Robin Wright Penn Interview, Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Golden Globe nominee Robin Wright heads an all-star cast in “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” that includes Academy Award winner Alan Arkin, Blake Lively, Maria Bello, Suky Sarkissian, Keanu Reeves, Chris Nadeau, Monica Bellucci, Academy Award nominee Julianne Moore and Golden Award nominee Winona Ryder.

Adapted from writer-director Rebecca Miller’s novel of the same name, the film follows the adventures of Pippa Lee, a serene, beautiful, devoted wife and mother with a seemingly perfect life -- until her surprisingly volatile past crashes through her persona, forcing her to find her true sense of self.

Robin plays the character of Pippa Lee who on the page, in both Rebecca Miller’s novel and screenplay, presents a singularly unusual heroine who begins to question the seemingly fulfilling life she’s made for herself by entering into a dialogue with the demons of her past. As the trappings of her marital and familial life slowly unhinge, so too does the persona which has informed her world, triggering a continuous exchange between past and present to find a renewed sense of self.

The character of Pippa Lee presented a rare opportunity to a gifted actor – a female protagonist infused with a rare emotional complexity. Here’s what the talented Robin Wright had to tell us about this story of one woman’s journey of self-discovery:

MoviesOnline: Why the brown hair?

Robin Wright: [It’s] for a movie I’m doing now.

MoviesOnline: Do you feel smarter with brown hair?

Robin Wright: You know what? Yes. And blondes do have more fun. No, I’m kidding.

MoviesOnline: What was your reaction to your character when you read the script?

Robin Wright: I couldn’t put the script down. And then, once Rebecca and I met, of course, I was like “I’d give my left arm to play this role.” She said, “Well, do you think we’re going to have to do prosthetic make-up?” and I said, “It’s so not about the cliché. Older is a number. It’s about the chemistry between Pippa and Herb.” Pippa could really be any age, and that’s what we wanted to have translated was that Pippa is 20, 30, 40 and 50, even when she’s 50. She still has all of the youth and experience and innocence and self-destruction, the lies, the secrets. She still has all of those elements in her even at 50. She wasn’t realized and then all of a sudden, life took over for her and became a realization for herself, more than her choosing.

MoviesOnline: Can you relate to her and what she’s going through?

Robin Wright: I think male and female. I don’t think it’s gender based. I think we all go through an evolution in our life. We all change. Circumstances change us and when your kids get older, you become a different mother to them. Being married changes you. I mean, you are a product of your experiences in life and that’s exactly what this movie is about. It’s just those experiences finally start to erode the façade that she can’t live behind anymore.

MoviesOnline: What was it about your character and the themes in this film that resonated with you the most personally?

Robin Wright: Oh I don’t know, just being a woman and all those things I just mentioned. I mean, I think everybody lives it. I didn’t have such a destructive youth or abusive past. But, you know, everybody really thinks, “Oh, it’s autobiographical. It’s what you went through. Were you Pippa? Was that your mother?” Yeah, you can draw from the exploration of those experiences. You can go, “Oh yeah, there are little vignettes here that of course we can dabble in, but it’s not necessarily a parallel. I think it’s pretty broad being a chick. I think we all kind of go through that – the awakening and self-reflection and all the above.

MoviesOnline: There are so many different facets to this character. As an actor, was there one particular aspect of Pippa’s character that was most fulfilling to perform?

Robin Wright: To be able to play layers without using dialogue or exposition to execute what that layer is and how it resonates within the movie and the storytelling. To be able to hold that underneath is so enriching – like the more you have to hide, the more work you have to do. But I find it much more rewarding also as a viewer to watch something like that because, with Rebecca’s work, it unfolds after you’ve asked the question, “Why did she…?” Right? As an audience member you’re like “What the hell? Why would she be sleepwalking and devouring food.” And then you find out three scenes later why -- where the past is starting to be [revealed]. It’s the peeling of the onion. It’s the unveiling of the truth of what really went on. So you start to see the diary that she’s been living.

MoviesOnline: We were speaking to Rebecca about how you and Blake watched each other to pick up little facial expressions that would be common to each era and incarnation. What specifically did you pick up from Blake in her facial expression or something else that you noticed?

Robin Wright: She has one thing that she did. I didn’t know her. We’d met literally two seconds [on the] camera test day. I was rushing off to a flight getting back to California and Rebecca said, “Just go watch her and pick something that she does because you guys truly don’t look alike. She’s 6 foot 7, whatever. She’s so tall, beautiful, voluptuous body, and I was like, “Okay. Those two things are not connecting here so there’s got to be something that I can emulate that would make it believable that she was me and I was her.” So she was asking her questions and she’s such a Bambi, like she’s such an innocent, a pure innocent. Every time she would answer Rebecca, she would go, “What?” and she would lift her brow and it was like a baby discovering every essence of life that was coming her way. It was new discovery. Anytime anybody would say anything, she would just be like “Yeah? Really? Okay.” I just wanted Pippa, no matter what her age and everything she’d been through, I wanted to keep that innocence and the newness and yet you see that she’s been there. She’s done it all. She’s fucked every man, she’s taken  every drug, she’s been abused by her mother who’s an alcoholic and a drug addict. I still wanted everything to be new and fresh coming her way.

MoviesOnline: Well, whatever you did, it worked because when I was watching the movie, it was like “Oh that’s things that I’ve seen Blake do before.”

Robin Wright: Oh good.

MoviesOnline: People keep saying that you guys don’t look alike, but I didn’t even pick up on that.

Robin Wright: Good, good. That’s good to hear.

MoviesOnline: Are you surprised when they hear you say some of these bad words because somehow you seem ladylike.

Robin Wright: Did I just say bad words?

MoviesOnline: Yeah.

Robin Wright: Did I?

MoviesOnline: In some of the things that came out of your mouth.

Robin Wright: I’ve always been told I have trailer park mouth. It’s always been in me. Maybe I’m a truck driver.

MoviesOnline: Can you talk about your experience working with Alan (Arkin) who seems like he’s playing two versions of the same character?

Robin Wright: He’s so calming to be around. There’s something -- you feel very safe with him as an actor. I mean, he’s got a wealth of information. He’s very well read and has been around for quite a while in this business and just life experience and having that kind of calm foundation. You know you can fail and you want that kind of safety net with another actor when you’re in scenes. You want to know, “Okay, listen, we’re going to pick each other up if we fall, right? We’re going to have each other’s back?” And when you have that unspoken knowingness between each other, there’s an instant chemistry and a code speak that you have, and I felt like we had that from the get-go. Everybody was so concerned that the age difference wasn’t going to be believable. I totally believed we could’ve been married. And, I think it was to do with that. You get into a rhythm of trust that you kind of have to have. It’s very rare because usually you walk onto a set, “Hey, nice to meet you. That’s great. So take your clothes off. You guys are making love in this scene.” That’s usually what it feels like and you’re having to expose and be intimate with somebody you don’t know. We got to know each other. Rebecca and I really got to know each other. We got to know the movie and the story for a year before we shot, which is a rarity.

MoviesOnline: Was that more just open discussions or was it rehearsal period?

Robin Wright: More just talk and picking her brain and reading her novel. We had a bible.

MoviesOnline: What did you guys discuss on set?

Robin Wright: Oh my God, ad nauseam, everything. Everything you could possibly dissect and analyze. There were a lot of things you wanted answered and a lot of questions you didn’t want answered – you know, for the character. Rebecca actually owns all of those characters in that movie. She wrote it years ago and this novel was her baby. So, we were like her disciples, in a way, just executing her vision.

MoviesOnline: How was it working with Keanu Reeves?

Robin Wright: Great. Great person. So sweet and so available. We had to beg him to do this part. He wouldn’t do it, he wouldn’t do it. He really didn’t think he was right for it and he’s perfect for the part. Just removed enough. We wanted that very odd, awkward, “Are you perverted?” You wanted to question “Who is this weirdo?” But underneath the weirdo exterior is such a genuine, loving, understanding man. And that’s exactly who Chris needed to be for Pippa to come out of her shell. So it was great working with him. He’s a gem and a decent, decent man.

“The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” opens in theaters on Friday, November 27th.