Marisa Tomei on In The Bedroom

Marisa Tomei10 April 2012

Some films are one-dimensional, but this one's highly complex.

The script had a depth and a weight that had to be honoured. There aren't too many films like this around. Good scripts are hard to get your hands on.

Todd Field, who wrote and directed In The Bedroom, kept saying he didn't believe I wanted to do it. He thought it was my agent. Somehow, we wound up meeting, and had a wonderful conversation. Then he went about casting other roles. He only offered me the part three days before we started shooting - because he'd lost the film's financing on the afternoon that we'd first met!

I play Natalie Stout, a Maine girl dating younger local boy Frank Fowler (Nick Stahl), and I have a history with my ex-husband - a great love that's turned to desperation, and we're trying to save our skins.

The film is ultimately about grief. I'm happy if people can see that it rings true. The first scene I shot was a key confrontational scene - it was a little much to begin with! Almost all the scenes were like, 'Oh, we're not out of the woods - today's another toughie!' But it was good - you got something back, so you didn't feel depleted.

For a first-time director, Todd didn't seem nervous. He gets a strange, mysterious look on his face - half-nerves, half-excitement. It's a total eagerness, all about baring himself, and being in it with you. He's studied the camera - one of his mentors was Stanley Kubrick, who he worked with on Eyes Wide Shut. It was Todd's first time but he was like a parent.

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