Neil LaBute on Possession

I've transcribed some of Neil LaButes commentary from the Possession DVD. Obviously not the whole thing, just the bits about Jennifer Ehle.

Some highlights:

...she’s such an amazing actress; she’s, ah, beyond the obvious magnetic qualities she has as an actress, she’s so bright, and makes such interesting choices; uh, she really was the only choice I put forth as Christabel, she was the one I was most hopeful of getting in the role...

Jennifer Ehle has such great passion, and, ah, you can see in her eyes, she acts with her eyes often- they’re so expressive- they way in which she studies her and the pain she feels, and the anger at her lover at this moment and this kind of explosive- (JE tips over the table) - that sort of just came out of something that Jennifer wanted to do there, that came out of the moment of rehearsal of ‘I wanna tip this over’ until we accommodated it all it was something a little different on the page, but um, she just wanted to show that um, people 150 years ago weren’t averse to turning over tables, or, because it was a very strict, sort of décor of society, it didn’t mean that people didn’t have outbursts of passion or anger, and so, um, that was an exciting choice I think she made.

...I think she’s one of the best ‘cryers’ that we have in movies, ah, she’s one of the best we have of everything in movies- she’s really exceptional.

Full Transcript of Jennifer Ehle sections