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RACHEL McADAMS:
“I was just flattered out of my shoes that Wes Craven even knew who I was, let alone was considering me for this part, because I hadn’t done anything like it. I’m always interested in doing things that I haven’t done before, and just seeing what kind of fit it is. I just thought Lisa had a great arc. She really finds her steel in the end, and I was intrigued at the notion of finding this girl who fought back, really dug down deep inside and finds the strength within her, but doesn’t turn into a superhero. She’s not wearing hot pants all of a sudden, with a machete, it’s based on some kind of reality.”
CILLAIN MURPHY:
“I will concede that I’ve probably done my quota now of bad guys. They were just really interesting parts and characters for me, and I had a great time doing them. I don’t strategize. I don’t have a career plan and I’m not ticking boxes, so I don’t have any problem with it.”
WES CRAVEN:
“I knew from the get go the whole second act was going to be these people basically sitting next to each other [on the plane]. There are very few films that put a director into that fix. I knew it would live and die on acting and on faces. Rachel is so beautiful, and at the same time she has great acting chops. She was a big gamble, we staked a lot on her. Cillian literally flew to LAX and we had lunch there. He had these big blue eyes, and when he was talking he smiled and laughed, and you could see he’s very charming, but when he was thinking, suddenly his face would get intense. I felt like there was a certain gravitas that really was interesting. They were the only two people I saw for those roles.”
McADAMS on doing the intense physical scenes with Cillian:
“I trust Cillian completely. He’s such a good physical actor, he’s really good with the choreography, he’s so convincing when it comes to being shot at or being stabbed, he’s just so believable. We tried to keep it light and enjoy ourselves, as it was such a weighty project, and the scenes were so terrorizing and intense. “
MURPHY:
“Rachel is a brilliant actor, so intelligent in her choices and her performance. It was important that we got on. You can’t create chemistry; that was just a bonus.”
CRAVEN:
“I would love to do a romantic comedy, but the Wes Craven name is an obstacle. I was in the New York Times crossword puzzle five times last year – Horror film director - blank!”
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THE CONCEPT:
