'The Testament of Ann Lee' director Mona Fastvold and stars Amanda Seyfried and Lewis Pullman stop by THR's TIFF suite at the 1 Hotel in Toronto and talk about working on the film, calling it "a lot like theater camp." Plus, Seyfried praises Pullman's work in this film, calling him a "bonafide true artist."
00:00My dog had his cameo and he was cut from the film.
00:03OK, I was just about to say, wait, your dog's in the film.
00:06Has he been told that he was cut?
00:09I haven't broken it to him yet.
00:12Have you?
00:13No. I was going to tell him on his birthday.
00:21We'd just finished a movie.
00:23We were working on the film up until the very last minute.
00:27The print arrived a few days before the premiere,
00:31and it was the first time I got to actually see it properly, the print.
00:35It felt incredibly fast to just be done and then show it
00:40and sit in an audience in a room full of people and watch it together
00:43and have this communal experience with this thing
00:45that we've been working on in our little bubble for, you know, a couple of years.
00:50So that's, yeah, it's incredible.
00:52You never expect any kind of reception.
00:56In fact, for me, I always assume everybody's going to hate everything until they don't.
01:00And it's helped me in life.
01:02Yeah, it does.
01:03You know, I don't get disappointed very often because of it,
01:06but it's just everything you would want.
01:08If you can have an ideal world, ideal perception, it would be what we got.
01:13Did you all do particular warm-ups or, like, what did you do to start the day before you got into it?
01:20On the days when you're doing the movement and the noises and all of that, what do you, how do you get into it?
01:27We did a lot of group exercise. It's a bit like theater camp, you know, that's moving because we have so much physical work and voice work to do.
01:36So you guys would start your day warming up with the dancers on the day.
01:40The dancers really know how to stretch.
01:42They really do, yeah.
01:44And so we learn a lot.
01:45But we do a lot of, and we do a lot of, like, throughout the day, the whole crew, we will do a lot of, like, you know, heart-opening meditations and, you know.
01:55Good stretches.
01:56Good stretches.
01:57And everyone kind of gets in on it. It's really physical for the crew as well.
02:02We have a lot of really long sequence, handheld takes, and so I think everyone sort of joined in a lot in, like, that warming up and getting into it.
02:11I will say that there was, like, in the beginning when we were in the studio, we did that kind of, like, exorcism of sorts.
02:20Which was a long process of us kind of, like, and I think that you kind of, Mona, end up in the movie with that scene with Stacey and Scott.
02:29There's this scene where you kind of, where Anne first witnesses kind of this form of practice where you kind of almost put the audience through the same experience that you put us through.
02:40Which was kind of, like, exercising all of the kind of, like, your social instincts to maybe laugh at first or to, like, judge.
02:48And then you sort of give in and surrender. And then you sort of kind of fall into this bizarre hypnosis.
02:55And that was a really kind of integral part of the process.
02:58It's choreographed to a point. And then there's just, you have to let go. And that was part of the ecstasy of what these people did in ecstatic dancing.
03:08And you have to let go. And that room was separated by people who held on a little bit, whether it was ego or fear, whatever it was, between them and the people who were just, like, completely giving themselves over to the film, to whatever would come, to the vulnerability.
03:26And that is you. You are, you, it was a beautiful thing to witness because I didn't know it was very well. And you just gave in to this exercise and I was like, oh, this, he's, he's like a bona fide, like, true artist.
03:39And you also, you know, you, obviously you're a very good actor, but it's a, it's a, you go, it goes way deeper than that. And this movie challenges you.
03:48Truly. Yeah. I was just following you guys' lead.
03:51Shut up.
03:52Like, there's nowhere to really hide in this movie because if, and again, any given scene, you're either worried about your dancing, your singing, your Mancunian accent, that there's no real evidence to how it actually sounded at the time. So we're all kind of collectively agreeing to this one thing. And so they're like, yeah, I think that there's no, where are you going to hide? You have to just dive head first.
04:15And trust.
04:16And trust.
04:17And trust.
04:18And trust.
04:19Total trust.
04:20Total trust.
04:21Mother Mona.
04:22Well, and each other.
04:23That you, that you have each other's back.
04:24Oh my God.
04:25We've, we've been through some things.
04:26Oh my God.
04:27Oh, it pains me.
04:29And, and it also breeds just hilarity at times.
04:34Like what are you, like what, for example, are you thinking of right now?
04:38Name it.
04:39When I'm speaking in tongues.
04:41Oh, that one.
04:42And everybody behind me.
04:43Well, you learned, you spoke, you speak, you spoke Latin.
04:46Yeah, but then it.
04:47You did the whole Latin.
04:48But then it, the diet, how do you say it?
04:50The diegetic audio.
04:51Diegetic audio comes in.
04:53And then I can speak and say anything I want.
04:56And I was starting to like, fuck with people.
05:00Because it was so like loud.
05:02Like it was really, so you guys were trying not to laugh.
05:06And people were throwing shit at me.
05:08And, and it was, and I'm watching it back.
05:10I just had a, it was wonderful.
05:12Because I remember it just being so fun.
05:14So fun.
05:15Like the, it breeds such unpredictability and freedom.
05:18And it's just, and we can all, you know, obviously it was hard to not laugh sometimes together.
05:24But it was just, it was really, I felt like we could indulge in that in a way that we can't usually.
05:29And Lee didn't write anything down herself.
05:32She was illiterate.
05:33And the story is based on testimonies from her, her followers and witnesses to her life.
05:40There's very little record of working class people, especially from that time period.
05:45So, but we would, yeah, we dug deep and we found something that made a lot of sense to us.
05:50And then based it on that.
05:52The other one, what is a, especially when you're traveling for work or for production.
05:56Like what's a creature comfort that you need to bring with you?
05:59Heating pad.
06:00Heating pad.
06:01Electric heating pad.
06:03I sleep with my kids.
06:05Guilty.
06:06And so there's nothing warm in my bed.
06:09So I have to put it there.
06:10Um, maybe like an eye mass that covers my ears as well.
06:13So then just like kind of a full sensory, um, death, death, death, replication.
06:21Yeah.
06:22He likes to feel like he might be dead.
06:24Kind of like a relaxing, dying feeling.
06:27Uh-huh.
06:28Actually, I know we have no time, but Mona and I moved in together at the end of the shoot
06:35because our families had left.
06:37And we had two weeks and she made this place.
06:42She would be like, be up.
06:44Music would be playing out of the speaker.
06:46She had French press coffee made and candles going.
06:49And she was just making her director's notes for the day.
06:51And I'd be like, oh my God, this is lying.
06:53So I did one thing for her.
06:54I did her laundry and she was like, it's everything.
06:56And I was like.
06:57It made me cry.
06:58You create that cozy, what's that word?
07:02It starts with a H.
07:03Hike.
07:04Yeah, hike.
07:05You create that like naturally and to live with her.
07:08I didn't want to go home.
07:10So thank you.
07:11That's beautiful.
07:12Aww.
07:13You too.
07:14No, I looked at my little like boiled up socks and things in my closet.
07:17That's all my laundry.
07:18The least I could do for you, Mona.
07:20Like in this business, we're missing the commentary, the director's commentary.
07:24The director's commentary.
07:25Because this should be taught, I believe, what Mona does should be taught in film schools
07:30and in film seminars because like if you just gently spoke throughout the movie, it would
07:36give so much context that people don't necessarily need, but that they really, really want.
07:42Yeah.
07:43And I have so many questions about why.
07:46Why did you choose this?
07:47Why did you, you know, it's a feat what you did.
07:50And I think it's like the commentary needs to come back.
07:53We need to get DVD players again.
07:55That's why we're here.
07:56We are selling some great DVD.
07:58We have to announce a new DVD player company.
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