidnapper, played by James McAvoy, possessed of 23 distinct personalities. It was a challenge for the actor to portray so many different characters in one film, but writer and director, M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) assures us that the real hard yards came in the research phase, when he delved deep into this fascination and controversial disorder.
What made you want to explore multiple personalities and Dissociative Identity Disorder?
Yeah, I’ve always been interested in it. I can’t believe that it was not explored more. I mean I guess, The Three Faces of Eve was quite a while ago, kind of like the definitive movie at that time. It’s pretty well done still – like, I found it very moving. And it’s funny, because when I was thinking about doing it, I didn’t want to see the transformations on screen. I wanted it always to be off screen. And so I was doing the opposite of what they did a lot. Where they would choose scenes so when you finally did see them switching, which would be in that final scene, where they are all coming out, is shocking! But I just find this psychological disorder absolutely moving and tragic, and amazing! I mean, the science of it. Everything I said in the movie, with the exception of The Beast, is true!
Is there a documented case with as many personalities as 23/24?
Oh yeah! Tons! I mean even “Sybil” was 16. The famous ones, like Billy Milligan, was 22, or something like that. Oh there are as many as like 60!
And what causes that kind of fracturing, to that extreme degree?
It’s a disorder that only happens to individuals that were sexually or physically abused. Consistently abused. Not one time. Consistently abused between one and five years old, because that’s when the brain is developing. And so they learn – the brain actually starts different synapses, and starts a different area, and goes ‘We can’t deal with the fact that our uncle or mother, or whatever it is, is doing this, so we’re going to create a whole other existence’. And then once it learns to do that, during those years, it does it forever. So it keeps on splintering, and splintering, and splintering, over the course of time.
Also, most of the cases are diagnosed in North America, and that there are more women with it than men. Did you consider a female lead?
Well the reason that more women are diagnosed, first of all, it takes seven years for them to be in this system of mental health, before you even get going ‘Oh, I think this woman has D.I.D. (Dissociative Identity Disorder)’ They’re misdiagnosed and misdiagnosed and misdiagnosed for seven years. The male side of that, is that they’re in prison. And so they never, ever get diagnosed. So the prevalent theory is that there’s the equivalent amount of men and they’re just in prison! They are in situations that are marginalised. They didn’t go into the system. Because if one of your personalities is aggressive…
That’s the one that’s going to wind up in jail.
And then once they’re in that kind of traumatic situation again, they’re constantly being these other people, they’re treated in isolation, they’re medicated for other things. No one believes this is possible.
Were you able to sit in on any real sessions?
Well, I don’t want to say too much about the research, but I did get to have a lot of wonderful experiences with some of the top people in the field.
Other patients?
Footage. The footage is incredible! These people, the experts are brought in to murder cases and stuff like that, when someone says ‘Oh, I have multiple personalities, and that’s why I kill’. And they’ll analyse them, and then say ‘That’s not the case. That’s not what’s happening right now. They’re just pretending to be a little girl, they’re not actually a little girl!’
How many hours of footage do you think that you watched?
Oh, I don’t know! I mean, they’re clips of different lengths.
You were originally going to cast Joaquin Phoenix as Kevin, but ended up using James McAvoy. How did that come about?
Joaquin was originally cast, I showed him the script, and he wanted to do it, and there was another movie that was in conflict, that slid into this thing, and so he couldn’t do it. And at the exact same time, James’s movie fell out, and I went to James, and James said ‘yes’ straight away!
So there was only two people that were ever considered?
Only two people, yes. And ironically, I think Joaquin’s movie didn’t end up happening after all, so the universe kind of told me who should be in the movie.
And you were also one of those lucky people to discover Anya Taylor-Joy.
She just auditioned. I had no idea. The Witch hadn’t come out yet, when she auditioned. I didn’t know anything about that. You know, for me, I would never cast based on that. It’s just that they do the part, and they audition. I mean James[McAvoy] doesn’t audition, but everyone else auditions, to see if the right quality is there. So I started her audition, and I was like ‘Oh my God!’
How many came?
A thousand girls? For the three parts. There was like a thousand. Anya came in very late, like towards the very end, and then I was like ‘Bring her in’. So we went to New York, and I met her, she was in New York, and I found her kind of raw, and totally no craft, but all light. You know, like she’s so unusual! She’s just an odd soul! You know what I mean? She can’t be normal, and she’s obviously very beautiful, but she has the energy of like this odd, ethereal person, in this kind of like, china doll like face, and it’s very unusual. And there’s a darkness there, underneath, which I got to bring out.
Moving on quickly to James McAvoy, how long did it take him to build this performance? And how did you know that he was going to be able to do this?
Well, you can ask James specifically, but James was actually very aware of this subject. Very aware. So I wasn’t starting from zero! He already, in his mind, you know, sometimes it’s like the right human being, walks into your life at the right time. Not many people that can do the empathy, the comedy, the physicality. That was what scared me. Who could play Hedwig, and play The Beast? It’s just very hard. It’s very hard.
You were offered the Harry Potters, the Spider-Man films, but you turned them down. Looking back, how do you feel about that?
Well, you know, the question is, could I have done the versions that I have in my head? Would that have been okay with the studio? Would that have been okay with audiences? With those, they come with pre-existing, giant pre-existing needs. Am I okay with that? And more to the point, would they be okay with some of them not being there? It would have been fascinating! I love both those projects, obviously, but you know, naturally, I would see them very much darker, and who knows, it might not have been a good thing for anybody!
As an originator of your own material, what does your day look like in terms of the discipline that it takes to write, research. How many hours do you put in?
I’m a little bit of an obsessive once it starts. It starts to become crazy. Like right now, I’m intentionally, I have a note book in my bag, it’s blank. To write the next movie.
Oh, they all go in notebooks?
Yeah. I’m like ‘Don’t start yet’. I literally just finished this movie last week. I’m like ‘Don’t do it!’ But I have the urge already to start. I’m like ‘Just learn to be a human being, that does not have this drive right now!’ If I can go one more weekend, one more day, without putting something in that journal… I’m just trying to train myself, just exist for one second, between the gaps of a story. Just for a moment, and just enjoy life for a sec. So I’m forcing myself.
So you saying you can’t relax?
No, that becomes the drive. The obsession. As soon as I put that down and start to stall it, I have to solve it, have to solve it, have to solve it.
Split is out now. You can read our review here.