Press Bits

Award-winning director Paul Haggis’ latest romantic thriller “Third Person” follows the journeys of three sets of couple at three different stages of a relationship set at the backdrop of Paris, Rome and New York.  The movie’s main character Michael, played by Liam Neeson, a novelist who’d been famous for his previous work has holed himself up in a hotel suite in Paris finishing his latest book.  Within the hotel works a maid named Julia, Mila Kunis’ character – an ex-soap opera actress who was once a frequent guest at the hotel.

             
Julia is caught in a custody battle for her 6-year old son with her ex-husband Rick played by James Franco, who is a famous New York artist.   With her support cut off and her legal costs ruinous, Julia’s lawyer Theresa (Maria Bello) has secured Julia one final chance to change the court’s mind and be reunited with the child she loves.     Julia’s sole motivation in life is to gain joint custody of her son but her fragile psychological state and the circumstances of her marriage break-up make that a big challenge.

A fan of the director’s works, Kunis had no qualms joining the cast, “I’ve been a fan of Paul’s work and he has a very specific way of writing so I didn’t necessarily know what to expect but I knew it was going to be intertwining storylines. I can honestly say that there are those movies that come along that they make you realize why you love doing what you do and working with Paul Haggis made me fall in love with my job again. I love it, I love every aspect of how he works, how he interacts, how, confident he is and how confident he makes you feel.   I think we just kind of get each other’s work ethic and work rhythm.   He trusts me and I trust him that’s just so incredibly important”.

“Given the complexity of the film, Julia is a hard character to explain,” says Kunis of her character.  “She’s slightly misunderstood but she means well.   Technically speaking, she’s in a custody battle with her ex-husband Rick for their child Jesse.  At heart, Julia’s a sweet person but she’s always late and if a person has to make a right or a left turn, she always makes the wrong choice, but it’s not on  purpose so you can’t blame her for it.  Maybe she just has the world’s worst luck, or maybe not.    She seems to be constantly put in situations where she’s just being attacked or accused of not being good enough.”

Kunis’ onscreen ex-hubby in the film, James Franco, Rick, pulls their son away from her mother.  “Rick is one of a number of characters who come in and out of the film and he’s an artist, a painter in New York and has a child with Mila Kunis’ character Julia. He and Julia have had a very rocky past and she seems to be emotionally unstable and irresponsible and maybe even dangerous towards Jesse, our child. So, I gain custody of Jesse and I prevent her from seeing him because I think she might hurt him. Paul writes very intricate characters.  I remember years ago he once told me that he likes to make himself the villain.  He likes to put himself into his characters,” Franco enthuses.

“Mila Kunis and I have done something like seven projects together, after working together so many times, there’s certainly a shorthand with Mila Kunis and I.    We just get along very well.      We’ve kind of done everything together - fantasy, comedy, drama, a weird vampire thing, an experimental movie, so I guess the only thing we haven’t done is maybe action, so we’re looking for a, an action script next!” concludes Franco.

“Third Person” opens June 18 in theatres nationwide from Axinite Digicinema.

Adrien Brody who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of real-life Holocaust survivor Wladislaw Szpilman in Roman Polanski's “The Pianist” and he is, to date the youngest person to have received the Oscar in that category stars in the latest romantic thriller “Third Person” opposite an impressive cast that includes Liam Neeson, Kim Basinger, Moran Atias, James Franco, Mila Kunis and Olivia Wilde.
             
  “Third Person” spans three stories of love clothed in mystery where Brody plays Scott, a shady American businessman and reluctant globe- trotter, who is in Italy to steal designs from fashion houses.  At the end of his trip and looking for something American to eat, he goes in search of a decent hamburger and a Budweiser, and finds Bar Americano, where, to his consternation, he finds nothing he is seeking. He is about to leave when in walks Monika (Moran Atias), a breathtakingly beautiful gypsy.  Unable to stop from flirting, Scott discovers that Monika is about to be reunited with her young daughter. When the money she claims to have saved to  pay  her  daughter’s  smuggler  is  stolen,  Scott  feels  responsible  and  is compelled to  help.  Though she  is  skeptical  of  his  intentions, she  reluctantly agrees and quite literally takes him on a ride. While they explore the more dangerous corners of southern Italy, Scott starts to suspect that this girl they have set out to rescue may not even exist. Nothing about their encounter is quite what it seems.
“My character Scott Wallace is a man who’s made some errors in life and some mistakes are permanent and too difficult to overcome. I think he’s grappling with a lot as a result of that and he’s unable to forgive himself.  He encounters a very interesting, alluring young woman in Rome while on a business trip and he somehow needs that excitement she embodies but that too is a tumultuous chapter of his life.    At the same time, it pulls him away from the weight he’s been experiencing and is kind of unable to escape on his own”. .   It’s way more interesting to observe imperfections and people’s ability to get past those imperfections. That’s more inspirational than overly heroic characters,” explains Brody.


               
Further, Brody shares that “I strive to find material that is unusual and speaks to me and that’s either something with incredible social relevance or something that is a learning process for me as a human being, not just as an actor and that I can share. There’s a degree of that in this piece – the processing of emotions and the need to overcome certain things that prevent us from moving forward and being present.   Tragedy befalls many people’s lives and you have to surmount that, or it destroys any possibility of the future.    I also think that there are many flaws in all the characters in this film, they’re all really flawed human beings and I think film should celebrate flaws rather than create perfect people, because people are imperfect.”              
Atias, who plays the gypsy Monika, is an immigrant from Albania trying to scrape together a living on the fringes of a world where people like her are considered to be less than dirt – all con artists and criminals.  “Her character’s strongest motivation is simple – survival.  .  It’s not a question whether or not she wants to do certain things; she sees no other choice.  Hers is just a very basic need.   One key characteristic about her is that she doesn’t trust anybody and she has a really good reason not to trust anybody, especially men,” says Moran.
               
A model and an ambassador in worldwide disaster relief operations, Atias shares that “I’ve done a lot of research to play Monika, even on things that I knew were not going to ever be in the script, but I just wanted to explore the life of the gypsy in Italy..   I became so respectful of their courage and dignity and that force of life to continue.”
             
  “Third Person” opens June 18 in theaters nationwide from Axinite Digicinema.