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As Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Daisy Ridley journeyed from the deserts of Jakku to the stone-encrusted hellscape of Exegol. Yet her latest film takes her to a frontier far more familiar to Oregonians: Astoria.
Turns out that when the 31-year-old British actress stopped by the Goonies House, she wasn’t enjoying a casual Pacific Northwest sojourn. She was deep in the skin and psyche of Fran, the suicidal office worker who is the protagonist of Sometimes I Think About Dying, which opens in Portland theaters on Thursday.
New York-based director Rachel Lambert filmed on locations both iconic and obscure, from the beach where the Peter Iredale shipwreck rots and rusts to an abandoned JCPenney, where Fran has a vision of a snake slithering through an empty office. Fran’s surroundings are the soul of Sometimes I Think About Dying, along with her burgeoning bond with Robert (Dave Merheje), an ingratiating new co-worker.
Before her return to Oregon for a Q&A at Regal Fox Tower, Lambert spoke to WW about capturing Astoria on film, collaborating with Ridley, and directing beloved Portland actors Treasure Lunan and Vin Shambry (other local castmates include Ayanna Berkshire, Nicole Greenburg, Jeb Berrier, Andy Perkins, Sean Tarjyoto and Rich Hinz) in a showstopping scene set at a murder mystery party on a houseboat.
WW: Was the film always intended to be set in Astoria?
Rachel Lambert: No. We knew that it needed to be a coastal town, we knew that it needed to have a very viable fishing industry—particularly that included crustaceans. And [Astoria] was deeply unfamiliar to me, so I also think that there was something romantic in that. I immediately fell in love with it, and everywhere I looked I could see Fran.
Daisy Ridley’s performance is so powerful that even though there’s no voice-over, you feel as if you can hear her thoughts.
The script had voice-over. The decision was that she would use that as stage direction. She is fully living those thoughts. Her first line is 20 minutes into the film, but I could swear that she was talking to me the whole time. It’s such a generous performance.
How did you cast Ridley?
She had liked a film of mine called In the Radiant City, and she had included me on a list of directors she was interested in working with. I read a lot of [the films] that Daisy was attaching to over the years and I learned her taste. I got a deeper sense of all the other parts of her imagination. So that way, when the time came and I read Sometimes I Think About Dying, the first conversation I had about the script with [producer Alex Saks], I said, “This is a Daisy Ridley part.”
I was so excited to see Vin Shambry and Treasure Lunan in the movie.
At the beginning of our day, Treasure pulled me aside and said, “I want to add something to the thing I say.” There’s that moment where they’re greeting everyone: “Brothers, sisters, others.” The genius of Treasure was knowing, “This is exactly what it needs to make it even more vital and current.”
I love the murder mystery party on the houseboat. That’s the kind of magical experience of connecting with other people that I want to have.
One of the first things I told everybody when we were getting ready to shoot was, “This is a deeply uncynical film.” For the houseboat, there’s a version that would be kitschy, weird and we’re going to just judge. But I was like, “What if we presented it as deeply earnest and deeply real? And that these people come together to do this because it’s a way for them to get to be kids again and be playful and eat well?”
As Robert, Dave Merheje is both lovable and slightly creepy. How did you see the character’s relationship with Fran?
Relationships onscreen are presented in a way where everyone seems to just know the right witty thing [to say], the right timing. That’s not my experience, particularly if it’s either romantic or skirting the edges of romance, even if it’s in that maybe-friend zone. Both Daisy and Dave would say, “More awkward? OK, let’s see how uncomfortable I can make the other person!”
I love that there’s an awkward kiss, but the real climax is the moment when Fran tells Robert that she thinks about killing herself—for the first time in the movie.
It’s the integration of her hidden, inner self and the world around her. And that’s a greater marriage than a romantic one for her at that moment.
SEE IT: Sometimes I Think About Dying, rated PG-13, plays at Regal Fox Tower, 846 SW Park Ave., 844-462-7342, regmovies.com. Rachel Lambert and Dave Merheje appear in conversation at the 7 pm shows Thursday and Friday, Feb. 1 and 2. $11–$13.50.