Blake Berris – She’s Missing

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) I just had a film called Before You Know It come out. It premiered at Sundance earlier this year and it was released in theaters in about a thousand screens. It just now is available on iTunes and it will be available on Showtime as well. That was a comedy by a very good friend and it stars Alec Baldwin and Judith Light. My wife’s film She’s Missing premieres December 20^th in theaters. Meanwhile, I’m working on my own film, which I am going to direct and I wrote the script. That one we are going to film in March of this year.

Q) For the movie She’s Missing, were you always in mind to play Gus in the moving?

A) Actually, the film had a prior incarnation back in 2015 and my wife (Alexandra McGuinness) and I were only dating at the time and she asked me to be in it. We started filming and there were some problems, so it ended up shutting down and we ended up filming it last year. That’s the version that is the real version that came together with Josh Hartnett and Eiza Gonzalez. So, I’ve been a part of this project for a long time, but we didn’t know each other when she wrote the script. So, it wasn’t written with me in mind.

Q) How was Gus originally described to you?

A) I always have seen Gus as a kind of feral cat, but somebody who is kind of living a pretty transient life and has kind of been hardened by that. He’s also a true product of the desert. I think he’s someone who didn’t start living in the desert, but found himself there and the desert kind of trapped him or intoxicated him. He and Cherry (Sheila Vand) can’t find a way out. They can’t find a way to leave. They sort of come under this spell of the charismatic dude who is played by Josh Hartnett (Ren). At the same time, I also think there is a really soft kind of kind part of Josh underneath. I think he wants to be kind to people, but I think he’s also very influenced by the people around him – Cherry and Ren. He ends up doing a lot of their bidding. I don’t think he knows how to stand up to them.

Q) What did you find challenging about your portrayal?

A) I always love characters that are really different from me at first glance and then trying to find myself in them. So, I think the circumstances of how Gus is and the way I ended up the way I am are quite different, but I think that any character you play I have to play the commonality and the common ground and the stuff that makes you relate to them and feel like you can find some comparison in your life for why you did exactly the same thing.

Q) Were you familiar with any of your costars before working with them on the film?

A) Sheila is an old friend of mine. We went to college together so we have a really strong, built-in vernacular and it was incredible to work with her on this project. It was my first time working with Eiza and Lucy Fry. I think both of them just give such incredible performances in this film. Both totally different types of actresses, but incredible in their own ways. It was my first time working with Josh as well who was also such a generous actor. I really enjoyed working with him.

Q) What kind of advice did Alexandra offer you while filming that you took to heart?

A) Alex sent to Sheila and I a short story that was published in the New Yorker a long time ago. I can’t remember the author or the name of it. It was about this couple, kind of as I told you at the beginning of the interview, she gets pricked by a cactus and she finds it impossible to leave the desert. So, I think that was a big source of inspiration for the characters and the film as well. Alex really gives you a lot of freedom with the character. She really wants you to go with your instincts and make it your own. I felt really liberated to take the character in whatever direction. I think at one point we were trying to figure out the world and what this cactus drug does. Sheila, Eiza and Lucy and I had a long conversation about what this drug does to you. It’s psychedelic, but it also has this amphetamine quality to it – something that is addictive as well. All of that was a fun part of exploring this very unique world that Alex wrote about and how this drug takes ahold of these characters was an important part of the story that we explored.

Q) What were some of your favorite scenes to film?

A) I think my favorite scene was a long sequence where I meet Lucy’s character, Heidi, at a party. It’s the first time in the film where…I don’t want to give anything away, but it’s a sequence where I end up taking her up to the mountain house where Josh’s character Red is and a lot of us are living. I love the whole sequence where I kind of show her around the house and we’re looking over the balcony. The drug is starting to kick in. I love that scene!

Q) What message do you hope viewers take away from seeing She’s Missing?

A) I suppose I’m never driving at a specific message I want people to take home. The kind of performances that I hope to deliver and the kind of pieces of art and the stories that I’m interested in telling, I think She’s Missing does such an incredible job of being one of these stories – it’s a story that leaves you asking difficult questions. And I think the questions in this film are about friendship, trust and destiny. I think there are also issues of womanhood, being a woman, women’s place in this specific world that Alex wrote. It’s a female director too and a strong female lead roles. I think it does such a great job of exploring really complicated and complex territories and begging questions that there are not simple answers for. I think it’s really elegant and articulate in the way that it deals with those questions.