Image Entertainment has released Pascal Laugier's
The Tall Man, a thriller about missing children in a remote mining town. The film stars Jessica Biel as a nurse who runs the town's charity hospital, and Jodelle Ferland as a local teenager who communicates only by writing and drawing in her notebook. Blu-ray.com staff reviewer Michael Reuben spoke with Jodelle Ferland about the film and her career:
It's been about two years since The Tall Man was shot. What do you remember most from the experience?
One of the main things that I remember from
The Tall Man was playing a mute
character, just because that was the first time I've ever done that, and it definitely was a
challenge. And also the location we were filming at, because we were filming in a pretty small
town, and I always love filming in a place that's completely different from where I live. There's
only one movie theater, there's one Starbuck's. It's a pretty neat environment for filming a
movie.
How many days were you there?
I can't remember exactly. I would go there, spend a little while, then go home for a week or
so, then go back, because it was only a short flight away from Vancouver, where I live. So it
wasn't so bad to go back and forth. If it was a ten-hour flight or something, I would just stay,
but if I can go home, why not?
So it was not a continuous shoot for you?
Not for me. For everybody else it probably was. Of course they don't film movies in order.
They do their best to make it convenient for the actors and the locations, but of course I'm
not going to be filming all my scenes at once. There were a few breaks.
As you noted, your character, Jenny, is mute. Is that what attracted you to the part?
Yes, I had never played a mute character before.
Did you do any special preparation?
I didn't do any special preparation other than the usual speaking with the director and just
having conversations and rehearsals about the character and her personality and the way that
she would express herself and, specifically for this role, the way she would express herself
without using words.
Because Jenny doesn't speak, she doesn't interact in a conventional way with the other
characters. What were the challenges of playing that?
Of course the main challenge is pretty obvious: You can't speak, and that's just the way I
usually express myself and most humans usually express themselves. Once you take that
away, you have to really think about the other things that you do to express yourself—and
it's hard, because I don't usually use much other than words. When you take that away, you
have to put a lot of thought into every single facial expression, every single gesture with your
hands, and it did help that I had the notebook that I used to communicate with other people,
mostly Julia. It really helped, because at least I got to say
some things to her, and I
didn't have to literally try to express everything through my eyes or body language. So that
helped, but it still was difficult.
You mentioned Julia, Jessica Biel's character. All of your scenes involving communication
are with her. Did you and Jessica Biel work one-on-one to figure out how to play those
scenes?
We did, yes. It wasn't one of those movies where you just go to set the first day and wing it.
We talked about it with Pascal mostly, because he's the director and he had a particular vision
of how he wanted things to be [for] each scene and the characters in the scene and the way
they would interact. So Jessie and I both talked, but we also talked with Pascal about it. We
had it all figured out by the time we got to set on the first day, but it still took a little bit of
work, and we did quite a few takes of everything to get it all just right.
There were moments in the interactions between Julia and Jenny where it struck me that
there was ambiguity, where one character may have meant something different than the
other understood. Were you trying for that, or was it created later in editing?
I think that the way the scenes turned out, I suppose some of it would be editing, but what
you saw was pretty much how we played it out, and we definitely talked about it before, how
the scenes would play out. I think everything is obviously open to interpretation. When
somebody watches the movie, they always have their own idea of what the characters are
thinking, but the way you see it in the movie is pretty much the way we did it, and I think
everything was planned out.
We're both being careful not to give anything away to readers, but there are moments in
the film that suggest Jenny knows much more than anyone realizes about what's
happening in Cold Rock. Did the director tell you, or did you make a choice as an actor,
about what Jenny knows at any given moment?
I tried to always run things by Pascal before I made a decision about what I thought the
character was thinking at the time; so if I ever had a question, I would ask him. But yes,
Jenny does know a lot more than people realize, and everyone doesn't pay attention to her,
just because she's the mute girl, and who would think that the mute girl would know
anything? I mean, she's obviously got problems, because she can't even speak, right? But
they're completely wrong, she's one of the smartest people in the whole movie. I think she
manages to pick up on a lot more by not speaking, because people just don't really pay
attention to her and that actually works in her favor. But yes, at any given point during the
movie when we were filming, if I wasn't sure exactly what my character knew, I would ask
Pascal and we would talk about it, and then I would try to show that in the scene without
giving anything away.
And he never left you in the dark about where your character was?
No, he had it all planned out in his head. So I could just ask him anything, and if he didn't
know, he would figure it out.
Let me ask about the voiceover narration. Was that part of the original script?
Yes. The voiceover was always there.
Did you record it before or after principal photography?
We did the voiceover after the filming, but I first did a rough version of it on set just in a quiet
area, and then after we were completely finished filming, I went into a studio in Vancouver
where I live and we recorded it, and Pascal was there as well.
Was it revised between the two recording sessions?
As far as I remember, it was almost exactly the same as the first time I read the script. There
might have been a few words changed, but he pretty much stuck to what he wrote in the first
place, because I think he put a lot of thought into it. So that remained his idea of what it
should be.
To whom is Jenny telling the story in that voiceover narration?
I think that's up to the person watching the movie to decide who they think she's talking to.
We did it a few different ways, as if she was talking to herself, or in an interview, or just telling
a friend, but I don't think it really makes all that much of a difference to the plot, when the
person watching the movie hears the narration. I think they can decide that for themselves.
We just really did it a few different ways to get the right feel for the narration; so it was really
more for me and Pascal than it was for the audience to know who I'm talking to, but it's good
to do it a few different ways to decide which one gives it the right kind of feel for the whole
movie.
Do you think she's still writing in her notebook at that point?
I don't know. There are a lot of unanswered questions at the end of the movie, which in my
opinion is a good thing, because people are left thinking at the end of the movie. It's possible,
maybe she does secretly still have it.
What do you say to viewers who complain that they feel cheated, because The Tall
Man isn't a true horror film?
I can completely understand how somebody would feel cheated if they went into it thinking
that they were going to be watching a traditional horror film. I can completely understand
that. I think that people need to know before they start watching the movie that it is not your
regular horror. There are a lot of twists and turns in the plot, and I think you really just have
to go into it knowing that it's not going to be what you're expecting [from a traditional horror
film], and then you will enjoy it. If you're expecting a traditional horror film, then maybe you
won't, but if you know that it's different, you'll be expecting what it is, which is basically a very
different type of horror.
Some years ago you starred in a film called Tideland, where your character,
Jelizah-Rose, lived inside her head as a way of dealing with difficult circumstances. Has anyone
ever suggested similarities between Jelizah-Rose and Jenny?
Nobody ever has told me that they found a similarity in those two characters, but now that
you mention it, honestly I can understand where you're coming from. They're quite similar in
the way that they deal with their problems. Jelizah-Rose is forced to be alone, whereas Jenny
does have a few people surrounding her. She's not completely alone. I suppose Jelizah-Rose
did as well but later on in the film . . .
They're not very good people.
Yeah, exactly, that's the problem. So at least Jenny does have some people, even though she
may not fully appreciate what she has.
They're not great people either!
That's true. But at least they're alive!
(Laughter)
Given some of the high profile films in which you've appeared, including The Twilight
Saga: Eclipse, what roles are you most recognized for?
It depends. In everyday life, there's quite a variety of roles I'm recognized for, but if I'm
hanging out in a place with a lot of teenagers, such as the mall, then I definitely get recognized
a lot for
Eclipse. I went to a youth camp a few years ago right after
Eclipse
came out, and (
laughs) it was non-stop getting recognized for that, because it had
just come out and so it was fresh in everybody's mind. But in everyday life, I'm always
surprised by the things that people recognize me for. It might be a short film that I did a
couple years ago, and I'm completely caught off guard when somebody says, "Hey, weren't
you in . . . ?" A lot of the time it'll be something that I've guest-starred in, because I've done
quite a few guest stars, so it'll be like, "Hey, weren't you that little girl in
Smallville a
few years ago?" Or
Supernatural or something like that. I did a few episodes of
Stargate [
SG-1 and
Atlantis] as well, so I get recognized for that too.
Stargate: Atlantis is being re-released to Blu-ray shortly; so that may start again. What
actors do you especially admire, and why?
Johnny Depp is my favorite actor, ever. What I admire about him is that every single
character he's ever played has been completely different. I find that so amazing because a lot
of people are really typecast. I realize that I am typecast as well, but I try to play characters
that are at least a little bit different from something that I've done before, even if the genre is
the same. I just love that all his characters are so completely different, and even if they're the
same type of character, he
makes them different from anything he's ever done
before. He really makes his characters completely unique, and I just love that he's been able
to accomplish so much. That's why I respect him so much, and I've always enjoyed his work.
Do you really think you're typecast?
I'm not saying that I'm always typecast, but just the genre of film. People often offer me
those types of roles—and I don't always take them—but the reason they do that is because
I've done those types of roles in the past. I don't know if I would give it a label, like
typecasting exactly, but yeah it's that kind of thing.
I think that will change soon. Thank you for talking to us.