“The Seagull” hits theaters on May 11.
One summer at a lakeside Russian estate, friends and family gather for a weekend in the countryside. While everyone is caught up in passionately loving someone who loves somebody else, a rich story unfolds about art, fame, parents and children, and human folly. Adapted by Tony-winning playwright Stephen Karam from Anton Chekhov’s classic play and directed by Tony-winning director Michael Mayer, the film asks the timeless question about how to live a purposeful life in a tragicomedy starring Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan, Corey Stoll and Elisabeth Moss.
We spoke with some of the cast on the red carpet for the film’s Tribeca Film Festival premiere. Check out what they had to say below:
The Knockturnal: Tell us about your character.
The Knockturnal: And where did you film?
Glenn Fleshler: We shot in upstate New York in a town called Monroe. I’m sure there are other people here who could tell you more about that. But I believe it’s an actual Russian estate from close to the period the film is set, so we had everything right there in this one house. We shot almost the entire film on this estate.
The Knockturnal: And how was collaborating with your director Michael?
Glenn Fleshler: Well I’ve known him for many, many years, and he directed me on Broadway in Spring Awakening, so I knew I’d be in good hands. And Michael is an absolute delight to work with. He keeps his set very light, but he’s very smart, knows it when he sees it, and we had to work very fast because it is an independent film. And so there wasn’t a lot of time, which normally you might spend a lot of time thinking about Chekhov and what it all means. I think we were kind of given a gift by not having a lot of that time to be ponderous about it and to just fly because that’s what is happening in the movie. There’s people that are just going on their instincts, you know. “I love this person, I want this person, I want to be in their presence. Love me, love me, love me.” That’s kind of what it’s about, and so not having time to really think about it was kind of great, and we all just threw ourselves in and had a blast together.
The Knockturnal: So tell me about your role in the movie.
Mare Winningham: I play P0lina, who’s like everyone in the film. Tortured because she loves somebody she can’t have. She’s also the mother of Masha, who is Elizabeth Moss’ character. Masha’s also dealing with unrequited love, and her mother’s very afraid for her for that. The darkness that she’s gone down, and she’s like all the Chekhov women. They’re unsatisfied and they’re passionate.
The Knockturnal: What do you think Chekhov has to say to the contemporary audience?
Mare Winningham: I think these things are timeless, I guess. Unrequited love, vanity, obsessiveness, passion, sadness. Yeah, I guess those things just cross borders.
The Knockturnal: And how was working with the ensemble?
Mare Winningham: Fantastic. I mean, think of those women. I found working for Ann Roth pretty fantastic and intimidating. She was the costumer, and I think she played a huge part in this movie. Yeah, and her specificity and her precision with character extends beyond costumes. She gives you the once-over, she’s looking at the whole picture and what your place in it is, so I did love that.
The Knockturnal: How was working with Saoirse Ronan?
Billy Howle: Well, this is the first time we had met. I mean, what a way to meet, you know it’s not an easy story to tell. An unrequited love, I think, as we all know, or most of us will know is incredibly painful to experience. So it required a lot of trust, and we had a really fantastic working relationship from the outset, really, we understood how one another needed to work, and we really collaborated and pulled together and made this romantic unison as believable and as meaningful as it needed to be for the story to work. So yeah, it took a lot of trust, but we kind of gave it as much weight as I think is necessary for the story.
The Knockturnal: What was your collaborative process like with Michael?
Billy Howle: Well, a lot of fun, to be honest. Michael’s from a theatrical background as well all know, and a fantastic one at that. And actually, that really lent itself to our process for this, because of course, you know originally it was a play, and it is theatrical. A lot can be lost in translation when you adapt something like that for the screen, but thankfully not. Thankfully Michael held on to those things, and actually, we always talked about how some of the more dramatic, some of the more theatrical things can translate onto the screen really really well. And why shouldn’t they? You know, why shouldn’t we see these extreme emotions happen right in front of your eyes, and see that amount of suffering, but also laugh at it because it’s absurd, and because, you know, why on earth are you reacting that way?
The Knockturnal: You’re doing another period piece next Outlaw King?
Billy Howle: I just finished it actually. Very different. I play Edward the second. Well, soon to be Edward the second in the beginning. I play the Prince of Wales, so he’s a nasty piece of work, really. Again, misunderstood, but then, you know, I’m not saying I’m typecast, but I think a lot of human beings are pretty misunderstood, and if you’re portraying them as an actor, you’re likely to be misunderstood by others, so yeah.
The Knockturnal: You also star in On Chesil Beach. What was the challenge working on that?
Billy Howle: I think probably the largest struggle or challenge we all faced was encapsulating that time period of British history. The early sixties is obviously very well documented, but it’s not spoken about very openly. The later sixties are, because it was fun. The earlier bit, not so much, because not a lot was happening. I mean, politically and otherwise, it was, but culturally not so much.
The Knockturnal: So tell me a little bit about your role in this movie?
Jon Tenney: Well, I play Doctor Dorn, who is the doctor. And Chekhov was a doctor as well, so I sort of like to think about him as Chekhov’s voice in it. You know, he’s a little removed, he has a little perspective on the action. He has perspective because he’s been a doctor, a country doctor all his life, and so he doesn’t get caught up in the drama as much. But he also is very sensitive to the artistic pursuits of the characters, like he has a beautiful scene with Constantine that I love where he says, “You know, look, I’m very content with my life and how it’s gone, but if I were an artist and I experience that kind of emotional high that an artist experiences, I would give up everything for that.” So I love the fact that he’s able to appreciate the every day as well as the great sort of artistic aspirations of some of the characters.
The Knockturnal: How was working with the cast?
Jon Tenney: Well, it was certainly a true ensemble, and there was a feeling, you know sometimes on films, it’s very patchwork, and you feel like you do a little scene here, a little scene there, and it feels slightly disjointed sometimes. It was much more of a sense of ensemble with this, which was very theatrical.
The Knockturnal: You play a famous writer who all the women adore. What’s that like, is it hard?
Corey Stoll: He’s a novelist, a short story writer. It’s fun! It’s a good gig, but he doesn’t seem to appreciate it.
The Knockturnal: What do you think this story has to say to modern audiences?
Corey Stoll: I think what it has to say to modern audiences is what it’s been telling audiences for the last hundred and thirty years. We haven’t changed that much. I think, you know, certainly in terms of celebrity, that seems to have become more and more central to our culture, and certainly what Chekhov has to say about it is that it is hollow and in the end unfulfilling. But that spark, that striving to become something bigger than yourself, to go outside yourself is universal and intoxicating.
The Knockturnal: The play has moments of poignancy and comedy.
Corey Stoll: You know, I think the point is to not try to be funny. I think it’s all in the writing. It’s all there, and what’s different I think though about Chekhov is that when you’re doing a stage version of it, often the laughs are in completely different places. Because what’s funny is the situation and the relationship between people and people’s worldviews, and how far from reality people’s expectations are, and so the laughs can happen on one line one night and another line another night, as opposed to a Neil Simon play where there’s laughs, there’s jokes. This is much more organic and more challenging, but I think more rewarding.
The Knockturnal: What were the challenges of working on the film?
Corey Stoll: The biggest challenge was lack of rehearsal. You know, when you’re doing a play, you get four or five weeks to explore who these characters are, what their relationship to each other is. And here we had a couple of hours with each pairing of characters to sort of talk about what we were going to do and read through the scenes, but you don’t get that kind of slow cooker, you know, mixing of juices. So once we got onto set, we had to listen and be incredibly present to each other, because we really didn’t know what the other person was going to do. And I think everybody was really game to really make it a movie and not a staged thing.
The Knockturnal: In your next film you play Buzz Aldrin. Is that finished?
Corey Stoll: Yeah, I just finished that. That was incredible! Luckily I didn’t meet him until my very last day of shooting, which I was thrilled to do, but that was the first time I had played a living person before. Because you want to make a real person, you know, and you don’t want to do an impression. So I was glad that we were kept apart from each other. He was glad that I was tall!
The Knockturnal: Tell us about your character.
Michael Zegen: Yes, I play a schoolteacher. He’s poor, and he’s in love with Constantine. So yes, it’s all about unrequited love, and he’s a part of that. I saw it with an audience last summer, and they all laughed. I mean, it’s not a story that, you know, is just era-specific. I think it’s still relevant today, and unrequited love, it happens!
The Knockturnal: Speak about working with the cast.
Michael Zegen: I’d worked with Elisabeth Moss before, years and years ago, and she’s just as lovely now as she was and Saoirse I’d worked with. I did the movie Brooklyn, and she was in that, she was only like, what, eighteen when she did that? I mean, she’s one of the top, best actresses around. And she will be for years to come, I’m sure. All of them. I mean, Annette Bening? Like, that’s Annette Bening! It’s crazy. I was in a movie, I did scenes with her! That’s, like, still surreal.
The Knockturnal: What do you love about Chekhov?
Annette Bening: Chekhov always found what was ridiculous in people, but he loved people. He was a great humanist. He had this knife-edge of something being very funny, and very sad, like life can be. And that’s why the plays are so hard. Because it’s trying to find that, you know, that sweet spot. Just like life has that. When it’s at its most rich, it combines those things.
Annette Bening, Corey Stoll, Michael Mayer, Saoirse Ronan and Michael Zegen celebrated the 2018 Tribeca Film premiere of The Seagull at the official after-party on Saturday, April 21st, hosted by Bulleit at Mailroom.
