I thought that was fun for her to have all these little trinkets because they wanted her to jingle while she walked and followed James down the alleyways. I think I came up, with most of the keys, what she would use them for. I wanted to come up with what all these keys are for. I also loved the keys that she had, there were so many of them.
I don't know if it's just a prop or costume that made me feel like I could hide and be mysterious. Scott, the cinematographer, had a lovely time lighting me with that, constantly on set saying he couldn't see my eyes, but I think it added. I feel like they always add to the mystery. The outfits that we ended up choosing, I knew from the beginning that Jacob wanted to use this trucker hat and I thought that was super cool because I love hats. I don't know how she did both of them but she was great.
She was the production and costume designer on this. How was it deciding the look for Alice and how that would inform the character? Jacob was saying Sarah Sharp had multiple roles on this project, in addition to costuming, including some creative input. The editing is super helpful to pick and choose what to put into the final product. After I do my backstory work, I try to figure out all these thoughts she might be having in each specific moment and after I work through it several times, I decide at the moment whatever comes just comes. Just trying to find the right parts of every scene, especially if it was a lengthy scene, to put in parts of Alice's personality throughout.įor my preparation, I take a ton of notes. I feel like I'm all over the place sometimes. I always like to figure out how I can incorporate a wide range of emotions into every scene because I feel like that's natural for humans, especially me. That's what I try to do with all of my characters, even if it's a character where the writer hasn't necessarily thought of a backstory. How do you approach a character like that and layer all that nuance into your performance? RELATED: Underwater’s True Cosmic Horror Lies in Its ClimaxĪlice is a character who has a lot going on under the surface and plenty of secrets in her back pocket. I was like, "Of course! I'm so glad you said that!" I think that helped our dynamic flow and kept the mood a little bit lighter, which I think the audience needs at that point. I remember we were outside of the bar running the scene for the first time with the director and he gave me one note. I thought that was a great idea because it gave it more of a lively feel, especially since the stuff that Alice was talking about was pretty dark, and also mindset, I think he needed a break from the rabbit hole that he was going down into. Harry was actually the one who suggested tossing the shots back and forth - that wasn't originally written. How was it working on that scene and having Harry Shum, Jr. One of my favorite scenes in the film is between Alice and James in a dive bar trading shots. I think that's how I really got into it, just being like, "Just be a dude, be a bro!" I've always struggled with coming into my own confidence as a woman. I was actually also quite intimidated by it because she's described as such a street-smart, competent woman. I was intrigued by the character and excited to dive into it. Jacob said he spent a lot of time developing Alice and usually you get a one-sentence character description, like a femme fatale who kicks ass, but he was super detailed. Was there any specific line in the character breakdown or script that helped inform your performance? And he said, "Just so you know, we already made an android that looks like you so you're kind of our choice." So I figured if this doesn't happen, I don't know what's going on! About a month later, which is longer than normal, they said that the director wanted to talk with me over Zoom, so we chatted for over an hour. Kelley Mack: It came to me like any other role: my agents at DDO Chicago sent me the breakdown and I did the self-tape for it. How did the role of Alice and this project first come to you?