Along with Channing Tatum and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mara and Law gush about their experience working on the set with the Oscar-winning filmmaker for the gritty medical thriller.
- Feb 8, 2013
AceShowbiz - Set to open Stateside on Friday, February 8, "Side Effects" drops a featurette that focuses on director's Steven Soderbergh works on the set of the intense thriller. In the promo video, lead actors Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Channing Tatum and Catherine Zeta-Jones explain why the film would be a great one from the hand of the Oscar-winning filmmaker.
Mara and Law recently had a sit down with USA Today, discussing their on-set collaboration with the "Contagion" helmer. "The days were ludicrously short. You'd go home at 2 o'clock," Law recalled, referring to the helmer's way of decision-making on the set. Mara agreed as saying, "When you're making a film with Steven, you actually have a life. We'd be done, I could go out to dinner, I could go to the gym. You could go to a movie."
"Side Effects" itself is a provocative thriller about Emily (Mara) and Martin (Tatum), a successful New York couple whose world unravels when a new drug prescribed by Emily's psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Banks (Law) - intended to treat anxiety - has unexpected side effects.
Explaining Emily's complicated state of mind, Mara said, "She had this sort of amazing life before. And then it was all taken away from her very suddenly. She's waited four years, and now her husband is coming back, and that seems to be almost even harder than him leaving in the first place. So they're sort of re-getting to know each other and finding their way with each other. And through that, she sort of sinks into a depression."
Law, meanwhile, described his character as someone who "genuinely likes solving problems." He said of Banks, "He likes the riddles. And this is one he can't figure out, and it sort of obsesses him."
In preparation to star in the gritty film, Law attended some public sessions with the U.K.'s National Health Service, while Mara met with patients who dealt with severe clinical depression. As they both finally shot a scene in an abandoned psychiatric ward at Bellevue, they admitted that it was not a fancy experience. "It was pretty dark, I've got to be honest with you. They weren't happy places," Law said to which Mara confirmed, "It was really creepy and dark."
