Two strangers meet, become friends and spend an idyllic week away in the country in Ross Partridge’s Lamb. The thing is, one of them is 11-year-old Tommie (Oona Laurence), and the other is David Lamb (Partridge) a middle aged man who bears no familial relationship to the girl.Partridge’s faithful adaptation of Bonnie Nadzam’s novel will undoubtedly spark heated conversation, as it’s a film that refuses to digest anything for its audience. It’s rare for American films to be presented with such artistic objectivity and without any moral agenda, but Lamb does just that. It also features very fine performances by Partridge and Laurence, who share almost every scene.
Laurence in particular, is coming off a banner 2015 which saw her star opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in Southpaw, and Sarah Silverman in I Smile Back. After originating the role of Matilda in the Broadway production of the beloved musical (and winning a special Tony Award for her effortlessly magical performance) , she’s set to star in the live action version of Pete’s Dragon set to be released in late 2016. Her exquisite performance in Lamb is proof that she’s in store for greatness. I had the chance to sit down with Ms. Laurence and Mr. Partridge at Planet Hollywood in New York City, where we discussed the film.
The very first thing I did after watching the movie was buy the book.
Ross: That’s amazing, that somebody does that research.
It was such a great read and your adaptation is so faithful to what the author wrote. How did you first realize you wanted to turn this book into a film?
Ross: When I read it I had an immediate reaction to how I felt, and I was feeling a lot, but I couldn’t identity quite what it was. It was a sense of empathy and also tragedy. It impacted me and I needed to figure out why. If anything, I realized I’d never seen a relationship like this on film, it was unique and drew me to think it would make for an interesting film.
Oona, you were great in Matilda, and while watching the film I couldn’t help but see parallels between the relationship Tommie has with Lamb, and Matilda’s relationship with Miss Honey, as to how in both cases a lonely child finds affection with a complete stranger. Were you thinking about these parallels at all?
Oona: Yeah! I never actually thought about that, but yeah, I can totally see the similarity. Miss Honey is like Ross’ character. Matilda is definitely lonely, so it’s interesting that she forms that bond with Miss Honey and that Tommie does the same with David, Gary, Lamb (Ross laughs).
In Southpaw too, we see your character put on the grownup hat and send her dad away while he becomes a good father who will be able to look after her. I know actors don’t choose parts because they’re similar to others they’ve played, but what attracts you to these types of characters?
Oona: I don’t even know, I guess it works pretty well for me? I’ve never even thought about these similarities, but now that I’m thinking about it, it’s really cool because I didn’t do it purposely, it was subconsciously.
So how do you end up working together, Ross, how do you choose her?
Ross: How do you not choose her?
(Oona laughs)
Ross: We had a traditional casting process, one of our casting directors had worked with Oona before, she was obviously so special and when we met I think we kinda knew immediately.
I admired how you were able to turn the book, which is very poetic, into a film. How was the process of sitting down to write the screenplay?
Ross: It wasn’t as complicated, because I felt everything was in the book. It was so poetic, the character that David Lamb used was so different to who he was, so it was about trying to create poetry in the language, but also there’s only so much verbiage you can have without overstaying your welcome, so we needed to make the visual elements become another character in the movie to help alleviate the tension, and give some levity.
So after Oona, your closest relationship was with your DP?
Ross: Absolutely, and my producers who were watching my performance. We made this movie with 12 people, so we were all extremely close, and we were all part of the process. We were all there for the same reason and at the end of the shoot, a lot of people told me it was the best experience they’d had. I know it certainly was the best for me. Working with Oona was probably one of the, if not the, best experience I’ve had with another actor.
It’s very unusual to talk about a movie after you see it. Usually people go have dinner, or drinks and forget about it, but I ended up talking about Lamb for hours after I watched it with a friend…
Ross: It’s like a Rorschach test for people, to see where their empathy lies. We’ve had that over and over at Q&As, we hear about people who empathize and others who vehemently oppose the relationship. Three days later I’ll get an email from someone who maybe see it a little bit different, they come to appreciate the conflict.
Growing up they tell us not to talk to strangers and the such, how did you approach Tommie’s decision making? Did you try to understand why she was making the choices she made?
Oona: For me, working on movies I feel like you learn a lot, especially kids who are growing up as they’re doing the movie. I’ve never been in the situation Tommie’s in, so I don’t know if I would necessarily do the same thing she does. The first time she goes up to Lamb it’s a dare, but the second time the desperation of just having someone to talk to, and that someone understands you is something that she’s never had, so when she sees him there, she realizes she needs a friend right now, someone to talk to. So she goes to him, they form this friendship and I totally understand her motivations for that. I know that if I was in her situation, I also would want to talk to someone who cares for me.
Onstage, you get to reinvent your character with every single performance, but in movies once you’re done, that’s it. How is that experience for you?
Oona: Whenever I see a movie I’ve done I usually criticize myself a lot, but I think everybody does that. It’s definitely a different experience…
Ross: She never does anything wrong though! Looking at her performance I can say that her performance is incredible, not just for an 11 year old, but for any actor.
Ross, did you talk to Bonnie about character details that were not in the book?
Ross: We had many discussions and are still in touch all the time. We’re actually developing another story together, she and I have become very close in this process, she gave me complete freedom with how I wanted to adapt it. When she wrote this book it was a rough sketch of something that had happened to her when she was older, she changed it to a younger child with less choices. Lamb was a hard character for her to write, so I had to see him with a little bit more empathy, now that she’s seen the movie, she’s in awe of it and loves it as a different being than from when she wrote the book. When you read a book you have the anonymity of yourself with the novel, as you read it there are things that are even deeper psychologically, but you have to know that cinematically when you put our characters together it comes with tension. Some scenes in the book were even more intense psychologically, but you can’t put them in a movie.
Did the two of you have any discussions about what happens to these characters after we leave them in the movie?
Oona: We did talk about that during the rehearsals. That was a big question for me.
Ross: I asked Oona, what she thought happened to Tommie.
Oona: I think this is an experience she has in her pocket, and it’s something she can look back on and think about all the amazing things she saw. Ross’ character says in the movie that if she looks back at him and hates him, she should come kick his face, but I think she does the opposite of that. She may have had some crazy experiences there, but the whole of it, finding somebody who cares for her and loves her is wonderful. I think she’ll miss him.
In a way the trip itself is a metaphor for art that makes us uncomfortable. We might resent it at first, but it’s what haunts us forever. Do you have any experiences of this sort with art?
Ross: You look at some of the best plays in American theatre, things like O’Neill for instance, and they deal with pain which unfortunately is one of the most common human experiences. People’s pain in their relationships, trying to get to better places, is something we have to go through in order to see the beauty. Art should keep people awake. I’m sorry by people who are very uncomfortable, but in order to get them talking you need to wake them up. Hopefully this leads to empathy.
Oona, I’m probably not allowed to ask anything about Pete’s Dragon, but I want you to know I’m so excited.
Ross: I’m excited as well!
Just tell me you will be singing a lot…
Oona: Yeah! (Laughs)
Ross, do you think a movie like Lamb could’ve been made outside the indie world, could it exist in a major studio?
Ross: No, this is indie, indie, indie fare. Even as far as indies go, this is a different beast. This isn’t mainstream, not everyone will respond to it.
What would you say has been the most surprising reaction people have had after watching the film?
Ross: What surprises me is how much fun we had making the movie. Every day was filled with laughter, the crew worked very hard, but the experience was something we all walked away from knowing it had meant something to each of us.
Oona, did you end up learning how to set up a campfire?
Oona: (Laughs) No.
Ross: We had fireworks though!
Oona: On the last day I was shooting, it was the day before the Fourth of July, so we shot this huge fireworks.
Ross: We all love Oona so much, that people in the crew knew she grew up in the city and had never shot a firework so every crew member kept coming with a bigger box and a bigger box. So we went to this dilapidated motel and shot these things off. We had our private two and a half hour firework show!
Lamb opens in theaters on January 8, 2016. It will be available on demand on January 12.
