LITTLE ROCK — Editor’s note: In Winter’s Bone, a rural noir set in the Missouri Ozarks, Fayetteville’s Lauren Sweetser plays Gail, the best friend - and main source of emotional support - of the film’s main character, 17-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence).
The movie, which tracks Ree’s odyssey to find her fugitive father, a methamphetamine cooker who put up the family’s property to make bail, won the Grand Jury Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival as well as the Little Rock Film Festival’s Golden Rock prize for narrative film. Levi Agee talked to Sweetser before this year’s Little Rock Film Festival, as she was in the midst of moving from Fayetteville to Los Angeles.
Q. Is it difficult moving from Arkansas to Los Angeles?
A. Actually, I’ve been in LA every summer of college because I knew I wanted to move eventually. The first summer I went, I went to film school there and met someone who’s now a good friend. She’s got a condo out there, so I’d live with her every other summer while I built up my networks and my contacts. It’s kind of strange because I already have a life there, so it’s more like I’m just going back.
Q. Where did you grow up?
A. I grew up in Fayetteville. I went to Fayetteville High School and decided to go to Missouri State for college. I got my bachelor’sdegree in acting. I just graduated in May.
Q. Did you do much acting when you were younger?
A. I did in high school. Mostly I danced for a long time, choreographing some of the musicals and being a principal dancer in those productions. Then the drama teacher was like, “You should audition for this play” and I was like, “I don’t know.” But I went anyway and ended up getting the role and loved it and just got the bug.
Q. Do you think taking classes gives actors a leg up in the industry?
A. Oh gosh. There’s not one way to do it. I think everyone takes their own path and decides their own way to get there. For me, it’s about studying and learning and constantly being in class and learning new methods. I don’t have one ideology. I think you need to learn a lot and pull from it what you like and make your own way to do it. If you’re not in class or you’renot auditioning, you need to be reading books or doing something else to progress yourself toward that goal.
Q. How did you get involved with Winter’s Bone? Did you audition for it?
A. In Springfield, I took a professional film acting class called the Creative Actors Workshop and she [director Debra Granik] saw my acting first at the table read.
A table reading is when you cast the actors who would fit the roles, and theyall sit at a table and read the script so they can make the changes and hear how the script sounds. I sent in an audition tape three years ago for the role of Gail and got cast for the table read. But that doesn’t even mean you’ll get looked at for the film. However, I had a good rapport with Debra Granik and [screenwriter] Anne Rosellini and kept in contact with them.
When they were done with pre-production and ready to start shooting, I got contacted to audition for a different role than the one I play in the movie. I got asked to audition for a supporting role and then after a few callbacks for that they asked me to audition for one of the leads. That’s what I ended up booking.
Q. How did you prepare for playing Gail?
A. I had read [Daniel Woodrell’s] book, so I just dove into research for that. I had a very different upbringing and background from my character, but it goes back to being open-minded to those ideas and trying to figure out that character. It was challenging. Being around the families that helped us out on the film definitely made a positive difference. Just being in that area and taking everything in and seeing the landscapes helped for sure.
Q. How did your parents react to the success of the film at Sundance and your new career path?
A. They’re really, really supportive. I’ve been really blessed to have a family that is so supportive. Even when I said from day one that I was going to school for acting, they were on board for it. Definitely not many of my peers who are in the acting program with me had supporting families. I’ve always been the type [that] if I wanted something I would get it. I rarely take “no” for an answer. I just try to find a way to do it.
Levi Agee is a programmer for the Little Rock Film Festival, as well as founder and host of Cameras on the Radio. E-mail him at:
Style, Pages 58 on 06/27/2010