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I caught up with
Téa Leoni at The Gansevoort Hotel recently
to discuss her new film You Kill Me.
In it, Leoni plays Laurel, an acerbic woman
who has found her match in an alcoholic hit
man named Frank (Ben Kingsley). She talked
to me about the nature of subtlety in film,
what she hates about relationships in life
and in the movies, and about an unfulfilled
childhood dream job. -Ryan
Eagle
Tea Leoni and Ben
Kingsley in You Kill Me
Ryan Eagle: You’ve
done comic roles in the past and both you
and Ben Kingsley are extremely versatile to
say the least, still neither of you really
spring to mind when someone says “comic
actor.” In You Kill Me the
deadpan exchanges between you guys were really
funny and really captivating. So I’m
wondering if you got the feeling that the
humor would pop once you two started working
together? Did it come naturally or was it
something that you had to cultivate?
Tea Leoni:
I think that the script clearly indicated
that there would be some funny…some
funny! And I think Ben is certainly one of
those actors that because Gandhi might
be the first thing that comes to mind, people
don’t think he’s going to be as
funny as he is. But he has a very good ear
for comedy, especially in character. Because
I think he’s so willing to be vulnerable
and the best part of funny is someone who’s
distracted – who is so focused on some
sort of self-consumption that they get caught
off guard, you know? And he has this sort
of delightful boyishness about him that gave
a gentleness to what otherwise is pretty dark
with some pretty dark circumstances in the
film. I never felt like – oh, we need
to go back and try and make that funny. Definitely
not. I don’t think even in a film like
this that it ever works that way. There were
times that we did actually find – that’s
not a funny scene. And John [Dahl] would very
graciously say, “Well then that’s
not a funny scene,” not willing to go
in and hack around with it in order to get
a laugh. That’s the comfort that comes
with a dark comedy because it means that the
dark is so acceptable that you can miss a
joke – inadvertently or on purpose –
and it can still work. It just becomes something
else that is appropriate.
Ryan Eagle:
It was pleasing to see a relationship between
two obviously damaged people without having
to wade through mushy dialogue or explicit
“cry your eyes out” backstories…
Tea Leoni:
Yeah – Good! I’m so glad! That’s
one of the major points that I make when talking
about this film.
Ryan Eagle: Could
you speak to the importance of subtleties
in your character and your performance a little
bit?
Tea Leoni:
Well first, I just – again, I want to
thank you for that question.
Ryan
Eagle: (laughing) You’re so welcome!
Tea Leoni: You
know when I read the script the first thing
that jumped at me when I knew I was going
to do this movie and as I was reading the
script I was thinking, “oh, God it’s
going to be on the next page,” there’s
going to be that terrible monologue where
we hear why Laurel is so damaged. And then
I got through the script and actually –
he’s going to kill me, but – I’ll
just say “a manager” of mine said,
“Yeah, but I mean they’ve got
to rewrite or do something ‘cause –
I mean, I don’t know why she’s
so damaged. I mean what happened with her
stepfather?” And I thought (flashes
the O.K. sign) now I’m sure I’m
right.
I was so appreciative of that confidence from
the script and also – I get offended
by that as a woman in film – that it
seems like we always hand that to the chick
of the flick. Let’s give her a half
a page, A) to seduce her into doing the movie
and B) so that we can just have that soft,
little lovely about why she’s damaged.
I love the fact that the damage that was brought
to Laurel was all my own imaginative, demented
work. And I got to go as far as I wanted and
at times it would show itself in a way that
probably was too much and John [Dahl] could
tell me to put a little bit less at stake.
You know, clean up the seven-year-old birthday
party that was a disaster or whatever. Just
take that out of my back history – and
we could sort of laugh about it. You know
I think what I got reading this script –
I got that she was damaged and it was my bit
to figure out how or why. And it wasn’t
a random choice. That was when I looked to
Frank [Ben Kingsley] and what it is about
this man that excites her and changes her.
There’s a sort of squeal that starts
to come out of Laurel a little bit like a
playfulness, which I think is because she’s
finally met somebody who is exactly what he
says he is. And my backstory for her –
that’s never happened before.
Ryan Eagle: It’s
a cliché in life, often mirrored in
romantic comedies, that women sometimes try
to change the men they love if not to simply
improve them then to mold them into their
ideal mate. Laurel completely accepts Frank
and his flaws. Do you feel that that dynamic
gave the film and your character an air of
calm and maturity not present in some other
cutesy romantic films?
Tea Leoni:
Well, I think one (places hands in hip pockets
and leans back in her chair) – if we
could just speak to it – one of the
things that I hate in relationships and romantic
comedies both, is that…pestering –
that banter of oh, he’s so blah, blah.
Look at what I have to do, look at what I
have to put up with. With that sing-songy
tone, rolling the eyes and bending over to
pick up the shoes or whatever it is…I
find it dull and unrealistic and completely
lacking any kind of depth. It’s a relationship
I wouldn’t wish on myself. I look at
some of those romantic comedies and I think
you know what’s funny? You’re
screwed. I give you a year at best. Six months
more likely. Two months appropriately. And
I think what was sort of greatly celebrated
in this movie was – isn’t this
what really good love would be? Which is you
find somebody – you’re not a match
for everybody – but then you get to
find that one person that fits so well. I
mean that to me, that’s what makes this
movie – this relationship in this movie
– so sexy. You’re right. There
isn’t a change and we don’t see
Laurel get disappointed cause he went off
the wagon or whatever. They just don’t
exist in that kind of – that fairytale
realm. And two damaged people can’t
anyway.
Ryan
Eagle: So much of comedy comes from
dealing with pain. In this film there’s
a thoughtful balance between humor and pain
for both Laurel and Frank. Were you conscious
of that balance during filming and did it
complicate the role for you?
Tea
Leoni: (frowning) Um –
Ryan
Eagle: – In other words, the
comedy grows out of the pain sometimes –
Tea
Leoni: – Oh, I think it always
does, the best comedy anyway. I mean I look
at any comedic role I’ve ever played
and I’m always coming from a place of
a woman who believes her life to be at stake…(pause)…over
something really dumb. I think that what makes
it not just funny, but so digestible is that
it’s so endearing cause you’re
watching somebody screw up all by themself
– you know, they’re their own
worst enemy kind of thing. So I think in this
one, again, there was no sort of conscious
sort of thought of where’s the funny.
We could see that out of these two people
and these two finding each other – and
again I want to give plenty of credit to the
script. There were some great dialogues in
there between the two of us and occasionally,
you know we’d take it one step further
or we’d change things in and out, but
it was there on the page.
Ryan Eagle: Please
forgive this next one. Your childhood aspiration
of becoming a tollbooth attendant on the G.W.
Bridge is well documented in many of your
bios. Any jealousy over Luke Wilson’s
job as a tollbooth attendant in this picture?
Tea Leoni:
(laughs)
Ryan Eagle: He
even has some funny scenes with Sir Ben in
the tollbooth. Seems tailor-made for your
youthful aspirations.
Tea Leoni:
Ah, no. No jealousy there. But I – listen
– I will defend my interest and my ambition
to be a tollbooth collector –
Ryan Eagle:
– Really? (interrupting)
Tea Leoni:
– Because it makes perfect sense to
a child. I’ve grown up and since understood
that apparently the money they collect doesn’t
go into their own pockets. So I am gracefully
relieved of that ambition, but at the time
I thought it made a lot of sense. You were
in this cozy little booth, and all day long,
all night long, as long as you wanted to stay
at work people just handed you money. I mean
it’s genius, actually.
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