I got to interview the lovely Susan Blackwell a while ago when she was helping to promote Margin Call. This interview was originally up at Filmoria, but that site sadly no longer exists, so I'm putting it up here now. Enjoy!
Susan Blackwell plays an absolutely pivotal role in debut
director J.C. Chandor’s riveting financial drama Margin Call. Having worked as an actress in the theatre
and on television and film, Blackwell is a chilling delight in the opening
scenes she shares with Stanley Tucci.
Playing Lauren Bratberg, a woman sent into the offices of an investment
bank to facilitate redundancies, it is her cold canning of Stanley Tucci’s character
that sets the story in motion.
Her work in theatre on and off Broadway reveals Blackwell to
be a talented and incredibly funny actress, writer and singer. She also has her own series Side by Side by
Susan Blackwell in which she amusingly interviews Broadway actors in often odd
places and with even odder questions.
Blackwell is known to lick some of her interviewees’ faces and even
interviews some in their beds.
All this makes Susan Blackwell an extremely fun and charming
person to interview herself. She is quick
to laugh and very personable; willing to talk about her bond with actor and
producer Zachary Quinto as much as about the real life experiences that have
helped her to play a woman responsible for making people redundant.
You do a lot of theatre. How do you think being made redundant compares
to the audition process?
SB: (laughs) That’s an amazing question! That caught me off guard! Typically the
distinction is when you audition for something; before you ever even get
started sometimes you’ve been made redundant.
So before you ever even have the job, you have lost the job. I feel like the difference with the corporate
redundancies, especially the ones that are represented in the film is sometimes
people have had these jobs for six months, a year, five years, ten years, 19
years of their lives you know? So I
think in the life of an actor, rejection comes on a daily basis and for the
life of someone who has sat down in a corporate position or even in a company
for an extended period of time, it’s a much, much more heightened experience I
would say.
You and Zachary Quinto seem to get on very well
and he produced the film. Tell us about
your relationship.
SB: I did a show off Broadway in 2006 that Zach actually came and he saw and he wrote us this really lovely letter
saying how much the show meant to him and it was a really beautiful letter. But back in 2006, I kinda didn’t know how to
process things like that so I think we kind of didn’t write him back (laughs)
which sounds so strange but we just didn’t know what to do. He was so gracious. We didn’t know how to respond. So I went into
this audition and I walked in and he was the first person I auditioned for so I
recognised him of course because I like going to the movies and watching
television. And I was so surprised when
he recognised me. And I later had to cop
to the fact that we never responded to his letter. And he was like ‘yeah what was up with
that?’ As you can imagine, Margin Call
and the show that he saw us in are two very different tones, very different
feelings but I did my audition and it worked out pretty well and then we got to
work together which was very gratifying.
We got to spend some time together on the set and then he came into town
to do a beautiful production of Angels in America so of course I had to put him
on Side by Side by Susan Blackwell because come on… he’s Zachary Quinto! He’s fun, he makes me laugh! And talented too! And I’m so proud of those guys. I mean he really put together a beautiful
movie.
It’s a short but powerful scene and I believe J.C.
Chandor wrote it from a friend’s experience.
Was there an opportunity for improvisation at all?
SB: It was exactly as scripted and to be honest, in addition
to my creative work in the entertainment industry, I’ve been on Broadway, I’ve
been in movies, television, I also have an equally successful corporate life
where I have hired people, fired people, managed people. When I got the script I was like ‘whoa, this
is an extremely realistically written termination scene’ and I found it to be
very realistic. So I stepped to the
script because in what you call redundancies, what we call ‘notification’… over
here, in that process, you literally stick to the script. You have to for legal reasons stick to this
very prescribed language. Sometimes no
matter what the response of the person who is being terminated which can create
very strange situations where you just continue repeating yourself. But it was so realistically and well written
and in real life you really do stick to the script if you will. We did not do any improvisation around
it. We really stuck to what J.C. had
written so beautifully.
In the DVD commentary, the producer called your
character Lauren terrifying? How would
you describe her?
SB: She’s more of a badass to me! I can see on the outside how it looks
terrifying. Other words I’ve heard
people use are antiseptic, chilling, cold which makes me laugh because I think
of myself very differently. You’ve seen
Side by Side by Susan Blackwell so that is actually more true to my
personality. But on the inside that’s
not what I was thinking at all. First I
was just trying to remember my lines accurately of course but I was also… you
know when you’re playing Iago, you don’t think of yourself as being the
villain. You think of your actions as being
entirely justified and motivated. So I
was thinking something very different from what you actually see on the outside
but I think it worked out pretty well!
I’ll take terrifying! I’ll take
chilling! I’ll take antiseptic!
I got a sense that Lauren might enjoy what she
does a little bit.
SB: (laughs) I would not say that’s so and I’ll tell you
why. What I was bringing to it honestly
is that terminating someone in my own personal experience is one of the most
stressful, anxiety provoking, upsetting and haunting experiences because you
know even if the termination is justified, it’s for a cause, it’s not a
redundancy, even if it is totally justified by the person’s poor performance or
bad behaviour, you still are keenly aware of the fact that you are really
rocking their world and this is something, an event from which they are going
to have to recover. And I take no pleasure
in it and actually I sort of felt that way when I was doing the scene. It was pleasurable to have a great job and be
on that set and work with really world class actors and a really terrific
director. That was all very pleasurable
but actually doing it; I actually took no pleasure on behalf of the character
in doing it. Though it’s interesting to
me that that may come through.
So you work in HR currently?
SB: Currently I don’t exactly work in HR. But I do work in the Greater New York
area. I work in an executive search firm
and we specialise in the placement of HR executives. So I am around HR all the time. I do a little bit of hiring and firing
still. Not as much as previously but I’m
around HR all the time.
It must be nice to get out of the office and do great
films and Side by Side and things like that!
SB: I enjoy both so much.
There’s a part of the corporate work… I like structure, I like being
able to pay my mortgage on time, I like owning real estate. And there’s something about project
management and running an office that I really enjoy and I also am wildly
creative and I like getting out in the dog park with Zachary Quinto and
appearing on Broadway and shooting films.
It’s a very dynamic life but I feel like the two parts complement each
other very well.
How was working with debut director J.C. Chandor?
SB: Working with J.C. Chandor was absolutely 100% a
delight. I found him to be very, very
bright. I think he’s really
talented. I think he’s a dynamite
writer. Typically on set it’s the old
‘time is money’ and people are under enormous pressure, the director is under
enormous pressure to deliver very quickly.
He’s making just so many decisions very quickly, handling these big name
actors and it can be very stressful for people and the way that J.C. bore that,
I have never in my life seen a director who seemed so genuinely happy to be
making a piece of film. He was
absolutely like a kid in a candy store.
He was delighted and delightful and he was wonderful. I can’t say enough good things about him and honestly
I can’t wait to see his next movie. I
think he has such a promising future.
And how about acting opposite Stanley Tucci?
SB: It was very exciting.
I’m sure… he has no idea who I am so it was just another day at work for
him but it was really thrilling to get to sit so close to someone who is so
excellent. So I spent most of the time
just doing my work and trying to act well and do a good job and there was this
other percentage of the time where I was just sitting across the table from him
going ‘wow, look at Stanley Tucci go!’
Stanley Tucci is really, really good.
Sometimes because I work in the corporate world as well, I think this
is… a great vantage point to see someone who is at the top of their game doing
such good work. So part of the time I’m
doing my own work and part of the time it feels like a great adventure where I
get to watch Stanley Tucci act.
You have a tendency to lick the faces of your
guests on your Side by Side by Susan Blackwell show. Did you get to lick any of the stars’ faces
on set of Margin Call?
SB: (laughs) It was a lick-free film set. I didn’t want to get thrown off. I’d just like to note that I never licked
Zachary Quinto. He licked me sir! He beat me to the punch!
If you want to see Zachary Quinto licking Susan Blackwell’s
face, watch this episode of Side by Side by Susan Blackwell below:
