Zoe Kazan is a child of Hollywood, being the daughter of noted screenwriters Nicholas Kazan and Robin Swicord (and of course, she's the granddaughter of director Elia Kazan), but she came to the foreground as an actor with roles in such films as FRACTURE, IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, ME AND ORSON WELLES, THE EXPLODING GIRL, and MEEK'S CUTOFF.
It was her 2012 screenplay for and starring role (along with real-life boyfriend Paul Dano) in RUBY SPARKS that pushed her into an entirely different category of artist. The film got her a great deal of much-deserved attention as a performer and writer. She also appeared in such films as the Neil LaBute-penned SOME GIRL(S); the Joss Whedon-penned and -produced IN YOUR EYES; THE PRETTY ONE, from first-time writer-director Jenée LaMarque, in which Kazan plays twins; and more recently in OUR BRAND IS CRISIS and the dark comedy MY BLIND BROTHER earlier this year. And expect to see her in the next year in director Lena Denham’s made-for-HBO film MAX, and the new comedy form Michael (HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS) Showalter’s THE BIG SICK.
Out in limited release this week is what I believe is her first outing in a full-bore horror film, THE MONSTER, in which she plays a negligent but loving mother, who finds herself defending her life and that of her young daughter (Ella Ballentine) from an unknown creature after a car wreck. It’s a taut, scary, thrilling, sometimes icky ride, and Kazan does a great job as a white-trash mom who rises the occasion and turns into something of an action hero.
The film was written and directed by Bryan Bertino, who did the home-invasion classic THE STRANGERS in 2008. I had the chance to chat with Kazan on the phone last week to talk about her approach to this character and what it was like to work with a man-in-suit practical monster staring her in the face. Please enjoy my talk with Zoe Kazan, and remember that A24 will release THE MONSTER in theaters and On Demand on November 11 and is available now exclusively on DirecTV.
Capone: Hi, Zoe. How are you?
Zoe Kazan: Hey, Steve. I’m good. You’re the very first person I’m talking to about this project.
Capone: That’s an honor.
ZK: I know! So whatever you ask me is going to be the best question I’ve ever heard about it.
Capone: Or I’ll be setting the bar very low. This is one of those rare instances watching this movie, where I knew nothing about it when I sat down. I actually thought the title, THE MONSTER, was a metaphor. And maybe it is. What about this story and this character of Kathy that hooked you in and made you wanna do this, because this is a little different than what I’ve seen you do before.
ZK: Yeah, it was different. I was really compelled by the writing. I thought that the situation that they were in—I do think there’s a metaphorical aspect to the monster and I do think it was really interesting to me to have to watch a person rise above themselves in order to protect their child. She doesn’t have great maternal instincts, she’s incredibly self destructive, she doesn’t operate her life in a way that puts value on her child’s life. So you put her in a situation where she’s the only thing standing in the way between her child and danger; she surpasses and surprises herself. I found that really moving and interesting and I really fell in love with her from the script and I worked very hard to be a part of it.
Capone: You’re absolutely right about all the things you just said about her, but I also felt in the end it was up to both of them to repair what was wrong. It wasn’t just up to Kathy. It was up to her and Lizzy.
ZK: Yeah, I think you’re absolutely right. I think there’s a toxic cycle with each other. I have to say, I always put the onus of the parent, especially when the child is that small. I don't think any of [Lizzy’s] behavior is behavior that doesn't come out of a pattern that her parent had set. And that probably goes for Kathy, too. People don't try to be bad parents. I think she’s trying her very hardest. I just don't think she’s very well equipped.
Capone: There have been a fair number of horror films in the last couple of years that are family dramas placed in this horror movie landscape. Was that something you dug about this, that it beautifully represented that?
ZK: A horror film that’s actually a drama in substance is my favorite kind of horror or suspenseful film—THE EXORCIST or ROSEMARY’S BABY or DON’T LOOK NOW. Those are my favorites of the genre, much more than a slasher film. But even a film like HALLOWEEN, which is a slasher film, it’s about this girl coming of age. If I was going to do a horror film, it was not going to be something other than something like this, but I could be proven wrong.
Capone: Again, not knowing anything about the film when I sat down to watch it, I didn’t realize this was written and directed by Bryan Bertino, who did THE STRANGERS, which was a really important film at the time. What was it about his approach to his visuals and the story that made you eager to work with him?
ZK: I think that you’re always taking a gamble because no movie is like the one before, but I was really impressed in THE STRANGERS how he maintained such a specific and taut tone throughout. It felt incredibly tense throughout, and actually there isn’t that much violence in THE STRANGERS, but it feels incredibly scary and violent, that sense of anticipation. Given that this is a film in which there isn’t a whole ton of gore, I thought “Well, he knows how to do that already.” And I think Bryan is really smart and I think that shows in THE STRANGERS and in the choices that he made with music and how it’s cut together. I think all of that gave me a lot of confidence in him.
Capone: It looked to me that the monster itself is a guy in a suit mixed with maybe a little bit of advanced puppetry—I love that it’s all practical. Is this your first time working in that arena where you have not just a monster movie, but also any horror movie make-up effects. Tell me about that experience for you.
ZK: I remember watching…there’s a Making Of featurette—or maybe it’s a full documentary about TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE. Did you ever see that documentary?
Capone: I believe so, yes.
ZK: There’s one that’s specifically about the making of TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE that is much scarier to me than the actual film, based on what they put those actors through. And I will say that making a horror film, especially when we’re doing everything drastically, is not the easiest experience I’ve ever had shooting anything. To be completely drenched in water every single day because we were shooting in the “rain,” and to be covered in a glowing assortment of injuries and blood, and having to wrestle with a man in a rubber suit who can’t see properly…
We had an incredible stunt team and we had amazing people keeping me safe. However, there are claws and teeth, so you’re trying to keep yourself really safe, but also act like you’re in an incredible amount of danger. All of those practical things plus like on the tiny budget that we had. It wasn’t a cup of tea going to work, but it was definitely one where afterwards I was like “I need to have like a thousand antibiotics and be in bed for three weeks.” I got crazy sick afterwards for being wet for six weeks [laughs].
Ella too who played my daughter. I don't know she got pneumonia, but they thought she had phenomena. I had some crazy lung virus that wouldn’t go away forever. I’ve never had asthma in my life, and I had an asthma inhaler because I couldn’t breathe after this production. It was really difficult. Acting can be actually difficult, and this was a very difficult shoot, but Ella’s an amazing actress, the little girl that played my daughter. And her mother is an incredible person, and being there with them made an enormous difference to have a true ally to be going through all of that with, and also it was great to have someone who’s 14 years old who I feel like I have to be the stronger, better person for.
Capone: Were you encouraged to spend together, or did you have the opportunity to spend any time with her beforehand? Or did it work better to keep you apart because there has to be an anti-chemistry to your relationship?
ZK: We were very much enmeshed and we really had to rely on each other. It really was basically the two of us for the whole thing. Keeping us apart, I don't think would have worked. Besides, we were shooting in rural Ontario, and there was nothing around. So I spent most of my time with Ella and her mom. That was wonderful. It was a really lovely way to spend our time and it helped for some of those scenes. It’s hard to be as cruel to someone as I sometimes had to be to Ella during the shooting of this movie.
Also, what makes it painful is that they love each other. To have some of those feelings activated as well was really helpful. We didn’t get a ton of rehearsal. I actually asked Ella’s mom to send me pictures of her when she was a baby, so that I could start projecting onto her. I really came to feel just so much adoration for that girl. She’s such a special person.
Capone: Not to give away anything about the end of the film, but you get to be a bit of an action star around the end. Was that exhilarating? Again that’s not really something we get to see you do very often, if ever.
ZK:[laughs] I’m just going to be totally honest with you. We shot those 4 in the morning. All of my “action” stuff, at that point, felt like I was truly in a fight for my life. It’s really hard to shoot nights for that long. Your body starts doing like crazy things, and your brain does too, and the terror and exhaustion felt really real at that point.
Capone: This experience seems very intimate; you’re moving from one enclosed place to another. Outside of getting sick, did this experience stick with you maybe a little more than some ofter films might have?
ZK: It felt a little bit like a fever dream to me. We were in this very isolated place. I didn’t know anybody else there besides the people working on the film. We were working on a very tiny budget and working very quickly, which meant a lot of the time I spent in my “downtime” was in preparation for the scenes in the coming week. Ella and I and Bryan worked a lot on our time off, so I felt like it was the only thing on my mind for that five or six weeks that we had. And we were shooting nights, which is a disorienting experience, because you’re eating at all the wrong times and you’re sleeping at all the wrong times, and your body starts to behave in a funny way, and your mind starts to behave in a funny way, and it feels like you get disconnected from the world.
Not to mention, I was in Canada, so I was like not on my phone all the time because of the fucking roaming charges [laughs]. It felt like I was in a bubble, and when I came out of it, you realize it’s completely surreal to be covered in fake blood every day, to be screaming for your life from like an imaginary monster, and be tied to this child who I had only just met who suddenly felt like the most important thing in the world to me. All movies feel like summer camp or like their own little world, but this had a lot of things conspiring to make it feel even more that way. And because of that, it’s something that somehow feels really surreal to me that I went and did.
Capone: You might have just dreamed it.
ZK: I know, exactly.
Capone: Is there anything more from you in the writing arena that you’re working on or that we can look forward to?
ZK: Yeah, actually my boyfriend Paul [Dano] and I adapted a book together, this Richard Ford book called “Wildlife,” and he is in production on it right now. He is in his first week of shooting in Montana right now [Dano is also directing].
Capone: Are you not in that one?
ZK: No, I’m not in it and I can’t be there because I’m doing a play [the Off Broadway production of “Love, Love, Love,” by Mike Bartlett]. But [the film has] got Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Bill Camp, and a little boy named Ed Oxenbould, who was in M. Night Shyamalan’s movie THE VISIT. Those are our actors, and we’ve got an amazing crew. Jake’s company is producing it, as are Oren Moverman, Ann Ruark and Alex Saks. We have a wonderful team. I’m like super in love with it. I’m really, really excited about this project, and it’s such a beautiful book. We’ve been working on the script for four years, and we couldn’t be happier. Our money came together over Labor Day, and we were off like a shot.
Capone: Zoe, thank you so much. Best of luck with this. Take care.
