The Box Q&A

- The love-story is important to the film and Richard Kelly drew on his family experience, which means that you, Cameron, are kind of playing his mum.

CD: Yes, you’re right. I was actually. I actually spent time with her and she was very generous with sharing her experience. My character has the same injury in the film that she has had in real-life, so she shared her experience of what it was like; when it happened to her, and all through her life; the struggles that she had and how she overcame them and how they made her stronger.

"What I thought was so lovely about this story was that when Richard was incorporating his parents into, he really got an opportunity to show to them what he really felt about their strength and how he saw them, how he saw his mother when he was a child and how he looked up to his father, how he looked up to his mother and her strengths.

"And I thought that only Richard Kelly would make a movie based on this relationship where it is like this fully psychological thriller, which is very intense in what happens between these two people, and yet it is a beautiful love story.

"It was one of the things that I loved about the script initially, the depth of these two people’s commitment to one another and their desire to be together.

- I understand his mum was around the set. Didn’t that put extra pressure on you?

CD: Yes and Richard often didn’t give them the script. He didn’t let them read it before they came to set so the first time they were even hearing the words, it was oftentimes out of context to the rest of the story, which is very Richard as well because he sort of vignettes his themes.

"They sort of stand alone and weave altogether. So he would bring his folks to the set and they would hear these words that they were speaking about themselves, or about one another, and it was the first time that they had heard those words.

"There were a couple of times where his mother was in tears, in fact, because she was so touched by what it was she was witnessing as her son’s interpretation of her as a woman and of them as a partnership.

- Did you talk to Richard about Southland Tales? Is he quite sanguine or still pissed off at the critical and commercial mauling?

JM: I think he is proud of it. I had conversations with him. I remember seeing the film in Boston right before he started shooting The Box and I admired what he set out to do on that film.

"I think on most levels achieves it. And he didn’t seem the type of person to hang on to something that there was a negative reaction to it or whatever.

CD: I think he is an artist and he just focuses on the next thing and then moves on to the next thing and then the next thing and doesn’t hold too much value on what people thought.

"Obviously he wants people to like his work and be affected by it and respond to it but he just is going to keep moving forward and turn out interesting stuff. I feel very lucky to be part of this one but I don’t think that it’s something that he necessarily holds onto. He seems very proud of it.

- You’re a lively duo. Is Richard a good laugh around set, or super serious?

JM: I admire Richard in that he knows what he wants and that to an actor is a big deal. You can have really nice directors and if they don’t really know want they want or don’t know what they see it can suck. You end up freefalling a little bit wondering what the hell is going on.

CD: Actually, Richard was very measured, methodical, very disciplined and he would go in and see it in his head and put it out there and it could be something as small as a half degree turn of a prop on the table just to create a symmetry of frame.

"I admire the fact that he didn’t just see this as some sort of a morality test, psychological thriller thing. He really, really truly believed in the love story between Norma and Arthur. I admire him as an artist and I admire him as a human being. He doesn’t subscribe to this idea that it has to be miserable on set.

"He has a great time. He enjoys what he does. He has to do what he does and that is a true artist. He epitomizes that kind of artistry: ‘I don’t care how much money I have. I don’t care what sort of car I drive. I just want to make films and I want to make interesting films’.

JM: That’s something I really I learned from him. Be honest with yourself and really do things that you believe in.

- You get on well. Did you hang out with each off set, or was it too cold to hang out in Boston?

CD: We were working. The only time we had really while on location is on set. We live our life there pretty much. We had dinners. We all had moments.

JM: You’re right. Frankly it was too cold in Boston. It was Winter. There is a lot of downtime on set, though and that is the time you usually get to know each other.

CD: We are fortunate in that we had some rehearsal time and getting together to really talk about the characters and what we wanted to achieve and where we believed these characters are in their marriage and as parents. That was an essential part of the movie but we worked long hours and most of the time you want to go home and go to bed!

The Box is released in cinemas across the UK on Friday 4th December

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