Oscar Watch: Amy Ryan Q&A
“Gone Baby Gone” is out on DVD next Tuesday, Feb. 12, and it’s probably one of the better movies I saw last year. I’ve never thought much of Ben Affleck as an actor, but if this movie is any indication, directing is truly his calling.
The story revolves around the disappearance of a little girl, and the search to find her. When the investigation — led by cops Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris — fails to make inroads on the case, the girl’s aunt and uncle call in private investigators, Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and his girlfriend and partner, Angie Genarro (Michelle Monaghan). The pair find themselves embroiled in a complex case on the tough streets of Dorchester, a rough Boston neighborhood. They try to find their way through a murky web of lies and violence involving drug dealers, hard criminals, and child abusers. And the ending is, Wow, I didn’t see that coming. At all!
“Gone Baby Gone” has already won a slew of awards, including a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod for Amy Ryan, who plays Helene, single mother of four-year-old Amanda, who goes missing. She’s neglectful, selfish, and unappealing — but on some level, you get the feeling she truly loves her daughter in her own way.
Her character is damaged, disturbed, and does hard drugs. It’s a realistic portrayal of the grim life of a woman on the edge. Ryan has already won The New York Film Critics Circle and The National Board of Review awards for Best Supporting Actress (as well as several other American film awards.) She was also nominated for a Golden Globe.
Ryan grew up in New York and attended the High School for Performing Arts. She’s had numerous roles in theater and television, including “Dan in Real Life,” War of the Worlds,” and HBO’s “The Wire.”
Here, she talks about her role in “Gone Baby Gone”:
Q: How exciting was it for you getting this role?
A: “It was very exciting, absolutely, I didn’t know Ben before the audition, but I had received the script from my agent and I loved it right from the start; it was such a page-turner.
More after the jump…
Each character was so dynamic and you quickly realize, this is not like a ‘who dunnit let’s find the missing child police drama’, it is about how this event, this kidnapping affects each character’s life and I think that is so rare in a film. Usually one character is affected and we follow that person’s journey. The role was wonderful but I kept thinking ‘oh no, this part is too good, I’ll never get it’. I auditioned, the old fashioned way and had practiced a Boston accent. Ben actually said to me at the audition: ‘where are you from in Boston?’ and I said ‘I am from New York’. He said ‘I have never been fooled in my life before’. It was such a compliment that he thought it worked.”
Gecko: Were you surprised to get the part?
Amy: Those kind of roles never go to unknown actresses. There are so many incredible actresses with big names who could bring more money to a film. So I was greatly shocked that I got the part.
Gecko: Was there a sense that this film was special?
Amy: I knew from the beginning that this was a rare, juicy, complicated part. And it was also Ben Affleck’s directing debut, so there was a real feeling of excitement. There was an electric feeling in the air. It felt like something new and thrilling was happening. Sometimes you’re doing scenes in films that you know are not good and that you’re privately apologizing for, thinking ‘Oh, this is stupid. I can’t believe I had to do that.’ But in this film I would finish a scene and want to do it again because it was so much fun and there were so many layers. I loved the interrogation scene with Ed Harris. The whole film has a great quality.
Gecko: What kind of woman is Helene McCready?
Amy: From my perspective, Helene is a drug-addicted single mother who’s trying to survive by very unsavory means. She’s really a product of her environment. She’s doing the best she can, and the best is just awful. She does love her child very much, but she also loves drugs.
Gecko: How did you portray her?
Amy: I do not think she is all bad. Maybe there are a couple of characters in history who are purely evil, the ones who twirl their moustaches! But I think most people are doing the best they can, but sometimes their best is just atrocious, and that’s why it was so interesting to play a character like this. You have to put aside your own beliefs, your own life experience and stand behind the character without any judgment. As an audience member, I can imagine watching and thinking ‘oh, this woman is terrible,’ and then when you are in the character you say: ‘This woman is very crafty, but she knows how to survive in a community that is really rough, with no help from police or education or health authorities — and look how well she’s survived so far in her life.’ I’m sure there was a point in time when Helene was the four-year old daughter (like Amanda,) herself, having a tough time, so you have to look at the big picture. The film focuses on the question: How do you break the cycle of bad parenting, and how will that end? That is what the movie offers up, because this is happening everywhere, not just in that area of Boston.
Gecko: Did you do any specific research for the character?
Amy: No, I didn’t do any research on addiction or anything like that. I just used what I know about the subject and have read about in books. And I took a lot from people I know or have encountered in life, who’ve gone through that. But I haven’t known anyone that extreme. The research was on-the-job training while we were filming in Dorchester. Being on location in Boston helped a lot. It’s very different having that reality, rather than filming in Toronto or somewhere that’s supposed to be Boston. The bar is raised much higher, but in one sense it makes it easier because all you have to do is be open to the environment you’re in. You get the attitude of the place and people, the way they carry themselves physically. You observe everything they do: Are they friendly to the cops? Are they friendly to the new person who walks down the block? It was such a luxury being on set there, the atmosphere starts to seep in.
Gecko: What was it like working with Ben?
Amy: Ben was so supportive. He made such an incredible first impression at our initial meeting, so smart and kind. His confidence and intelligence are great, and he’s very open to collaboration. I really believe this part was played by both me and Ben Affleck. I have had a lot of champions along the way, people who believed in me, but Ben Affleck and [filmmaker] Sidney Lumet have been amazing.
Gecko: When did Sydney Lumet become a champion?
Amy: He saw me in a play and invited me to audition for a television show he made with Alan Arkin called “100 Centre St.” I played three different parts over the two years of the series, and this year, I joined him in “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.” I’ve had a lot of people along the way who’ve said ‘You’re so great, but I’m not going to hire you.’ Then there are people like Ben and Sidney who stood up to that and took a risk and really believed in me.
Gecko: What about Casey Affleck? What was it like working with him?
Amy: Casey is incredibly talented and playful and relaxed, in a way that made everything much looser. I loved working with him. He’s funny and light, which helped, because we were working with such dark subject matter.
Gecko: Did the atmosphere get grim or dark or disturbing? You were dealing with a difficult subject matter in a pretty bleak setting with poverty and drug addiction and corruption.
Amy: Not really, because we kept the atmosphere light. My mother was a nurse, and we always had ‘gallows humor’ — you try to laugh, because otherwise, you start to think too much and you can’t emerge from it all. This is the same idea. Doing a drama like this, you can’t take it personally. You have to leave the scene at the scene.
Gecko: What do you think the film says?
Amy: I think “Gone Baby Gone” works because it doesn’t answer questions. You sit there eating your popcorn and watching the story unfold, but it doesn’t sum it all up for you. So you go away from the theater talking with friends and discussing it. That’s great, because ultimately, it’s all about how do we take better care of our children? How do we take better care of our neighborhood? There are many mothers like Helene, but there are also incredible success stories of people who’ve done well and shined through against the odds. We have to find out how to break the cycle, how do we protect our children?
Gecko: What is the overall appeal of the film?
Amy: A lot of people are afraid of watching a film about a missing baby, or they’re reluctant to watch violence. But at the end of the day, this is a great story, and I’d watch this kind of movie any day over the bad films that come out. There’s a level of great entertainment, but it’s also thought provoking and powerful.
Gecko: How hard was it nailing that Boston accent?
Amy: I’m from New York, and I think there’s a similar attitude, a kind of defensiveness. But the sounds are completely different. My accent improved simply by being in Boston and spending time talking to people from Boston. It also helped that Jill Quigg, the actress who plays Dottie, my best friend, is from Boston. She very generously let me record her, and she would listen to me and say ‘watch your R’, there’s no R there.’ The Affleck brothers also helped, and Ben gave me a lot of freedom. He said it doesn’t matter if a word is not exactly right. If one word pops out that sounds too New York, we can fix it in post production. There was constant encouragement and freedom, and we did fix a couple of words here and there — like the word ‘her’ — but mostly it was fine.
Gecko: Can you talk about the style of your character? Did you contribute at all?
Amy: The Costume designer did most of it. I would say ‘make everything tighter, so you can see the panty lines. Get me a smaller size, so my stomach hangs out over my jeans.’ She told me I was very brave, but I thought, if I’m going this far, let’s do it. I’m not here to look attractive. Let’s keep going, why stop now? Helene thinks she looks good. They made my hair look greasy. They muddied it up, put a brown rinse through the blonde, and let the roots show. I described the makeup this way: it looked pretty good three days ago. Ben Affleck picked the nail polish color: bubblegum pink.
Gecko: How has “Gone Baby Gone” changed your life?
Amy: Everything changed after I made this film. In terms of better access to scripts, it’s fantastic. I feel like I’ve been hanging out at the punch bowl and just got called onto the dance floor. It’s been a whirlwind, but a very welcome whirlwind. The Golden Globe nomination and the awards I’ve received…it’s all just incredible. It feels great, and if it brings more attention to the film, that’s fantastic. I think the beauty of waiting for this kind of success for a long time is that I have a lot of gratitude and patience. I think I appreciate it far more than if I was young and just out of high school.
Gecko: Did you grow up dreaming of acting?
Amy: Yes. from the time I was 11 years old, when my parents took us to the theater a lot. I was the family clown making everybody laugh. My mother thought I’d be in comedies, but I’m usually in dark dramas or in the theater wearing corsets. I always loved performing — well, I call it performing, but it was probably more like being an obnoxious kid. But from very early on, I’d imitate everyone in my family. I’d impersonate my dad’s walk, and everyone would laugh. The shift came when I went to high school, where I was exposed to plays and teaching techniques.
Gecko: Are you still interested in theater?
Amy: Yes, I trained in New York theater. I grew up in Queens and studied at the High School for Performing Arts. I was enrolled in college but started working right away instead. I’ve worked mostly in theater, with great actors — in Broadway shows like “Uncle Vanya” with Derek Jacobi and Laura Linney, and “A Streetcar Named Desire.” But I’ve always had television work like “The Wire.” For the most part, I’ve been involved with great writing, whether it was Anton Chekhov or Tennessee Williams. I’ve been blessed in that way, and the idea of having such a well written character in a film is amazing. I never imagined that I would be that lucky.”
Gecko: Will you do more theater?
Amy: I definitely hope to do more theater. I saw a play recently that re-ignited my excitement and passion for theater: “August” by Tracy Letts. There is so much theater in New York that’s very commercial, movies turned into musicals. There is definitely an audience for that kind of thing, but it was never my taste as an actress. But “August” is wonderful, phenomenal. It’s well written, acted and directed, and so that’s the kind of theater I’d like to do. I loved it.
Gecko: Are the film roles pouring in right now?
Amy: Yes, there are some really interesting new things that I’m so grateful for, but nothing is signed yet. People have definitely become more aware of me, and it’s getting a little easier…much easier than auditioning, which is hard for an actor.
Gecko: What are your interests when you’re not acting?
Amy: New York City is a great interest for me. Some days I’ll have no plans, so I’ll call a friend and we’ll walk around the city. We walk the streets for miles, and there’s a new story on every block. I spend a lot of time with friends — I take friendship very seriously. And when the weather is good, I ride my bike.
Gecko: What are your hopes and plans for the future?
Amy: Truly, I’m not thinking of much other than dealing with everything on a practical level. My desk is piled with bills. I don’t have an assistant or anything, so I have cases that have not been unpacked since last week and bills that haven’t been opened. At the moment, I’m feeling like, ‘Oh my God, there aren’t enough hours in the day.’ I’m trying to find time to make plans and see my friends, but it’s hard to manage everything. The career stuff is easy. It’s just about saying, ‘Yes, I’d love to come and do that.’ You show up and they take care of you and they pick you up in a car, but doing the practical stuff is the problem. I haven’t cleaned my bathroom in three months. Every-day ordinary tasks like getting the groceries are hard at the moment.
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DVD Giveaway: "Gone Baby Gone"
Mar 17, 2008 at 8:17 pm
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