Original-Cin Q&A: Atom Egoyan and David Thewlis talk up film about an overzealous health inspector with a secret
Atom Egoyan's latest film, Guest of Honour follows a father (David Thewlis) and daughter (Laysla De Oliveira) as they attempt to work through their complicated relationship, secret histories, and personal demons. It's Egoyan’s latest exploration of unresolved personal trauma and its unintended consequences.
Thewlis plays Jim, a health inspector whose daughter, Veronica, has recently been convicted of a crime. Although Jim is convinced that she isn't guilty, his efforts to reduce her sentence are hampered by her refusal to cooperate with him. Frustrated and sad, Jim lashes out through his work, pursuing neglectful restaurateurs with what we first assume to be a dedication to his job, But we soon realize there is more than meets the eye.
Our Bonnie Laufer spoke with Egoyan and star Thewlis about working on this film at last September’s Toronto International Film Festival where the movie premiered.
David Thewlis plays a health inspector who’s a little too zealous about his work. Let’s not talk about the rabbit.
Guest of Honour is available Friday, July 10, to rent or own across all digital and on-demand platforms.
Click HERE for Bonnie’s interview with Laysla De Oliveira.
ORIGINAL-CIN: Atom, there are so many layers to this film was it a challenge to keep everything straight?
ATOM EGOYAN: “You create a blueprint and then you try and keep it all straight while you're making it and editing, and the stuff that doesn’t seem straight you have to take out. The challenge is keeping that narrative in your mind and sticking with it.
The actors need to understand they can't keep all those balls juggling as they're acting so it has to be clear to you. Then the next step is how do you get into their heads? How do you actually experience their reality as they're feeling it.
“So you're just trying to create that sense and keep the flow going. I get really excited about working in that zone, especially when you have such amazing performances that guide you through. “
OC: This has to be one of your more complicated scripts I would think.
EGOYAN: “You’re probably right, but it was fun to peel back all the layers of these characters. You keep things straight in your mind by actually knowing what the core story is, and then what the other things are that have affected them.
“In this case, the core story is actually a relatively quiet thing. There's a lot of much more dramatic things happening around it but that quiet thing has kind of grown into something which is haunting the father and the daughter in this way.”
OC: David, what was your initial reaction to the script knowing you were going to play such a complex guy?
DAVID THEWLIS: “I didn't necessarily see him as complex the first time I read it. I remember the word I used when I first read it was poetry.
“I told some people about the script the day that I read it and I described it as if I had read one long beautiful poem. I had pretty much decided that I was going to do it straight away on the first reading. Looking back at making it, and now having seen the completed film, my gut instinct was right. It’s like we brought this beautiful poem to life and I couldn’t be happier that Atom asked me to be in it.”
OC: The film really explores the relationship between the father and the daughter. I have older children and it really made me think, do we really know what our older kids are doing?
EGOYAN: “I think that's a really interesting point, that's one of the things that inspired the film. It makes us think. Are you responsible for what you think they might be doing and why do you think they might be doing that?
“What is it that you might have actually shown them, because I think our kids are watching us all the time, right? So how do they interpret what we do? You tend to forget that there is their own personality involved. You think that you're responsible for everything they feel but they do have their ways as human beings of actually absorbing things.”
OC: Oh, for sure!
EGOYAN: “In this particular story, I think David's character is haunted by something he might have done. But he thought he'd protected it so carefully and he can't really accept the fact that it wasn't protected and he sticks to that narrative. That has a really strong impact on his daughter, but it is interesting and that is what inspired the film.”
OC: David, you have worked with so many great directors in your career but what stood out about working with Atom?
THEWLIS: “His communication directing actors is almost like a theatre director. His main concern seems to me to be absolutely about the characters and the evolution of the characters and the emotion of the characters.
“He stood by the camera when we're doing a take which is almost unknown these days. He is right in the trenches with you the entire time. Everyone's always in a little tent looking at something the size of an iPhone and judging your performance, which is so often a ridiculous thing to do. How can anyone really judge what an actor is doing be watching it on a small screen and then ask for more?
“Not Atom, he is right in there with you and so you feel a great concern and great care and therefore you trust his direction because you think well, he just saw exactly what's going to be seen one day on a big screen. I trusted him very much and will always trust him because he really knows what he’s doing. It's just not always the way and there was wonderful rapport there.”
OC: Lastly Atom, I just need to know what you have against bunny rabbits?
EGOYAN: (Laughs) “Nothing! I really love bunnies! I have ribbons from the Victoria SPCA pet show. I can remember the names of all my rabbits. So I actually adore them and I'm slightly troubled that you would think I'd have a bad response to rabbits.”
THEWLIS: “It was my idea to kill it. I'll do the movie if the rabbit dies and we chop off its feet.”
EGOYAN: “It was the one concession that I made. It was all for the art of the movie. NO REAL bunnies were harmed in the making of this movie.”