The subject of cults in movies can be a pretty sensitive and tricky one, but the new film MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE explores a somewhat different side of it… the after effects that remain once breaking away from a cult. The movie stars Elizabeth Olsen (sister of Mary Kate and Ashley) is an impressive and easily star-making layered performance, under the direction of Sean Durkin. She shares the screen with the great John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson, and Hugh Dancy. It’s a daring and undoubtedly polarizing view on a difficult subject, and it may just be one of the best films of 2011. I recently had a chance to participate in a roundtable interview with Elizabeth Olsen and Sean Durkin, and got to pick their brain about the making of this picture. Below you can read the questions I asked and their answers, and some of Elizabeth’s answer to another journalists questions on preparing for the role.

Mark: So now you guys shot this film just about a year ago, and now it’s been getting a lot of critical acclaim. Obviously a film like this, it’s sensitive subject matter and can be kind of hard to sell it. The first film that originally came to mind when I heard about this was Kevin Smith’s RED STATE, which this is nothing like, but I thought in a way this is a beautiful, haunting film. Is it hard to get a film like this sold to the masses, you think, or is it just one of those things that needs that word of mouth, really?

Durkin: I don’t know, I’ve never put out a film on this scale before, so… I don’t know. You know, we were just very fortunate that Fox Searchlight picked it up, obviously, and… I don’t know. I’m just very focused on just making the movie, and getting it out there, and not focused on anything other than making the movie. And you can’t make the movie and think ahead, and be like “This is who I think it’s going to appeal to…” – I mean I know they do that, but I can’t do that. I don’t believe in that, I believe that you have to be driven to make the story you want to make, focus on that, and do the best you can.

Mark: Well it seems like Fox Searchlight has been very supportive themselves.

Olsen: Totally.

Durkin: Very, very, yeah.

Mark: They obviously have a lot of faith in the project.

Olsen: They didn’t even ask us to change the title. (laughter)

Mark: You thought that was coming, didn’t ya?

Olsen: Well I kept thinking there’s nothing else we could really call it, good luck changing it. And anyway, at Sundance, people had a hard time pronouncing it. After they saw it they either understand why it was called that, or it would be the movie with a lot of “M”s… one way or another, somehow it stuck.

Mark: No, I love the title. I’m glad it stuck that way.

Elizabeth on how she prepared for the role.

Olsen: Well, I ended up getting the part about two to three weeks before we started shooting. A lot of people ask if I did research and things like that… when I first read the script, what I actually connected with, with Martha, had more to do with her growing paranoia and oncoming fear that someone is after her. So that was initial reaction when I first read it. And obviously that’s kind of what I responded to immediately, and then after that it was like just trying to figure out what she was missing in her life and her past that these people provided for her, and what is it that she found within them. It was more of trying to approach it from a really human point of view. There were obviously moments where I wanted to know about personal experiences of other people and they were involved in groups, and Sean had done extensive research and talk to lots of different people. So I would ask him about their experiences at times, but mainly we try to forget about the larger picture and focus more on the things I’ve seen… goals, I guess, or actions.

Mark: This is kind of a non-glamourous role, but at the same time there’s a haunting beauty to your character. Were there conscious choices made from both your perspective and Sean’s perspective on how to keep it from being… obviously you don’t want the character of Martha to be considered pretty or glamourous, but at the same time there is supposed to be this beauty there, this haunting beauty to it. Were there choices made on how to exactly to portray her from a physical standpoint?

Durkin: Well for me, as far as casting, I just loved the way she looked. And she’s beautiful, but also…

Mark: (to Olsen) You are gorgeous.

Durkin: I know it’s weird, but also, you know, very unique.

Olsen: It was also important not to do… clothing is very specific in communal living, or the type clothes she’s wearing of her sister’s. Makeup is nonexistent.

Durkin: We didn’t have makeup. There’s like a lot of dirt, like playing it down.

Olsen: Things like bras, you know, it’s like they’re not really there.

 Mark: Now is that a little daunting to play it that way?

Olsen: No, it was how I felt she was supposed to be, and the only makeup we had was like dirt and grease and things like that. Even when I auditioned, I wore no makeup, I didn’t do my hair, I just wore something white. It is really important. I think a lot of times it’s distracting when you watch a movie, and someone wakes up and they’re wearing lip gloss.

Mark: Yeah.

Durkin: Yeah!

Olsen: I’m like “Are you kidding me?!”

Durkin: Her face is such a main part of the movie, and without saying anything, and moreso than looks. Like in her audition, there was something where I just got a glimpse of those moments where she could portray a thing going on… so that was a big part of it.

Mark: The reactionary part of it, yeah.

Durkin: Yeah. And also the scene where she gets made up for the party and puts on this beautiful dress, I wanted that to be a grand opposite of it.

MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE opens in select theaters October 21, 2011 – Oct 28 at the Dallas Landmark Magnolia

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