Marisa Tomei Talks About “She Came to Me” and Sleeps on a Boat to Prepare
Despite a successful Hollywood career, star Marisa Tomei has never played a role she came to me‘s Katrina, a tugboat captain who is an incurable romantic. Rebekah Muellers latest film just had its world premiere at the Berlinale 2023 and while I was covering the festival on the spot I had a chance to sit down and talk to Tomei about what drew her to Katrina, like Miller a special breed of director is and how the star prepared for the role by sleeping in an actual tugboat.
she came to me follows multiple intertwined lives who are pulled together as they search for love and acceptance. The film focuses on Steven (Peter Dinkel), an opera composer suffering from creative blocks, meets Tomeis Katrina, a down-to-earth woman who nevertheless becomes an unexpected muse. Miller worked on the screenplay for six years, and it took a while for the independent project to get off the ground. But once Tomei got the script, she instantly fell in love with Katrina during the pandemic. As Tomei puts it:
The turmoil caused by the pandemics hasn’t deterred Tomei’s interest in the role. After all, it’s not common to find a part so full of beautiful human contradictions. “She’s wearing a corset under her jumpsuit,” Tomei points out, revealing how Katrina is layered in unexpected ways. Tomei just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play such a character, which drew her to Miller’s project because:
“She is [Katrina] so innocent, but that she lives in a very, very real world, we have to do in a very real world. work, like real things. And very, very difficult work, taxing the body and the hours. But at the same time it’s like a cowboy. As if the world were just wide open. It’s like anything can happen on these seas. And that kind of life is very epic. Of course, the more I read about it, I didn’t know that at first. But the more I read about it, the more I understood the thrill of being so liberated. Playing a muse who also has something like a job, I really liked that.”
Becoming Katrina wasn’t easy, however, as her job presented the star with unique challenges. But Tomei was ready to put her heart and soul into the film, so she suggested sleeping on a tug to internalize Katrina’s quirks and habits. Tomei told us about her experience in towing life and said:
“Well, me of course, I got there and I was like, ‘Why did I choose to do this?’ I could have invented it. But I wanted, I wanted. How many times would I get this chance? And it’s also a little world of its own where those docks are in New York. I hadn’t even been there before. And so it was really fascinating to be there and see this whole subculture. And I just really liked it, I felt the more I was on the boat I needed this to become second nature to me, I needed to navigate this boat. And then it was the boat that we shot on, which we didn’t know at the time. So I knew it so, so well. I couldn’t seem to look down to see where my foot might go. So that I didn’t stumble, it had to be like this: ‘No, I know it like the back of my hand. I could do that blindfolded, it had to have that second nature of the feeling. So it was something to stay there.”
The strategy pays off as Katrina steals the spotlight every time she appears on screen. It’s easy to believe that Katrina is a real captain, and it’s impressive that Tomei managed to quickly adapt to movement on a tugboat, since she really grew in one. Although she loved playing Katrina, there were some aspects of the character that the star didn’t like as much. For example, Tomei disagrees with the character diagnosis that claims she is addicted to romance. Tomei prefers to view Katrina as a misunderstood romantic, even voicing her concerns about Katrina’s mental health during production. As Tomei tells us:
“I felt like that part was really a drag. But that wasn’t really something that was that important to her, maybe more metaphorically the idea of being so romantic that today someone would call it an addiction. But if you look at it… I really disputed that point and spoke to a few experts in the field and no one really felt that she was a real addict. And that if you really look at what she’s doing…well, she had the one incident before that, but a big deal about it, it wasn’t like a full story…yeah, and then with it [Peter’s character] She is right. Isn’t she making it up? It’s just so intuitive and so instantly connected. So I think there’s good reason to say it’s not.”
While Tomei has strong opinions about Katrina, she tells us that Miller has tight control over her film’s characters. There’s no room for improvement on set, but Miller still discusses with the cast the path each character will take. Because of this open dialogue, Tomei feels like she could steer the boat away from Katrina’s mental health a little. Leave a Comment she came to me Production, Tomei told us:
“We haven’t improved anything. And we didn’t do anything. Katrina was entirely formed by Rebecca. And then she allowed me to come in and add my post to her. I think there were aspects that we talked about, I think I wanted to emphasize the part of her that is the muse more than the part of her that is the captain. The captain is like, de facto, it’s there, you see it. And it’s something she does, but the energy of the muse is something she is. So that’s what we focused on and Rebecca was interested in both, but really wanted to make sure, like I told you, you’re 100% confident that this person can drive a boat. ‘Cause I’m not really, I’m not really built that way. I mean, you don’t really have to be built to be a captain anyway. But when you start out as a deckhand and kind of work your way up, it’s usually like a very physical job. So it’s not like what you normally imagine as a captain. So we really wanted to make it believable, but I wasn’t really focused on that. That interested me, it’s always fun to discover new worlds. That’s one of the greatest things about being an actor. But I was really interested in her soul in that other room.”
Aside from being a popular movie star, Tomei also has vast experience in the theater. However, the last time she took the stage was in 2019, e.g The rose tattoo Play. Since she came to me revolves around opera and live acting, we wanted to know if Tomei missed the stage. Unfortunately, as the star pointed out, theater life is sometimes too demanding and difficult to fit into her busy schedule. So the proximity to the stage in she came to me:
“Just makes me want to do more movies with Rebecca. It doesn’t make me do anything else. It felt like a little game in a way. But I think the decision to do theater is a really big decision because it takes up a lot of your life and time. So this is more of a cyclical thing. Yes.”
And what does Miller have as a director that has so many cast members eager to work with her again? For Tomei, the answer is simple. Having acted in several films, Miller has a unique understanding of what goes on behind and in front of the cameras. In Tomei’s words:
“She has a deep understanding of actors because she was an actress herself. And so she’s just very clear about what she wants, but very, very kind to everyone, but she’s also never in a hurry. Often with a small film you just don’t have time… But she never made either of us feel like we had to rush through a scene for even a second or there was never any pressure, which usually means you will be there earlier The harder you push it, the harder it is to get to the crime scene in a short amount of time. So their approach really was just exploration all the time. Exploration, exploration, exploration, with a firm vision. So it’s a very important combination for a director.”
It’s a big step for Tomei to say that she would like to work with Miller again in the near future because she doesn’t have a defined decision-making process when it comes to getting used to a new film. There are many different variables to consider before accepting a new role, for both blockbuster and smaller projects. When we asked her what drew her to projects like the upcoming one Upgraded And best seatTomei said:
“You know things are always different depending on what the role is or where the location is or how easy it’s going to be or if you can have the support you need to get the job done if you can that Realize the character’s vision in terms of costumes and looks and have enough time to contribute rather than just being some kind of machine. So it depends on how the atmosphere is structured for the individual things and what opportunities are available. If there is enough room to breathe to do something fun and interesting.”
Nevertheless, e.g she came to meThe decision was easy for Katrina, but Tomei got to work with a phenomenal cast that includes him Johanna Kulig, Anne HathawayAnd Brian d’Arcy James. And since Mille writes each character as a complex human being, Tomei found it particularly interesting to see her colleagues at work. Discussing the set atmosphere, Tomei revealed the following:
“Everyone is wholeheartedly involved. Everyone came ready to play from the start and respected each other. Everyone knew each other at least a little bit. And we were just so excited to be in and see scenes together because the characters are so complex the way this person goes [bring them to life]… How does Anne plan to bring this therapist who wants to be a nun to life? How you do that? And I’m also fascinated by each other’s characters and watching them unfold.”
she came to me had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival 2023. Unfortunately, the film does not yet have a release date in the USA.
https://collider.com/marisa-tomei-she-came-to-me-interview/ Marisa Tomei Talks About “She Came to Me” and Sleeps on a Boat to Prepare
