{"id":1447,"date":"2019-01-01T21:03:24","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T21:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/?p=1447"},"modified":"2019-01-04T21:08:25","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T21:08:25","slug":"maggie-gyllenhaal-on-the-kindergarten-teacher-the-deuce-not-starring-in-her-elena-ferrante-adaptation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/maggie-gyllenhaal-on-the-kindergarten-teacher-the-deuce-not-starring-in-her-elena-ferrante-adaptation\/","title":{"rendered":"Maggie Gyllenhaal on \u2018The Kindergarten Teacher\u2019, \u2018The Deuce\u2019 & Not Starring in Her Elena Ferrante Adaptation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"deadline-hollywood-logo-o\"As with her previous work in projects like Secretary and The Honorable Woman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, doesn\u2019t shy away from the raw underside of humanity in Netflix\u2019s The Kindergarten Teacher. In the titular role of Lisa Spinelli, Gyllenhaal explores the downward spiral of a woman projecting her poetry ambitions onto an apparent child prodigy. It\u2019s a dark and uncomfortable, but ultimately fascinating tale of the possible consequences of a personality shoehorned and silenced into the wrong existence, and one that Gyllenhaal depicts with her trademark depth and complexity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve become more and more aware of the ways that none of us are fed in the ways that we need to be fed,\u201d she says of her decision to do the Sara Colango-written and directed film.<\/p>\n

Now about to head into Season 3 of HBO\u2019s The Deuce, which she both produces and stars in as Eileen \u201cCandy\u201d Merrell\u2013a sex worker with an artistic sideline directing porn\u2013Gyllenhaal is also deep into adapting the Elena Ferrante novel The Lost Daughter into a film she plans to make her directorial debut.<\/p>\n

Lisa\u2019s unhinged behavior in The Kindergarten Teacher seems borne out of the frustration women have felt throughout history. Is that what drove you to play this role?<\/p>\n

in so many ways my experience is different than hers. I feel like I\u2019m fed artistically, intellectually and emotionally in a way that she isn\u2019t. But there are ways that we wish that this was a problem of our mother\u2019s generation, or our grandmother\u2019s generation, and then we woke up and Donald Trump was elected after saying he could grab women\u2019s pussies if he wanted to, and there was no consequence for it.<\/p>\n

Even though there are a lot of differences between me and Lisa, I feel like there are also a whole lot of similarities, even though it\u2019s scary to look at that, and it\u2019s upsetting to look at that. I think that her experience of getting to a place where she\u2019s like, \u201cI actually can\u2019t take this anymore,\u201d is very much like the experience of many women who are actually our age and younger.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re planning to direct and you\u2019re already a producer. Would you have liked to do that sooner?<\/p>\n

Absolutely. I\u2019m not proud of this, I wish this were different, but I didn\u2019t feel entitled to direct, in a way that maybe 100 years ago, if you were a medical-minded woman you might set your sights on being a nurse. Even 20 years ago, when I was getting out of college I was like, \u201cI\u2019m going to be a storyteller. I\u2019m going to be an actress.\u201d But there wasn\u2019t really\u2026Of course, there were exceptions. There were incredible women filmmakers, but it didn\u2019t seem like an obvious choice. It\u2019s only recently that I really felt like it was something I could do.<\/p>\n

Yeah, I do think it might have happened sooner. The producing, though, happened very naturally. I feel like I just got to a point where I was like, \u201cI have a lot of ideas. The name for this is producing.\u201d I think there actually are a lot more models of women producers than directors out there. Maybe that\u2019s why it felt more natural.<\/p>\n

What were the conversations like with Sara Colangelo in the beginning of this project? Was there a collaborative experience there?<\/p>\n

There was a collaborative experience for sure but I\u2019m not an actress who likes to do a lot of talking about intellectual ideas about the character I\u2019m playing. I really try to avoid it. I think partially because it\u2019s something I can fall very naturally into and I don\u2019t think it serves my work. IThere were script changes I wanted to make. Little things. The script was excellent, really exquisite, beautifully written. I think in some ways Sara originally imagined that Lisa would look like a gray shadow of a woman when you first meet her. To me, I can see that, I can understand why someone would choose that, but I think it\u2019s a much more interesting movie if she\u2019s bright, curious, seems like someone who could be your friend and then falls off the deep end.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re interested in exploring is what does it really look like when someone, when a woman, falls apart? Who is to blame? Where does it come from? Why does it happen? If you either do the, \u201cLook, I\u2019m going to know from the minute it starts that she\u2019s going to fall apart so I\u2019m not going to go that deep with her\u201d or if you do the, \u201cThis is the sexy operatic version of a woman falling apart\u201d I think it keeps the audience from really having to consider how close they are to collapse.<\/p>\n

To be honest, I believe everyone falls apart sometimes. I believe that\u2019s part of being alive. I don\u2019t believe everyone kidnaps young children. That\u2019s a very extreme example. I think it\u2019s a really interesting dramatic experience to have to sit with someone who looks bright and lovely and watch that person in a very realistic way go to pieces. You know?<\/p>\n

Is the child really a prodigy, or is it all in Lisa\u2019s head?<\/p>\n

I think the script is designed to say that this little boy is a poetic genius that she finds in her class, but the whole time in my private mind I kind of thought, \u201cThere\u2019s a reading of this movie where she is creating all of it.\u201d Five-year-olds say amazing things, poetic things all the time, and how you put a frame around it and what words you fill in that you didn\u2019t quite hear and where you make a line break, that\u2019s what makes a poem. From my objective view of things, I like the movie better when he\u2019s not a genius, he\u2019s just a little kid. She needs so badly some kind of artistic interaction, that kind of a meaningful connection, that she creates what she needs. Whereas Sara I think feels that he was a genius. We got to exist with those conflicting takes, but it makes for a cool movie.<\/p>\n

The original 2014 Israeli film was directed by a man\u2013Nadav Lapid. Have you seen it? It would be interesting to look at the contrast now.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t seen it, but what I\u2019ve heard about it is that it\u2019s very good, and that narratively it\u2019s very, very similar, but thematically it\u2019s totally different, and not really a feminist movie at all. That\u2019s so interesting.<\/p>\n

The Deuce<\/p>\n

Were there any parallels for you between Candy from The Deuce and Lisa? These are two very different women but they\u2019re both boxed into their lives in some ways.<\/p>\n

Totally. I mean, I made the first season of The Deuce, then made The Kindergarten Teacher, then made the second season of The Deuce. In a way, they\u2019re very tied for me. They\u2019re both women who are waking up to the fact that they\u2019ve been starved, and they have very different reactions to it. For both of them it\u2019s life or death. It\u2019s dire. I do think, though, that it was way more fun to play Candy than it was to play Lisa, even though Candy gets beat up and abused. It\u2019s not easy for Candy. But her mind is working so clearly. Ultimately, it\u2019s a pleasure. It was much harder to play Lisa who to live in a space, in the mind of somebody who is so confused, it hurts. It feels bad.<\/p>\n

Any idea of the Season 3 trajectory?<\/p>\n

One thing I do think, but I don\u2019t know for sure, is things are really looking up for Candy in season two and just knowing [creators] David (Simon), George (Pelecanos), and their work, I just think season three might be more difficult for her. Maybe not. Maybe she\u2019ll be the exception.<\/p>\n

You acquired the rights to the Elena Ferrante novel The Lost Daughter. How\u2019s that shaping up?<\/p>\n

Well, the adaptation I\u2019m almost finished with. I don\u2019t know if you really call it a first draft anymore. I\u2019ve had a couple of really helpful readers already and I\u2019m almost there. It has been the greatest pleasure. I know that that\u2019s not often the experience of writers. My mom is a screenwriter and growing up, I had watched my mother have to force herself to have a discipline to sit down and write, and that\u2019s not my experience to be honest.<\/p>\n

I did a lot of writing while doing days and days and days of press for The Kindergarten Teacher, which I really enjoyed. It\u2019s such a different world than sitting alone with yourself and your mind and your fantasy of Elena Ferrante\u2019s mind. Just slowly, carefully, thoughtfully working on something. I found it was kind of an antidote in a way to the getting dressed up and doing hair and makeup.<\/p>\n

To be able to sit and move at my own pace and, like I said, either be in just my own mind or in this fantasy conversation with Elena Ferrante, which is a mind that I trust. I\u2019ve read all her books. It has been kind of like heaven. It\u2019s been such a pleasure. Then when that\u2019s finished I guess I\u2019ll start to move into the next phase, which is trying to send it out, casting actors, and then ultimately directing it. Although, that\u2019s a little ways away still.<\/p>\n

In that story there\u2019s a role for an English teacher who\u2019s also a mom, but is a bit older than you. Are you considering possibly playing the role yourself?<\/p>\n

No. I\u2019m not going to play it. There are three women in the story. A woman who is almost 50, then a younger version of that woman, and then another woman who is also in her twenties. I\u2019m writing roles that I would like to play, even though I won\u2019t play them. I think there\u2019s something so exciting about that.<\/p>\n

View this article at Deadline<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As with her previous work in projects like Secretary and The Honorable Woman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, doesn\u2019t shy away from the raw underside of humanity in Netflix\u2019s The Kindergarten Teacher. In the titular role of Lisa Spinelli, Gyllenhaal explores the downward spiral of a woman projecting her poetry ambitions onto an apparent child prodigy. It\u2019s a
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