How did you prepare for the role?
Mia Goth: One of the things that stuck me was that Hannah is much younger than anyone else in the sanitarium and she doesn’t quite fit in to this puzzle. One thing that I thought would be a good idea was to volunteer at an old persons home, to try to have an understanding of what it would be like to be around elderly people and to kind of get accustomed to that. I took a lot from that.
What was it like working with Gore Verbinski and Dane DeHaan?
Goth: Good, it was amazing. It really was. With Dane, I’ve been a fan of his work for a long time and I’ve always wanted to work with him. Gore, really knows what he wants. Always, like he would start work each day and he would know exactly what he would want from each shot and he wouldn’t compromise from that. That just makes you feel very safe and you know you can trust him. He’s got the whole film in his head at all times.
Hannah is so isolated, how did you approach that aspect of her?
Goth: I think that has to do with understanding Hannah’s a whole, do you know what I mean? She never left the sanitarium and so as a result of that her perspective of the world and her position in it and the people is quite peculiar and naive at times and maybe sometimes too trusting. So I kind of try and look at it from lens. A big part of that is being able to tap into my inner kid in many ways.
Were you presented with the full script when presented with the role?
Goth: I remember it very clearly, I got an email from my agent with the audition and the script. So I read the script that night, in one sitting from front to back. One of the things that struck me first was how well written it was. And I’d think I know where it was going and it took me to a completely different turn and it wouldn’t let you predict what was gonna happen at all. That was really exciting. To work with Gore in a genre he helped define with The Ring that was really exciting.
Goth: No, no actually there was nothing in the tub, makes it sound more boring now doesn’t it. It was all CGI. They put a mold of me and my body in the bathtub and I had to lay in this awkward position for four hours and I watched Good Will Hunting and they fed me a Coca- Cola with a straw. The lower half was [CGI] and then some things i still don’t understand how they did it.
Was the bike ride easy?
Goth: After maybe seven tries then it got easy, but no, it was quite difficult at first. And the rig almost fell off the first time, that was pretty dangerous. It was a steep hill, it was pretty fun.
Do you enjoy beer? Did you have a real beer for the scene?
Goth: Yeah, I do. Heineken. I’m from London and that’s what we’d drink as teenagers. No, but I remember I said to Gore ‘I really like beer, gotta put something, it wasn’t beer, in here so I can react to it.’ So they put a lot of vinegar in it. Otherwise i’d be like yum.
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What was the most surprising part when you read the script?
Goth: See if I answer that we’d be talking about spoilers and I don’t want to do that. I want to leave all the surprises.
What do you think of people trying to pursue wellness, trying to stay young?
Goth: It’s a thought-provoking film, every thing from the title on is really sparking a conversation. And it’s asking you some uncomfortable questions. Are you happy with your life? Are you content? Is this relentless pursuit of power and wealth are actually pointless. I think it’s very relevant in the climate that we’re in these days today and relatable. One of the people who people leave with when watching our movie it’s gonna make them think about the society we live in. That’s the other thing too, Gore doesn’t under estimate the audience. You really have to come into the movie with your head turned on, you probably have to watch it a couple of times.
This could possibly be a love story, not the typical run of the mill story. However Hannah could possibly be a hero.
Goth: I never read it and saw myself as the hero in any way, but I can see how you can see that. I see it more of her being the purity and the cure that everyone in the film is so desperately seeking. And I saw the relationship between Lockhart and Hannah, they were like a pin prick to one another, they were a mirror to one another. The good things and the not so good things. It’s only when they meet each other that this unraveling begins.
How do you feel about eternal life?
Goth: I wouldn’t seek out to extend my life. It’s about being in gratitude for what you have in the time you’re given. I think people can live and 80 year life and never be grateful. And only when you’re grateful can you be happy. It’s about being present and living in the moment and enjoying your day as it’s your last. It sounds cheesy, it’s a good philosophy to try and live by. I think that’s what the cure for wellness is, It’s gratitude. With the money you have, life and health.
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Is there anything you learned from Hannah?
Goth: Patience. I think Hannah is an incredibly patient young woman and that’s something i’m still trying to work on myself.
Dane DeHaan: Yeah I went through a lot, for sure. It was physically and psychologically demanding. It was a five month shoot and it was tough. But I like things to be tough. I mean there were torturous days, as there should have been, given the nature of what happens in the movie. But yeah, ultimately in the end it was really rewarding.
Is it possible that this could be a love story?
DeHaan: Well I never looked at it as a love story. That’s interesting. I never really looked at it like that.
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What was it like working with Mia Goth and Gore Verbinski?
DeHaan: Mia is great, she’s really talented and she was really, I think, perfectly cast in this movie. She created such a great character, Hannah has to be this strange bird and I think she really captured that. She’s so present and organic, and talks and listens. You know she’s really everything you can ask for in an acting partner. She makes the job easier that way. Gore, it was great working with Gore. I’m in almost every single frame of the movie, so i was there every single day working with him for five months. He’s a very visual director, we were in collaboration about the performance and about bringing the audience along on this journey. Keeping it tense but not blowing the lid. He’s very slow and methodical and I can get behind that, I can be slow and methodical person as well. He’s so visual, in the end it became about bringing his vision to life.
Have you seen the final cut of the movie?
DeHaan: I dig it. When I read the script, it wasn’t a movie that I would have signed up to do with any director, but I really felt like Gore could pull it off. I really feel like he did, I really feel like he made something wild and crazy and terrifying and original. It’s exciting to be part of something like that.
Did you shoot in a linear form?
DeHaan: No we didn’t. One week I’m walking down the hall and turning the corner but we might not shoot the scene where I turn the corner for three months. That was a big challenge, making the performance make sense and have the right arc was more of a challenge with this one than with any other movie I’ve worked on.
DeHaan: It wasn’t the most physically challenging part in the movie, but yeah, it was an extra obstacle for sure. I grew to love them, I grew to those crutches, I really look at them as like a, you know, for an actor, any time you can have more obstacles almost the easier it makes the job. They were such a great obstacle to have, you know, when you have to run upstairs I feel it’s just more compelling to do it on crutches than to do it without crutches. Gore wanted me to do things faster a lot of the time and I just couldn’t do that. ‘Hey, can you run up those stairs faster? — Uh, no. I’m on crutches this is the fast I can go.’ I can’t say that I was happy to get into the cast every day. I look back fondly on those crutches.
What’s your consumption of water now?
DeHaan: Ha ha! After this I started drinking a lot of water. It hasn’t really changed my outlook on water so much as it has my experience with going to a spa, that’s definitely not that same, and I don’t think it will be for a lot of people who see the movie. Gore always said, ‘ What Jaws did for a day at the beach, we want to do for a day at the spa.’ He pretty much did that for me.
What was it like to work with such great talent behind the lens?
DeHaan: It was amazing, I mean Bojan Bazelli is amazing. That was one of the great parts of having five months to shoot this movie. Gore and Bojan were able to collaborate and capture these shots that are so beautiful. I didn’t like watching any of it while we shooting. I never watch while we’re shooting. I don’t play back, I move forward. I didn’t watch it, so now seeing it, it is a visually stunning film. Bojan is very particular, he’s always getting in there trying to make things better. He’s amazing, the movie looks great.
Do you prefer shooting on location?
DeHaan: Well I think it helps shooting in a real place, I guess ultimately I would prefer that. But I also like to challenge myself in different ways. So sometimes the challenge can be having to use imagination more. But in a movie like this a lot of the stuff was practical and there was a lot of other stuff to worry about. So the fact that we were mostly on location, or even that the sets looked so real, was a huge help for sure.
Did you get to do anything fun in Germany?
DeHaan: We ate really good food, Berlin has awesome food, we took a boat ride, we took a bunch of boat rides, saw bunch of art, yeah did some fun things.
The theme about eternal life, did it speak to you?
DeHaan: Questions I ask a lot, whether it’s a pill or a juice cleanse, or whatever it is, why do people obsess over these things? At what point does it become unhealthy to rely on the cure? For me life is all about balance, that’s what I’ve learned. Not to be so healthy what you’re unhealthy, and not to be so unhealthy that you’re unhealthy. Be a balanced individual, that’s kind of what I strive for. It puts those questions in your head for sure.
In Hollywood those are the questions that are asked.
DeHaan: Maybe that’s the reason I don’t live in Hollywood.
What would be the cure?
DeHaan: Balance like I said. It’s all about balance, it’s in a way it’s almost about not worrying about a cure. The cure is not worrying about the cure because the cure can be worse than the disease. There will always be side effects. The more you seek out wellness and betterness, in a way, the more you have chance of hurting yourself. It’s just about achieving balance.
What do you take away from this film? Peoples reactions are very different.
DeHaan: I think it’s really cool. All the art I like is polarizing, that’s exciting to me. That’s what creates conversation and reaction. I’m really happy to be part of something that’s so original and I hope that people go and see it an embrace it because i think it will allow is to make other original content. Whether you love it or hate it, you’re gonna be talking about it.
Gore Verbinski: Yeah sure, I always loved the end of the movie The Graduate, you don’t know where they’re going. Where are they going, what are they gonna do? This movie, there’s really two worlds. There’s the modern contemporary world, then there’s this world with Volmer in this place above the clouds, who’s been sort of diagnosing humanity over time. I do think it’s a contemporary Gothic fairy-tale in many ways. I think [Lockhart] sort of summoned to this place and it’s a little out of balance. So we slip into kind of this dream logic, not a waking state, but the closer he gets near it, his cellphone stops working, his watch stops, he’s not strictly in the logical world. You can be more haunting in that space.
Is it difficult to sell a film like this, since it can be many things?
Verbinski: It has a Fox logo on it but they’re the distributor only. It’s a New Regency picture so it was financed by them. It would have been impossible to make it directly with a major production company. Sometimes in your mind you’re like ‘we’re making this’ you ask for forgiveness not permission. People pick up on your passion. Particularly the owner of New Regency he’s got a love for passion.
What was it like casting Mia and Dane for these roles?
Verbinski: Dane’s character, Justin [Haythe] and I were writing him to intentionally be an asshole. He has to be vulnerable to the diagnosis of this place. He has to have a great distance to fall. I think the concept of the diagnosis is a for of absolution, like you’re not responsible for the things you’ve done in your life because you’re not well. That’s a narcotic for these people, you get into these lotus eaters, they’s a reason they want to stay there once they arrive and they don’t want to leave. That’s the beginning. Knowing that we had a character that was notably not likable it was important to have that inhabited by an actor who you continuously wanted to watch. And he had this singularity about him, I think there is something unusual about him. As he starts to have challenges we empathize for him throughout the process. What is wellness? It’s hard to say but [Lockhart] has it, has the sickness in spades. When he’s reading that letter from Pembroke I feel like it’s speaking to his core being. Even when you’re in denial you sense something and he probably would not articulate it. He probably knows he won’t make a clay pot, sell shoes or guitars, he makes money off other people who make money off other people who make things. So what is my net worth versus self-worth? He’s almost reversed engineered to be susceptible to this diagnosis.
Mia, very difficult role. It’s almost like Shelly Duvall in The Shinning, writing this character and thinking ‘hmm we have to cast this…’ Who’s gonna play the part? You can’t really fake mannerisms. She’s been kept in this place, it’s like if you have an in-depth conversation with someone who grew up in North Korea, they have a different world view. It’s not naive, this is a believe system. She’s watched all these old people come and be processed. She has a very interesting perspective. Just like when a child asks you why, by the third time you’re actually into something profound, inevitably you’re saying ’thats a really good question’ and can’t answer it because it has to do with why do we lie to people to make them feel better. There’s some beautiful truth to that. [Mia] came in and read and she was like- done! When you meet her, it’s who she is. She’s really in the moment. It’s a very specific tone, I can’t imagine somebody pretending to be what she is. She was born to play Hannah.
Did you shoot more than one ending?
Verbinski: No we didn’t, that was it.
How do you keep track of things when you shoot out of order?
Verbinski: That’s the hardest part. It’s very difficult these days to get the means to get to make a large movie if you don’t have a theme park ride, or a toy, or a comic or something. We had to stay relatively modest in our size so we could move quickly. So we shot at the castle exterior for eleven days and then on the other side of Germany we found this old hospital that was abandoned and covered in graffiti and we painted it, put some new windows in. We needed a swimming pool and so we drove to another place and found a pool with sort of the same color, built a hallway to kind of tie things together and none of that shot in chronological order. We had a bit of the set that caught on fire in the end and then we had to come back to it a month later. The most out of order filming I think i’ve ever done. And to manage his performance. He’s at a boiling point, the lid is sort of rattling. It becomes a very specific conversation. You kinda have to back up to get in that space, run the scene before. Also to create an untrustworthy narrator, it’s very important to go too far once in a while. So the audience isn’t sure you’re gonna go there the next time. If we always just go to the boundary and never cross it you kind of feel like okay. In the brief dental scene, there’s a few places where you’re gonna go right past it. So then you’re watching a movie going ‘ I don’t trust that they’re not gonna go there again.’ That keeps you off-balance.
Verbinski: You have two ways to tell the story, you have the hand on the back, leading somebody through the narrative. And then there’s the bread crumb approach when you’re letting them nibble their way through the maze. I think if you can bring that to bare, that little squeaky door on your forehead opens up and you have access to your hard drive and we can put things there that hopefully three or four days later some side effects to the cure. There’s something you’re gonna think about after you’ve watched the movie. You’re watching Dane DaHaan reluctantly become a patient at this institute, but really you’re the patient. You’re in the dark room, we’re using sounds and image and we are conducting an experiment on you.
A Cure For Wellness is a New Regency production and hits theaters February 17th.
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