Her Private Hell, filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn’s first feature in a decade, is as unconventional behind the camera as it is on screen. Sophie Thatcher, who plays the troubled Elle in the Neon sci-fi thriller, spoke to BLKCinema.com in an exclusive interview talk about what it was like collaborating with the Danish auteur, how the film was built in real time and why the experience has set a new bar for her. The film also stars Charles Melton, Kristine Froseth and Havana Rose Liu.
How Refn’s day-by-day approach shaped the film
For Thatcher, working with Refn was unlike anything she had experienced before. “Nick is a really interesting filmmaker and is very spontaneous and takes it day by day,” she said. “We were lucky enough to shoot in chronological order, so we were able to build the characters from the ground up. And I think a lot of the characters were inspired by us. And he would write in certain things. He would send in different drafts or give us a new scene and be like, ‘After some dinner conversation… [laughs]’ It was really interesting to see how we influenced the roles.”
The experience left a mark on how she thinks about her work. “This is my first time working with an auteur, and he made me feel like an artist. And it felt equally collaborative. And our voices were heard and seen and what we said mattered. And I was equally part of the vision. It’s not control, but there’s freedom within that. I think that is setting a new bar for myself.”
How Copenhagen loneliness bled into Elle’s character
Much of what ended up on screen came directly from what Thatcher was experiencing personally during production in Copenhagen. “A lot of what I was feeling at the time being in Copenhagen, being alone, being kind of confused and doing a really hard project — I think that naturally bled into the character,” she said. “She was changing every day and I wasn’t expecting her arc. I knew that she was going to reach a breaking point because she’s so repressed. And you can’t shove down all your feelings forever. It’ll bottle up and explode. So I knew that, but I didn’t know how to get there.”
She also talked about how shooting in order was essential to the project, explaining, “If we didn’t shoot in order, we just wouldn’t have made sense of anything, I don’t think. So a lot of things were up in the air and morally, all of the characters are very ambiguous. And I think that’s interesting. I love the gray areas in cinema.”
Why Refn’s singular vision resonated with Thatcher
Thatcher connected with Refn before a single frame was shot.
“Within our first meetings, it was just talking about B movies or Italian horror. Just a very specific world that I want to live in because it’s the films that I grew up with that we both romanticize so heavily,” she said. “So it’s not even just taste. I think it’s just somebody that has a vision that nobody else can execute. He has a very, very singular vision. Nobody else could have made this film but him.”
Her Private Hell is now theaters.
Featured image photo credit: Photo: Neon
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