Kate Mara will be everywhere in the south of this year by the Southwest. After the world premiere of “The Astronaut” last Friday, the world first of “The Dutchman” on Saturday and the first American of “Friendship” on Sunday, Mara heads to Ireland to start shooting “Bucking Fasserd” for director Werner Herzog, appearing for the first time alongside her sister, Rooney Mara.
“The Astronaut” is a dramatic thriller written and directed by Jess Varley, with Mara with Sam Walker, an astronaut that came back from its first space mission and is placed in a special NASA installation to readjust to the earth. When strange things start to happen, it seems possible that something has followed him. Laurence Fishburne appears as a military agent who is also the adoptive father of Sam.
In “Friendship”, a comedy of awkwardly increasing behavior written and directed by Andrew Deyoung, the character of Mara survived cancer and tries to re -engage with his life. Her husband (Tim Robinson), on the other hand, is more concerned with continuing a new friendship with a man in the street (Paul Rudd) obsessively than the fact that his wife suddenly spends a lot of time with his ex-friendly friend, a firefighter attacking.
In the bold adaptation of the coin of Amiri Baraka in 1964 “The Dutchman”, directed and co-written by Andre Gaines, Mara plays Lula, an attractive and aggressive woman who is fought in the life of the clay (André Holland), a black businessman who does not need the problems she brings.
Mara, 42, appealed to zoom earlier this week from her house in Los Angeles to reflect at this time particularly in charge of her career.
Kate Mara in “Astronaut”.
(Dave Garbett / Rocket Power LLC)
What does this mean for you that these three projects all align to play the festival at the same time?
Kate Mara: It's quite wild. It makes sense, however, just with regard to timing, because I filmed all these films again last year. It was a really wild year. My youngest children and I were a bit like a bit of itinerant family circus. We filmed “The Dutchman” in New York, then from there, we went to Ireland to film “the astronaut”. Literally, I think I had a day between the two or something. And then Ireland, we had a short break between this and the filming of “Friendship” in New York again. So it was a very tight window of the three films. But I had two of my children with me, and my husband, Jamie (Bell), came in a way to visit us with our eldest son, Jack. And so it was a wild moment to be a parent and also an actor, having to go from one character to another. But it is exciting that they are all suddenly played in the same festival. It is very surreal.
Take these roles together, in particular “friendship” and “Dutch”, in one of them You are this Put-Upon wife and the other, you are this demonic whirlwind and demonen. Are you proud of this kind of versatility?
Mara: I want to go on the map with the characters I play. This is why I was open to all these consecutive films, because I was so excited to go from the character of Lula in “The Dutchman”, who is probably the most difficult role I have ever played in my career and I took the most work to play it, then to play my character in “The Atronaut”. They could not have been more different. There are things, little tips that definitely help losing a character and going to the next one. Like the second when I wrapped “The Dutchman”, I cut all my hair for the next film.
But back to your question, I just want to be uncomfortable. In my work, I really like to stretch. So, for “friendship”, for example, it is the first real comedy in which I have ever been. So, for me, it was very intimidating. And it was so different from the thriller I had just done and the drama thriller I had done before that. This is why I jumped on the occasion there.
André Holland and Kate Mara in “The Dutchman”.
(Frank Demarco / Andre Gaines)
Do you feel like you need to relate to your characters? Play a character like the one In “The Nutchman”, just my sense of you, this is not how you would behave in these social situations. How to go to this place?
Mara: No, I don't necessarily think you have to bind to them. But those in which I don't see myself are the ones I want to play the most. Those who live in the shadows and who are confusing and difficult to identify are those who have fascinated me the most. Those who scare you to dive and make you leave: “Oh, God, it will be such an uncomfortable day on the set.” I find that the more you talk about the script with people you respect and really confident – and he must not be people who work on the film, just other people who really understand the equipment or something else – so I think it brings the most peace: ok, that's what the trip looks like and that may be why.
“Friendship” is not a comedy focused on the joke. It is Very complicated and in diapers. Knowing that this is the first comedy you made, how did you find the experience?
Mara: Well, our director Andrew, he really wanted it to have the impression of filming a drama more. Everything was going to be taken in a really serious way. Which makes him so much funnier when you look at him. We don't make jokes all the time. These are just real situations with real people. It turns out to be hysterical. But I was very nervous while going just because I did not know what the environment would be on the set and because people are not used to seeing me in things like that. And so I just wanted to make sure I knew in which path I was really. But Andy was always very clear about the film he wanted to make, and it was also very well on the page, very clear by reading him that it had to come out in a certain way.
It was really about me and Tim having the right chemistry and / or his absence. And the story with each other, which I found easy because Tim is so shiny. We really got along and I admire him as much as an actor and writer, and so it was actually very easy once I arrived. It was very liberating, and I was so jealous that people who are in comedies can live this kind of joy every day. When it works, it is so clear that it works. It's really fun to be part of something that when you make the scene, the guy of the camera, his shoulders tremble because he tries not to laugh. It is this kind of contagious joy.
Kate Mara and Jack Dylan Grazer in “Friendship”.
(Andy Rydzewski / A24)
Is there a big difference for you between the roles of support and the main roles? Or is it something that you don't really treat?
Mara: I definitely consider it because it is so much more time. Being a parent, it is obviously much more time when you are – I think I am in each scene of “the astronaut” and I really do not have many scenes with my co -stars. It is therefore really difficult, because these are longer days on the set and more time far from the family. But then, I guess the silver lining was that there was not much dialogue. I had to prepare for so long for “The Dutch” because there is so much dialogue and most come from the room and therefore it is specific. So I had to prepare myself for a long time just to memorize these lines before I could put themselves. But “the astronaut”, she speaks really very little and it is more feeling.
So, in this sense, it was less work that led there, but you had to find everything in the moments. Often, I think of myself, well, if I will be in each scene of this film, whatever I do then, if I do it right away, it must be a smaller role because you have less to give almost. And it's really fun to be able to sit down and watch someone like Tim Robinson in a way to take the reins.
IIt seems that you are really flourishing. What do you think of where you're right now?
Mara: I don't really think about it in this way. I hadn't worked for a year, mainly because I just had a baby. And so I wanted this time. But some years, there are so many opportunities, and then other years, there could be opportunities that you do not think that it is quite interesting or that life or circumstances prevent you from working. Really, everything I have known all my life is to be an actor. This is my work. And so it's not like I'm trying to go somewhere.
I am so happy and grateful that I can do that to live. I always feel so much joy on this subject. In fact, when I worked on “the astronaut”, Laurence Fishburne plays my father and he and I are really linked between the two catches on this subject, to be a child actor. I mean, he has been working literally, I think, since he was 9 years old. And I have been working since I was 14 but acting really since I was 9 years old. So, we could really tell this and always be on the set and go like, Wow, that's really what we have to do to live. What an incredible thing we still feel so passionate about it. And not everyone does. I really feel grateful to always have this desire and this excitement on this subject. And so when you meet someone else who had even more experience than you, who also feels that and it's so clear, it was very inspiring and it gave me a lot of hope. I hope I will feel this in 10 years. I can't imagine that I won't. I am just grateful to continue to get the opportunities that are interesting enough for me to do the work.
You and your sister Rooney will be in a film together for the first time, not just playing sisters but playing twins. I can only imagine that you have been approached on many projects over the years. What did it make you say that you finally said yes?
Mara: Well, the simplest answer is Werner Herzog. We both love him as a human now, but we don't know him before he offers us the offer. But we knew him as a filmmaker. And hands down, he is one of the most fascinating filmmakers. I just admired it for so long that we, before reading it, become very, very excited by the opportunity and immediately plunged into the script. And then it turns out that it is one of the most unique things I have ever read. No surprise there, because he wrote it. And to be able to be in a film with each other, it's a dream. We want to do it for a long time and we have certainly been sent things that we may have considered, but it has never been obvious. It has always been a question. And with that, it was like an obvious yes.
And it is one of the greatest titles of all time. This is called “Bucking Fasserd”. I mean, who does not want to be in a film entitled “Bucking Fasserd”?
