- 7 weeks ago
Actress Allison Williams talks stepping into the role of Charlotte in Richard Shepard's horror thriller 'The Perfection,' and the most shocking moments that played out on screen.
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00:00Hi, I'm Allison Williams and I am in studio with The Hollywood Reporter.
00:07Hi!
00:08Hi!
00:09I'm so psyched.
00:10So you're in the new movie, The Perfection.
00:12Yes.
00:13And it is about, you play a cello player.
00:16Yes.
00:17This is going to be interesting to see you try to describe it.
00:19Yeah, I know.
00:20I'm like, how do I do a quick log line?
00:22So you're a cello player, you sort of connect with another cellist who is a member of a
00:28former company that you played with?
00:30Yeah, it went to the same school.
00:31Yeah.
00:32And then it just sort of hits you like a train after that.
00:35Or a bus.
00:36Yeah, or a bus.
00:37Good one.
00:38It sort of starts off like a love story.
00:41I mean, for me watching it, when the bugs start to happen was the most shocking turning
00:47point in the beginning.
00:49Yes, there are a couple that come after that.
00:51When you're reading the script, was that going through your head also?
00:54Yes, 100%.
00:55I also like, it was one of those things, Richard Shepard, who's the director, who I love and
00:59worked with on Girls, texted me and said, I'm having a script sent over to you physically,
01:04like a physical script.
01:05Yeah.
01:06And it's insane and you need to call me immediately when you finish it.
01:09And I was like, okay, I cannot wait.
01:11And I started reading it and I was just, oh my God.
01:13And I kept trying to predict where I thought it was going to happen because I would have
01:16been very let down if I had been right, but also satisfied that I was right.
01:19And I was so wrong.
01:20The entire time I had no idea where things were going.
01:22Yeah.
01:23And so it was just exciting in that way.
01:25Like I truly could not predict where it was going.
01:27I couldn't wrap my head around who Charlotte was, but I knew that there was some, I knew
01:33I was being shown sides of her without being exposed to the entire character throughout
01:37the script.
01:38Yeah.
01:39And I just, yeah, of course, all of those moments on screen that feel like shocking,
01:44were shocking reading as well.
01:46And I thought that was a good sign and it intrigued me.
01:49Yeah.
01:50What was one of the more shocking moments for you to see come together on, like when you
01:54saw it for the first time?
01:55Oh, that's such a good question.
01:56Let me try to do it without spoiling anything.
01:59The first time from like the hand moment and it rewinds and shows you everything from
02:04Charlotte's point of view.
02:05It, in the script it was very cool, but on film it's so much better in terms of being
02:10able to tell that story and visually like express the same shots that you saw just on the other
02:16person and flipping everything around.
02:18And I just love what that says about perspective and point of view.
02:21The same events can be seen through two different lenses and tell a completely different story
02:26about what's going on when you're dealing with people that aren't always being totally
02:30straight with either the person they're with or the audience.
02:33Yeah, she's sort of like the unreliable, not narrator, but you know what I mean?
02:37Yeah, I know.
02:38Well, but she is, yes.
02:41The whole idea is that at the beginning you, which I'm sort of hoping Get Out helped with,
02:46from the minute you see Charlotte on screen you're like, I don't trust that person.
02:49I don't feel great about her going off on a trip with this girl and I feel protective of Lizzie.
02:55I don't know that I trust Charlotte to take care of her or to not hurt her.
02:58Yeah.
02:59And I think that that whole period, that whole first act is sort of confirming that you go back and forth.
03:05Well, I don't know.
03:06Maybe she's kind of taking care of her.
03:07It seems kind of nice.
03:08And then it just reinforces that when it goes back in time and shows it to you again.
03:12Yeah, it's very tricky.
03:13Yes.
03:14The little, the little things, the little clues here and there.
03:16Yes.
03:17That you've been, you know, are revealed later.
03:19You're like, oh yeah, the pills.
03:20That was kind of.
03:21Yes.
03:22I guess that was weird.
03:23I guess I saw a pill bottle.
03:24Yes, that's true.
03:25Exactly.
03:26What about Charlotte did you connect with though?
03:29I seem to be drawn to people who have layers to both their personalities and to their motives
03:36and actions in any given time.
03:38And I think it's one of the things that's always been fun to me about acting is being
03:43able to play someone who is, who might just seem duplicitous or who is actually duplicitous
03:50or at least who just isn't all, like is not an accurate representation at all times of
03:56who they are.
03:57Because I don't know any human beings like that.
03:58And so, yes, this is sort of an extreme version of that.
04:01But I'm very, I love getting into a character and figuring out like, okay, who are they at
04:06their core?
04:07And then who are they presenting to the world?
04:08And what is the gulf there?
04:09And what widens it or makes it more narrow?
04:12And how do they feel about that?
04:14How do people interact with them?
04:15Why is this the mask they've chosen to wear in the world?
04:18And at what point, if ever, does it come off?
04:20Right.
04:21And you're a bit of a musician, dare I say, yourself.
04:23I know you sing.
04:24Yes.
04:25Was the music, how quickly did you pick up the cello?
04:29Because you have to train.
04:30You know, yes.
04:31It was really, really hard.
04:32I had never played, I played guitar for an episode of Girls, but it didn't come very
04:38naturally to me.
04:39I played piano when I was younger.
04:40But the cello was so hard to learn.
04:43Even just holding it properly is difficult, let alone being able to play something on it.
04:46And to play it as if you were a prodigy at one point, no pressure.
04:50And playing these really complicated pieces of music that are hard for professional cellists
04:54to play.
04:55So it was tricky, it was fast to learn quickly, but it was a great challenge.
05:01I wish I, my goal was to become a cellist in the process of the movie.
05:04I was like, I will then spend the rest of my life able to play the cello.
05:07And no.
05:09That is gone.
05:10That was short term memory.
05:11Just a little hobby to pick up.
05:12Yeah, exactly.
05:13Like, you know, knitting.
05:14I remembered how to knit for girls.
05:15And I was like, well, this is just going to be a part of my life now.
05:17I'm just going to knit constantly.
05:18Right.
05:19Just give me a cello for out to you.
05:20Yeah, exactly.
05:21No big deal.
05:22And then let's talk about Logan Browning because she's great.
05:26You guys have great chemistry also.
05:29When did you first meet and did it click for you to also just right off the bat?
05:34Yes.
05:35It seems like this is your relationship and like you guys have to really trust each other.
05:39Totally.
05:40100%.
05:41What was that like sort of honing that relationship?
05:44So easy.
05:45I was a fan of hers from watching Dear White People and so I was predisposed to love her.
05:50But then when we started working on the movie, first like over email and text and then we
05:53finally met in person.
05:54It was just an instant, very easy working relationship.
05:57And we were on the same page and we were all, the two of us with Richard spent a lot of time
06:02working on the script and scenes and stuff doing prep for the movie.
06:05And I think that really helped get us closer because it meant that by the time we were on
06:08set because it was a fast shoot, we had already talked everything to death and we knew exactly
06:13what was going on.
06:14And so you develop a kind of shorthand of facial expressions or looks or whatever that
06:18can stand in for something that you'd already discussed or established or whatever it is.
06:22And so I just think Logan is so talented.
06:25I love watching her on screen.
06:26I think she's totally electric and mesmerizing and I think she does a beautiful job in this movie.
06:32And so I was so psyched when she came on board.
06:35So about, I would just want to talk about some of the themes.
06:37Obviously there's a lot with trauma and I don't know.
06:42I also got, when I was watching, I was thinking of like the expectations on women in general,
06:48you know, what were your conversations like about, you know, is that something that you're
06:52constantly thinking of whenever you're filming this and developing your character?
06:56A hundred percent.
06:57I think Charlotte, one of the things that made me most interested about Charlotte was
07:02that she has had a very particular response to the trauma she's experienced in her life.
07:07And it has defined down her meaning, her sense of meaning in life to one interaction that wasn't
07:14even verbal when she was younger in a staircase that ended up signifying all of the things that
07:19had happened to her before that and all the things that she did not do after.
07:22And it's just this one moment that she's stuck on like a record.
07:25It's just playing on a loop.
07:26And her desire to amend that and sort of go back and do what she didn't do then and fix that
07:35mistake that she's held herself responsible for for all of those years.
07:39And I also think that it's taken to extremes, but the fact that she isn't totally clear about
07:46any of it, and she's just sort of flailing through figuring it out and dealing with it
07:52and has a kind of messed up plan as to how to make things right, to me rings true.
07:58Because it's not such a specific, careful, clear response that you have to some of this stuff.
08:05And everyone deals with it differently.
08:07And I think that sense of like what's expected of you in terms of your behavior,
08:10in terms of your level of professionalism, in terms of your attitude towards everything,
08:15in terms of your ability to just get over something and accept it as part of the process
08:19and deal with it.
08:21And the physical expectations, the skill level, the inability and the lack of room for mistake,
08:28all of that is sort of tied into this story and helps support the buttress that is the most screwed up thing
08:36about the world that the movie's describing.
08:38Definitely.
08:39Okay, can we just talk about the last chapter?
08:43Yes.
08:44I guess, or part or chapter.
08:45Yeah.
08:46That was, like I said in the beginning, it just sort of twists and turns and you're on this crazy, you know, journey.
08:52And the last one in particular is quite shocking.
08:56Yes.
08:57Can you tell me a little bit about filming and filming those scenes, especially the physical scenes,
09:03whenever you're, you know, you have the sort of fight scene at the end and then also the duet that you play at the end.
09:10Yeah.
09:11How are your rehearsals and how is all of that for you as an actor also?
09:15Do you get nervous going into something so physical?
09:19Yeah.
09:20I'd never really done anything like that before so I didn't know how I was going to feel about it.
09:23I did, I was wearing the camera for a large portion of that and so that was my chief concern was like breaking a camera
09:30and it was heavy and it felt very weird because it's sort of strapped to a thing that's on your waist.
09:34And it's hard, weird to do fight choreography while you're wearing that.
09:38But it was, yeah, it was really intense and also you just want to get it right and try to put that out of your mind somehow,
09:46the fact that you're wearing a camera and just sort of play the reality of what's going on and try not to get hurt in the process.
09:53There's definitely a catharsis to it though because our mission was in that moment was something that I think felt very earned in my thinking of Charlotte
10:04and how she's feeling as sort of wild and insane as it is.
10:08And then for that last shot, yeah, we just, that description of that shot in the movie, in the script,
10:15was sort of the thing that like cemented my wanting to do it because I think it's so symbolic
10:20and it's a very striking and arresting image that I couldn't get out of my head and I think it's hard to forget.
10:26So you mentioned earlier Get Out and now we have The Perfection.
10:30Do you think, why are you sort of drawn to it?
10:33Listen, my shrink is trying to figure this out too.
10:36And my friends and family, they're like, okay, it was cute at first but now we're starting to get a little worried.
10:40I think this genre just allows for the most freedom and being able to explore these tough, like really sensitive issues
10:50and topic areas without, in a new way.
10:54Like I think often our conversations about these issues get sort of stuck in their grooves.
10:59We're so used to talking about them in a certain way.
11:01And what psychological thrillers do is it allows you to take it out of those grooves and put it on another path entirely
11:07and say like, what does this do for the conversation?
11:10Does this make people think about this in a different way?
11:12And I also think the characters are just crazy and weird and interesting and complicated in a way that,
11:19because the genre allows for so much, you can really sort of stretch it to the limits.
11:24And I just, I don't know, I keep, I read scripts of all kinds
11:28and these were the first two that I felt I really have to do this.
11:32Yeah, it's interesting to watch you be not only aware of maybe your persona
11:38or the perception that people have of you as an actress and maybe as a person,
11:43but then flip that around is great.
11:45I mean, Get Out was just brilliant. You were so great in it.
11:49And this one also, I think it definitely sort of subverts expectations.
11:52But even with that, I thought going into watching it that it was going to be one thing
11:57and it totally, like you can't, like we've said several times, you can't really see where this is going.
12:02No, even if you think you understand what that moment is about, that's what my friends were all saying,
12:06the trailers, I feel like it's too much of the movie and all this stuff.
12:09I said, I promise you should write down what you think the movie is and fold it up and put it in a drawer
12:14and then open it and read it after you've seen it.
12:16I guarantee you're totally wrong.
12:18You're completely wrong.
12:19Yeah.
12:20There's no way.
12:21You'd have to, yeah, there's just absolutely no way.
12:23Nope.
12:24Okay, last question.
12:25If there, let's just say there was maybe a spinoff or a prequel, I guess it could be a sequel of The Perfection.
12:31What do you think it should be about?
12:32What would you want it to be about?
12:33The sequel?
12:34Or it could be a spinoff or a prequel, I don't know, what would you think?
12:37I would like to think that the two of them reopen the Academy and it's just run by women.
12:46I love that.
12:47And it's a place of love where you can make mistakes and it's totally fine.
12:51And they are reimagining the idea of what it means to do something because you love it
12:57rather than doing it because you're being made to and also you're expected to be perfect the whole time.
13:02What do you think they did with Anton though?
13:04What do you think they did with him?
13:05Just killed him.
13:06That was just for a performance.
13:07They just needed, they just wanted to torture him for a little while and then that was going
13:10to be it.
13:11He's buried in the backyard somewhere for sure.
13:13Yeah, exactly.
13:14Well, thank you so much.
13:16The movie's great.
13:17I'm sure it's going to get a lot of eyeballs on it.
13:19Very curious.
13:20People have probably already seen it, I guess, as this is airing afterwards.
13:22Yes, I hope it is.
13:23Otherwise it's full of spoilers.
13:24It is afterwards.
13:25We should have said at the beginning there are major spoilers.
13:27So why would you be watching this if you hadn't already seen the movie?
13:29Stop, don't.
13:30But no, you're great.
13:31Thank you so much for being here.
13:33Thanks for chatting and thank you all for watching.
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