Rosemarie DeWitt is best known for her role as Don Draper’s beatnik-artist-in-residence Midge on AMC’s hit show Mad Men, but her turn as Rachel in Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married is already getting rave reviews. She’s been acting since 2001 and has done a lot of television work, but after this performance she may be ready to turn the corner and move into film.
Read the full interview after the break to find out how she got the role, and what it was like working with Anne Hathaway and Jonathan Demme.
I wanted to ask you, did you guys start working on this film before Mad Men became such a big hit? And has that show really done anything for you in your career yet?
It’s so interesting, because people watch TV so differently now. We shot Mad Men and then it aired last summer, I think. And then we shot this movie. But I don’t know, it’s become almost more of a hit this year. Like it got a lot of nice reviews last year, and then it was on On Demand, and came out on DVD. And my friends are like, “Oh, I just watched Mad Men.” So the answer is no, I did it after. I don’t think Jonathan had seen it.
Oh, yeah, you know what? They were so kind on Mad Men they let me fly back for a meeting with Jonathan. Moved the schedule around a little bit. So that was all happening at the same time I think.
So how did this movie come along for you?
I had an audition in New York with the casting director, Bernie Telsey, who does a ton of theater, and has seen me maybe in plays or auditioned me for some roles in plays. That was one those lucky moments where he though, “Oh, this might be a good fit.” So maybe they didn’t see a hundred actresses for this part. Maybe they started a little bit on a smaller list.
And then I didn’t hear anything for a month or so, and the I got a call, “Could you come in and meet with Jonathan?” And is was just like a five minute meeting. He just wanted to say hi. Which of course I flew myself across the country for, because it was Jonathan Demme.
And then I came back a third time and Jonathan held the camera and he sort of videotaped Anne and I doing some of the scenes. Then I just prayed that I would get it. He called later that day and said, “Why don’t you be Rachel?”
With how improvised the shooting style is, is the dialogue as improvised as the shooting? How much was scripted and how much was improv?
I think Jonathan said the other night that he likes to say it was 90% the script and 10% something extra. I think that’s kind of accurate in that that’s the script. That is the script. And in some of those scenes, some of the really intense family scenes, some of us are saying word for word. Maybe there’s a line added in or something like that.
In a scene like the dishwasher scene, that was short of sort things that just described what that scene was. And all those actors weren’t in it. And when we got to that scene, Jonathan just said, “Why don’t we bring everybody. I think everybody should be in the room for this one, so that we can really have fun.”
And then we did it. It’s not like those actors were going to stand around and say, “I don’t have a line here.” Everybody threw them in, and of course you know everybody’s throwing in as much as they can. He probably, in those kind of scenes like the rehearsal dinner, another example of very short on the page. The takes were about 45 minutes long, of everybody making a toast.
Everybody who was moved to speak got up. A different sequence each time we did it. He probably had a hundred million hours of footage he then had turn into this movie because we probably had 10 movies in there.
It’s very interesting how the balance shifts between your character and that of the character of Anne Hathaway in terms of who the audience is pulling for. Were you aware of that?
No. I kind of felt that no one was ever rooting for me. But just as my character, my god, I’m on my own here, what’s going on? [laughter] Someone throw me a lifeline. But, no, I wasn’t aware of that. I was more aware of, I read the script and I love it, but at the same time I was afraid that Rachel’s always complaining about here. I felt that she’s so whiny and yelling and stuff.
And this was kind of the openness and collaborative nature and how wonderful Jonathan was to work with. I get to a point where the scene is written, the scene after the salon. I get into the car and she chases me out with foil on her hair. And I said, oh, it’s written with all capital letters and exclamation points.
We already shot the scene in the sari shop, and I really laid into her. I don’t want to be yelling at her this whole movie. He’s like, “So don’t yell. Just be quiet and see what happens.” And then the movie that you thought you were going to go in and make becomes something else, because he really allows room for that. I don’t if that answers your question. I wasn’t that aware of it.
I read that this was not really rehearsed. What does this guerilla shooting style do to you in terms of your nerves, your anxiety, your adrenaline? How does it affect you?
I think it calms everything down. Because everything’s allowed. You don’t ever have some moment where you’re like, oh, I did it wrong. I missed that. Or it was supposed to be a certain way. Again, I keep giving examples, but the scene after the rehearsal dinner where we sort of get into a fight, we don’t rehearse.
It was on the page, about 10 pages, I think; seven or ten or twelve, I don’t remember. But it was a long scene. And I’m thinking in my head, how do you not rehearse that? Where are we going to go? And Jonathan’s like, “I don’t know, let’s just see where you go.”
So I walk in, I go, I get a glass of water, we start fighting. And then I walk out of the room. Or maybe he said, “At some point get out of here, go into a different room.” And then I go into the dining room, but there’s no lights on.
So now we’re playing the scene and it’s sort of not lit. And then I walk into the living room. Because I got the idea that he wanted me to move. And then I went into the living room and I’m like, man, I ought to turn a light on in this scene. [laughter]
And then, OK, I’ll sit down. And in a weird way. Jonathan and I talked about this, is it weird that there’s this fight going on and everyone just sits down in the living room and starts talking about it for a little bit and then you get up again? I’m like, “I don’t know. That’s what happens.” He’s like, “Great.”
So I guess it’s not, and we just did it. I think that kind of stuff calms you down, because there’s no time to thing, there’s no way to break it down. Because the camera on one take might be filming because sometimes there this many people on the scene. And maybe it’s filming you guys and there’s some exciting stuff over there.
And Declan, who really was a character in the movie, because I think he would feel like the hairs on his neck would stand up. He would feel something going on and just go. And then all of the sudden you were in the take before you were kind of like, well, no one’s going to be on me, and then all of the sudden…
So it made every actor, and sometimes there are this many or more, like theater. Always as if there were an audience, except we don’t see them.
Did Jonathan tell you to watch any movies to prepare?
We watched After the Wedding. Not because I think he wanted to make that film, it was just a film that inspired him. Yeah. I think I was inspired by him in that. We watched that movie and I didn’t see what the correlation was, because the script was very well built. It was like a well built script.
In terms of like, I don’t know if Hollywood standards is the right, but you could see it landing on someone’s desk and them saying, “This has all the points and this happens, ” even though it’s odd and unique.
And then Jonathan showed us that movie and I’m like, “You’re going to make this movie? This inspired you?” And then he never let me behind the monitor to see it. I’m like, “What are we doing? What’s that?” And he’s like, “No, no, no. Don’t worry about it.”
But then I was inspired by him because I thought that was a great leaping off point because he didn’t make that movie. Granted there was a certain style, a certain freedom and breaking certain rules. In that film, sometimes there would be a close up on somebody’s fingers, or lips, just a certain perspective. I was impressed with him in that. He didn’t copy that. He just said, “This is interesting.”
Did he say why he wanted you to watch that film?
He didn’t tell you why of pretty much anything. He just got us together for sushi. You need that night with the cast, because you’re not going to rehearse, where you sit down and share a meal and just say, “Oh, I saw you in that play and you were so good,” or “It’s so nice to meet you.” Just get over the nerves a bit.
He doesn’t say much, actually. Maybe he does to you guys when he talks about the film. But in the directing of the film he says very little, very specific.
Was the wedding scene itself choreographed?
No, it wasn’t choreographed. Somebody asked me something about some particular of the wedding, like did you know that was going on? Oh, I think I was talking about how I thought it was cool that Kym and Kiernan don’t get together. He dances with another girl at the wedding.
Well, I didn’t know that was going on, because like the bride, I was involved in what I was involved in. And there was so much going on that it’s almost as if it’s like you’re the bride and you’re able to watch your wedding video. You’re like, “Oh, they were there, and they had such a good time!” [laughter]
Because I didn’t even see half of that stuff going on. I knew the Brazilian dancers were coming in; that was in the script. At one point Jonathan said, for the ceremony, “I think I might have you come in on a pony.” I’m like, “Really? What movie are we making?”
And then all of the sudden that was just gone. But I think he had been to a wedding where the bride and groom fed everybody. So when we got to work one day there were aprons made that said, “Sidney and Rachel” and we fed everybody. So it was spontaneous.
Was it like a party being there?
Yeah, it was like a party. I had some idea in my mind that that’s where the release was going to happen. Like all the family drama, all the hard stuff. Because it was written with such abandon. The dancers come in, and the hair is Rachel’s throwing her hair around.
And it didn’t happen. it was like cold and it was raining out. And I was just not… I’ve said this before, talking in the TV stuff. It was the last scene when said goodbye to Anne in the driveway, that I’d been like this the whole movie and all of the sudden my shoulders came out it’s like, oh, there’s the release.
But you know, you plan this stuff at home and you write it down in your notebook or you work it out in your head, and then you get to work and you’re so surprised by what happens.
Was it difficult to keep that tension between you and Anne Hathaway? I don’t know if you were friends on the set or if you felt close to here or anything.
I felt close to her, because she’s immediately likeable. She’s very generous in spirit. But I didn’t know her before and we had dinner once, once we found out we were doing the movie. And then we didn’t maybe we both had the same instinct not to get too chummy, because there needed to be this awkward… They’re not good at it, at being together. But they love each other so much I think it kind of overrides any kind of …
So how did you relate to the character? It seems to be pretty far from where you are, right?
I don’t know. Yes and no. But you know what those things are. You don’t choose your family but you choose your friends. You have girlfriends who are like your sister. You take a little bit of that one competitive friendship that you have and hen that other really easy best friend that you’ve had from kindergarten.
And then you just kind of, I guess, try to mush it together. [laughs]
You said you have a notebook where you take notes before shooting and during production?
Yeah. I don’t know. Some people write down to do lists, its just more, I have to get it out to remember it and process it. I think I read somewhere that Hume Cronin said, you know he was married to Jessica Tandy, said, “I don’t know why we write, sometimes we do that, sometimes we keep a journal or a notebook. We probably never open it once we go to the set to shoot, but just having it, we feel like we can show up that day.”
Like you think you did some work, or you think that you can get there, because you never I can’t speak for other actors I never feel ready. I always feel like, “I don’t know what I’m doing, why did they cast me? I’m going to get fired. I’m not right for this part.”
I used to tell Jonathan all the time, “I’m not Rachel; I’m not like this in life.” And he would just laugh at me.
Have you ever been to a wedding where someone got up and, lets say, gave not such an entertaining speech? In real life, I mean?
I don’t think so. Well, I did go to a wedding where the father of the bride said to the groom, he just stood up and said, “Now she’s your problem”, and sat back down [laughter] I was like, Oh, that’s a keeper.
Do you like weddings?
Yeah, I like them. I just said to Sarah, I like seeing my friends happy, so if they’re marrying a good guy, that’s a good… I mean sometimes it’s a pain in the neck to get the dress. Especially when you are right out of college, if you go through that first wave of all your friends getting married and you have no money. It seems like every weekend someone’s getting married.
You said when you saw the film it was like being the bride and seeing your wedding video and then having missed half of it and seeing that’s what happened. What surprised you most about this event that you’ve when you finally saw it on film?
That there was as much joy in the movie and buoyancy as there was. Because being inside it I felt very crunched up with tension a lot of the time. Even though I was having fun, I recognized that sometimes we were doing something that really could work. Last night was the first time I saw it with an audience and I was like, “God, people are laughing.” It felt different in my body.
So you’re working with Toni Colette now?
I’m working on something with Toni Collette right now on Showtime, a TV show for Showtime, called The United States Of Tara and I play her sister. Only sisters, that’s all I play from now on. [laughter]
She’s amazing, and she plays another fraught relationship, another fraught family. You realize its all over the place, everyone has a dysfunctional sort of family. She plays a woman with DID, multiple personality disorder, and it’s about integrating those people inside of her. Its funny, the woman who wrote Juno, Diablo Cody wrote it. It was Steven Spielberg’s idea and Diablo Cody wrote it. And I must say, I go back to work tomorrow.
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