What does it mean to be close with your sister? Really close with your sister. Director Werner Herzog explores this premise in his new feature film ‘Bucking Fastard’ – a dark comedy that stays by your side long after you leave the theatre.
Starring real life sisters Rooney and Kate Mara, the film follows a pair of sisters that do everything together. From dressing identically to speaking in unison, Jean and Joan Holbrooke cannot be separated. But when their joint infatuation with their neighbor (played by a devious and handsome Orlando Bloom) lands them into hot water, they must leave home to start a new life elsewhere.
To watch Rooney and Kate Mara take on this role, is to descend into an uncanny valley and get comfortable there. Nearly every line is in unison, so much so that the ones said solo are
Rooney and Kate Mara pose at the New York Film Festival Premiere of ‘Bucking Fastard’ / The Nockturnal
jarring – for both the audiences and the actresses.
At the film’s New York Film Festival premiere on Oct. 8, Rooney Mara described the experience of speaking every single line together.
At first they wondered how they were going to pull this off for the whole movie. “The deeper we got into it, I think the more we were trying to get rid of our individual lines,” said Rooney Mara. “When we spoke alone it was horrible.”
As for the process of acting in tandem, Rooney Mara described the experience as “easier than we thought.”
“We didn’t know how we were going to do it, and then we quickly realized it was actually more intuitive and natural for us than we had realized,” she said. “We had a whole childhood of playing together. I don’t think we realized how much that was going to help us.”
The film didn’t shy away from the oddity of the sisters’ behavior, with a nervous and well-meaning Domhnall Gleeson playing a social worker determined to help them live life a tad more apart. Comedy ensues from the mere act of them trying to open a tin of sardines together. An easy task for one – a more daunting task for two.
Rooney Mara described the unique experience of working on a Herzog set.
“There’s no phones allowed, the crew is 10 people, it’s tiny,” she said. “It’s not like any set you’ve been on.”
“He’s very very very focused and specific about what he wants,” she added. “He’ll stop you three lines in like ‘No, that is not what you should be doing’.”
The Mara sisters first learned about this role through a letter from Herzog. Kate Mara explained that the letter contained a bit about the story of the film.
“Then he sent us the script, along with, at the end of the script there were 15 pages of pictures of very scary looking caves.”
While the majority of the film was shot in Ireland, the final scenes take place in Ireland’s twist caves, where the women spend a large part of two years digging to find a new world. This part was filmed in a real cave in Slovenia.
“It was a few days that we filmed there in Slovenia in the caves, said Kate Mara. “It was all night shoots, which is always horrible in my opinion, because you’re starting at 11 PM and you’re filming until 4 AM. I usually go to bed at 8.”
The experience of getting into the cave was an adventure in itself.
“Getting into the cave, you have to go on that teenie tiny train,” said Kate, referring to a small train that drives around the caves in the film. “It’s a 20 minute train ride just to get into the cave, the ceilings are very low. It’s kind of scary and really cold.”
She added that when you got into the cave, that was it.
“Once you were in there you could not get out. There was no taking a break or anything, once you’re in, you’re in.”
Bucking Fastard has a similar effect – once you’ve stepped into Herzog’s world, you’re sucked in. It’s a great movie to watch by yourself. An even better movie to watch with your sister.
