What are some of the new things you felt you were able to bring to the story?
I think I was able to bring a bit more depth to the world of the retirement home. I remember my experiences looking around for my grandmother's retirement home, and my research into Alzheimer's. I toured lots of facilities while looking for a retirement home, and you always find both incredibly empathetic people working there as well as people who are overworked. Not everybody can have this kind of compassion for everybody. And I also wanted to create more of a cross-section as far as the residents were concerned. A lot of the people in the retirement home in the film are based on people in my grandmother's retirement home.
Did you feel any trepidation at making your first feature film about old age, being fairly young?
I did. I mean, it was especially intimidating to work with people who are so experienced, like Julie, and Gordon [Pinsent]. But luckily, they were incredibly welcoming to me. They wanted me to be a part of their process and were extremely supportive. I think it helped that I was also an actor, and I was able to be a part of that process without feeling too much like an intruder. And of course, I'd worked with Julie before, so that made it a bit easier.
Your film is very austere. There are lots of quiet scenes, for example, where another filmmaker might have put in lots of music.
I think music is a dangerous thing in films. Sometimes, it can feel like an afterthought, like it's just there because someone thought it should be there. In a film like this, you're always in grave danger of manipulating people's emotions too much. I didn't want the music to feel like it was there because I had made a decision for it to be there. I wanted everything to feel more organic. And frankly, music can sometimes wreck a great performance. It can push it a notch over the edge of good. I've seen many great films out there that were wrecked by music. I won't name names, but I see it in mainstream films all the time.
You've worked with a lot of great directors over the years — who would you say are your influences?
Actually, my influences, or my favorite filmmakers, aren't necessarily the ones I've worked with. I'm obsessed with Terrence Malick, and Ingmar Bergman, and Krzyzstof Kieslowski. Atom Egoyan was certainly the first person who introduced me to the idea that film could be meaningful. And he's given me incredible support as I've made my own films. So he's certainly a huge influence.
How do you think having directed a feature like this will affect your acting career?
I don't know. I have to see how it changes me. Obviously, acting requires a lot of energy, both just to do it and to keep your career going. I didn't act during the time I was making this film. I'd like to be able to juggle directing and acting in the future, but at this point, it's hard for me to tell.
