A guy from Chicago directing this material seemed kind out of left field for me when I heard about it. What do you think an American sensibility brought to the adaptation?
I don't know if it was an American sensibility. I think maybe they thought it was OK if the filmmaker had a deep affinity for the story -- to have an outsider's perspective on an English world. But I don't know if they were looking for any sort of American flavor to be infused into it. I didn't think about that -- that I was an American filmmaker making a movie. I thought I was not English, but that I had a love for England and English movies and English TV shows. I spent a lot of time in England; I went to school there and lived on and off there several times. So I wasn't new to England, and I have a knowledge of it that was beyond the tourist's knowledge. But I think I was brought on by Peter Rice at Fox Searchlight because we had a good experience making One Hour Photo together, and I don't think a national attitude or tone really came into it.
The British do dystopia better than anybody, yet I was never sure Never Let Me Go chronicled an actual dystopia. What do you think?
I wouldn't pick that word. It's dystopian in the sense that it's this kind of alternate reality; in the fabric of this imagined society, there's an ugliness obviously going on there to treat human beings like that. But when you think of dystopias, you think of a series of tropes that this movie doesn't truck with so much. It's not Blade Runner. There's not ruined buildings or hordes of rogue mutants. It's not dystopian; it's very subtle. Technically it's not a utopia, I suppose. Does that make it a dystopia? It's somewhere in between, I think.
It's sort of our world. I don't think that all the ethical issues of biotechnology and all that stuff are that germane to the story. But there are people in third-world countries selling their organs to first-world recipients. So there is plenty of dystopia going on; we live in a dystopia, sadly, right now.
You think?
Oh, yeah. Things aren't going so hot. Though I'm reading a book called Pronoia, which is the opposite of paranoia. The concept is that things actually are going better than they've gone throughout history; it's just that we've been programmed to believe it's all going to sh*t. But there's less war, there's less violence, there's less child mortality, there are fewer starving people, there are fewer wars on the planet right now than there's ever been in history. So as bad as it seems, things are going better than they've ever gone.
Do you buy into that?
I think I'm happy to grasp at reasonable reasons for optimism rather than just sinking into total cynicism. I have to want to believe that we're going to be OK.
If you impose that standard on Never Let Me Go, it would imply that the characters, once they accept their fate, will be just fine and can live happily.
Well, they're not going to be just fine, because they're going to die before they're 30 -- unnecessarily, one could argue. But they feel like they have a sense of purpose that maybe other people don't have. In this alternate world, they do have a pride in the service they're providing. And I think that Kathy comes to this place of a really gracious acceptance of her mortality and her place in this world that I find really moving. That's what makes people cry, I think: That strength and pride and gracefulness in coming terms with our mortality. Because we have to come to terms with it. We can fight it all we want, but we're never going to win.
I love your story about Peter Rice texting you after seeing An Education: "Hire the genius Mulligan."
That's a true story. I might even... Literally, as we're talking -- and I've never done this -- I probably have it here in an old e-mail. [He pulls out his iPhone] I don't want to screw up the interview, but I'm actually kind of curious now. I'll prove it to you.
I was at that same screening, and I thought, "Yep, this girl's going places."
It's undeniable.
What about casting the others? How did you go about building and working with that trio?
We had this really fruitful, exploratory, fun rehearsal period where it was kind of like a speed-intimacy class and a discussing-the-script class. There were acting exercises and field trips with the kids, playing Frisbee and hanging out at the real locations. Everybody got to know each other, and there started to be a blur between their characters. They all approach their craft from different perspectives that I thought really wound up complementing each other. In a way they all had slightly different styles of acting, which is really a good thing because it created like a three-way circuit between them in the film.
"Different" how? In what ways?
Well, they're all very smart. I wouldn't say any of them approach it from a purely intuitive place -- maybe Carey more than anyone. She's kind of a minimalist. She seems to radiate an enormous amount of emotional content by doing seemingly very little. Andrew is in his body a lot; he thinks about movement. He comes to the character, I think, through his body and talks about a lot of different styles of movement. Whereas Keira is all about the motivation and why her character is doing what she's doing at that very moment. She needs that to be clear so she can make a clear choice. All those things suited their characters and kind of complemented each other.
I'm trying an experiment this fall where I'm avoiding trailers, previews, clips, reviews and other information about new and upcoming release.
Wow. That's gotta be hard.
Kind of! But I came to Never Let Me Go having not only not read the book, but not having any clue what the movie was about before I saw it the other night--
Was that a press screening?
Yes.
I wonder what those are like compared to seeing with an audience. I've always wondered whether that's better or worse.
In festival environments I prefer an audience. That's where you get the vibe.
[Still checking iPhone] When was Sundance? January... '09?
Right.
I'm totally listening to you, by the way.
So without giving anything away about the story, is that kind of disconnection an advantage for this film's viewers?
I suppose that's the ideal way. But when you have a film that's different, or maybe a little original -- which I hope this one is -- there's something to be said for an audience knowing how they're supposed to look at it or what they're supposed to see, without giving plot points away. That's good marketing: It can help you enjoy a film. If it just sort of slaps you in the face and you're not prepared for something that's challenging and original, you could reject it or miss the key on how to watch it. Like, for instance with this film, I feel like if people go thinking they're seeing a science-fiction film, they'll be disappointed. If they go thinking they're seeing this beautiful love story that has a slight science-fiction patina, then they might engage with it emotionally rather than intellectually. And I think they might enjoy it more. But given the choice, it would probably be better to go in with no information. But I applaud your ability to even do that.
You wouldn't do it?
No, I'd love to do it. I'm just a bit of a junkie about this stuff. I like reading about this stuff.
This has nothing to do with the movie, but I like to ask music-video veterans about their takes on the work of Lady Gaga. What's yours?
I know about her because my daughter likes her, and she is the only one working with any sort of a budget. I really like the Steven Klein video ["Alejandro"]. I think that's a really old-school, big-budget, arty-farty, beautifully crafted music video. That's really something. It's got a strong point of view, the images are memorable, it's a little controversial, it's a good song. So I like that one. I don't think I've responded much one way or another to the other ones. But that one I like. It's sort of epic, too; I think they did an extra-long version. I don't know. It looks like they really spent some '90s money on it, you know? I like her; I think she can really sing and write. She's not just manufactured entirely. She's a performance artist; I like her sense of style a lot.
Would you work with her?
Yeah! She's one of the few people out there who might pull me out of retirement. Not that it's an official retirement.
[Top photo: Matt Carr/Getty Images]