Digging for Fire with Rosemarie DeWitt
The actress talks capturing the improvisational feel of life in Joe Swanberg’s latest film
Actress Rosemarie DeWitt is just as grounded as she is daring in her work. When speaking about DeWitt in Your Sister’s Sister, director Lynn Shelton said of her ethic, “Rosemarie really married with the project and became part of the fabric of the story. She’s just incredibly brave, completely fearless.”
Director Joe Swanberg mined these qualities when he paired frequent collaborator Jake Johnson with DeWitt in Digging for Fire, in which Swanberg once again relies on moments of naturalism from his actors to bring his and Johnson’s own story to life. He also revels in spontaneity—his own son Jude is quickly becoming a fixture in his wheelhouse.
In the film, DeWitt plays Lee, a mother at odds with her husband Tim (Jake Johnson) over which preschool to send their young son to. Tim and Lee have the chance to stay at a Hollywood Hills home, but that goes down the drain when Tim stumbles upon a bone and an old gun on the property. Intrigued by the mystery behind his findings, Tim wants to delve into a dig, while Lee would rather leave it alone and focus on their daily problems, such as their unfinished taxes, and their son. The two go on their own separate journeys as Tim stays for the dig and Lee retreats to reflect on her current challenges.
Paste spoke with DeWitt about being in the moment, and making out with Orlando Bloom.
Paste: The unique thing about Joe’s films is that he has this certain way of capturing the real minutia of life, and because of that his films have this improvisational feel. So how much was it improv?
Rosemarie DeWitt: A ton. It was different in that, when I worked on Your Sister’s Sister with Lynn Shelton, it felt like this crazy relay race with this big ensemble—almost like a team sport. It would be acting in moment-to-moment stuff, and there would be a lot of gymnastics in keeping the story straight. On this project Joe and Jake [Johnson] really broke the story. We didn’t do 45-minute takes to see what we needed. We would do 30-minute takes and only do two of them because we were shooting on film. Joe was editing the film all the time and always knew exactly what he wanted. As much as it was improvised, now we’re at that place where there’s a lot of improvisational movies to make, where 10 years ago they were novel. Now there’s a whole genre for them.
Paste: Since Jake Johnson co-wrote the film with Joe, was there any kind of pressure attached to that?
DeWitt: No, if anything he was a great resource. He was only on set the days that he worked because he wanted to embody the character, and not wear the producer hat. If he were around, maybe I would say, “Hey, is this working?” Joe and Jake are so collaborative that when they hand off the role to you, they really hand it off and they said, “Do whatever you feel. Do whatever you want.” It would be rare when Joe said, “Oh, we don’t need that. Let’s stick to this plot point.” Almost always they would really welcome whatever the actors brought to the table.
Paste: Since the two of you spent most of the film on your own separate journeys, did you think about how that chemistry would look or feel when you both shared the same space in a scene?
DeWitt: It’s funny. I think we met up one time before with Joe before we started shooting. Joe is almost devious about tracking you when you’re not in front of the camera, and he takes mental notes. I think the dynamic is already in play from the very moment you introduce yourselves, and he would say, “Remember that day you guys were sitting on the couch? I think you should do it in this scene.” He’s constantly bringing life in, so when the camera rolls there’s no weird moment. It helps with the chemistry and the naturalism.