‘Big Little Lies’ Director on Shooting Real & Authentic Fighting Scenes
If you’ve seen Big Little Lies, you’d know that its director aims to bring true and authentic portrayals of domestic abuse, like the ones we saw with Nicole Kidman and Alexander Skarsgard’s characters.
The shows director Jean-Marc Vallee recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about his style, and directing all seven episodes of the acclaimed HBO series.
“I was just supposed to do one and two and maybe the final [episode],” he said. “Then you start to work and you start to cast. And then with Reese, because of the relationship I had [from directing her in Wild], she said, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to see the whole thing?’ I felt like I was going to abandon them in a certain way, and I said, ‘I’ll do it, and we’ll see how I can manage two [shows] in a row.’”
In regards to those intense fight scenes:
“Nicole, Alex and I all committed to this and wanted to be faithful to the material,” he explained. “There was some talking about how we were going to shoot this, but at the same time we wanted this to feel real and authentic. We [said], ‘Why don’t we shoot the rehearsals and see how it goes.’ It was really violent. We tried to cut as little as possible and just shoot and capture as much as possible. It makes you feel uncomfortable watching it, and it feels messy because it’s not perfect — it doesn’t feel stagey. Our actors were willing to do that and go there. Sometimes they hurt themselves a bit, but never to a point where it was dangerous. That was the nature of the scenes, and I was impressed by what they did and how they did it. It had an impact on them and us all.”
On his latest HBO project, Sharp Objects, starring Amy Adams: “The material is very dark. I was impressed that Amy wanted to do this and play this crazy character. She is such a professional and so devoted to her art and what she’s doing — the face, the nuances. I’m the first to witness the magic.”