Browning stars as Lucy, a disaffected college student scraping by on odd jobs before happening upon a madam (Rachael Blake) who supplies young women for a group of high-class patrons. In the most extreme of their scenarios, Lucy is essentially anesthetized and placed nude in bed, resulting in a succession of outre encounters that have left viewers shocked, appalled, enthralled, breathless, fleeing the theater and/or any number of combinations of each. I sat down with Browning at the recent Hamptons International Film Festival for a freewheeling chat about about the film, her role, her routine, her festival experiences, and the odd conceptual link between Sleeping Beauty and the much less admirably received Sucker Punch.
[Advisory: Spoilers follow]
This is a polarizing film, to say the least. What kinds of conversations have you encountered or personally had with people about this since Cannes?
I think in terms of people speaking to me personally about it, their reactions have been positive. A guy who was just interviewing me said a reaction that I've gotten a lot, which I quite like, which is, "When I first saw it, I wasn't sure. I didn't know how I felt about it; it made me uncomfortable. But then it stuck with me, and now I really like it." And I love that reaction. I think that's great, and that's what we want. It's so weird when I do a Q&A, and somebody asks a question and they begin it with, "I loved the film!" I'm like, "You loved it?" That's kind of a weird response.
I know. "Already?"
Yeah! I mean , when I first saw it, I was proud of it, and it worked exactly as I wanted it to. But the automatic response "I love it"? I kind of like that people have to think about it. And apparently it's stuck with people, which is great. It's all I could ask for.
What was your own reaction the first time you saw the film?
Well, I was meant to see it for the first time at Cannes. I said to my publicist and others, "I can't do it. I need to see it before them, because I might pass out." It was the most nerve-wracking experience. So they gave me a copy, and I watched it in bed with a bottle of vodka by myself because I was so nervous. But I was really happy with it, and it's so rare for me to feel that about a film. I think so often the things that I've done have been muddled with, and I was just really happy -- so happy that I watched again the next day, sober. Which was good. But yeah. It made me feel the way I think it's meant to make people feel, which is uncomfortable and a bit squeamish. It was what I wanted it to be.
Then watching it at Cannes was a different experience -- with the huge screen, thinking, "Wow, I'm this giant naked person, and there are thousands of people looking at me." It changes it a bit. So at Cannes I was sweating profusely and gripping onto Julia's hand and kind of shaking a little bit.
I picture Julia propositioning you much the way Clara propositions Lucy: "This will be challenge, but it will be lucrative. Be smart with your reward." How did you two come to terms on this role and where it would go?
I read the script, and it's one of m favorite scripts that I've ever read. Julia is an unbelievable writer. It also made me feel really uncomfortable, but that was sort of the draw for me. I like the idea of doing something challenging. I was in Canada at the time filming something else, and I put myself on tape. I mean, as soon as I read it, I was like, "I have to do it." A few people warned me off, saying, "Are you sure? It's really intense. Are you sure?" But I knew that I wanted to be a part of it, so I put a really long audition on tape and sent it in. And I was actually offered the part before I met Julia, and I took. I just felt that it was going to be something right for me.
But then when I met her, she said, "If there's anything you're uncomfortable with, we can change it a bit. We can fix things, we can change this or we can change this..." It wasn't so much of a "proposition." And we had two solid weeks to rehearse, and Julia gave me films to watch. We spoke about Lucy's physicality and her back story. We worked out every scene in depth and spoke about it a lot, so we had a lot of time to prepare and get the character together.
Acting in your sleep--
That's a great way to put it, actually! "I can act in my sleep." [Laughs]
Ha! Sorry: Acting like you're asleep is still acting. What's the technical underpinning of those scenes?
It's interesting, particularly the Man 2 scene, where I'm being messed around with. It's tough to not wince and pull away and that kind of thing. Early on, Julia suggested that I learn to meditate. So that's what I did -- just kind of focusing on my breathing, and I had words I was saying in my head. It was just about being as still as possible. And I think in a way, doing those kinds of nude scenes that are really intense, it was actually kind of easier that I was asleep. I was a blank canvas in those scenes; I was able to shut everything else out and not actually be present. It was kind of nice in a way.
It's a deceptively physical role. I mean, something like Sucker Punch is physical, but this is physical -- requiring a next level of control over your body's natural instincts. Did you perceive it that way?
Before I started filming, I did something called the Alexander Technique. Do you know the Alexander Technique?
I'm afraid not.
I think a lot of people do it at drama school -- a particular way of learning how to hold your body in certain ways. Learning to walk with a good posture. It's really hard to explain, actually -- this movement-therapy kind of thing. I think that really helped; it really got me into being able to possess my body and have full control, because generally I'm pretty clumsy. So it was important for me to do that. And also, when I was rehearsing with Julia, we worked a lot on the physicality. I have a tendency to hunch and go into myself a bit because I'm nervous a lot of the time, and I had to learn to just get rid of that and move like a different person.
It also had a lot to do with... See, I'm from Melbourne, and we filmed the movie in Sydney, and for the eight weeks that I was there, I was living alone right at the ocean at Bondi Beach. I would get up every morning and swim in the ocean by myself -- at 5 in the morning, before the sun came up because I wasn't able to get a tan. So I got into this weird, very quiet headspace that maybe gave me a better understanding of that character -- of being very still.
I was reading some background on the film where you mentioned having done several takes of the notorious scene with Man 2. I was like, "Several takes?" How do you do several takes of that?
I'd say it was in the teens -- 13, 14, something like that.
[Stunned silence]
It was a lot! But the thing is, I talk about a lot of takes and people think, "Oh, that's crazy." But because all of the scenes were really one shot, Julia didn't have the luxury of editing and cutting. So the take had to be perfect. That's why we did so many takes. When he burns my neck with the cigarette, I had prosthetic skin on my neck. But still, when a cigarette's coming toward your skin, you wince. And so for the first four takes I squirmed and moved a bit. It just took that many to get it down. But it was... [Laughs] By the end, I'd had enough. I wanted to go home: "This is too much for me; I've had enough."
I don't know if I've ever seen a cigarette in a film loaded with such portent.
Yeah! Yeah, exactly.
I've also always wondered if and how Australian currency burned -- that plastic stuff.
That's a good point. We did use real notes.
I was going to say: Please tell me that wasn't real.
No, those were real.
OK, so please tell me you only did one take of that.
I think we did four takes. We had to get it legally cleared so those four notes were replaced. It's illegal to burn currency because that money does not then exist in the economy anymore. So we had to tell the government, "We're taking these four $100 bills, so can you reprint four $100 bills in their place?" But you're right: We actually had a problem with that. To be honest, it was really satisfying to burn a $100 bill. It was an amazing feeling. But it is plastic, so it didn't really flame like we wanted it to. It just kind of curled up.
Not like the good old-fashioned American stuff! Ours really burns.
But yours is ridiculous! If you put an American note in your jeans and put it through the washing machine, it kind of disintegrates.
Enh, not really. It's like this paper/fiber kind of thing?
It is?
Yeah. It withstands moisture, but it's definitely weaker than yours. It tears, and it does disintegrate after a while.
The only problem I have with American money is that it's all kind of the same color, so I'm always having to look. Whereas with Australian money, you have purple, blue, yellow... We keep it nice and simple.
In discussing both this film and Sucker Punch, you've expressed your interest in the subject of female empowerment. But in both cases there's objectification and exploitation going on that threatens to bury the message. Surely there must be a clearer way for you to get it across?
I have to speak about the two films separately here. Sucker Punch... It's hard for me to be objective about that film, because I had the best time working on it. I love every single person I worked with; I love Zack [Snyder, the director]. And I loved the script -- how it was originally. But I think that message did get muddled a bit in terms of studio rewrites and having to go from an R to a PG-13. I can definitely see people's complaints about that being a little bit sexist. As I said, it's so hard to be objective, because I genuinely love that film, Sucker Punch, and being such a part of it. But I do get that.
Sleeping Beauty, on the other hand... I think Lucy's being objectified within the film, but she has what Julia calls a "radical passivity," which is to say, "I have this understanding of this world where I'm going to be objectified, so instead of raging against that, I am going to see where it takes me. I'm going to turn the other cheek. Do your worst." So I don't see the film itself as being sexist in any way. Also, for me personally, as a feminist, I'm pro-sex work. And I believe that a portrayal of that -- though she's not quite a prostitute, but someone who's in that line of work -- I don't think that's automatically going to be innately sexist. Does that make sense?
Yes.
And when I say I'm "pro-sex work," obviously there are some terrible conditions, and there are obviously horrible circumstances where people are forced into that line of work. But there are also people doing it because they want to do it, and their rights need to be acknowledged. I think that their rights need to be fought for, because that profession in itself -- when it's all done in a way that should be done, and everyone has rights and it's safe -- is a necessary and honorable profession.
Is it true that you want to write and direct down the line?
Well... yeah. I mean, I write, but I think it's going to take a while before I'm ready to show it to anyone. I've been acting since I was a kid, so I just feel confident in the fact that I can do it to some degree. I've never thought I was amazing; I've just thought, "I know this, I can do it." But the annoying thing about that I never had a point in my life where I was 17 and said, "What do I want to do? I want to try some things." Now I'm 22, and I think, "Can I do anything else?" So I write in my spare time, but it might take me a little while to build up the confidence to bring that to the world.
You haven't shared it with anyone? Maybe solicited counsel from Julia?
Oh God! Not with Julia! That would take a while. I've read a few of her books and the script, of course and she's just too brilliant. I can't.
Maybe she could help!
Maybe. That's true. My best friend is a writer; he writes and directs music videos and one day wants to work in film. So I share ideas with him. Not my actual writing, but I always go back and forth with him about ideas and that kind of thing. But I don't know, maybe one day I'll get confident enough.
What's next in the meantime?
I have a film I was meant to be doing this year, but I don't know if it's going to go until next year -- it's called Magic Magic, and it's filming in Chile. And then next year I'm doing an English film in New Zealand called Cassie and Jude. That's about identical twins, and I would be playing both twins. So that will be interesting.
Editor's note: This is an expanded version of an interview published during the Hamptons International Film Festival.
[Top photo: AFP/Getty Images]
Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter.
Follow Movieline on Twitter.