Eileen Stars Thomasin McKenzie & Anne Hathaway On The Movie's Unusual Filming Method [Exclusive Interview]
This post contains spoilers for "Eileen."
William Oldroyd's "Eileen," a quiet drama between two women (Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway) working at a Massachusetts prison in the 1960s, is one of the best movies of 2023. I was enjoying the film for its first two acts when I saw it back in January at this year's Sundance Film Festival (final warning: Turn back now if you haven't seen it yet!), but I still remember the burst of electricity that coursed through my body when a major moment happens near the end that totally alters the DNA of the film and takes it in a wildly unexpected direction.
Anne Hathaway remembers that moment, too. Not just the crowd's reaction to it at the Sundance premiere, which took her by surprise at how intense it was, but performing the specific take on set that was used in the final cut. "You do have these moments as an actor where a shiver runs through your body when you say a line or you do a particular take," Hathaway told me during a recent interview alongside co-star Thomasin McKenzie, and the moment of the film's big reveal was one of them.
I spoke with the two performers (who are both excellent in the movie) about that big turning point, acting with nuance, and more. As you'll see, there's one thing they clearly think is vital that you understand: They did not do trust exercises together when preparing for this movie.
Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
'Eileen was unlike any other role I've ever played'
There is such nuance in both of your performances. There are a lot of things being communicated with looks instead of words. I was wondering, for each of you, what was the most difficult aspect to get right about your performance? Was there a lot of modulation required to achieve the level of nuance that you were going for?
McKenzie: Yes. [laughs] That's a very intellectual question, and I feel like I need my answer to be as articulate. Yeah, Eileen was unlike any other role I've ever played, where her thoughts were so internal and intense that it felt like an impossible challenge to try and convey that. Because the book is her inner monologue, a lot of it is. So trying to know her well enough, and for those thoughts to be clear enough to translate on screen. But Will [Oldroyd] directed ... well, helped me a lot with that because he did this amazing technique where we would film the scenes normally, both Anne and I doing our lines, and then each of us in turn would do a silent take.
So if it was your coverage, you wouldn't say your lines at all. You would just think the line, and if you were thinking it clearly enough or knew what it was that you were thinking, it would hopefully show through. So that was really useful for me because it meant I didn't rely on the lines, the very few lines that Eileen had, to get the point across, that I leaned more into just the feeling of it.
'I wasn't expecting it to be that intense'
Anne, I would love to know about that kitchen scene where the big reveal happens. It's arguably the most important moment in the whole movie, and I was wondering if you had that day circled on your calendar. Were you psyching yourself up for executing that twist?
Hathaway: Oh! No. No, I think the moment has become bigger than I understood it to be in the script, and I knew it was — and I delighted in it in the script. I mean, "delighted" is maybe a strange word given what's revealed, but it is a thriller, and so I understood that it was important. But when we screened the film for the first time at Sundance, and that moment happens and I felt the floor drop out from underneath the audience, I wasn't expecting it to be that intense.
This might sound kind of corny, but I was just really grateful to the process that got us there, because Thomasin was just a dream partner. And when we made this, we were an independent film, and every day it was a beautiful, glorious battle, but it's a battle every day on an independent film. And that Will kind of protected us, to almost let us black out in the space, and just kind of become hypnotized by Ottessa's words and just get really, really beautifully lost in them.
But it's funny, looking back on it, you do have these moments as an actor where a shiver runs through your body when you say a line or you do a particular take. And I remember that take. I just remember there being, I don't know, a seed sprouting, and so then to see it bloom at Sundance was incredible.
'I think everybody wants to hear that we did, like, trust exercises'
So you mentioned that this movie was a little bit of a challenge, and I think part of the reason is because you guys had such a short filming schedule. I was wondering, because there's so much intimacy between your two characters, you probably didn't have a lot of time to overthink things because you were moving so quickly, but how did you approach those scenes where Rebecca and Eileen are growing closer and their relationship is building? Did you have a certain way to approach those scenes that was different from approaching any other scenes in the movie?
Hathaway: I think everybody wants to hear that we did, like, trust exercises. Like, "I fell backwards off of a chair, Thomasin caught me." But really, Thomasin's just a wonderful human being and it was a joy to be with her, even as we were doing whatever, all that we were doing that day. And my character is not necessarily someone you can or should trust, but she is someone that's a lot of fun to be around, and so I had a lot of fun being around her for a time. But in terms of just being together, my biggest thing was I just ... Thomasin had such a huge job. She had such a big weight on her shoulders. She's in every scene of this film, there's no time to rest, where she's exposed in the cold, all of those things. So I just wanted to make sure that she was eating enough. [laughs]
McKenzie: Yeah, that is definitely a favorite question. And it's like, "Should we have been doing these connection exercises? Did we really mess this up?"
Hathaway: [to McKenzie] You said something in one interview that was really insightful, which was one of the first scenes we filmed together was the dance, and it felt like that became ... something.
McKenzie: Yeah.
Hathaway: With Eileen's nervousness and Rebecca's assuredness and the dynamic between the two of them. And I think not having the pressure of dialogue, but just being physically open with each other, maybe helped.
McKenzie: Yeah, because we filmed all the Eileen and the Eileen's dad, Jim and filming at the liquor store, we filmed all of that before — we filmed over Christmas, and we had a two-week hiatus in between. We filmed all the Eileen and Jim stuff before Christmas and established the world, and that world was not a happy world. And then we filmed all of the Eileen and Rebecca stuff after that two-week hiatus, and it just felt different. It felt like there was some kind of magic in the air, like the world felt like it had been refreshed. So like Anne said before, the scheduling of the shoot really lended itself to, at least for me, to the performance, because it felt very natural.
'I never got to do a lot of publicity for Last Night in Soho'
Anne, did Zoë Kravitz reach out to you when she was cast as Catwoman in "The Batman," to have a sort of "from one Catwoman to another" conversation?
Hathaway: [smiles and shakes her head no]
Did you see that movie? What did you think about her performance?
Hathaway: I haven't seen it yet. I've got young children and if they can't watch the film, I don't watch it for a while.
Gotcha. And then Thomasin, I think it's been a couple years now since "Last Night in Soho" came out, and that's a big movie for us at /Film. We're big fans of that film. I would just love to know if you have any reflections about that project now that you've had some distance from it.
McKenzie: I'm really grateful for my relationship with, my friendship with Edgar [Wright], because I've moved to London recently and he's been so wonderful in welcoming me here and making me feel at home. I never got to do a lot of publicity for "Last Night in Soho," because it was during Covid and I was locked down in New Zealand. So being in London, and now that the strike has lifted, I've been able to introduce the screening of "Last Night in Soho" at the Picturehouse Soho and spend more time with the team that I kind of missed out on when they were going through that whole circuit. So that's been really, really amazing, just reconnecting with everyone.
"Eileen" is in theaters now.