Interview by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival)

Moving Pictures chats with Kieran Culkin and Jill Hennessy about their film Lymelife.

Moving Pictures magazine: How has it been having the cast reunited at the festival?
Kieran Culkin: It was - reunited. [Laughs] We just finished this film in April.
Jill Hennessy: Six months ago.
Culkin: Yeah. A little less, like five.
Hennessy: So it's pretty fresh.
Culkin: Yeah.
Hennessy: Shocked it's finished.

MPM: But you've got your own accent back now.
Hennessy: Exactly. I had to shed that. Man, it was fun. It was sort of cool seeing it - seeing everybody and hearing the accents and re-living that a little bit. It felt even more like a different world, a very separate world.

MPM to Kieran: And how is it for you, being reunited?
Culkin: It's funny you say "reunited," 'cause I feel like we just finished the movie. It's funny when you think about it - especially after seeing the movie and also seeing what has been cut from a longer script - that we shot it in 22 days, and it feels like a really long time. I feel like I've known these bastards for a long time. But, yeah, good. [Rests head on Jill's shoulder]

MPM: And your character as well. I mean, you got to play such an impressive tough guy.
Culkin: Yeah. That was a lot of fun.

MPM: And getting to slap your brother around - you look like you were enjoying that a little too much.
Culkin: Yeah.
Hennessy: Exactly.
Culkin: Yeah. That was a keep-the-camera-rolling thing, and I decided to slap his eye. I know how much he appreciated it, so I just kind of kept at it. That was good.

MPM: Would you get away with that if the camera were off?
Culkin: Oh, yeah. What? You think he'd hit me back?
Hennessy: We should count how many times Rory [Culkin] gets slapped in this film. 'Cause everybody's smacking him: Timothy [Hutton], me, Kieran and Alec [Baldwin], too.
Culkin: Oh, yeah, he gets slapped a bunch. Yeah, he gets whacked a bunch.
Hennessy: I think Cynthia is the only person who didn't smack him.
Culkin: Yeah. Well, he deserves to get whacked.

MPM: She would have if they had a proper scene together.
Hennessy: Yeah. Exactly. Right.
Culkin: Definitely. Yeah.

MPM: The script and the movie both are so reminiscent of films like The Ice Storm and American Beauty. Did it feel like that when you were reading it? Were you encouraged to watch those films?
Hennessy: No, not at all. I don't really like to prejudice myself by seeing other films. I don't think any came to mind with this script. I don't know. It was just - Derick [Martini, director and co-writer] is so invested, obviously, in this. He's been living with it so long. It is his life, and Steve's [Steven Martini, co-writer] life. So just talking to them - it's all I really wanted to focus on, and just playing with them. Derick is just great to hang with on his set. He doesn't force you into anything. He's just so open to sh-t happening, so to speak, if I can say that. Pardon me.
Culkin: [expletives]
Hennessy: Exactly. [She puts her hand on his wrist] Well done, well done.
Culkin: Thank you.
Hennessy [with British accent]: Is he having a laugh? I'm sorry. Do you watch "Extras"?

MPM: Yeah. We just, actually, interviewed Ricky Gervais.
Culkin: Oh, you bastard.
Hennessy: I love him. Yeah. This was great. Derick would keep the camera rolling, too, after the scene. His dialogue was already so real, so delicious to deliver. It's just real. It's undeniably credible. And then he'd say, "Okay. Let's keep the camera rolling. Keep going. Yeah. Just throw the plate at his feet now. Okay. And now you just don't care, man. Now you just don't care. You're just tired." I'm like, cool.

MPM: Is that the face he makes?
[Kieran laughs]
Hennessy: It's the face I imagine him having behind the monitor or beside the camera. He sort of moved from both.
Culkin: Funny, somebody else said The Ice Storm. I never thought of that.
Hennessy: Yeah. Exactly. And I love The Ice Storm, too.
Culkin: I never try to use another movie as a reference. I think that's sort of when you get lost, and that's agent-speak. It's like, "The Breakfast Club meets Ferris Bueller's Day Off meets Pulp Fiction. Then it's like you're trying to re-create these other movies.

MPM: I want to see that.
Culkin: Yeah. Wouldn't that be awesome?

MPM: That would be cool. How was working with Alec? You both got a chance to work with him. He seems like a cool guy.
Culkin: Yeah, yeah. Very, very intense, too. I had the least amount of rehearsal time with him than anybody else. We just sort of jumped into it. He told me I could grab him and hit him if I wanted to, and do all this stuff. I accepted that. But I didn't give him full permission to smack the hell out of me, but he did. I mean, I would have. I would have said, "Go ahead and smack me," but I didn't need to. It was [Culkin smacks his hands] right across my face.
Hennessy: Yeah. I remember that day.
Culkin: I hope I just disturbed everyone else's interviews. [He smacks his hands again]
Hennessy: I worked with Alec, like, 10 years ago, too, so it was sort of another reunion of sorts. He's wild. He loves when you just shock him and surprise him, which is great. That's what you want as an actor, somebody you can play with and mess around with.

MPM: Since it was such a short shoot, did you have time to get together before and kind of play off each other and figure out what you were gonna do?
Hennessy: Just like once, right?
Culkin: We had, like -
Hennessy: We had one day. I had one day of rehearsals.
Culkin: I had three, and then there was that cast dinner that only half the cast showed up for. [Laughs]
Hennessy: But it was awesome. We had so much fun. It was a big cast dinner. Derick was nice enough to take us all out to this beautiful little bistro. It ended up being me, Kieran, Rory and Emma [Roberts]. All the adults were gone. Well, I guess I'm an adult. I didn't feel like one that night.
Culkin: Technically, I am.

MPM: In the film as well, the kids are almost more adult than the parents.
Hennessy: Yeah.

MPM: So maybe it was a bit of a role reversal. You definitely dress like a kid at times, too, sunning yourself on the roof.
Hennessy: Oh my God, yeah. It was such fun. That's based on Derick's mom. She used to sunbathe on the roof in 40 degrees Fahrenheit. God bless her.

MPM: Did you meet her?
Hennessy: I met her last night.
Culkin: Me, too.
Hennessy: I was psyched to meet her - a little apprehensive - but she was so sweet. She loved the film. [Mimics Derick's mother's voice]: "You were fabulous. Oh, you were great." I'm, like, "Thank you." [Puts her hand on her heart] "Thank you so much."
Culkin: Both Rory and I had this strong urge to hug her at the same time. We both had the introduction and met her. She's, like, "Good to meet you." We're, like, "Thank you, and now I want to hug you." And he was, like, "Yeah, I feel like that, too." Nice big hugs. Nice lady.
Hennessy: Very, very sweet.

MPM: There were a couple of moments in the film where they refer to the time when it all happened [the 1970s]. Did you read up on the time at all?
Culkin: If I'd felt that it was necessary to tell the story, I would have. I just didn't think it was. There was a lot there on the page; there was a lot there. I didn't feel it was necessary. -MPM

Photos by Scott McDermott. 

Click to see MPM's video interview with co-stars Jill Hennessey and Kieran Culkin.