Werner Herzog said Kate Mara and Rooney Mara’s performances in rehearsal for Venice Competition title Bucking Fastard were so good that he cut the rehearsal period short.
“We hardly needed any rehearsals,” said the German filmmaker at the Venice press conference for the film, which had its world premiere on Thursday, September 3. “We had two weeks of rehearsals – the first time in my life that I had enough time and there was enough funds, to do existential rehearsals with the two sisters.
“But they were so good instantly that after five days we stopped. I said, “I’ll meet you in Ireland [where the film was shot] in front of my camera.” There was complete confidence in them, and I had to show that.”
In Bucking Fastard, Kate and Rooney play Jean and Joan Holbrooke, two sisters who are so close they speak in unison, love the same man, and have the same dreams. In search of an imaginary land where true love is possible, they start digging through a mountain range.
“At first the idea that we were going to be playing this same person was very daunting,” said Rooney. “But we found pretty quickly that having a lifetime together, and all this history and childhood of playing together, there was an unspoken world between us that we didn’t have to work very hard to create. So once we found our flow together, I have never laughed so much. It was so much fun, and once in a lifetime.”
“Once we figured out the rhythm of speaking in unison, it felt like a song,” said Kate. “We had this unspoken rhythm together, and it was very musical, and happened quite naturally. It came with a lot more ease than we were expecting.”
Herzog said he believes the film both has a place in his idiosyncratic filmography and is unique to it. “We do not have to quote The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser, or Fitzcarraldo, or Grizzly Man. You can sense a common worldview, even though Bucking Fastard is a unique film. It will never happen again in film history; it has never happened before; and yet it belongs to what I am doing. It belongs to the essential films I have done. There are a couple of films I can say are essential, and touch deep into my core. My soul is exposed.”
Crisis
The filmmaker said he had the idea for Bucking Fastard several decades ago, but it was only when he secured two real-life sisters to play the lead roles that the project gained momentum. It was UK producer Jeremy Thomas, described lovingly by Herzog as “one of the dinosaurs of film production”, who suggested that the characters be sisters, instead of twins; and that the Mara sisters might be suitable for the roles. Even then, the film had to clear a hurdle close to the shoot.
“The production was organised very quickly,” said Herzog. “Financing of the production had a crisis about two months before we started shooting, and [producer] Clara Wu took over the entire financing. So without Clara Wu, we wouldn’t have this film. And then it was very easy.
“I recruited [producer] Ariel Leon Isacovitch, who has been my right hand, my left hand, my legs, and my heart pumping,” said Herzog. “[Producer] Agnes Chu came on board quickly, and we had a beautifully balanced team. We complemented each other; so we had six or so weeks of pre-production, then we started rolling the cameras.”
The cast also includes Orlando Bloom as a limo driver with whom the sisters engaged romantically, and Domhnall Gleeson as a social worker sympathetic to the sisters’ cause.
“Orlando was upset because we worked so fast,” said Herzog. “I did one take of a very long thing in the witness stand, and you [Bloom] were so upset that I had to bring him back in to do three more takes.
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“It was my largest scene in the movie, and we did one take, then [Herzog] said, ”quit, we got it,” laughed Bloom, who spoke of the “sacred space for magic to happen” that Herzog creates on set. “There’s a feeling of freedom. Because it’s such a small, unique experience, it creates a magical moment, that is what we dream of.”
HanWay Films is handling sales on Bucking Fastard. Venice film festival runs until Saturday, September 12.
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