Her icy filmPromising Young Womanset off a fascinating conversation about what we expect from rape-revenge stories.
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Promising Young Womanis a remarkably cold film.
The story centers on Carey Mulligans slippery Cassandra Cassie Thomas.
By day, she works at a candy-colored coffee shop.
[Warning: Spoilers ahead.]
In many ways,Promising Young Womanseeks to twist the rape-revenge genre into a new shape.
This is never more evident than inits gruesome, exhilarating ending.
The most notable shift?
Our heroine doesnt survive.Promising Young Womanis a prickly film for this reason and many others.
Its pop-inflected soundtrack and bright-hued production design belie the violence at the storys center.
But its decision to withhold a cathartic conclusion has ignited the most of heated conversations.
Im really curious about the genesis of this story idea and which threads came first.
Was it Cassie subverting the expectations of certain nice guys?
Was it her character delving into trauma?
Generally what happens is Ive been thinking about something for a while.
What are you doing?
And then sitting up sober and saying, What are you doing?
That sort of moment came fairly fully formed.
But what could I do?
And I think that thats what always interests me.
Its like,Okay, well, what I could do is fuck with people.
I could frighten them.
Fuck off, everyone.
Yeah, theres something powerful about a good Fuck off and really sticking to your guns.
Which is so hard, for women especially.Its hard, and its dangerous, right, too?
It is.It makes you very vulnerable.
Thats something, again, that I dont think is really explored.
You turn around and say Fuck off, and they say, You fucking bitch.
What did you say?
Lets look at what happens when a woman takes revenge, and see how the world takes that.
I love studying the ways women wrestle with and portray anger in film.
Can you talk about Cassies anger a bit more and what you wanted to communicate?
This is a movie about men who dont think of themselves as aggressors, who are much more … Its so hard to talk about this stuff.
There are certainly different things about it that are fascinating to me.
Thats really what her journey is about.
Its a journey where shes offering redemption or punishment.
We see a lot of badassery with whip-smartery, which I dont mind.
I love all that stuff as well.
[Anger is] horrific.
It takes over everything else.
Rather than, like, a gunshot wound, its like an ingrown toenail.
Its there always, everywhere you go.
Thats so much of what me and Carey discussed.
The root of her journey really was her love for Nina and the grief that she feels there.
Probably my friends say Im quite boringly coarse about lots of things and definitely prone to ranting.
In a way, her whole career was exploring it and showing how nasty it could be.
I hate the wordunlikeable,but she did play some assholes who were not nice people.
Thats whats interesting with Cassie.
She makes these decisions, and youre like,Damn, girl.
This movie really subverts our expectations with the rape-revenge genre.
On one hand, its not the woman who was wronged who exacts vengeance but her friend.
And then on top of that, Cassies anger is fueled more by her guilt than by anything else.
Were there any genre tropes you wanted to avoid or upend specifically in dealing with these ideas?Absolutely.
I dont think any of us are immune to a woman seriously inducing a major bloodbath.
Its going to be incredibly satisfying.
I think what Cassie really wants is to try and make it better.
And you cant, you know?
So that felt very real to me.
But I have a best friend like Nina, who Ive been friends with since I was four.
I think so many women have that friendship, and its something that the world maybe doesnt recognize.
I think there are lots of expectations that we have.
Oh, this is going to happen.
Okay, he didnt do that, and she was sober.
Okay, fine.The next scene:Oh, theres blood on her leg.
I think its really fun because Im obsessed with movies and I love them.
Structurally, its kind of great, especially for making a very-low-budget movie in 23 days.
Thats quick.Yes, it was quite quick.
Hes such a millennial crush, and so you would expect something different from [his character].
Was it something you thought about a lot?
Its about apartments that we have all ended up in, by hook or by crook.
Two people you would trust, as an audience.
And then Sam Richardson and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, all of these incredibly sort of sweet actors, beloved actors.
Thats when its difficult.
In the Adam Brody scene, its basically the opening scene of a romantic bro comedy.
Like, you should probably take her home, then she laughs at his jokes.
Maybe is there a connection?
And he chats her up.
Its like he thinks hes in a rom-com.
He thinks theyre connecting, but shes not really said a word.
Yeah, yeah.At what point do we reframe it?
Thats whats sort of thrilling to me about all this stuff.
In another movie, they wake up Oh, I dont remember what happened last night.
Thats the thing about this, is that its all in what you expect.
Its all how you view yourself as the protagonist of your own life.
Yeah, that actually brings me to something I was really interested to ask you about.
It could have been a completely different movie from that opening; youre totally right.
I especially loved the Stars Are Blind moment in the neon-lit pharmacy.
For the audience, we want her to be happy, and we love him.
That was really important.
But it was also important that Ryan is somebody that she knows from the past.
I think thats the thing with Cassie.
Is theres a reason she hasnt looked up Al Monroes name on Facebook?
Its because if she does, shes fucked, and hes fucked, and everythings fucked.
But once the real stuff comes out, I think she knows that its going to be difficult.
Again, its like, at what point do you forgive?
Where does the forgiveness come?
When do you let things go?
But no one asks for it [in the movie], except for one person.
It takes admitting the truth to yourself.
Thats why so few people go to therapy because who wants to know?
Who wants to really know themselves?
It totally does.Its like, whoever goes to a therapist and theyre like, Youre fine?
Oh God no.I actually really like you and I hope we can be friends.
Lets have a coffee after.
I mean, thats never happened.
I love Cassie, and I think shes amazing.
But what happens then?
The cops, jail forever?
Was that worth it?
Because theres no happy ending in any revenge.
What have I been doing with my life lately?Actually, I did like that dog.
Dont get me wrong, it was a really cute dog.
Because the aftermath of this journey, which I think we see here, is incredibly unpleasant.
It is.Particularly for women.
Thank you for not putting us through that.Yeah, of course.
Shes dealing with the weight of it outside, and she has to lean against a tree.
What did you imagine was going through Cassies head in that moment?Its the end of hope.
Its the doors shutting.
Watching her gesturing toward these open doors for people to escape, and they just dont.
The doors just slam, slam, slam.
I think for Cassie, thats what this film is too.
Everything she does, the door is slamming.
What Im really obsessed with, specifically, is the way you weaponized the millennial-pink Instagram aesthetic.
If theres a weapon that women are very experienced at using, it is clothes and hair and makeup.
It needs to be a world that you want to step into.
It needs to be a world that feels familiar and safe and feminine until it isnt.
This idea that just because you love Britney Spears doesnt mean you couldnt cut someones face off.
Just because you wear pink doesnt mean youre not filled with murderous rage.
This almost primal thing underneath them.
And so it was important to me that the movie itself demonstrate that.
That we were keen to say, This is a fable.
This is a woman on a journey.
This is somebody going on a journey and teaching people lessons.
The movies ending really makes that work.
But did Cassie know she was going to die at the bachelor party?
I completely understand why.
She has made arrangements for if that happens.
She has deliberately set messages.
But also, shes not sent them the night before [she goes to the bachelor party].
Shes not sent them on the way.
Shes an incredibly meticulous person, and I dont think she has a death wish by any means.
Absolutely, she has made contingency plans.
Shes doing something much more dangerous than shes ever done before.
Shes not an idiot, and she knows that theres a risk.
And I dont think its fair.
We know theyre not, and then its so unjust, because this stuff is so unjust.
Did you ever entertain a version of the story where Cassie lived?It came up.
Because for her too, as much as us, what happens after the catharsis?
What happens after youve done that stuff?
Your lifes still ruined.
Were you ever worried about the audience response, given that people expect catharsis?Yeah, of course.
It makes sense in the context of the movie.
In fact, itisthe thing that is the movie, in many ways.
It makes you feel a certain way, and it makes you want to talk about it.
It makes you want to examine the film and the society that we live in.
With a cathartic Hollywood ending, thats not so much of a conversation, really.
Its a kind of empty catharsis.
I just want to make something that feels very real to me and resonates for me.
It felt to me like there was no other ending.
Lots of people didnt like it and wanted to change it.
But that was fine.
But yeah, of course theres a version of it thats a bit tidier, maybe.
But when is life ever tidy when youre dealing with this stuff?
