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I wanted to get that collective experience.
Thats the wonderful thing about theater and the hard thing to capture when youre capturing it for film.
She was so used to looking out into the darkness and suddenly she could see all the faces.
I come from theater and captured theater has a bad rap of being never what the live performance was.
We were able to capture it like a comedy special would be captured.
We werent required to capture the stage at all times in wide shots.
What were the comedy specials you were thinking of?A lot of different ones.
Neal Brennans3 Mics, Aziz [Ansari]s special, Adam Sandlers recent special.
There were a number of specials that were captured in beautiful ways in the last couple of years.
Christian Sprenger, the DP, and I were able to call it like a live show.
Its the old-timey way of how people edited television.
Its like calling a live sports event, too.
Id never done anything like that before.
It was a relationship that we were very aware of.
So we ended up focusing on what just became the best debate out of the performances we captured.
Rosdely originated the role, so it felt good to have her be the one we focused on.
This one was a bit of an anomaly!
It was just the best debate we captured, truthfully.
I came in as a friend of hers.
Ive known her for years, and I wanted to help facilitate her vision.
Shes written and performed this show.
She doesnt know how to get it captured as a film.
I have these resources, that ability.
I had just started my company Defiant by Nature.
I said Im gonna throw everything I can behind getting this made.
It was really about taking her vision and helping facilitate getting it made.
I took it to Big Beach, the production company, who threw their total weight behind it.
One of the boring tricks about capturing Broadway onscreen, actually, is just about all the different unions.
We needed to capture it before it was gone.
I first saw Heidi dothe stage versionof this during the Kavanaugh hearings when it was Off Broadway.
Now, its coming out on film during another round of Supreme Court hearings.
That must have you thinking about how the play will be received now.Its so on our minds.
We never could have predicted, or would have hoped, that were in the position were in now.
I was a theater actor, really.
I spent most of my 20s working as an actor.
Then I fell in love with directing.
Ten years flew by and I hadnt really acted.
I can talk to actors.
Im not afraid of actors.
I was starting to feel like I was becoming a fraud because I hadnt acted in ten years.
Im good friends with Scott Frank [who directedThe Queens Gambit] through the Sundance world.
But it was one of those weird, fun moments to say yes to.
As a director, youre responsible for everything the eye can see.
Id be like, Im not worried!
Its not my problem.
Im not going to your VFX meetings.
You dont know where shes coming or going from.
She doesnt fit into any of the stereotypes of the 50s housewife that she could fall into.
I wanted them to not be easily summed up in one sentence.
I loved that about Alma.
She was so complex.
She has so many dreams that have not been fulfilled.
A dream of being a mother, of being a pianist.
She also is resourceful and realizes chess could help fund their lives.
And, you know, playing those scenes where I reconnect with an old flame from Mexico.
So fun to explore a repressed alcoholic housewifes long-lost lust!
And you get those costumes!
And the done-up 50s hairdo.I cut all my hair off for the part!
I usually have really long hair.
The irony is everybody thinks I was wearing a wig.
So it put me right into character.
I took piano lessons leading up to it so you can fake it at least well enough to pass.
Its harder than you remember, you know?
