A Dangerous Method, 2011, Keira Knightley about making of

A Dangerous Method, 2011, Keira Knightley about making of

I play Saina Spiel Rin who was a patient of um Dr Yung um she was the first patient that he used what was called the talking cure on which was um a theory kind of method that uh Freud had kind come up with she’s um suffering from what is diagnosed as hysteria so she’s having hysterical episodes that strange line in playing her of getting this creature that was very difficult that was very intense and and could be horrendous to people and yet always playing it with that that idea that she’s ill and that she is of course a victim and she thinks that she is a devil she thinks she vile filthy and corrupt so I sort of wanted something facially that that expressed that a huge part of it is the costumes so it was great that we kind of managed to find something that that just just made us sort of she’s she’s not she’s never fussy she’s never perfectly of that period because you know I sort of going along that if you think you’re disgusting if you think you’re that vile you don’t dress yourself up and have the hair done and have everything else because because you don’t want people to look at you because you’re disgusting there were various rumors at the time of that that young was having this affair with this patient and and student and um and he got very freaked out by it so he denied everything she was absolutely boted with him and she sort of believed that that he was he was the Savior and that she’d have this child that would be Hero by him and you know so I think yes it it was a love maybe not completely saying love but but certainly certainly it was love it was quite terrifying actually because you know I first read the script and went God this is amazing um and sort of said yes to doing it and then went oh this is really difficult wow how do I so I started with the book that um that Christopher Hampton based the original play on um called The Dangerous Method um and I I started I didn’t understand a word because you know it’s all it’s all in Psycho analytical talk and I didn’t I don’t know anything about it David said to me sort of you know how do you feel about doing a touch of Russian in there and I was kind of I loved it I love doing accents I was like yeah great great perfect and then he said he said okay specifically I want Mid-Atlantic with a Russian blush I was so excited when he said he’d play Freud I just I think he’s he’s the most phenomenal actor and really exciting that he gets to do something because you wouldn’t you wouldn’t think of vgo mortison that Freud you know I mean it you know but but the characterization is wonderful and actually because I I love it when people I mean I do love it when people do research and I love hearing about all the stuff that they found out so it was a joy to the one scene that we did together you know to kind of go oh wow what books have you been reading and he’s written me a whole list of Freud books because I didn’t get around to reading any biographies of Freud so I’ve got a whole list of and you know they’re going to be good if we go read them and he thinks they’re good you know they’re going to be good what I found fascinating about the whole story was that it was the beginning of psychoanalysis it’s so much a part of our culture and and even sort of words like ego or complex or anything like that it’s words that we don’t think about using today um whereas then it was it was right at the beginning and they were they were discovering a whole new way of treating people it’s fabulous I’ve Loved reading all the books I’ve Loved how difficult I found it it’s been a real challenge um love doing the accent you know and and the whole kind of um the dive living in aspect of it David Cronenberg he sort of he goes yes I believe that you can do this and you go okay and somehow you you do and it’s incredibly exciting so it’s the arduousness and the difficulties you know it makes you feel alive I play uh CG Yung and um I kind of play uh him during the time that he spent at the brook Holly hospital and just sort of a few years after he left the hospital and started to um work from from his home kusak so I think it spans from about 1902 to 1913 the words that we use today introvert and extrovert I mean you know they’re sort of things that we take for granted now but back then you know people didn’t really think of that or sort of comprehend it it was sort of like everybody moved as one lump whereas he had this idea that you you need to find yourself as an individual before you finally can sort of access your full potential the fact of the matter is that he was just sort of open to really kind of anything whereas Freud was very much Set uh in one sort of um form of psychology this idea that all neurosis essentially Springs from from a sexual origin and um I think Yung has a problem with with that Yung looked up to Freud so much but he’s the next it’s kind of like um Freud’s own philosophy you know he’s going to kill the father and take over um and uh I think that for somebody like Yung who was so ambitious and um and uh and so [Music] driven I think with both these characters you know Freud didn’t like to be questioned she’s troubled um mentally you know when she first arrives at the hospital but what I guess what sort of takes him back is you know she’s extremely intelligent and she’s also extremely Brave and open and he’s starting this sort of talking cure which he’s sort of taken from Freud and has been reading a lot about this form of Psy psychoanalysis as we call it now which was then called psych analysis and he starts to use her as um as a as a sort of litmus test for this for this talking cure she’s very responsive and she’s very eager and also very honest with it so I think her honesty and her intelligence and her strength and the fact that she’s beautiful uh I think you know intrigues him and puts him off balance really here comes somebody like AO gross who was you know extremely seductive and also very very bright he is clear you know his notes are very precise um he doesn’t give many notes we don’t do many takes he’s very clear about what he wants and that sort of confidence then sort of spreads down throughout the set he’s just an absolute sort of Joy really and you know he has got his obviously his work very methodically sort of put together and he’s he’s very precise but he’s um also got a great sense of humor and we sort of you know we had a lot of fun uh a lot of fun doing our scenes together and and the more sort of we did the more fun we had and it’s important as well I think when you’re dealing with heavy material and very serious material that you keep a lightness about yourself in between takes so then you can come to the scene with the you know and you’re a bit more loose and you’re bit more relaxed and you can find then the little nuances within it kir is I would say well for me anyway definitely got the hardest part to play in this you know she goes through such a a range of of emotions and mental States and uh and you know from day one she came and she sat down the seat and she just went for it you know and she’s um she Dives in head first and she’s she’s um super talented and and just really easy to work with they’re just you know human beings you know and doing things to each other that we all do and and they have the same sort of lusts and jealousy and uh you know there’s a lot at play here with these characters you know they were brilliant people but then you know with that comes you know egos as well and with egos comes a lot of other personality traits you know that show themselves in various ways it always helps when I put on a costume you know you sort of do all your homework at home and and um and you know you’re in your sort of tracksuit bottoms or whatever you know Barefoot or and then slowly you know when you put on the shoes and you start to wear the shoes that the character wears and all this sort of stuff you know and the people had little you know intricate little things you know that like this you know like this sort of pocket watch and there’s a real Elegance about the time if these two men did perhaps get over their their sort of quite sizable egos perhaps we would have seen a more rounded idea of of psychology and and the human sort of mind and and um it would have been interesting if they just sort of continued and being allow you know allowed each of their sort of opinions to sort of play relevance I play Sigman Freud starting at age 50 it’s a period of his life in terms of the images we have of him um that people are not that familiar with he looks quite serious you know um but what you realize in reading about him what his contemporar said about him and even reading his letters the letters he exchanged with you is that there is a uh there’s a very dry humor to him you know um sort of a lot of times a dead pan humor which has been really fun to play for was very conscious of public perception of himself of the science and he wanted to keep things tidy you know he’s a very formal tidy person um in some sense oldfashioned really and Yung represents something new more youthful there’s a different kind of energy you know even in Reading their letters in the way that Freud wrote he kept on dressing in the same way for many for decades you know really a 19th century way of dressing and his his German he wrote in in you know the the way German was written in the 18th and 19th century he never really changed it so there’s a formality to his writing and to his presentation of himself but in conversation he’s witty and he’s personable and he’s uh he’s rather easygoing but it’s there’s always a high standard while Yung is is uh differential he’s he’s his own man and I think Freud likes this for many reasons uh you know New Blood new ideas uh someone to talk to uh talk with on an equal level to learn from you see the basis of their quick and easy early friendship but you also see this the basis of what later is uh you know their Discord certainly uh sabina’s charact you know Kira’s character in a way she brings them closer together but at the same time she um breaks up the relationship a bit not directly herself but the effect of her relationship to yung in particular Freud did credit her for her ideas in writing whereas Yung did not and you know you can definitely make a case for Yung having gotten some very important ideas from her Michael’s been really good partner really good to work with we’ I think we found amuse amusing uh moments where it might not have been obvious that they were there you know they were there for for the finding and I think we’ve done well with it and David has guided us Kira has to go through some very traumatic intense uh moments in this movie you know emotionally mentally physically I mean it’s a very it’s an incredible I’m really glad she’s playing the part I think it’s a she’s going to surprise a lot of people I mean I did what I always do in one sense I read everything I could possibly find that Freud had written that others had written about Freud what Yung had written what they had written to each other their letters what Sabina had written what her ideas were how much credit she was given or Not by Yung by frud Stefan has done an amazing job of not making any kind of caricature but helping me to look different to look like this person and then of course I have to fill it with a certain way of speaking a certain body language and and all of those things but he trust he didn’t you know say to Stefan you must make him do this and you must make this look or to I mean he supervises all of it just like he obviously watches every move we make and you can feel that that he doesn’t miss anything from take to take he’s watching every Nuance but there’s a trust there and Trust inspires confidence he’s refined the art of movie making to the point where it’s it looks deceptively easy it’s tranquil people having a laugh they’re having a good time it’s wonderful to work with them it’s great to be back working with him there’s no no director that that has a better process both for the crew for himself and for the actors you know the scene that we played today here in Vienna and we were very fortunate I think to to shoot in in badas in uh Freud’s actual house you know he lived there from 1891 to 1938 so nearly 40 well more than 40 years and um so those steps those handrails you know that’s he’s gone up and down those stairs many many times it was enjoyable to do that it’s about um not so much you know how bright they were and and what pioneers they were were it’s about the mistakes they made how um how imperfect they were you know that’s where the passion is that’s where the emotion in the story is and the humor my name is Oto gross and uh I’m actually um a psychologist too a pretty good one but but I’m really sick I’m in I’m into drugs and uh I I have a lot of uh uh different relationship with a bunch of women I have kids all over the place and uh there’s one line that really resumes what my character is all about it’s never repress anything so he goes for whatever he feels like I think Freud is uh sending me to see Yong to challenge him I’m supposed to be cured by Yong but at the end of the story I wonder if first of all if I’m cured of anything and plus I think eventually the way Yung was thinking before he met other gross was different is is is dark is mysterious is daring um you know I I guess we always a little bit attracted to uh to dark sides you know because it’s forbidden because it’s it’s a little dangerous you know most of the time we don’t allow them ourselves to do things that are bad even though we really want to sometimes the difference between Freud young and auto gross is that auto gross is actually you know doing living is uh his method you know he goes for it with no no returning back you know he’s not scared the idea of working with Vigo and and David again was something I I couldn’t refuse anyways and uh yeah then the character is really uh is very modern actually it’s I can’t really see him as a period character he could have been I don’t know the manager of the Rolling Stones in the 60s you know well the truth is that yeah you have directors like David of course that you know if they’re asking me to do something I my first reaction would be to to to say yes but then you have to read the script and see where you can fit and what you can do with a character doesn’t talk much if it’s fine you won’t say anything and if something is wrong he will always come up with something very precise and short to make you understand what he’s looking for it’s pretty Universal matters you know what we’re talking about it’s about sex repression um um you know trying to get rid of all the problems we had in our childhood you know things like that and I think it’s it’s very Universal so hopefully if things go well I think people will get everything what we talk that we’re talking about these people were incredibly int ual and charismatic and articulate they were also very passionate and their passion came through their articulation and their theories and their abstract thoughts and really quite Fascinating People and um and a fantastic story it was a a mentoring relationship uh Yung thought of Freud as his father figure and in fact called him that many times and letters and so on um and so it was very intriguing to me to to come across um a story about Freud and Yung that also involved a woman who who until the 1970s was very little known uh named Sabina Spiel Jewish Russian woman who who was a patient of yung’s uh with whom he had an affair and then um under his tutelage became uh interested in psychoanalysis and then ultimately became a Freudian analyst and went to for so it was a strange Minaj not that she had any sexual relationships with Freud but uh but still there was love uh in each part of the triangle including between Jung and Freud there was incredible um uh affection and and friendship between them and Sabina was sort of in the middle of that Vigo is you know he’s Fearless I mean once he’s committed to to do a uh to do a role there’s nothing will stop him you know from from doing it immaculately and and with great depth Stefan D who won an Oscar for my movie The Fly that many years ago and has worked with me many times and every morning he would cook up a new nose for vgo a Freud nose but incredibly subtle it’s not an exaggerated thing it’s just enough to make vgo not quite be vgo and for an actor that’s a gift as well it it allows him to disconnect from him himself his own physiology and to become another person I really felt that Michael was a gift you know because once again you need someone who with that mustache with the the glasses feels like Yung as we know him from at least still photographs of the period and his bearing and his the his use of language and Michael was I think it’s really a magnificent beautifully subtle performance that will well you hope people will will will recognize the the range that that that Michael has she’s incredibly well prepared I mean immaculately well prepared and you might think that someone who does that would be thrown by a sudden shift in exactly the way the scene is going to be shot and and the the D dynamics of the scene that you instead of standing in the middle of a field speaking uh you’re in a pond uh with your hair wet with mud all over you that kind of thing she she loved it you know she’s just such more than a trooper I mean she really it wasn’t as though she did it dutifully she did it with great exuberance and uh you can’t buy that you know I mean you you it just it’s just an actor really has that to give you or does not and she really does I must say I had the same experience working with her that I had first with vgo which is that I knew that she was good but I didn’t realize that she was brilliant and she is brilliant I mean she is a brilliant actress she’s as as as good as any actress I’ve ever worked with and I have worked with some of the best actresses in the world autog gross was a physician who was being trained by Freud and Freud at first thought that gross was the one to lead everyone into the future of psychoanalysis because he was considered really in a way the most brilliant of them all even more brilliant even than Yung maybe even than Freud but of course he had a fatal flaw which was in a way that he was a hippie I wanted the movie to be sensual and beautiful as well as intellectually stimulating it’s also funny because they these men and women had they did have a sense of humor and they they were not they were they were not hesitant to use it uh either on attack or just or for ego egotistical reasons and so on there was a lot of sparring amongst these this quartet of people and uh and uh it’s a lot to deliver but of course it was all there in Christopher Hampton script so up to the rest of us to to realize it on screen a period piece for a costume designer is exciting and terrifying you know and especially once again when when there are many photographs of Freud and Yung uh in the clothes that they would have worn um at certain periods in their life um to replicate that and and it is it’s a very subtle thing I mean my sister Denise uh has worked with me many for many years uh creating costumes for my movies and but I don’t think we’ve ever done we Naked Lunch in in his own strange way was from 1940s and 50s a period piece but we’ve never I think she’s always wanted to do a massive period piece you know and and this movie is that despite the fact that in some ways it’s very uh intimate I don’t really know when I start making a film what the Dynamics of it will be uh and what scenes will be will catch fire and be sort of the scenes that people remember you just know that they’re very um juicy you know there’s a lot of there’s great texture and these people are so interesting and intriguing and their lives are so complex and and and passionate that you just know that uh along the way there’s going to be you know spark struck um and so there are actually many scenes I I must say I mean I think the movie has many scenes that really Delight me and surprise me um and uh I willon surprise people who think they know something about fraud and Y

how it was made… how the psycho doctors was pictured.