What if the person you need to be scared of is the one looking right back at you? Look Away tells the story of repressed and lonely high school student Maria (India Eisley) who switches places with her ominous mirror image. Mirrors are already scary enough as it is and there’s something about them in movies that give us the creeps. The psychological thriller was written and directed by Assaf Bernstein and also stars Jason Isaacs (Star Trek: Discovery and Harry Potter) and Mira Sorvino (Mimic). If you see your mirror image talking to you and telling you it can “fix things” would you believe them?
Check out our exclusive interview with main stars and director:
The Knockturnal: How much fun was it to play the scarier version of your character Maria?
India Eisley: It was an absolute blast to play both characters and to play those different aspects. Very human aspects of a young girl.
The Knockturnal: What was it like filming the mirrored scenes? Was it a double mirror?
Assaf Bernstein: Yeah we had to think of many different ways how to do it. We had two bathrooms and we had a sliding sort of mirror, a partition, glass, green screen, or nothing. Some of the scenes were quite complicated. There’s one shot where you’re mimicking the action and we had to do that with a metronome.
India Eisley: Oh yeah and even before going to Winnipeg to film, Pedro, you and I went to this house in West Hollywood and we just practiced the timing and you had a timer on your phone.
Assaf Bernstein: It’s very difficult to go in and out of sync in the same shot. It’s like a dance really.
The Knockturnal: Jason tell me more about what Dan thinks of his daughter.
Jason Isaacs: Well I’m a father of a teenage daughter and there comes a point, there comes a day that all of a sudden they go from being completely known to utterly unknowable. So I’m not quite sure he knows what to think of her but he’s a very controlling man. He’s a doctor and many doctors have that kind of god complex. He’s a plastic surgeon who is slightly aesthetically obsessed. I was lucky enough to shadow a brilliant plastic surgeon who was very open with me and shared this sense that he had and many plastic surgeons have of power and control and how he looks at people. It was easy. First of all the script is pretty good I don’t want to take credit for telling the story but it’s relatively easy to work with someone and feel like you don’t know them because you don’t know them you just met them. So there was this person in front of me who was not connecting, not communicating and that was not only true for the story but it resonated with my own personal life.
The Knockturnal: India I don’t know if you had a regular high school experience but was there anything that you used to pull to get into Maria’s character?
India Eisley: I never had a normal high school experience. I was all over the place, but ultimately it is just her, I could relate to, and I think that everyone can relate to a sense of repression and also just a sense of external and internal loneliness whether it be from bullying or self-imposed.
Jason Isaacs: You don’t need to be a teenage girl to be self-conscious and to think that other people are judging you or not knowing how to fit in.
India Eisley: That’s all very human emotions.
The Knockturnal: True true. A lot of girls and boys who are in high school I feel they can relate to Maria and her character. Is there something that people who have gone through similar things should take away from the movie?
Assaf Bernstein: Yes that they are not alone. That’s really the message the of the film.
Jason Isaacs: But maybe don’t kill your friends or have sex with their partners.
India Eisley: If you start seeing your mirror image interacting with you I think you should talk to someone.
Jason Isaacs: Seek psychiatric help.
Assaf Bernstein: Not the mirror image.
India Eisley: Not to yourself.
The Knockturnal: With that being said, what were some of your favorite scenes to film?
India Eisley: Are we allowed spoilers or no?
Jason Isaacs: No!
India Eisley: Okay then that changes things then. You go first.
Jason Isaacs: I liked playing scenes with India when she was Airam. Just because it’s a father’s worst nightmare that their daughter is suddenly aggressively sexual and confrontational. You’re used to having a certain status and parental authority. It’s shakey anyway in the real world, but in our grotesque movie world it’s even shakier and I loved it because it was so unsettling.
India Eisley: Yeah I’d have to say that Airam was my favorite out of the two to play. I mean I loved interacting with and playing both. That was the ultimate challenge but it was fun to start off as Maria who’s so meek and so repressed and see you being so domineering and then all of a sudden it just turns and that was very fun.
The Knockturnal: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. It was so nice to meet you. I appreciate it. Congrats on the film again!
Look Away will hit Theaters and On Demand October 12. Check out the trailer here:
