BOP Interview: Taylor Schilling
By Ryan Mazie
April 11, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Schilling’s Beth is a divorced mother who is the object of affection to drifter war vet Logan (Zac Efron). But with untold secrets and a controlling ex-husband, the romance in The Lucky One, another Nicholas Spark’s adaptation, is a dramatic whirlwind.
A bit timid due to lack of experience at press junkets, Schilling might have to find herself getting used to this lifestyle if The Lucky One is a hit along with her upcoming starring roles in the Ben Affleck directed-starrer Argo and the Bradley Cooper-Robert DeNiro header The Silver Linings Playbook.
Being a movie based off of a Nicholas Sparks novel, do you actually read the script or do you just say, “Yep! I’ll do it”?
TS: For me, being given the opportunity to play this part was a huge deal. So I was just thrilled. “Yeah! Sign me up!” (Laughs).
…. It was really cool to have Nicholas available to us. He is such a dynamo. He never was intrusive; he was so respectful. He was there if we wanted a resource if we wanted to talk about characters or what he thought was going on. It’s a really cool tool to have, because you can get specific or not.
So as an actress do you feel more in debt to honor the character of Beth in the book or the version of her that is in the script?
TS: I tried not to separate them. It’s sort of like hunting and gathering. I just try to gather as much information as I can about her and then sort of see what happens in the moment and not compartmentalize it.
Can you talk about your co-stars? What was it like to be working with Blythe Danner and Zac Efron?
TS: …I grew up really in awe of Blythe, in her work onstage and in film. Like The Great Santini is just a classic. So I think the second most exciting call, after I got the job, was finding out that she was going to be in the movie as well. And she is just so incredibly talented, so incredibly charming and easy going and funny and passionate and created this environment for all of us, while we working and outside of working, that was just so comfortable. I really can’t say enough about her. Our relationship is one of the most exciting things to come out of filming for me. Like we can still get dinner and I just I love her. I really do.
And Zac is incredible. I knew nothing about Zac when I did this. I met him at the screen test and he is so down-to-earth and so easygoing and so hardworking and so present. I think he can do anything he wants to. We clicked. It was just so comfortable.
Speaking of clicking, you also have great chemistry with Riley Thomas Stewart, who plays your son in the movie.
TS: You know, this is my second year, third year I’ve been out of school. Four months after I left grad school, before I got Mercy [editor’s note: NBC’s one-season-long drama series that Schilling starred in], the one thing I did was babysit. Nanny-ing was how I made my money when I was in school and then when I dropped out of school (laughs), was how I decided to make money while auditioning. So, I like, I absolutely never thought that there would be a direct line between nanny-ing and my work, but it has proved so invaluable … and has made me feel really comfortable around kids.
I want to play devil’s advocate. I am a guy. I don’t want to see this movie. Convince me.
TS: I think that there is … (pauses). One thing that I really like about this movie is that universally, it kind of deals with the idea that no matter what is happening in your life, now or what you’ve been through, you really aren’t too damaged. There is a chance. No matter how dire things seem, there is something out there. People can shift. There is room for new stuff. I just like seeing people be courageous. I like seeing people do what scares them in an awkward, real, not comfortable way. That’s one of the things I loved about the love scenes too. These are two people who are out of practice. I was really given a lot of freedom in this movie. I wasn’t shellacked with make-up all the time, my clothes were like clothes I felt a Mom would be able to wear cleaning up after dogs and dealing with her son. There is the fantasy of a romance that does happen and it is something to be expected from Nicholas Sparks, but also, really in my mind, based in reality that here are these characters that aren’t shiny or glossy and really are dealing with things that I feel like people are living through as we speak.
You talk about how the characters in the film, especially Zac Efron’s Logan, taking chances to get where they are, so I was wondering if there was any big chance that you took in your career that got you to where you are today?
TS: That’s a really good question. (Starts to speak but pauses to find the right words) I negotiate almost every day. I often find that the best barometer for me of what to do next is to do what scares me the most. And it’s served me pretty well, really gently, and with no expectations; keep moving in the direction of what freaks me out (laughs).
So what does freak you out so we can know what type of roles we can expect to see from you next?
TS: I don’t know if it’s about … (pauses) a certain character? It is about people and material that sort of inspire me and makes me feel like I am a little bit off balanced.
We talked about your chemistry with Zac, with Riley, with Blythe, but there is kind of an anti-chemistry with your ex-husband in the movie. When he enters the room, your body just changes. How do you prepare to not have chemistry with someone?
TS: You know what is also interesting to me? On some level there is an under current of domestic violence running through the film as well, so I was able to talk to some people that had experienced that. I don’t know. It’s taking some real life experiences that you hear of and then figuring out how that messes around in your own imagination.
I feel like that’s the weird thing about acting. You do enough detective work around the stuff and then you let it all go and just hope it is present in the moment. And you want to honor those things … the women I talked to. It’s intense.
Jay Ferguson [who plays the ex-husband] is awesome, though. In between takes he would be showing me cool music on his phone and we would be downloading stuff. He couldn’t be more different than [his character]. He has an amazing family, an adorable son, a great wife.
Do you enjoy watching yourself on the big screen?
TS: (long pause)
I’ll take that as a silent “no.”
TS: I hope it gets easier. There are moments that it is fun. But it’s just a surreal experience. Because you are coming at it like, “Gosh, I remember doing all this work for it.”
And then there is editing.
TS: It is always on the edge of your seat. I mean, not always, this is my first movie (laughs). In this experience, it has always been on the edge of my seat.