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Jane Campion made history when she became the first woman to be nominated twice for Oscar’s Best Director.
The director, 67, spoke with us about her process and working with the ensemble of the year.
KIRSTY GRIFFIN/NETFLIX
How has it been different this time?
JANE CAMPION:It’s hard to compare.
Shortly after the Palme d’Or, my baby died, and it was a real horror.
I was flung into the deepest grief I’ve ever experienced in my life.
This time, I have been able to participate a lot more.
It’s good to have you back.Dogfeels like a reawakening of a certain aspect of your style.
What snuck up on you when you were prepping?
Sometimes the buried meanings of the story don’t reveal themselves until later.
So I understood that depth of what Rose was going through.
You mention Kirsten Dunst’s character, Rose, a frontier wife who’s plunging into alcoholism.
It’s hard to grasp how good Kirsten is in this.
How would you describe her?
You’ve probably heard her speak about it, but she’s left a more difficult time behind her.
To have to revisit it was tough.
She’s absolutely riveting.
She has qualities from the old film stars, like Lauren Bacall, as well as being quite modern.
And obviously, she’s incredibly funny to hang out with irreverent and cheeky and says whatever she thinks.
Meanwhile, there aren’t too many actors who could do what Benedict Cumberbatch does here.
Why was he perfect for this, and how did you two work together?
He’s really beautiful and also a little scary, and he’s charismatic.
We’ve seen that in different performances by him, like Sherlock.
He’s fireworks with dialogue, and he’s got a lot of special capacities.
you could’t force these things.
Benedict is a sort of angry perfectionist if he feels he didn’t do anything quite right.
But in every other way, he’s really a darling.
Benedict sounds like he was hard on himself.
Did that extend to his interactions with the rest of the cast?
He would say to me, “He’s very good, Jane.
I hope you’re getting enough of him.”
I said, “I think I am I can’t stop filming him.”
How did you know he’d be so perfect?
I think the project is so lucky to have Kodi playing Peter.
I don’t know if it would be nearly the film it is without him.
He really brings something magical and other to it, that surpasses the book’s version of Peter.
And finally, there’s Jesse Plemons, such a quiet strength in this.
Very different and tone and feel, but Jesse was another gift.
Jesse is riveting to watch because as little as he did, it was all in his art.
You were completely with him.
You completely believe him, every moment.
And to look through his different takes was very intriguing because each one of them was absolutely usable.
