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Some spoilers below forThe Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
to deconstruct the male artists tendency to fetishize his female subjects.
This fall has been a red-letter season for Kazan on fronts both professional and personal.
How did you come to join this project?
That call doesnt come very often, so I was like, just, just, get me in.
She was for me.
Then you just hope like hell that it goes your way because its such a heartbreak when it doesnt.
She gets a new sense of herself.
This isnt your first Western.
Did you bring anything you learned during your time onMeeks Cutoffto this production?Mostly, just the research.
Going intoMeeks, I had a lot more time to prepare.
I had the summer before we started shooting off.
I read a ton about the Oregon Trail, women going west.
I read their journals, read about the Donner Party.
So it really came in handy to have that primer of historical context already in place.
I love a bonnet.
Maybe I seem old-fashioned or something.
I hadnt given it much thought.
What would you say you picked up?Oh, so much.
That was on par with the opportunity of getting to play this part.
I hadnt really realized how many of their collaborators theyve returned to throughout their career.
Theyre extremely loyal, and one of the things that creates on set is an assumption of trust.
You know that every single person doing their job has total authorization.
Talking to Mary Zophres, the costume designer, was like talking to them in extension.
And aside from that, just watching them bring their sense of humor to bear, that was rewarding.
He slams his fist on the table, and when Bong calls cut, he bursts into laughter.
Theyd laugh at a really intense take because it brought them pleasure.
Whenever you hear them laughing on set, you know youre in the right area.
First of all, the material was so beautiful.
Its a demanding play.
I felt like we had been through something emotional and difficult together.
I recognized him by his back.
I saw him from behind coming into the audition space, and I knew it was him immediately.
Maybe this says something about me, but I watchedA Place in the Sunand wanted to be Shelley Winters.
I feel drawn to vulnerable characters.
Playing an ingenue is less interesting for me, in general.
As you get older, you start to play more mothers.
The only things that can happen to you, suddenly theyre in scripts about being a mother or wife.
She doesnt want to be seen only in a domestic role.
Paul didnt take a film by credit, partially because I told him I thought it was douchey.
]No, not really!
I mean only that its complicated.
You feel the enormous weight of every single persons contribution, and it wouldnt be the same without them.
I think that Paul probably deserves more credit than he thinks he does, though.
Hes always reminding me to let myself take credit, and Im always passing it on to him.
It was his baby from the start; he found the book and fell in love with it.
I felt like I was helping him give birth to this thing.
We lived with it for five years, pushed it up a big hill.
Paul did most of the pushing, but I was beside him.
Hell earn the credit, too, I can promise you that.
You started acting together in the theater a while ago, yeah?Yeah, that wasnt hard.
Its gotten tougher over time.
I was coming home after a really long, exhausting day.
I knew there was no food in the house and I had a 5 a.m. call the next day.
I called Paul like, I really need you to have food ready for me.
The next day, I came home, and he had bought groceries for me to make dinner.
I think I said, I feel like I havent been totally clear.
I want toeatthe food, and then go to sleep.
Theres nobody to buy toilet paper.
He knows my bad habits.
I read that you and Paul recently started a family, and chose to mostly keep it to yourselves.
Have you read Willa Cathers work?
You should readO Pioneers!, I reread it before going to Nebraska.
What really struck me was how she had buried in that book her relationship to her own queerness.
It comes out in the wildest, most unexpected ways.
Thats a perfect example of how the unconscious bears fruit, to provide self-expression without resorting to autobiography.
Thats the part you’ve got the option to share with the public.
