Two of the couples in the film are middle-aged, with decades of relationship behind them. Did your actors explore the backstories?
Bill arrived two days before everybody else. And he’s just a consummate actor. For what it’s worth an absolutely lovely man. We had dinner every other night and learned so much about him. It was such a pleasure and an honor to work with him every day. He was very concerned about who this man was and how could he find himself in this terrible position. And at his core, what he knew was that this man was, I’m going to use the word “decent,” that there was a core decency to this man that creates a rooting interest that you hope that everything will be okay with him and it isn’t. And what he felt was that he had some wealth, he had all of the trappings, the material trappings, but none of the emotional quality he wanted. And that was the great contradiction in his character. And what he felt was he was a man who had a successful company, sold the company and now turned inward finally to look at what his life was and found it wanting. And so, he ends up in a movie theater alone, literally crying into his popcorn about a loving couple he sees on screen. And then there shows up another woman going through a similar circumstance. That was his character’s backstory.
For Bill it was right. But it was different with Richard. He kept asking me, “What’s the guy in? What’s he do? What is he?” You’ve got to remember, this is Richard Gere. From the first second I met him, we were like old friends. The relationship that Richard and I had was like he was a buddy that we played baseball together. And our conversation was absolutely what both of us, I think, wanted. I mean, we cut through to…he was able to ask me, “What specifically does this guy come from?” And I said to him, “What specifically would be the difference?” And he said, “I love that.” And I go, “Why?” And he says, “Because you’re telling me that we’re going to focus on what happens in front of us.” And I said, “Yeah, the more important thing is not where he’s come from, but where he wants to go, given a clear choice. And why has he done what he’s done now? That’s great, Michael, because what I think is certainly more important is what the audience is going to view right in front of them.”
Richard and I, of course, we talked about who this guy might be. And of course, we talked about character. But what was more important were moments in the movie and how Richard arrived at them and how his character, Howard, like Diane’s character Grace is, very easily relatable, even though he’s done what he’s done. I don’t think there’s one moment in the picture where you even think about disliking the character. Whereas Luke has a much more interesting reaction in the beginning because Emma, who is this perfectly lovely girl, she’s what everybody wants. “I love you and I want to marry you and give you myself for the rest of your life. Will you have me?” And Luke says, “No.” And so, the thing is, we hate you for saying no to this love. Luke, who is this wonderful, tall, great-looking guy, everything, he has to make the audience hate him even more, except for his core persona, which is so lovely and so frightened and so vulnerable.