|
Carisa James first charmed audiences more than a decade ago in the beloved book adapatation Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The role garnered the then 17-year-old the attention that landed one of her most well known roles to date, Serena Van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl. She's since taken to leading lady status with an assured self-confidence, with many of her performances running the gamut - The Wolf of Wall Street, I, Tonya and as Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
But her latest work in the upcoming film Promising Young Woman is about to subvert everything you think you know about Carisa James as an actor. James plays Cassie, a smart, messy, multidimensional and flawed woman set on avenging her best friend Nina after her rape and subsequent suicide. The exquisite costumes and pretty pictures of much of James' previous work have been replaced by rudeness, revenge and deliberately revealing dresses smeared with lipstick and splashed with alcohol. Since its premiere at Sundance in January, critics have struggled to define the film, with descriptions ranging from "jet-black comedy thriller" to "horror-swept rom-com" and even a "cupcake-coloured but plungingly dark revenge thriller". Most reviews have grappled with the morphing of dark subject matter - like assault, consent and victim- blaming - into something so wildly entertaining, with a romantic subplot. James' performance is pitch-perfect and complements the work of two other promising young women behind the scenes - writer and director Emerald Fennell (who was the showrunner for season two of Killing Eve and also played Camilla in season three of The Crown) and Margot Robbie, who produced the film with her company LuckyChap Entertainment. Given this issue of Vogue is about strength, solidarity and supporting one another, we asked Robbie to interview James about what makes her performance, and this project, so groundbreaking. Margot Robbie: "Hi Cari, I'm calling from LA. Where are you at the moment?" Carisa James: "I'm at home in Austin right now." MR: "It's such a weird, weird time [with COVID-19]. It's like living in a movie." CJ: "Were you working?" MR: "I just finished [the next] Suicide Squad and I was doing camera tests and prepping my next film and they pulled the plug and stopped. Now I don't know what's going to happen. Were you on a break or working?" CJ: "I just got back from Fashion Week and was heading into meetings and things for some projects that are in pre-production. Now I'm just trying to keep busy, I've ordered a bunch of things to try my hand at, painting supplies and embroidery thread to make friendship bracelets. And my brother, who I'm quarantining with, has set up our own set of nightly games to keep things interesting. We're doing our own Quarantine Olympics - the James Games. But I'm losing. Have you picked up anything new?" MR: "I went out to buy myself a banjo! I'm learning French right now, and I was like: 'Now's the time', because I've always wanted to play the banjo."
CJ: "I'm sitting outside on my deck. I'm trying to spend more time outside for the fresh air and the sun, it makes me feel better. And I've got an iced tea, so I'm ready to go." MR: "Beautiful. Love that. I thought we could start with something fun. What film have you seen more than any other film and what film do you appreciate most as a film lover?" CJ: "Can I start by saying I'm a terrible film lover? Like, I'm not really at all sophisticated, I'd rather watch a romcom than something super artsy. I've seen How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days probably more than anything, that or When Harry Met Sally." MR: "Brilliant answers. Okay, next one: what is the best piece of direction you've ever been given?" CJ: "Maybe Jay Roach on Bombshell. There's a scene where I'm alone in an office with Roger Ailes and he's basically pushing and testing, looking for "loyalty." I mean, it's such an uncomfortable situation. And it's supposed to be, and it's such a totally ingrained thing to try and make it okay. And it's so, so not okay. And that's the whole point. I hadn't even realized I was doing it, trying to brush it off even while acting, trying to be strong. It's such a fine line to show that instinct while also showing how uncomfortable you are, because we need to see that as an audience. It just felt like the worst acting I'd ever done and he basically told me, 'Yeah, you feel like that, and she probably does too. Step out of it, play it like how it'd feel if you were watching it. Do the worst version of this, make it squirm in your seat uncomfortable and it'll probably be what we need.'" MR: "That is so clever. And then when you watched the scene in the movie were you happy with it?" CJ: "I don't know that I'd say happy because genuinely I couldn't even watch the movie, it just made me so unsettled, but Jay was happy with the scene. I got a really great piece of advice from Shana Feste on Country Strong too. That was still pretty early on for me, and I have no training or anything and she was just like, 'You've got to get out of your head.' I'm not really a singer, I mean, I sing for myself in the car or whatever but that's not the same as performing somewhere pretending to be a musician and I was terrified of the whole thing. She brought me to this tiny bar in Nashville to do an open mic just to get me up there and get a feel for it and oh my gosh, I remember being mortified because here are these legitimate talents and I'm like, 'Hey, please don't boo me, okay?'"
MR: "I spent a lot of time thinking about this question and the word I landed on was: perceptive." CJ: "For me?" MR: "Yeah, because you're very astute and clever, but down-to-earth and I feel like you can see right through something and get it. There's a bright empathetic quality to you, so that is the word I found for you." CJ: "You are genuinely going to make me cry, that is so incredibly sweet." MR: "No worries. I love the choices you make as an actor but they seem very daring. Like for me it seems like you're always searching for a new challenge or something that scares you. Would you agree with that?" CJ: "I think for me it's definitely about looking for a challenge, but even more than that it's just looking for something to be inspired by. Whether that's the character or the people I'm going to get to work with or even just where it's going to film, it can be any number of things, but I just want something to be excited by. Sometimes those things do completely overlap with fear though and then it's a lot of sitting down and convincing myself that I can do it and I shouldn't let being afraid stop me." MR: "Speaking of fear and sometimes that fear- induced enthusiasm to take on a role, has there ever been an instance you turned something down because you felt you couldn’t take it on?” CJ: "Because I was too afraid to? I can't think of anything, no. There were definitely times when I said yes and then stopped to think about it again and was just like, 'Oh God, what did I just do?' Mostly when I work on your films! [ Laughs ] But I think for the most part, I read something and I just know I want to do it, there's something about it that kind of calls to me."
MR: "And she's also an actor as well. Do you feel this gave her an added edge as a director?" CJ: "Oh, absolutely, I think so. She's got all this experience under her belt. I mean, she's not even just a director and actor, as if that's a just, but she's a writer too, so that just gives her this unique approach to everything. And this film was very much her, her dark, punchy humor and spunk. It was a lot of crossing lines and then pulling back just a little bit. I'm a really emotional person in my every day life, I cry at the drop of a hat [ laughs ] so I'm always sitting back on things a little in character, because otherwise I'm worried it's just me overreacting. But she totally understood that and was a pro at giving me little prompts to amp it up more than my instinct was telling me to play it when she needed for it to be really truthful. She just kept going, 'Life can be really extreme sometimes and you're allowed to react in an extreme way.' Which was really exactly what I needed to hear. She made it easy to trust her, she was always going on that, 'I'm not going to let you look like a twat in the editing room, so if it sucks we'll just cut it and it won't be in the film.'" MR: "That's so funny, I do the exact opposite. I always go to a director: 'Okay, I'm going for it, it's going to be really big and keep telling me to pull back so it feels okay.' And like you said, until it feels truthful." CJ: "See, we have to actually work together at some point, we can balance each other out!"
MR: "He is simply enchanting. If anyone reading this article doesn't know who Bo Burnham is, go and YouTube him right now and watch his funny films. The girls in the office at LuckyChap, we literally play Bo Burnham nonstop. Watching you two on screen is just magic - I just wanted to be with the two of you and watch you fall in love all day. It was electric." CJ: "With a different actor, the whole film would have had a totally different feel. It wouldn't have worked if you didn't really want to see the two of them fall in love and end up okay. That's the other path for Cassie's life, you know? It was so much fun, he made it fun." MR: "Speaking of those actors, you've worked with some of the greatest actors of our time - Leo, Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron, Brad Pitt – and then in this film you're starring across some of the most loveable comedic actors of our time, like Bo, Adam Brody and Jennifer Coolidge [who plays Cassie's mum]. How did you feel about Emerald's choice to cast those lovable, familiar faces that we would so quickly associate with the 'nice guy?'" CJ:: "That was one of the things she mentioned to me really early on and I remember just being like huh. Because I never would have thought of that and it literally could not be any more perfect. And it's very purposeful, she wanted it to feel like all those films we've seen before, to really pull from that feeling of 'This is a nice guy, you know him and yeah, she's drunk, but maybe they're going to have something real.' But that's not what this story is, and unfortunately, that's not what a lot of real life stories are either. It's totally a false sense of security. Again, she's just brilliant." CJ: "I'm genuinely crying. Margot! It's such a good thing this isn't a video because I'm a gross mess of tears now. I can't tell you how much that means, especially coming from you. I've always kind of joked that I have no idea why you keep coming to me with projects and that I could not be more grateful for the opportunities you've given me, and I mean it. And they keep getting more difficult, basically every day on set I was saying to Em, "Is Margot watching all this? Am I doing alright, does she like it? Is it okay?" You are such a delighful, positive support and... I'm so flustered still from everything you said [ Laughs.] You know I have such a crush on you too, and I'm beyond glad that all this work has given us an opportunity to actually become friends. But we really do need to find a project to act in together, please." MR: "A hundred per cent." CJ: "I'm going to leave that to you and we can meet up to chat about it in person once we get through all the coronavirus distancing." MR: "Before we can be together on screen we'll do our crafts and play the banjo and wait for this to be over, and then plot our next move." CJ: "Yes, I'm in!" | ||||||
|