Debra Granik, John Hawkes, and Dale Dickey on How They Pulled Off Winter's Bone

John, can you tell me a little bit about that relationship between Ree and her uncle Teardrop? If you'd told me that by the end of the movie, they'd be working together to find out what happened to Ree's missing father, I wouldn't have believed it. He's so terrifying at first!

HAWKES: As an actor, I think a mistake that any storyteller can make is to play the ending. If I ascertain that Teardrop is ultimately a decent person who helps Ree on her journey, I will fight showing that to the death. It's in there, but I will pile layers upon layers of ugliness on top of it. Teardrop doesn't really change. He doesn't have some epiphany and become, like, a great guy. He's the same guy throughout, but our opinion of him changes -- at least, that's what I'm hoping. Also, as an actor, I want to view the whole story and figure out how to tell it in the best way.

How did you do that here?

HAWKES: Why is Teardrop in the movie? To complicate Ree's journey in the best way possible to make the story more interesting. If he's a helpful sweetheart, it's less interesting to me than if he's this guy where you don't know if he'll molest her or get her killed or force her to do meth. He's bigger than she is and stronger, and he could potentially do what he wants to. I just felt that the story should have that layer, that color.

Dale, it's almost as though your character comes around to Ree's point of view simply because she's so impressed that Ree won't take no for an answer.

DICKEY: We talked about that on the set, too. Merab is so stoic and fierce at the beginning, but by the end, there's an awe of Ree. Her respect grows because this child is willing to fight tooth and nail. I think that's why, at the end, Merab makes this choice to kind of break the ugly cycle so that this child will not lose her house. She sees a young warrior trapped in this same life that Merab and her sister grew up in.

There's an unforgettable nighttime climax to this movie, and Jennifer Lawrence told me that you actually shot it during the day. I never would have known.

GRANIK: You can't light up the universe when you're on a "we must make this film no matter what" budget. [Laughs] One of the more tried-and-true options that some of the greatest DP's have employed is "day for night." We were slightly cursed, though, because it wasn't just daytime but a blazing sun. That makes for a moon that's a little...overzealous, I might say. It's a little bit magical realist looking in that sense. The cast was insanely devoted that day.

Was the Sundance premiere the first time you got to watch the film with an audience?

GRANIK: Yes, oh yes. Any audience at all.

It's a bleak film, but there are these flashes of dark humor. Were you surprised by what people laughed at?

GRANIK: I was so happy. So happy to hear the laughter! No tale can be told without laughter, really -- it's undigestible to the human body. God, the greatest dramatists of all time knew that. I felt like the audience was really open-hearted, and really took every opportunity to laugh. That's a great sign.

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