Rebecca Hall Talks ‘Christine,’ Working With Antonio Campos & Blurring Lines With Reality

It was actually one of two films at this year’s Sundance about Chubbuck.
I did not see the other film.

You haven’t?
No, I haven’t had the chance.

In “Kate Plays Christine,” you get to see Kate Lyn Sheil heavily research the role and try to get into Christine’s psyche at the time. Was your research as thorough as that, or did you go into production with a more flexible, open mind?
I actually didn’t do much research on Chubbuck. There isn’t much footage of her either, and there really aren’t that many people that knew her either. The role is still ultimately me. I love roles where I don’t really know how I’m going to do it, and I don’t really fully understand the character’s motivation or actions. Those are roles I try to look for, because then I can create something out of nothing.

Did you even see any footage of Chubbuck? Evidently, the suicide tape doesn’t exist anymore.
That is correct. There is footage, but I don’t think it is publicly available. I just saw 20 minutes of footage of her doing [her show] “Suncoast Digest.” I didn’t learn much from it, to tell you the truth. It just made the process more creative for me —I had a larger canvas to draw on, and as an actress, that is a very exciting prospect to take on.

So how did you approach the scene where she commits suicide?
That was the hardest thing I’ve had to do as an actress. It also happened on the very last day of shooting, so it was on my mind for quite some time before that. I also remember how badly I was shaking when I was washing the blood off. There was a point when shooting that scene where reality blurred and I didn’t realize it was fake. I convinced my brain that it was real. It was disturbing and it lasted for a whole day.

You were in that post-shock state for 24 hours?
Yeah. It was just holding a gun up to my head and my brain thinking, “She’s holding up a gun to her head.” Then when the fake blood started to pour out of my head, I was thinking “what the hell is going on?” It’s a natural reaction, but it goes to show how “into it” you can get as an actor.

How was Antonio as a director?
Antonio is brilliant. He is so instinctual. He never really spoke about the scene when it was shot or what was supposed to be going on. We both just went with it. We felt it. It’s all very hard to describe. We both emotionally lived the entire film together and I hope people get to see it. I am really trying hard to push this movie forward. I know It’s not an easy sell, but it’s such an important work of art that it’d be a real shame for it to get lost in the cracks.

“Christine” opens in limited release this weekend on Friday, October 14th.