2 days Ago By Yahoo News Canada Video
In Alfonso Cuarón's Apple TV+ series Disclaimer , actor Leila George plays a younger version of Cate Blanchett's character Catherine Ravenscroft. George spoke to Yahoo Canada about how the most difficult scenes in the mystery drama felt "therapeutic," and how everyone set was particularly "respectful" and sensitive" during intimate scenes in the series. Video Transcript You'll keep everyone in the dark.
To maintain a balance. And you think you have succeeded. Until now.
I think Alfonso really um strives to create, to put it simply, art, something that is, you know, really, he's really passionate about, he really cares about the details as you can tell. What's it like to be able to work on a project with someone like that at the helm? Oh, it's a breath of fresh air, you know, it doesn't feel like you're in kind of an industry factory job. It feels like you're, you're almost on this very well funded indie movie, um.
Cause he's just as excited as I imagine he was when he first started, you know, the passion that he has, it's contagious and, and his level of talent and, and everyone that he employs in every department is at the top of their game. And it's great because it pushes you to give your 100% every day. I loved your introduction as Katherine in the series.
I think she has such a great energy. She's vivacious. She's someone you want to know more about.
She's someone you feel like you want to kind of be around. Almost, you just kind of want that infectious energy. Um, was there something particularly attractive for you to play a character that has, I think, that much personality right from the beginning? It's so fun.
Uh, she's so different from who I am. And so I think it's like when whenever we get to play someone that Maybe, you know, we've fantasized about being at some point, but it's so inherently not our personality. You know, I'm, I'm much more shy and, and quicker to kind of coil in on myself than I am to, like, enter a room and, and express, like, look at me, look at me.
And so, it's fun, kind of when you get to, when you get to play that, um. Yeah, I mean it I felt on fire playing playing Catherine. There's an interesting scene where Nancy meets with Catherine, who is obviously played by Kate at the time, but it's, I think one of the moments where The Katherine that we see in the kind of later timeline and your portrayal of the character kind of mix a little bit because there's a little bit of both there.
um, when you know that scene is gonna take place and you and you're not gonna be in it, anything you just thought about in terms of, oh this is kind of a little bit of of where things have to come together. Exactly, it was a really, probably one of the most important scenes for me, um. Because that is the scene in which I, those are the aspects of Katherine that I had to implement in the first few episodes because everything that Nancy got in that 10 minutes was what went into the novel that she wrote.
And so. It was an incredibly, um, helpful scene for me and it's, it's, it was really my anchor. There's this really amazing twist when we get to the final episode that I think we kind of stay with people when you know you have something like that coming down the pipeline to and what's your kind of personal thought process in terms of, OK, so I, this kind of story and we have to establish that she's this really confident, in control woman and then things really get particularly, um, terrifying for her when we get to the end.
What was your process of just kind of working through that as an actor? I think when I first read a script or, you know, in the prep stages, I'll, I'll be making my notes and analyzing every single aspect of, of the script, every single page, every single scene. And then when it comes to shoot. I feel like for me it's better to just block out everything else than what I'm doing that day, and not anticipate too much, you know, maybe forget about those scenes until I'm gonna be there shooting them because then, There's something really exciting and raw that happens if, if you've blocked it out of your mind until you're gonna do it, um.
And I, I, I don't know, I find those more difficult scenes kind of therapeutic. Um, you're working on it for the whole day or for 2345 days. You know, we shot each of those bedroom scenes.
And by the end of it, I feel like I've worked on every trauma in my life, you know? And I think more importantly, when doing that stuff, it, it's just really important that everyone around. Takes immense care and being sensitive to the matters and, and, and that's what everyone did, you know, we all knew what we were there to do and the number one priority is making sure you get it right, so that viewers feel. Feel like they've seen something true and real.
In addition to kind of what we see in the final episodes, I think there's been a lot of conversations of kind of ensuring that women in particular, but everybody feels particularly safe and comfortable doing any sort of intimate scene and being able that there's a space where it does feel oftentimes more like a, a choreography situation, almost like a. Almost that things need to be done. Exactly, yeah, there's issues.
Um, how did, you know, the environment of the set feel constructive for you to be able to go to those places for the character? It's exactly as you say, it's, it's everything is pre-planned, and that's so important because just a hand in the wrong place, you know, someone could get hurt or, or, or something. And so we worked with, uh, an intimacy coordinator, Samantha Murray, on, on choreographing all of those scenes. Um, And then I think beyond that, it's just about feeling comfortable and, and, you know, everyone is very, very serious in those moments.
You know, everyone is taking it very seriously when you're filming those hardest scenes, you know, sometimes on set, you're like joking around and having fun and you're tired and so it keeps you awake to like have camaraderie with people in the crew, but definitely when you get to doing stuff like that. You know, the atmosphere changes. Everyone's very respectful.
Everyone's very sensitive. You know, you don't know who in the room has experienced something like this, or, or how close to home it is for anyone. And so it's really important to have the utmost care and respect when shooting that stuff.
And, and that was definitely my experience on this job..
