Radha Mitchell – Sacrifice

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) Please tell us the premise for your film Sacrifice.

A) I think we’ve got something new going on. It’s an evolution of the genre. I don’t think we have a lot of films that appeal the way this one does to a broader female audience. I think this movie appeals to women of all generations in a way that a lot of these horror thrillers – suspense dramas don’t. The original material was a book written by a woman and adapted by Peter A. Dowling who wrote Flightplan. This was his first film as a director. That was an exciting space to work with somebody. Like I said, we’re evolving the genre and expanding the audience for it having this female centric story that has a very close friendship between two women. It explores this issue that has to do with fertility and biology and the history. It has some fantastic male characters as well with some scary intriguing situations and a very satisfying intricate plot.

Q) What made you want to be a part of the film?

A) In the spectrum of the movies that are getting made and this realm of genre, there was something about this that was unusual and unique. So, I recognized that and, obviously, you never know exactly what you are going to jump into because you are working with people who you haven’t met necessarily. You all discover each other in the project. I had an instinct that there was obviously something complicated and interesting in the lead character. There was a challenge of like sticking the piece together and holding it together while keeping it real was of interest to me. I was primarily drawn to the character, initially.

Q) What did you find challenging about your role?

A) There is something fun about being the outsider coming in…Being the Australian/green card holding American who goes to Ireland to shoot the movie and meets all these Irish people and learns about Irish culture in Dublin. That real experience of shooting the film is also mind expanding because you are learning about real cultures. I would have been more excited about shooting in July, but we shot in November. [laughs] But the cold, brooding Shetlands in Ireland that we were depicting were certainly depicted by the weather we were experiencing. It added a brooding quality to the story that comes with shooting at that time of year.

Q) Do you consider yourself a method actress or what do you do to make the character your own?

A) I don’t know if I’m a method actor, but I try to mine the resources of my own experience. But if I don’t have any experience in the subject I’ll try it on. I’m doing a movie next about surfing so I’ve started taking some surfing lessons, which has shifted my thoughts on Los Angeles because I’ve been living here and living by the beach, but never surf. So, getting in the water here it changes your experience of the city. So, often the characters you play teach you about life or expand your horizons if you allow yourself to get deeply connected to them. If the characters are too dark, then it may be something you put on for a minute and then take off that afternoon. It just depends on the story, I guess.

Q) The movie Sacrifice has a similarity to your film Pitch Black where the characters both have baggage holding them back from where they need to get through.

A) Carolyn has guilt so that makes her a vulnerable character since she hasn’t forgiven herself. This character has this dream she may never achieve and this longing. These characters that are raw in that sense and don’t know if they are capable of courage because they are dealing with so many of their own demons are people we can relate to because very few of us wake up and feel like we can take on any challenge. I think we relate to characters that have to struggle to take on the challenges and yet have the courage to face these challenges, however extreme they are. Obviously, in these genre movies they are very extreme like fighting aliens or finding killers. But I think the real challenge is the experiences are much simpler and often as difficult. Those are the characters that I personally connect to.

Q) The movie has its own mythology and history. What was that aspect of the film like for you?

A) That was fascinating. If you get online and research you’ll find bodies that do reveal so much about the history of man. So, I didn’t know about these preserved bodies and salted culture. Although, my name is “Mitchell” I should have some sort of connection there. So, the movie gave me an opportunity to look into this ancient world and see my own place in it.

Q) What was it like with Peter A. Dowling on the film?

A) It was great working with him because he had written the script off a quite successful book. It had a female skewed perspective because it was innovative in the genre. I think he was aware of that and that he was also communicating with a female audience that would normally be excluded from a project like this. I think he was aware that he was opening the potential who these types of stories can communicate to. He just had a baby with his wife so I think he was very sensitive to that part of the character’s journey and to those needs and the dilemmas there and the visceral biological instinct driving the character. That made him a great director for the piece. As a writer, I think he was quite flexible. It’s possible for writers to get quite attached to their script, but he was relaxed about it. He was a fluid director on the shoot, which was nice.