This is one of a collection of articles appearing in the New Zealand screen production industry magazine Onfilm from February 2000 onwards. The articles all relate to The Lord of the Rings trilogy and/or its director Peter Jackson.

Road Worriers Onfilm October 2001 Prior to its premiere at the Auckland Film Festival, actors Melanie Lynsky and Dean O'Gorman talked about shooting Snakeskin, Gillian Ashurst's NZ road movie. Given that you mistook me for someone from Girlfriend magazine[!!!], I guess you're in the middle of the whole media junket thing. How many have you done so far? Melanie Lynskey: 80 - no, I don't know, heaps and heaps. Dean O'Gorman: This is my first one. What's the most inane question you've been asked? ML: Oh it's not really inane - the most common question is, "So tell me about your character?" Okay, so what prompted you to take this role? ML: The character. [Much laughter from all] I never get asked to do stuff like that and also I wanted to work at home so much and no one was asking me to come back. And finally someone did, so I was like, "Oh I'll have a look at it." And I loved it and it was so surprising. I read it from cover to cover; it was like reading a David Lynch movie or something - the kind of thing that I've always wanted to do. DO'G: I actually knew Vanessa [Sheldrick, producer] from doing Hercules, and I met up with her at Sundance - she said she had this film called Snakeskin and, "We're writing a part for you." Then I didn't hear anything about it so I just assumed she was drunk or something. [laughs] And then the audition came up and yeah, it was a good script, good fun, and I was unemployed [laughs]. No, my character was a bit of comic relief within the context of quite a perverse story, so that was nice. And the idea of going down to Methven for six weeks to do a road movie was cool. Was dealing with the cold the most trying part of the production? DO'G: I reckon. ML: Yeah, it made things really difficult, because there were moments when I couldn't concentrate. It was awful - you were crying almost. DO'G: Whimpering [laughs]. We had like four robes on and then you'd have to take them off and be sitting there in your t-shirt in a convertible. Did that mean shooting time was quite limited? DO'G: No they pretty much shot it as usual. ML: They didn't care. [laughs] DO'G: They didn't give a shit. [laughs] In a way it kind of relaxed you eh, because you weren't thinking about acting, you were just trying to stay warm. In terms of your process, how do you stay in moment when you're dealing with distractions like the cold and crew and so on? ML: I listen to music - I have a little CD player and I have, like, theme songs when I'm doing movies. But that's only when I need it. Like all the stuff we were doing in the abattoir - there were all these people around and it smelt horrible and it was fucking cold and terrible. That was when I needed to just sit in the corner; I went and sat in the chiller and got really chilled and went a bit nuts and listened to the Foo Fighters. You just block it out, because it's such an emotional thing listening to a song, especially when you have your own connotations - it can just take you there right away. I did a whole movie - an independent thing called Foreign Correspondent - when I did nothing but listen to Nick Cave because I had to be really depressed. DO'G: I dunno - I used to say I didn't have a process but I think my process is that I don't have one if you know what I mean. I actually try not to think about anything because I figure if you're thinking about it, you're not in the moment. I just forget everything so ideas can just come up, which feels kind of natural. Because a lot of time when you're talking to someone, you do have an agenda but you don't have your words plotted out, you don't know what you're going to say next. So I kind of just jump and see where I end up. And that's why you have to have faith in the director to tell you to do it again if you don't get it. So maybe that's my process - I think it's one of those organic things - such a wanky word, organic, but. ML: It's hard to stay in it sometimes - like, when you have to do something difficult and somehow you get to that emotional place, and then you walk up to the set all triumphantly and [sighs dramatically] you're all fragile and they say, "We won't be ready for another 15 minutes - go and sit over there and have a coffee". Was the film shot sequentially? DO'G: We did really didn't we? ML: Not absolutely, not every scene one after the other, but we did follow the general course of the story. DO'G: Which makes a difference actually - you do realise how much difference it makes shooting in a linear way. Do you do prep with your script - breaking down your scenes, your character's intentions etc? DO'G: It's not that I don't do any work - you know, learning lines and stuff. But I think by the time you begin filming you sort of know where your character's coming from and you use that as a base to kind of play around with it. Scene by scene though I don't really do that. ML: I do sometimes - like, when we're filming a scene I'll read the first few scenes before it and the next couple of scenes, 'cos it helps put it into some kind of context. I love watching rushes, so be aware of what you're doing, because you're never completely sure, especially when you do go into the moment and it just happens, you can't just step back and go, "Oh, I did it like this." DO'G: That's true - if you're actually in the moment everything peripheral kind of disappears. It almost like a good take is one where you can't really remember. ML: Yeah, you sort of snap out of it afterwards... So I feel like it does help to have a look at rushes - it just helps you be aware of what you're doing and how it's progressing. You didn't have rushes available on Snakeskin? ML: No, Gillian [Ashurst, writer/director] was very strict about it. Have you seen the film now? ML: I have. DO'G: No. I ran into Oliver Driver [who plays skinhead Speed in the film] the other day and he was saying it was a bit freaky to be seeing it for the first time at the premiere. DO'G: It is a bit freaky - I'm a bit nervous about it actually. ML: I must admit I was nervous before I saw it. The first thing I ever did - Heavenly Creatures - Peter [Jackson] would have the rushes every day after work. Everyone would have a few drinks, they'd put the rushes up on the big screen and everyone would sit there and watch them together, like they were watching a movie. Then afterwards everyone - no matter who you were - could go up to him and say, "I like take four for this reason". And he'd just talked to everyone about it and take notes - that's what he informed it on, it was very collaborative. So that's sort of what I was used to, so it was a weird experience - it was the first time I've worked with someone who wouldn't let me see rushes. I was like, "Why not - do I look fat? What's happening?" [laughter] DO'G: I guess in some respect directors don't want to show you your work because they would feel it reflects poorly on them if you only see the rush. Because they think, "Oh well, that's not what the final product will be." Perhaps it's a matter of trying to avoid actors over-thinking things as well? ML: Yeah, it's a cross between those two things, I think. There's a part of them that's, "No I don't want you to be disappointed by it, it's not what it's going to look like." Obviously directors have differing directing styles - what was Gillian Ashurst like? DO'G: [whispering] Very calm. ML: Very calm. DO'G: I really respected her for it. ML: Yeah. DO'G: She was quite direct eh? ML: Incredibly direct. Like, you were never sort of like, "Umm hold on, what do you mean?" Because sometimes you have no idea of how to translate what directors are saying. DO'G: Yeah, I dunno about you, but do you find if a director says, "More happy", it's better in some ways than, "You're a tree that's floating and you don't know if it's going to rain" - and you're walking around going, "What the fuck were they talking about?" ML: Yeah I know, when they crouch down and it's like, "Here's the thing - you're a" And you're just like, "That's too" [laughter] ML: I liked how she was - she knew exactly what she wanted as well but she never made you feel like you had to perform for her. DO'G: And we didn't do many takes either? You trusted the fact that if she took this one then she had what she needed. She had a background in editing too, didn't she? ML: She had a background in everything I think. DO'G: I found you could trust her easily, which always takes a bit of the neurosis out of it. That must be a real issue, given directors have enormous control over your performance with shot selection and so on? DO'G: You're a very small part, I think - even if you're a lead you're a little brick in this big pyramid and the control aspect is limited within the context of what you're doing. ML: Definitely. Snakeskin opens on six screens on October 11. © Copyright Onfilm magazine, October 2001, www.onfilm.co.nz