Sandra Hüller breaks down key scenes and elements from 'Anatomy of a Fall' for EW's Awardist.
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PeopleTranscript
00:00 I heard lots of opinions about the truth that really happened that day.
00:05 And it's always really interesting what people have in mind.
00:08 It's really wild.
00:09 [MUSIC]
00:12 I started working as an actor in theater.
00:15 So I am used to rehearsal, to make mistakes, to find the wrong path,
00:22 and realizing it two days later.
00:24 And then you start from another angle.
00:26 So this kind of working feels really close to me, and I enjoy it very much.
00:31 You have to be present all the time.
00:34 And you can't hide at any moment, because the responsibility for the character is so high.
00:40 And I constantly had to question my own projections on her.
00:45 The script constantly mirrored back my own opinion about certain behavior,
00:50 or certain narratives, or things that she said, or, you know, all these things.
00:56 You complain about the life that you chose.
00:58 You are not a victim.
00:59 Not at all.
01:01 Be fair.
01:01 I am a man who's been cheated on.
01:03 I can't stand anymore.
01:04 [GLASS SHATTERING]
01:05 I'm fighting.
01:06 Yes, I am fighting.
01:07 The tension in this scene is really high from the beginning.
01:10 The circumstances are a bit weird, because Sondra doesn't know that her husband is recording the fight.
01:15 And she also doesn't know that he might kind of stage the fight to collect material for writing.
01:21 So it comes out of the blue, and I think for a long time, she really tries not to get into it,
01:29 and not to fight with him, because there's no reason.
01:33 When you're in a relationship for a long time, the fights somehow spiral.
01:38 It's always the same topics, and I think it's the same with them.
01:43 So in the first place, she probably thinks that it's the usual thing that's going on,
01:49 and we can probably fix it in a minute or two, or maybe ten.
01:52 But this time, something is different, and she decides otherwise and gets into the fight really late.
01:58 But she does.
01:59 So we had two days to film that scene, because it ends really violent,
02:05 and we didn't want to do that on the first day,
02:07 because I figured that it would be hard to go back to the beginning, where it's pretty relaxed from her side.
02:15 So we filmed the first part until the, let's call it explosion on the first day,
02:20 and the other parts on the second day.
02:23 But this one was also rehearsed.
02:24 We really had to find the staging in the house, and the positions of the characters.
02:30 But everything else, I really have to say, the scene is so superbly written
02:35 that you could just ride through it. It was really beautiful.
02:39 An accidental fall is going to be hard for us to defend.
02:44 That's why there's an investigation for a most suspicious death,
02:49 because you were the only person there.
02:53 And of course, you're his wife.
02:56 Stop. I did not kill him.
03:01 That's not the point.
03:03 I heard lots of opinions about the truth that really happened that day,
03:08 and it's always really interesting what people have in mind.
03:11 As soon as we started working, I also realized that it's not really important.
03:15 It's really important what we think about the story.
03:18 It's important what every spectator, every viewer thinks about the characters.
03:23 It has so much to do with our own perception of a couple, of successful people,
03:30 of adult people, of relationships, of mothers and children and fathers and children.
03:36 You know, all the things we project are important.
03:40 [Music]
03:44 [Silence]
03:48 [Silence]
03:52 [Silence]
03:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]