Linda Cardellini Is On Screen Every Second In “Return”

Cannes was quite a trip this year, and people are already talking Oscars (only 9 months away). One film that's been turning heads is Liza Johnson's "Return."

Cannes was quite a trip this year, and people are already talking Oscars (only 9 months away).  One film that’s been turning heads is Liza Johnson’s “Return.”

Linda Cardellini (Brokeback Mountain, ER) stars as Kelli, in this tale about a woman returning from war front, to her husband and children.  After returning to her hometown, the audience watches as she tries to pick up where she left off.  The character slowly begins feeling alienated by her surroundings and eventually, her family.

One interesting part of the way the story is told is that Cardellini, is in virtually every scene.

She tells indieWIRE: “I didn’t think I grasped that I’d be on screen every second of the film, which was probably good because it would have terrified me at the time.”

Cardellini spent a total of 18 months preparing for this character, visiting cities in upstate New York, and even Army Base’s to connect with the character.  When asked what she looks for in roles she said:

“I like diversity, I want one character to be very different from the next. I love to live with a character for a long time if I can, but I like one character to be different from the next. One of my favorite things to do is not to speak on screen. In theater it’s different because there’s a lot of emphasis on language—it’s a different medium. But that is one of the most wonderful things about film. A person’s face can say so much more than their voice can. Liza and I have talked about how what people say isn’t what they mean and we dealt with that in this film in the subtext.”
“Usually in a role, I look for it to be more than one thing and maybe something that can surprise people about me – or surprise myself.”

With a great cast including Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire, The Runaways) we can expect to see this film on the festival circuits this coming summer and fall!

via – indieWIRE

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