As a father yourself, how hard was it to play a parent who loses a child?
Did you ever hesitate about taking on the movie? I read the script and thought it was really well-founded, but I threw it under the bed and said let’s just put this away. It’s too hard, too tricky. But eventually I dug it out and I read it quietly and it was so moving. Susan [Sarandon], I knew, was interested, so I called her up and said, “I’m gonna make the movie and I’d love you to be a part of it. Let’s go make it in New York. We’ll come to you.” So we had this great actress and then found Carey [Mulligan]. You have a moving moment with Susan Sarandon in the ocean, in which you’re really getting pushed and pulled by the waves. Was it difficult to shoot such an emotional scene when water was going up your nostrils? In circumstances like that, you just follow your heart. It’s very hard to choreograph something like that. You’re at the mercy of the elements, the waves in this case, and it adds to the emotional turmoil of what these characters are going through. It was a tricky day’s wo
