The Manor Barbara Hershey Interview

Automatically transcribed; may contain errors.

hi I'm Allison with FlickDirect and I am speaking with Barbara Hershey about her latest movie uh Blum House Productions with Amazon Prime The Manor and you played Judith uh so tell me what attracted you to want to play Judith um I loved her life spirit I loved her energy and her feistiness and the fact that she swore a Blue Streak and the fact that she was funny and and full of uh uh life um and that she was angry I she just seemed a total human being which is rare uh especially as you get older uh you know they they usually kind of write some kind of cliche feebleness and she's vital and and I love that about her yeah she not your typical cranky old grandma she's got she's got you're right she's feisty I like that about her um she has a really great connection with her grandson played by Nicholas Alexander so tell me about working with him oh it was great he's he's a delight we you know that character that relationship was really essential to me um he's the anchor her anchor inid the storm of what's going on and and he's the reason she's alive really and uh you know I love the relationship and that it seems to be not about an old person or a young person or any aged person but about two human beings who are crazy about each other and have fun together and uh so it was really important to me that we kind of create a connection fast shooting not much no rehearsal we didn't have any time for that kind of thing but just on the set we connected it was like one of those great chemical things you dream about and we we just trust each other immediately and relaxed around each other and had fun and it was wonderful yeah it does seem like a genuine connection which is yeah part of what makes the movie so great and the and the plot Move Along certainly absolutely yeah um why was it important do you think for Judith to have been a dancer in her earlier in her life well because she's an artist and when you look when you're an artist you look at the world through artist's eyes um and no matter what someone becomes or you know is reduced to by Society it doesn't mean that the essence of who you are what you care about uh the symbol of who you are artistically disappears it doesn't it's still there whether or not you can dance or act or whatever it is um was really important to her to keep her that part of her alive that's the hardest thing for her to think of giving up in any way I kind of felt like it had a a youthfulness that keeps her going and you know along with that feistiness so which is so vital to this plot yeah yeah yeah what are your thoughts about eternal life do would you want that the pros the cons would you not want to have eternal life well if you could no I mean it's hard to say what there are a lot of questions I'd have to ask before I could answer that like what is life like in eternity I mean there's a lot of life just for the sake of living that you wouldn't want um you know so it's an impossible thing to ask I know I may answer anyway yeah I can't answer it yeah Bruce kind of had that same kind of reaction to it right I mean you see the way the world's going it's hard to say yum very true that is very true so Axel wrote and directed this fil so what was that like working with her what um what kind of direction did she give you in terms of Judith and her progression throughout the movie well I I always ask a lot of questions um I love the dialogue with directors I like finding out what they want the film to be about and what they want to leave the audience with and how my character kind of can can can fulfill that for them so I it's a pretty essential relationship um being the writer and the director there's like a there's like a saying that writers have to give films to the director and the director has to give the film to the actor and you know that's a hard process for some writers because it's a it's a lesson in letting go and and sometimes a line is perfect but it doesn't really sound good on the actor's mouth you know so there's like a lot of adjustment and communal effort going on in this so she and I had a adjustment period where we had like which is like an emergency because we were shooting but like a couple of days of trying to circling each other and trying to figure out who each other are do I trust this person are we on the same page do we want to make the same film and something clicked I don't remember whether it was an event or what but suddenly we fell in love and then from then on it was just a pure delight she trusted me I trusted her and uh you know it was it was great um she's a real horror film lover and so that's you got that impression that it uh yeah and that's it contagious you know that's a that's that kind of filled the whole set and everybody was really uh excited by it and and she she's wonderful wonderful to look up she's also fun to look at I think with her purple lipstick and she's wearing this these you know these clothes with the skulls and stuff and and she kind of looks like Greta Garbo or someone I mean she's so she's so uh beautiful so it's fun on that level too she's fun to have on a set well that's good that's a good working environment yeah yeah what do you think hypothetically would have happened if Judith had made the other choice at the end of the film I you know I'm I'm having a hard time talking not only with you but with with anybody about the ending because hard to talk about it and not give it away and I really don't want to give that one away because I think it's a really provocative ending and uh and and I think you know it's a it's a question turned to the audience would you make the same Choice Judith makes you know yeah hopefully people will go away and figure it out and talk about it because she makes a choice there is an ending you know um but it's a it's a pretty provocative one yeah I was actually a little surprised that she made the choice she did um but it kind of Lees things open to possibilities I suppose in a sense um so you mean sequels that's the polite way of saying sequels yes would you want to do a sequel if you could I I I would love to work with Axel again and and I love the character so yeah sure but uh yeah you'd have to figure that one out there's a way I know I'm sure there they'll think of something so um are you a horror fan per se you know I like psychological horror I'm a fan of movies um not just you know I there are few Choice horror films but they T I tend to like atmospheric ones and ones where you can get that are more Subterranean not the blood and guts ones yeah for me yeah but the ones that are uh uh psychological or an interesting I think or can be really satisfying it's it's I think on a primal level we're built to be get frightened and uh it's like a safe Arena to get frightened in you're not going to get hurt you know so I think it serves a purpose that's kind of satisfying yeah I tend to agree with you I'm not all about the gore and the guts but I like to see how people's minds work certainly so right right well I want to thank you for your time today Judith is such a great character it's such a good movie maybe we'll get a sequel maybe we won't but we'll just have to wait and see so thank you talk to BU about it yeah I'll get right on that