From author Gillian Flynn, showrunner Marti Noxon and director Jean-Marc Vallée, HBO’s eight-episode limited drama series Sharp Objects follows what happens when Camille Preaker (Amy Adams) returns to her small hometown to cover the murders of two pre-teen girls. Trying to understand the crimes puts her in the direct path of her own past and forces her into the line of fire of her disapproving mother Adora (Patricia Clarkson) and her impetuous 15-year-old half-sister Amma (Eliza Scanlen).
While at the HBO portion of the Television Critics Association Press Tour, Collider got the opportunity to chat 1-on-1 with 19-year-old Aussie actress Eliza Scanlen about her audition process, getting the opportunity to play such a nuanced and complex character, being starstruck to work with this level of talent, in front of and behind the camera, the biggest challenges in playing Amma, how supportive everyone was of each other, during this shoot, her desire to keep doing projects in the States, and shooting her next project, later this year.
Collider: I’ve seen seven of the eight episodes of Sharp Objects and you really do such tremendous work in this. It must be so much fun, as an actor, to get that big of a range of emotions, in one character.
ELIZA SCANLEN: Definitely! Especially with Amma being so young, I feel like it’s not often that you come across characters who are so nuanced, at such a young age. So, it was really nice being able to bring Amma to life. (Author) Gillian [Flynn] has a large following, so it’s nice to see that the reaction has been positive.
It’s interesting because she’s a character that has a certain level of immaturity and a certain level of maturity, at the same time, and she acts differently, depending on who she’s around?
SCANLEN: It’s almost as though she chooses to be immature. It’s almost like she decides to control her personality, as needed, depending on the person that she’s communicating with, which is something that I never really noticed that much when I was playing it. But when you see it on screen, it’s such a different experience.
This is a pretty big project that’s gotten a lot of attention. Did you know that, when you started the journey with it?
SCANLEN: Yeah. I loved Amy Adams, beforehand, and Jean-Marc [Vallée], with Dallas Buyers Club, but I don’t think anyone could have expected the reception it’s gotten. It’s been really cool. I remember when I was shooting it, I was just so focused on getting through it. We never really thought about what would happen after. We didn’t expect it to be this big, at all. And for me to be in involved in the marketing of the show, that’s something that I’m very grateful for, as well.
Are you glad that you finished shooting it all before everyone got to see it?
SCANLEN: When it finished, I was so relieved. One of the biggest challenges about Amma was deciding what side of her character that she was going to play. Exploring her, as a character, was interesting, as an actor, but at the same time, it confused me. Amma confuses me, so trying to decide how I was going to go about the scene was difficult sometimes because there are just so many different versions of the truth with Amma. None of them are necessarily untrue, and she reveals different parts of her identity, depending on the person, so the part was difficult to decide on. She still baffles me. I don’t know how I got through it. I was just a crazy lady, shooting it.
Do you think that Amma has a real sense of who she is, or do you think part of the problem with her is that she really doesn’t?
SCANLEN: I think that’s part of the problem. She’s going through a delicate time in her life, as a young girl who’s experiencing more adult things, and that’s a difficult phase for anyone to go through. It’s like going through puberty. It’s awkward and weird and confusing, and you don’t really know how to act. You’re going into adulthood, but you definitely don’t feel like an adult. And the thing with Amma is that she wants to be an adult, but she’s forced to be a child, in a way, and that confuses her sense of self immensely. Usually, if you’re in a supportive, loving family, you’re encouraged to explore and be independent and find your own way, whereas I think Amma is denied that and it’s taken a toll on her self-esteem.
The duality of her character is reflective of how she’s trying to explore different sides to herself and just how lost she is. She needs someone to rely on, and I think Camille was that saving grace for her. I remember being a kid and wanting to be so many different things. There was even one point that I wanted to be a clarinet player, and I had never even touched a clarinet, in my life. And then, I wanted to be a chef. And then, I wanted to be a vet. It’s hard to decide who you’re gonna be, as weird as that sounds, because we all do it. In a way, by deciding so young, you’re pigeonholing yourself into a certain career or a certain type of personality that makes life easier because you can follow this regimen of what people do. I think she’s just trying to explore all of those things, and she just feels really lost and confused about who she is.
And her family doesn’t help with that.
SCANLEN: No. They want her to be the southern belle, and she’s like, “Nope, that’s not happening.”
What was the audition process like, as far as getting this role?
SCANLEN: When you’re an aspiring actor, you do so many self-tapes that it gets to a certain point where you have to develop a thick skin, otherwise you will never survive. When this role came through my inbox, it was definitely something that caught my eye because there were so many great people attached to it. It’s not often that you get that, especially when you’re starting out in the business, so this was definitely something I was very attracted to. Also, the subject matter was very dark, and that’s always a good thing for an actor. We love getting into the meaty stuff. I don’t know why actors are just attracted to really messed up people, but it almost makes it more fun, in a perverse way.
So, I did the self-tape when I was doing my final year of high school, which was in 2016. I actually had decided to take a whole year off auditioning because I really wanted to focus on achieving the grades that I had hoped for. There was a break in between two exam periods, in which I started to audition again, and I had a few self-tapes come through, one of them being Sharp Objects. I just sent through the self-tape and I actually hadn’t read the book, at the time, so I had a very surface level understanding of Amma, as a character. And then, my manager came back to me, after watching the self-tape, and said, “I think you need to redo this.” That’s never happened to me before.
I take pride in my self-tapes, and I always try to get them perfect, so I was a little taken aback. I was like, “All right then, I’m taking up this challenge, thank you very much.” So, I sent it through again. I worked really hard on it, and it was very different to my first one. It was that self-tape that got me into the room in L.A. There was also another audition process, in which they took on casting in Sydney, where I did another read of the same scenes. The scenes were very much in my head, by the time I got to L.A. When I walked into the room with Amy and Jean-Marc, it was more about connecting with them and feeling comfortable and introducing that sense of play into the room. I think one of the most important things, as an actor, is to know your lines, back to front, so there’s opportunity to explore and discover. That’s where the spontaneity lies, and I think that’s the most exciting thing about it, personally.
Was it intimidating, at all, to walk into the room that first time, and was the first day on set any easier because you’d already had that experience?
SCANLEN: No, it did not make it easier. It made it more intimidating. I was definitely starstruck, but with the audition, there was no time to be starstruck. I really just went straight into it. One of my first scenes on set was coming home drunk to Camille, and that was a scene from Episode 3. I just remember walking on set, seeing the director, the assistant directors and all of the assistants, and I freaked out a little. The amazing thing about it all is that, once you get into the scene and you’re focused on your character and where the scene is going, everything else melts away. The nerves melt away and, in a way, it’s freeing. Coming off that set was very gratifying. It was nice because we all developed a really strong relationship with one another off set, which made the experience on set and our characters even more intense and connected. I don’t think it would have been that way, if we weren’t so close off set. It’s weird to think that, a year ago, I was starstruck seeing these people, and now I could probably tell them anything. I have to pinch myself, every day. It’s been definitely a whirlwind, this past year, for sure.
It seems like with material like this, everybody would have to be really supportive of each other, so that you could just get through each scene.
SCANLEN: Exactly! It was hard for everyone. This is the first U.S. project that I’ve ever done. Everything else I’ve done in the past has been either guest roles or short films. In a way, Sharp Objects is all that I’ve ever known. And then, hearing from Amy, Patricia [Clarkson] and Chris [Messina] that this is one of the hardest shows they’ve worked on, in terms of the environment that we were working in, it’s comforting. It was a challenge for all of us and that, in itself, brought us together. They’re fantastic, and I’m very lucky to have worked with them.
Are you looking to and hoping to do more work in the States now?
SCANLEN: Yeah, I actually have a few things lined up. I’m working, later in the year, on the new remake of Little Women (from writer/director Greta Gerwig), and that’s really exciting. That involves people that I’ve looked up to, for a really long time. It makes me realize that, even though this is definitely what I want to do with my life and I’m just at the beginning of my career, it’s already been a fantastic ride and I don’t think anything can really top this. I’m just so grateful for all of the opportunities that people have provided me with. I don’t even know how to process it. You can probably tell that I’m still trying to figure it out myself because it’s all just so new and exciting for me, but it’s been great.
And that’s another very female-driven story.
SCANLEN: Yeah, definitely! I’ve come into the industry at a good time. That’s what I’ve been told, and I definitely agree. There are a lot of opportunities for women, of all ages, which was definitely not the case, just a few years ago. I feel like a lot of teenagers have typically been played by 25 year olds, and even 30 year olds. It’s nice that I’m playing a little bit more to my age, although from 15 to 19 are pretty progressive years. It’s just been really, really cool being here.
Does it also change the kind of material that you want to do, once you do projects of this quality?
SCANLEN: Yeah, definitely, for sure. I’m still exploring, which is the fun thing. I’m still figuring out what attracts me and what sort of message I want to put out into the world. I think it takes awhile. I’m only 19, so I don’t think I should feel worried about not knowing what voice I should have yet, but I’m definitely getting there.
Sharp Objects airs on Sunday nights on HBO.
