RadioTimes.com<\/a> she admits this was precisely the last thing she wanted to do when she was initially handed the script.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019d just finished making Passing and I was on my way to Sundance to promote The Night House,\u201d she explains during an exclusive interview. \u201cThis was just pre-pandemic, so I was absolutely not looking for anything like this \u2013 The Night House was a heavy lift and I was like, \u2018I can\u2019t do another one like that, I can\u2019t do another woman going through hell thing.’\u201d<\/p>\n
When she read the script, however, Hall instantly found herself being won over \u2013 \u201csurprised, outraged, and gobsmacked by its bravado and sheer insanity,\u201d as she puts it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realised that in spite of all those caveats, I had to do it,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I did it almost out of a sort of wackadoodle curiosity, because part of me didn\u2019t really believe that it would work. I was like, \u2018How on earth can anyone pull this off?\u2019 I didn\u2019t know, but I was sort of fascinated and morbidly curious so I had to take the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film tells the story of Margaret, a successful businesswoman and single mother living in Albany, New York whose life begins to unravel when she comes face to face with David (Tim Roth), a mysterious man from her past who still holds some sort of power over her. Upon their reunion, Margaret immediately experiences an extremely visceral reaction, and as the film goes on we slowly learn more about the nature of their previous relationship \u2013 including some truly bizarre revelations later down the line. Thematically, it\u2019s not a million miles away from the aforementioned The Night House, and Hall says this isn\u2019t necessarily an accident.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s entirely a coincidence, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s innately to do with me,\u201d she explains. \u201cI think that there is something in the culture that is really mining societal anxiety right now, and I think that I saw in both of these films a sort of punching against the consequences of dealing with trauma or bereavement, finding the strength to come out of that, or sort of even just a kind of catharsis in processing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sort of smelled that there was something in the culture that needed that exploration right now \u2013 words like gaslighting have become much more common in conversation in the last five or 10 years and I think certainly Resurrection is a lot to do with that and those sort of psychological processes.\u201d<\/p>
As for the character, Hall thinks of Margaret as \u201cthis crazy sort of lioness\u201d \u2013 while comparing her to a rather unexpected movie icon.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re gonna laugh when I say this, but there was a lot of the sort of revenge tropes of like Liam Neeson in a Taken movie,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd there\u2019s something kind of, for as serious as it is, and for as heavy as it is, there\u2019s a sort of dramatic relief that comes with getting to that point where you\u2019re just like: \u2018And now, destroy.\u2019 It\u2019s quite fun to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the key scenes in the film comes at around the midpoint. While speaking to an intern at her place of work, Margaret delivers an extraordinary monologue outlining the precise nature of her relationship with David and why he continues to cause her such great distress. The camera remains fixed on Hall\u2019s face for the entirety of the eight-minute monologue, and the simplicity with which it is filmed makes the moment all the more affecting. But what was Hall\u2019s initial reaction to seeing this incredible speech in the script?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely appeals to your actor\u2019s ego,\u201d she laughs. \u201cYou\u2019re like, \u2018Oh now I really get to show off!\u2019 But that\u2019s not a good enough reason in and of itself; I think it has to be tinged with fear. There is that sense of like, \u2018This is really scary and I don\u2019t know if I could do this, but if I did, it would be impressive.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI also thought it was filmically pretty bold,\u201d she adds. \u201cI mean, nobody does that anymore. People aren\u2019t interested these days so much in people talking, just really talking and holding and trusting an actor to sit and do the exposition without cutting away to a flashback or a dream or something. He [director Andrew Semans] knew that\u2019s how he wanted to shoot that from the beginning [and] I thought if you can make that kind of brave decision in your filmic language then I think you\u2019re probably going to make good decisions throughout this process.\u201d<\/p>\n