Breathe In is the latest film from Drake Doremus, a writer/director who has developed his own way of making improvisational dramas. Like Douchebag and Like Crazy, Doremus lets his actors improvise from an outline. Breathe In stars Guy Pearce as music professor Keith Reynolds. Amy Ryan plays his wife Megan, who is trying to keep Keith on the family path when a foreign exchange student, Sophie (Felicity Jones), resparks Keith’s artistic side. Ryan called me directly to speak about Breathe In and she walked me through some of improv snafus that didn’t make the final cut, as well as some of her most memorable roles on film and television.
CraveOnline: A big argument Megan and Keith have is he’s trying to get back to the city and she wants to stay in their house and conserve money. Do you think that will really make her happy?
Amy Ryan: Well, to me it’s not really a practical decision because you’re talking about moving from a four bedroom house to a studio. I think that’s what the argument was. He’s arguing for a dream that has really left them Where we used to live when we were kids is already out of our price range. I don’t really think it was a logical argument and one that she really was taking to heart because it was kind of nonsense. What’s really going on is he’s frustrated in his life but I think it’s easy for her to brush off his idea of moving to the city because they both know they don’t have the money to do it, even if we sold this big house. It’s going to buy you a studio.
And even if he did follow that dream, would that really make Keith happy?
That would be a question for him but probably not. I think for that you’d have to back up time and find out where in their marriage they just became like really good pals and not husband or wife or boyfriend/girlfriend. They just kind of went through motions together and stopped living life and just started doing chores.
Given the way Drake works with improvisation, did you have any great contributions that didn’t make the cut?
Yeah, we did film a lot of stuff that didn’t make the cut. Actually we filmed a few more scenes where you see them genuinely happy. We did talk about their marriage isn’t dead. It’s just a little static but they do enjoy each other. They do make each other laugh. They do have moments of tenderness and unfortunately a lot of that stuff didn’t make it in the movie.
I had conversations with Drake, like, “I just want to make sure that I’m not going to come off as the shrew of the wife and the audience is rooting, yes, go for the pretty young girl! Get out of there, she’s mean!” Because that’s a false world. Not to say that there aren’t relationships like that, but that’s not what this story was about, that he was married to a battle axe, the poor guy just needs someone who understands him. He’s let his passion slide and wasn’t following his own dreams as opposed to being driven somewhere by a stronger force.
I don’t think you come off that way at all, so were you happy with the cut?
Yeah, I was happy with the cut. I think the movie works beautifully. I did miss those moments but I come biased. I remember those days where those scenes were fun to film. You want to see them. You just naturally want to see them but I do think the story is still told the way it is pieced together now.
Even the way Drake encourages improv, was every scene longer before he edited it down?
Oh yeah, there was a scene, some other fight with Guy and myself, and we both walked out of frame at one point and we’re hanging in the kitchen where the camera wasn’t filming and Drake’s not yelling cut. I started laughing. Guy’s like, “What do we do?” So we walked back into frame but that was a 20 minute take. There’s no way he’s going to use it all, and then he ended up just using a few seconds of it. So a lot of the improvs were really long. He just let us go and go and go. In some ways we were surprised at what portion of it ended up in the film.
There was always a few lines that were scripted. We had a life buoy to swim towards and get to this moment, so it wasn’t a total free for all. Then there were scenes done where I was in my trailer reading a book and someone came pounding, dragged me out, “Hurry, hurry, hurry, run, run, run, run, run.” Mackenzie [Davis] and Guy were improvising and Drake whispers, “Just get in there.” I didn’t even know what it was. He was like, “Just sit down.” Okay. I guess that’s the advantage to shooting not on film where expense is not such an issue.
One of the themes that really connected with me was the idea that Sophie, just because she’s great at piano, doesn’t mean she loves playing piano. Could you relate to being good at something you don’t love as an artist?
I can’t think of an example myself. I suppose it’s the same thing, it depends on the piece you play. There are certain films that are more enjoyable than others or certain plays that are more enjoyable than others so it feels more fun to do. Sometimes it can just feel redundant or something. I think the key for any artist is to keep it fresh and to keep it ahead of you so you’re constantly striving towards it.
And Keith can’t understand why Sophie would give up on a talent that he wishes he could be that good at music?
But he did. He did give up on it. That’s him trying to get it back now. He gave up his passion for music to be a teacher, to support a family. It’s a very real thing and I don’t think it was because he’s messing around, but he suddenly had a small child to care for and if the art that he’s so passionate about wasn’t paying the bills by being a great cellist, then he had no choice but to become a teacher.
Mackenzie Davis is now doing the TV series “Halt and Catch Fire.” When you see her go on and do well, is it in any way like sending off your real daughter?
Mackenzie was such a find. Oh my gosh, this was her first film ever. She was just out of drama school and it was exciting. She was a very confident young woman. She said she was nervous before we started filming but it was hard to tell. She’s so talented so yeah, I’m very proud to see her and I’m also not surprised she continued to have success. She’s talented and beautiful and so lovely to be around.
When you signed on to Gone Baby Gone, it was Ben Affleck’s first movie as a director. Now he’s directed an Oscar winning movie. Did you see that he had it in him and did you have faith in him to go far as a director?
Oh my gosh, yes because I saw it firsthand, absolutely. He’s an amazing man and he’s an amazing director. So much of the performance that I give is very much because of Ben, Ben’s direction and his encouragement to keep going further and push this character harder. That was because of Ben. Every film he’s done, he’s had Oscar nominated performances in it. Is that coincidence? Is that writing? Is that a great director?
That film also had some great moral ambiguity like Breathe In does, which is pretty rare in Hollywood. Do you look for projects that have that sort of ambiguity?
It’s not something I look for necessarily. It’s certainly interesting. I really just look to not repeat myself and sometimes I can, for certain reasons, because I want to work with that director, I want to work opposite that actor or it fits well into other schedules. For the most part it’s not something that’s a requirement on my list. It just so happens these films have that as well.
You were in the very first scene of You Can Count On Me. Was there ever any more to that role?
There was a little bit more. It’s so long ago, my God. There were a few scenes of just getting ready in the evening going out.
But they all would have been a prologue. It wasn’t like they come back in flashbacks.
Yes, it’s all prologue. She doesn’t come back from the dead or anything like that. He made the impact fast and strong like the car crash. These kids suddenly have no parents. Now we’re going to meet the adults and what happens to them as a result.
One of your earliest roles was an episode of “Quantum Leap.” Was that a good experience?
Really, you want to know about that? Seriously? Are you just on IMDB right now? What are you doing? Do you really want to know about “Quantum Leap?” [Laughs]
I will admit, I don’t remember the episode specifically so I wouldn’t have remembered without doing research, but it was my favorite show.
Oh my gosh. That was one of my first jobs and I didn’t know what the show was so I was very surprised. I was like why are they dressing me in ‘80s denim and white pumps? I didn’t know that it jumped back in time. It was a real surprise but I quickly figured it out. It was a good experience, yes. For a first time, I didn’t even know what a mark was. I was treated very well for being such a novice.
Are you still able to find roles you feel are not repeating yourself?
Yeah, I mean, on paper sometimes they’re the same, like I’m about to play two moms in these kids films, but they’re very different moms and they’re very different films so that’s okay. It works out but I guess the best example is right after Gone Baby Gone I was offered lots of parts where I was drug addicted or quite a despicable person. That’s why the next job I took was “The Office,” a comedy, a professional woman.
I try to make these sharp turns as much I can because otherwise you will just stay in a box and people will only see you one way. That’s always been my goal. Even if I come back around to the same part, I just don’t want to stack it up against each other so every movie that comes out, “Oh look, there she is again.” So it’s like Where’s Waldo, the same guy in different scenes over and over. I’m trying to avoid stuff like that.
Did you ever expect “The Office” to become as long and significant a role as it was?
No, it was only supposed to be one episode. I ended up doing nine of them or something like that, but it just worked out perfectly. There was such a delicious storyline, and to be the one woman that Michael Scott actually finds as a soul mate was really fun. He can be as crazy as he is. It was easy to just keep going back to do a few more here and there, come back the second season do another few. It was just perfect for me.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
