Carla Gugino On ‘Wayward Pines’ And Working With Matt Dillon

We’re seated at the Roaring Fork BBQ joint in Austin where Carla Gugino just finished catching up with creator of Wayward Pines, Chad Hodge. This is no doubt, her umpteenth interview of the day here at the ATX Television Festival, but Gugino is beaming as she comes around the bend of the booth, excited to talk about the year she’s having.

In the M. Night Shyamalan-backed mini-series, Gugino plays Kate, a C.I.A. agent thought to have gone missing in the mysterious title town, reminiscent of the bare bones of Twin Peaks, Washington. Tracked down by her former partner and lover, Ethan (Matt Dillon), Kate is torn between playing along with the Stepford setup that’s kept her alive in a place she’s not allowed to leave and banning together with the man she loves to try and save them both. Therefore, Gugino is essentially playing two versions of the same character, making for a unique twist on traditional small town suspense. We chatted with Gugino about the thrill of leaping back and forth between television and film, what it’s been like working with Matt Dillon, and why she loved playing up the femme fatale elements of the series.

 

Decider: You’ve been busy promoting both Wayward Pines and San Andreas. How has it been working on two starkly different projects at the same time?

Carla Gugino: It’s been really exciting because what’s nice is, I’m really proud of both of them. I think as a young actor — from the moment I started when I was thirteen — I always wanted to be a transformational actor and I was never interested in branding myself or being known for one thing. So it’s interesting because, to me, this period of time right now is such a representation of what interests me. I love that they are two completely different genres, two completely different characters, one is film, and one is television. I also do Broadway, so it’s extremely fun to talk about both of them and it’s made more fun by the fact that San Andreas is literally the biggest movie in the world right now. And everyone is so excited about Wayward Pines and it’s doing so well. That’s the part of the process that I have no control over, so it’s really nice that people are as excited about them as I am. I also just did a role in a new HBO show called The Brink with Tim Robbins and Jack Black, which is also a completely different genre and tone and character and that comes out on June 21st. So it’s crazy that everything I’ve done in the last two years is coming out within one month of each other.

Decider: Wayward Pines has only been out for a little while, but it has this insane buzz surrounding it. Can you talk about what it’s like being part of this unique mini-series?

CG: Well, it’s so cool. They say a movie is made three times: once in script form, once on set, and once in the editing room. And in a weird way, there’s kind of that same template for me: I read a script, I talk to the people who are creating it, I decide if this is something I want to be a part of and they decide if it’s something they want me to be a part of. And once we make that decision, we go and do our best to make the best thing we can make. Then, this is the moment when you give it to the world and you don’t know how they are going to respond. So the fact that this has so much buzz around it and people are so wanting to know answers and so obsessed with it is really gratifying. I’ve always loved a good paranoid mystery where you are trying to put these puzzle pieces together and you don’t know how they fit; and when one fits you’re so excited, and then you’re like, ‘But wait a minute what does that mean for the other one?’ It’s really exciting.

Decider: You’ve always seamlessly moved between indie film, TV, stage, and mega-budget productions. Do you have a preference these days being that you’re doing nearly all of them at the same time?

CG: You know what? I think the fact is that I love doing it all. There’s not one that I would feel less excited about. I think I always gravitate towards character and, ‘Is it a story I’m interested in telling and the people I’m making it with, right?’ Because I feel like you are only as good as the people you are surrounded with. And hopefully they bring up your game and you bring up theirs. So I think all of them feed each other — it’s interesting. I haven’t done a play now for almost two years and I’m really chomping at the bit to get on stage. That being said, after a run where I’ve done eight shows a week of a really intense play, I’m like ‘Oh my god, I need to do a movie,’ you know? So, I don’t think so. I mean, I think what makes me love them all is the fact that they are different — they ask for different things from me. One of the things I love about film and television is that with film, you’re really capturing lightning in a bottle. You really just need something to happen once in a way that is alive and magical. In theater, you are doing the same thing, eight shows a week, and you have to rediscover it every time. Television is almost more like living in it because it’s a longer process and weeks in, there is a moment when I realize the character and I are starting to become the same person. It’s an interesting kind of thing that happens with television. So I really do love them all and I love them all for different reasons.

Decider: With the current melding of film and television, have you felt a shift on set?

CG: For sure. I mean, True Detective set the bar at a whole different level. I think what we used to be able to do with smaller studio films or independent movies — meaning an auteur with a vision is able to have that vision come to the screen, not have too many cooks in the kitchen, and have a character driven story — studios are making less and less of those movies and it’s harder for those independent films to be made. Occasionally they are made and it’s so exciting when you see something like Whiplash, Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, or Ex Machina. But I feel that television, and particularly cable television, is a template of where that’s gone. Where people who want to tell character-driven stories and oftentimes write their own material and have the power to keep that material the way they want it to be is happening. I think that’s the reason why those lines are starting to disappear.

Decider: How was it working with Matt Dillon? You have such an interesting onscreen dynamic.

CG: It’s interesting because Matt and I have many mutual friends and we’ve both been acting since we were kids, but we had never met each other before this. It’s so funny and so surprising. We had a great dynamic. There was a natural chemistry there and there’s something about him… I don’t know there’s something about the setup — about the way that Wayward Pines looks and feels. The dynamic of their relationship and the fact that Kate’s had to say goodbye to this life she had. There’s this great sense of nostalgia because for her, it’s twelve years ago, and for him, it feels like just five weeks ago. That reminded me of classic femme fatale. I think he has that amazing face of an iconic matinée idol of the ’50s. There was something about the dynamic we had that felt like he is fully, one hundred percent man. You know what I mean? Like, we don’t have that many movie stars — you can name them, we know who they are — who are really men. So it was kind of wonderful to be fully a woman with someone who is very much a man and that dynamic ends up being interesting between these two characters.

For me — for Kate — it was really key that this is a woman who has survived in Wayward Pines as long as she has because she’s really smart and really good at playing this role that she has to play there. And there is no one else besides Ethan, she would ever take the risks she takes to try and save him and possibly compromise her life and her husband’s life. So that, to me, was an interesting, very real thing that’s incredibly relatable to any of us. Like when someone’s touched your heart that deeply and you’ve had to say goodbye to that life and they reappear — a lot of things were awakened in her.

Decider: Since you’ve been doing this for so long have you ever thought about making your own projects?

You know, yes. I’m attached to a couple things as a producer, that I would also be in, that I’m really excited about. One is for film and one is for television. I think at this point, I would probably prefer to be a muse more than a director per se. I love being an interpreter. Writing is like magic to me. Writing is like summoning something out of nothing. I love to have a character that I can then take and make her fuller and more interesting than even the writer thought she could be. Then again, I like to have that source material. But if there is a story only I can tell, maybe we will have a different conversation down the road. At this point though, I do love putting people together and I’m good at putting different elements together of who might really collaborate, so for producing, the answer is yes. Probably because I’ve been doing this for so long, it’s an odd thing to realize, ‘Oh right, I kind of know how to do it.’ A lot of people that I have worked with in the past are doing it so I might as well start to make my own things.

 

Wayward Pines airs Thursday nights on Fox at 9 PM/ET. You can catch up on the series on Hulu or Fox Now.

 

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Photos: Fox/Everett Collection