The British filmmaker Jake Scott (yep, son of Ridley) might not be a household name, but you probably came across his videos on MTV during the '90s—he's shot promos for Radiohead, U2, The Cranberries, and others. Welcome to the Rileys, a skewed family drama starring James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo, and Kristen Stewart, is Scott’s second feature film. It's showing right now at the new West End Cinema. Arts Desk recently asked Scott some questions about depicting post-Katrina New Orleans, about asking his actors to take a leap, and about his reaction to critics' across-the-board reactions.
Washington City Paper: Welcome to the Rileys seems to be a departure from your previous work, which mostly are in the realm of music videos. What attracted you to it?:
WCP: So the actual story takes place in pre-Katrina, then?
JS: No. The original script was written before Katrina. We didn’t make any attempt to hide the fact that Katrina had happened. The house that Kristin Stewart’s character lived in has all the markings of the EMT crews on the façade of the building, which were the actual markings left there after Katrina. People would mark how many bodies, or how many dead animals they had so rescue crews would know what they’d be dealing with.
WCP: All three of the main actors in the film—James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo, and Kristen Stewart—all play very different characters from what they are traditionally cast as. What role did you play as a director in shaping their characters?
JS: First of all, remember that they’re very good actors. And in many ways, eager to do something new. Kristen, at the time, had only done the first Twilightfilm and no one had seen it yet when she came down to New Orleans to work on this new film. She was still relatively new to playing Bella Swan. But you know, Kristen’s a young, very hardworking actress who’s trying to experiment and try new things. And James was eager to get past his 10 years of Tony Soprano and shed that skin by playing someone completely unlike anyone he had played before. Same goes for Melissa. In terms of the experience, we were all venturing into an unknown territory. That really helps, because you get fresh ideas, bolder performances.
source washingtoncitypaper
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