Interview: Radha Mitchell Discusses the Emotional Depth of DREAMKATCHER and Reflects on THE CRAZIES (2010)

From Pitch Black and Silent Hill to Rogue and The Crazies, Radha Mitchell has played plenty of memorable roles throughout her acting career, and her latest performance as a cognitive behavioral therapist looking to bond with her boyfriend's troubled son in the new movie Dreamkatcher is yet another one to add to the eclectic list.

Featuring a sinister spirit that comes out at night, Dreamkatcher is out now on DVD, Digital, and VOD from Lionsgate, and we caught up with Mitchell to discuss working with the legendary Lin Shaye, executive producing the film in addition to starring in it, the movie's emotional depth, and she also reflects on 2010's The Crazies (a remake of George A. Romero's 1973 film), which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

What attracted you to the story and to the role of Gail in particular? Because it's a really interesting role and you kind of go through the wringer in this one.

Radha Mitchell: Yeah, well, I thought it was basically this interesting, unconventional, elongated conversation between this father's girlfriend and the young boy who's grieving the loss of his mother. Obviously, there's a kind of longing in both of them for a mother-son kind of relationship. And there's a lot of neurotic behavior that plays out around that. I liked that because there's nothing saccharin about it. She's not this amazing, fantastic mother, and he's not this sweet little kid, and they meet each other as two characters grieving in their own way and reaching out in their own dysfunctional way. Obviously, the story ramps up to what it does and takes that to the next level of extreme, but there's this real emotional confusion and depth in it that plays out subtly and almost like a drama. I was interested in that.

And then, as we were starting to shoot the movie, I was like, "Wow, actually the best part of this story is where it goes." When it goes into this surrealist space, that's exciting. I'd wished that we had more money and more time to play in that part of the story. But I do think it satisfies in the sense that it takes you somewhere very unexpected.

Yes, it definitely does. And I love the nightmare sequences. Like you were saying, it's almost like a hallucinatory, surreal kind of horror that gets under the skin.

Radha Mitchell: As we were shooting the movie, me, the director, one of the producers, and a couple of other crew members were in this massive creepy house. There was no cell phone reception. You had WiFi when you're in the house, and as soon as you walked 50 meters away, there was nobody out there. You're in the middle of nowhere, and your phone didn't work. You couldn't just go for a walk with the phone. If you go for a walk, you're just alone.

Which was kind of great because there was an opportunity to just be really present with where you were, but also really difficult for communication and made things that could have been so simple incredibly complicated with its own sort of handicap and also a fantastic kind of barometer for what the characters were going through because we were also having that experience. At nighttime, it was super quiet, and it was quite intense. That was kind of the reality of the experience.

And there was something super charming about this town, Bovina, as well. But you know, I had no idea before getting there that there was going to be no cell phone reception, and that that was basically all we were doing. That's it. We'll be making the movie. We'll be talking about it at nighttime. And then we'll be shooting it in the day. And that's kind of our reality for the period of time, which was great. It gave us all a sense of focus, but there was no escape from what we were doing.

So were you staying at the cabin that you were shooting the movie in?

Radha Mitchell: No, the owners were staying at the cabin. The owners stayed there, which was unbelievable because during the day their house was just invaded by the whole crew, and there was nowhere to sit. The guy whose house it was was so lovely and became a real friend to the project and made us coffee and made us feel so at home in his home. But it was definitely a home invasion.

But no, we were at a house not far from there. And sharing cars and trying to escape, it was very—thank God a lot of us knew each other already, because we definitely knew each other by the end of the shoot.

Yeah. It's like real life becomes fiction at that point. It's so fitting.

Radha Mitchell: Yeah. We were living in each other's pockets.

In addition to starring in this, you also executive produced the movie, which I found really interesting. Was that something you initially planned? What was that experience like for you to have both of those roles on the same film?

Radha Mitchell: Well, it made sense because the story hinged on the characters and the casting. And there was definitely discussions about what the script was going to be and how it was going to end. And it made sense for both Lin [Shaye] and I to participate in a meaningful way. And Lin also did a lot in terms of crafting the script and whatnot.

There was a lot of space for conversation there and time to experiment, which is amazing because there wasn't really that much time, which I think was good for the project.

There was also a friendliness. We'd invite people to set who we knew to come and work on it, who might be interested in doing that for an extremely discounted rate. So there was that. The story, it looks more than what it costs, and it sounds a lot more than what it costs. We have a great soundtrack. Joe Bishara, who's also playing the creepy monster lady, he did all the music. There was a great caliber of talent behind and not so huge a budget, which I think kept the story intimate and raw, but working with people who kind of really know how to do what they do.

You mentioned it looks more expensive than it is, and, and I saw that this is Kerry's first feature film as director, but I never would have guessed that watching it.

Radha Mitchell: Kerry's got a lot of talented friends, and he called them. Yeah, you've got to do what you've got to do. So that gave it the panache that it has. He was a producer on this story as well in the sense that he brought really great talent to the story who didn't come on the lot in terms of their fees upfront. So there was not a communist collaboration, but there's a real sense of ownership in the project from everybody who participated in it.

Yeah, it's everybody's baby then, and I love that about independent projects. You see that passion come through a little bit more. Did you do any child psychology research for your role to get into the headspace of Gail before filming began?

Radha Mitchell: Well, that's interesting. It was a great opportunity to. I was like, "God, I wish I'd been seeing a therapist myself." Kerry, the director, was like, "Well, you know, she's a cognitive behavioral therapist." And I was like, "Oh, I've got to learn about that." So that was interesting.

Cognitive behavioral therapy, a lot of that's dealing with anxiety and how to gradually build up into an experience. Like, some people might be afraid of flying, and so you build up doing little exercises to the point where you can get on the plane and do the flight, or it could be agoraphobia. Whatever this anxiety is, there are practical kinds of steps towards ultimately making the goal to face that fear and get over it. That was interesting just to learn about cognitive behavioral therapy.

But then, obviously, dreams are fascinating. What does Jung have to say about dreams? What do cognitive behavioral therapists have to say about dreams? And then the world of lucid dreaming was interesting to me, when you can enter the dream space and be conscious of the dream while you're dreaming. Maybe that's happened to me a few times in my life where I'm like, "Oh, I'm in the dream. I know I'm dreaming."

But there are techniques you can use to bring that on. In a waking state, you do certain exercises where you might hit the wall, and you're like, "The wall is solid. Yes, that's a wall." And so hopefully if you do that enough in your waking state, you'll start to develop the habit in your dreaming state. And then that could be a catalyst to realizing that you're dreaming, in which case you can write your own narrative. If you look at that in a more philosophical context, it's like, "Wow, what's the difference between being asleep and being awake anyway?" We're kind of writing the narratives or they're being played out in front of us outside of our control depending how you look at it.

And there was plenty of time to think these things, because you're stuck in the middle of nowhere. It was this fascinating background kind of research project. And then, Fin [Wojtak-Hissong] himself was a fascinating little actor to work with because he's surprisingly intelligent and has this really cultivated sense of self and arrived at the wrap party in the middle of this small, little town where everybody's just wearing a tracksuit, and he's got a suit on with his hair slicked back. He's like a little man.

Acting with him was great because he had this very adult persona and he wasn't this cute little sappy boy. At times, you could sort of see the vulnerability, but he was so self-possessed, which created this interesting awkward distance between the characters that I think makes the movie unique in its own way.

Yeah, there are so many layers there, and I absolutely love that about this project. Before we run out of time, I just want to say that 10 years ago, The Crazies remake came out, and it's especially timely now with everything going on. Do you have any great memories of working on that film? Our team did a whole podcast about that movie on Corpse Club because we love it so much.

Radha Mitchell: Oh, you did? Oh, great. Yeah, I guess at some point we're going to be living that nightmare out. It was just statistics, I guess. The Crazies was such an interesting project, because it has this dual role as a cautionary tale, but also as a horror movie with zombies before a lot of these zombie movies were getting made. It was kind of on the edge of that moment, which was cool, and shot beautifully by the Italian cinematographer Maxime Alexandre, with a great cast and really interesting actors.

What I took from that story was, "Wow, when you look at how we're viewed from a political perspective, we are just data, we're numbers." The sense of individual entitlement, it's precarious, you know? I guess we've got to take care of each other and not become statistics. Keep the humanity even during all the fear.

Absolutely. That's a good message for right now, and hopefully we can all take that to heart and we won't end up like the people in that movie. Before I let you go, is there anything else coming up that you're also excited about in addition to Dreamkatcher?

Radha Mitchell: Yeah, there's a movie called 2 Hearts, which is coming out I think in September. And there's another movie which I'm quite excited about called Asking for It, which has Ezra Miller in it and a bunch of really interesting actors. It's a very independent spirit, very Sundance-y sort of movie which I'm really looking forward to seeing the final cut for, because I think it's going to be something quite unique.