The actress took diligent notes while shooting the explosiveSwallow.
Here is a glimpse into her toughest scene.
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Everything appears perfect, if not eerily so.
She has a rich, handsome husband, and all the material comforts she could ask for.
And yet the deconstruction of her glossy, sterile life becomes the backbone of the new movieSwallow.
That is, until a pregnancy test comes back positive and she can bear it no longer.
Her campaign of private protest begins subtly, at a restaurant with her unloving in-laws.
Theres so much going on beneath the surface.
It was quite intimidating, but also a joy.
Hard things and sharp things.
Marbles and safety pins.
And when Hunter discovers shes pregnant, she sets in motion a long process of reclaiming herself.
It begins with an at-home pregnancy test.
Hunters husband Richie is joyous at the news revealed on the small stick.
Richie eagerly kisses her, and thats when we cut to the pivotal restaurant scene.
But for Bennett, the restaurant scene was the most trying to act out.
This is the world where she belongs; her misgivings were just a cursory illusion.
But Hunters mask wont hold for long.
[Hunters] not given the permission to be a full individual.
You know, shes kind of stripped of her identity, Bennett says.
Despite that, the character tries to be a good sport for the family.
There are all of these tiny moments of shame that kind of come through.
Its like she wins and then she loses, so theres a constant push-pull.
Shes winning now, says Bennett.
Maybe she can fit in.
Maybe they are in fact what shes been searching for.
Richies eccentricities are being supported, celebrated.
Maybe she doesnt have to conform as much.
A feeling of tacit validation emboldens her to share more openly about her working-class beginnings.
Hunter is flooded with pain and anxiety.
Was the story too personal?
Bennett says, mapping out Hunters interior monologue.
The dismissal sends her into a private spiral.
You see in her eyes the look of private terror that no one notices and shes lost in nothingness.
Feeling utterly alone, Hunter casts her eyes down and notices a water glass on the table.
The dialogue around her fades into the background as she stares at the ice floating before her.
The music changes, her expression softens to relief, and we hear the faint clinking of the cubes.
It calls to her, Youll be safe and celebrated in here, far away from all this.
Shes chewing with an open mouth and looking everywhere around her but at her fellow dinner guests.
She doesnt bother to do it quietly.
Her first rebellion, Bennett says of Hunters triumph.
Shes awkward about it, but also proud.
She stood up to them a little and didnt care about what they thought of it.
Its a pebble that starts an avalanche.
Once the family finally notices her break in decorum, they stare blankly.
She gives a slight smirk before saying, Sorry.
This ice is totally awesome.
Shes lost all sense of herself to sustain her place in this family.
But the ice is the first step in her small, ritualized process of rebellion.
The thrill and agony ofSwallowis watching where that step leads.
