https://variety.com/2020/film/features/ ... 234701427/
What Debicki can reveal is that she’s playing the estranged wife of Branagh’s villainous character. She was thrilled to work with Nolan, and the movie is “the kind of experience you want to have when you go to a cinema.” It was filmed in seven countries and ranks as the longest shoot she’s ever been on, dwarfing that of the six-part “The Night Manager” series. And though the budget tops $200 million, Debicki says “every penny goes on the screen.”
“Chris builds everything; he constructs all the imagery piece by piece,” she marvels. “He has this ability to make a film that involves complex thinking and yet make it entertaining and accessible. It’s almost got the feel of an indie set because of the precision — Chris works very fast; time and energy are spent on all the right things there. There is nothing superfluous. It was humbling and collaborative and definitely made me stronger as an actor and probably as a person.”
Ironically, Debicki was almost too good an actor for Nolan to consider at first — having seen her work in “Widows,” he assumed she was American. “I was looking for a very, very British characterization, an English Rose kind of character,” Nolan reveals. So when Emma Thomas, Nolan’s wife and producing partner, suggested Debicki, she had to inform him the actor wasn’t from the States. “Elizabeth’s one of these great actors who, when they’re brought to your attention, you realize you’ve seen them in a lot of things but not realized it’s the same person,” he says. Nolan went back and rewatched her work in “Widows” and “The Great Gatsby,” along with “The Night Manager,” and was struck by her range. “For somebody as striking and interesting to look at as she is, the idea she has a chameleon-like ability speaks volumes to her skills as an actor.”
Debicki insisted on auditioning. “I certainly wasn’t asking,” Nolan says. “There’s a certain level of actor who, as a director, you don’t necessarily want to ask them. But she wanted to. I think it was important to her to know that she could do what I was looking for. And she came in and just blew everybody away. In my mind, she was only confirming what I already knew. What she did with it is far beyond my hopes even.”
While he would never give away anything about the plot (we tried), Nolan will say that he believes Debicki pulled off an incredibly challenging role. “It’s a very difficult character because she has to be extremely vulnerable and put upon, and yet there has to be this strength, this depth, these reserves that come forward,” he allows. “I think that’s very difficult for an actor to pull off without resorting to the unrealistic or resting on the simplistic version of the character arc. She finds a way to play vulnerability and strength at the same time, which is very human and very real.”
For her part, Debicki refuses to confirm or deny fan theories about “Tenet.” She does get a kick out of some of the speculation and hints that ultimately, “people are going to be very, very surprised.”
