Let's get this straight: the title of Bradley Rust Gray's THE EXPLODING GIRL is purely metaphorical; there are no full-scale detonations of actual people in this movie. If that's what you seek, there's always John Cassavetes - from ten different angles - in THE FURY. No, Gray's film is something else entirely. It's an intimate character study starring Zoe Kazan as Ivy, a young woman who's returned home to New York City after finishing her freshman year at college. Though Ivy seems happy enough at the beginning (she pals around with her best friend from childhood, and talks on the phone with her boyfriend from school), there's a tentativeness to her that's rare for a girl her age; she's not at all comfortable in her own skin. Turns out Ivy has a right not to trust her body: she's epileptic. And while she's on medication that's supposed to least control the frequency and severity of her seizures, she's still limited by her affliction. Though quick to note that she is quite different from her character, Kazan was determined to depict with complete verisimilitude the life of an epileptic girl - and this respectful commitment has yielded a performance that is revelatory for what it doesn't show. She communicates Ivy's inner turmoil by refusing to register any kind of emotional response to the frustrations (both great and small) that plague her every day. It's an extreme reaction to the fact that, at any given moment, her body could betray her weaknesses without her permission. In other words, Ivy cherishes control. It's difficult to play a character who holds back so much, but Kazan pulls it off beautifully. After impressing over the last couple of years with supporting turns in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, ME AND ORSON WELLES and THE ADVENTURES OF PIPPA LEE, Kazan has proven that she can carry a film just by being - something very few actors can do. And while she may come by some of her talent genetically (her parents are screenwriters Nicholas Kazan and Robin Swicord, her grandfather Elia), the kind of skill she evinces in THE EXPLODING GIRL requires dedication. Kazan is in this because she loves the craft, not because it's expected of her. Aside from THE EXPLODING GIRL, you can also catch Ms. Kazan on Broadway in Martin McDonagh's new play, A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE (currently set to run until June 6th). Both are discussed in the below interview, which took place early Monday morning (Pacific time) following the Oscars. I note this because I can't believe I was conscious (though that didn't stop me from bungling the title of McDonagh's play). Fortunately, Kazan was wide awake in New York City and heroically eloquent.
Mr. Beaks: You had a hand in developing this character. How involved were you in the writing of the script?
Zoe Kazan: Oh, not at all. Brad is a complete control freak. (Laughs) I don't mean it in a bad way. He's just passionate, and his movies are his movies: he's the writer, I'm not. So I wouldn't say I had input into the writing of character as much as I had influence. Basically, Brad decided he wanted to write a movie for me before he really knew me, and we spent a lot of time taking these massive, epic walks through the cold in New York in January - and I got really sick, and it was all his fault. I went away to London to shoot ME AND ORSON WELLES, and when I came back, he had written the script. I read it, and it was so different from what I thought. I assumed because he was writing something for me that it would be based on me, but Ivy and her story have very little in common with who I am or what I've been through. I was really excited about that, actually. Brad had mostly worked with non-actors before me, so I was excited to see him take a leap of faith with something more fictional. It was really fun to see what he came up with. Then he and I worked together on figuring out who [Ivy] was, and how she talks, and the way she walks. A lot of that stuff is pretty unconscious; Brad left a lot of that up to me. So it was definitely a collaboration.
Beaks: Where did the idea of making Ivy an epileptic come from?
Kazan: That was Brad. He'll probably correct me at some point when he reads this, but I'm pretty sure that's the first idea that he had. He didn't tell me about it for a long time, and then he said, "You might want to start reading about epilepsy." (Laughs) So I did. I think in some ways it's a nice metaphor for how Ivy is careful with herself. Epileptics, like diabetics, have to be very careful with what they eat and what they drink and how much sleep they get and how much stress they're under. I think because of that, Ivy is a lot more mature than other people her age have to be - and I think there are other ways in which she's careful with herself or on guard. So it's a good way of expressing her character.
Beaks: It's a perpetual disadvantage for her. She's constantly aware of her limitations. How much research did you do into the way people live with epilepsy?
Kazan: Look, I don't have a chronic illness, but I have friends who do. In particular, I have a friend who has Lupus, and I thought about her a lot. If anyone ever made a film about someone who has lupus, and she felt it was inaccurate or exploitative, I would hate that person. So I wanted to be very careful that we weren't committing a similar crime on this, that someone who has epilepsy wouldn't look at it and felt it was [inaccurate]. I also enjoy doing research, and I tried to do a lot of it for this. The thing that was most useful to me was reading books for parents who have children with epilepsy; that helped me understand how my mom would've raised me, and the kinds of things she would've said to me. I also read a bunch of first-hand accounts, and looked at videos of people having seizures. That was one thing I was very concerned about, was the seizure itself. I think a lot of movie seizures look really fake; if you watch a person actually having a seizure, you realize how fake they often look in movies. We did a bunch of research, and I was really nervous about it, but I finally took the plunge and did the seizure. I rehearsed it once in bed - my poor boyfriend had to watch and make sure it looked right. When we finally did it... you only get a smash of it in the movie, but we did two takes of the seizure, and each take was, like, twenty minutes long. That was really physically exhausting. I was glad to finish that day.
Beaks: It's interesting that he films it not only from a distance, but from around a corner. It's such an intimate moment, it's as if the camera is afraid to capture it.
Kazan: Exactly. One thing that Brad talked about with that scene - and another scene where she cries - was the idea of giving the character her privacy. That seemed really important to him. I think Brad, as a person, has a real sense of decorum, and I think you can see that in the movie; he treats the characters with respect. I think he was also, like me, concerned that it didn't seem manipulative or exploitative; he didn't want to use the seizure as a way to gain sympathy for Ivy, or force it in your face as an audience member.
Beaks: How was it to do those street scenes Brad shot with a 300mm lens? He really gave you distance to encounter the world and not have a camera right on you.
