Laura Regan – Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt?

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

A) Atlas Shrugged is the main thing I’m working on now. I did one episode of “Constantine” on NBC that comes out on Halloween.

Q) What was it about the film Atlas Shrugged: Who is John Galt that made you want to be a part of it?

A) It is based on the book from 1957 that is a true classic. It’s been on best seller lists every decade. It’s one of the most sold and most read books of all time. Dagny is a classic literary heroine. For me it was not a tough question at all. It was a role I was attracted to immediately, even before I was familiar with the material. Then, when I got into the material, I read the book for the first time and started learning more about its history. It was definitely appealing to me to play this character because she is Ayn Rand’s best known and best loved heroine. She’s such a strong woman and goes against the grain a little bit. She has her own moral code and moral values, but not in a way that everyone else might have been brought up to behave. She has her own ideas about her own sexuality. This was very unusual about that time. She would have been a very controversial figure being a C.O.O. of a company and the lifestyle that she has. It’s still somewhat controversial now, but for me to be able to play someone like that was a great opportunity.

Q) Where did you derive your take on Dagny and where did you draw from?

A) I really went from the book. I have a friend who knows the book very well as well. He has been a fan of Ayn Rand for a very long time. I talked with him about his ideas of the character and I talked to a lot of other people. I really just drew from the source material. There is so much in the book. She goes through so much and you can just draw from that indirectly. I didn’t worry too much about the other actresses who played the part before me. That’s really not something that can help you. You can just get sort of stuck that way. We really looked at it fresh since this was a fresh cast and it was a reboot. It’s sort of a role that is out there and I took it on and tried to make it my own.

Q) Along those lines, was there anything you added to the role that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

A) I think I was fortunate in this section. I was lucky to do the third part because in this section she falls in love. You see a different side of Dagny. She meets the man of her dreams. She has been looking for him, but she didn’t realize he would be the guy that she falls in love with. I definitely got to have that more romantic side of her, the softer side. I might have brought something to the role that other people didn’t in that sense, but it was more that I had the opportunity to do that. I had the right sort of circumstances that she was placed in to show off her softer side. I just tried to maintain that humanity. Everyone sees it their own way, but I’ve gotten great feedback from fans of the book saying, “This is how I always imagined Dagny to be.” She has a human side. She has a soft side, but she is also very strong in knowing her own mind and is decisive. She knows what needs to be done and she doesn’t suffer fools. I think the main thing is I brought that softer side to her.

Q) What were some of your most memorable moments from filming the movie?

A) We had so much fun! All of the great moments came from my cast members who are incredibly talented and a very funny bunch. Eric Allan Kramer is a very funny person and so are Mark Moses, Stephen Tobolowsky and Greg Germann. All these guys you have seen in so many things. One of the funniest moments was when I was doing a scene with Greg Germann and he was advising me on how to dress for a particular event. I think the dialogue he had to say was a bit repetitive or clunky. He kept getting confused and saying the things in the wrong order. He finally looked at me and said, “You know what Dagny? Come topless.” It was just one of those things where he just threw it out there. When you work with funny actors you just get great moments like that all the time, the off-the-cuff things that people come up with. Also, there is a character in the book called Dr. Akston and he wasn’t in the scene, but we were referring to him. Late at night we were all getting really giddy. It was like 2am or 3am and we had been on a sixteen or seventeen hour day. The director came over and gave us a little bit of a pep talk and said to keep it together. He said, “Let’s get this take” and went back behind the camera. Then, he walked back behind the camera and called “Akston!” He meant to say “Action!” It was just one of those things where you are so tired and we couldn’t hold a straight face. It was one of those very silly things, but we all had a really good time together.

Q) Talk a little bit more about working with director James Manera. What kind of advice did he give you?

A) He definitely would always push me to be stronger, to be the best version of Dagny. I had to be the hard nosed woman, the C.O.O. That was definitely something he wanted to remind me of all the time. Other than that, we found a great way to work through scenes. He also worked on the screenplay. So having written it, he was very flexible with the dialogue and how scenes would go. If we found certain scenes didn’t work perfectly, exactly how it was written on the page, he was very flexible with coming in and saying, “Let’s run it again. Let’s talk it through.” It was very off-the-cuff. So, he was great with that kind of thing and he just wanted to keep me reminded that I’m this tough C.O.O. of this company.

Q) You are a part of social media. Do you enjoy the instant fan feedback you receive about the film?

A) I spent way too long not being on! I’m a total Twitter addict now. I’m a Twitter user in both senses. I love getting information from it and posting my own stuff. It is wonderful to hear feedback. Whether it is positive, negative, neutral or in between there is something I’ve never really had before. I have never received feedback from my other projects because I am so new on social media. People can ask you questions and it can make you think. If you’re able to respond, that’s what they want. People can ask questions and give you their thoughts. I think it informs your future work as well. It extends the conversation around any given project. The fans can feel more involved and feel more of an ownership and ability to communicate with the people who made the movie or TV show. I think that is just great all around for everybody, people who are enjoying the content and people who are making content. I just think it’s great! I don’t know why I held off so long!

Q) Is there anything else about the film that you want to make sure you share with fans?

A) Thanks to those fans who made an effort to get out on the opening weekend and especially to those who went multiple times. I am just thrilled that they find it a satisfying depiction of this famous book and I hope they will keep going back to watch it again. I am just thrilled! Thank you to the fans, really.