It’s all about storytelling: Director Jean-Marc Vallée on success of 'Big Little Lies'

69th Emmy Awards celebrated a lot of firsts and acknowledged the diversity in the television industry. Donald Glover, Lena Waithe, and Riz Ahmed became the talk of the town. Another point of discussion was HBO still reigning supreme with regards to awards tally despite the absence of their biggest show Game of Thrones. With exception of Riz Ahmed's Night Of, all the credit for that big win goes to Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman's brilliant show Big Little Lies.

Based on author Liane Moriarty's best-selling book of the same name, Big Little Lies is a story of conflicts, secrets and betrayals of suburban mothers in a seemingly "picture perfect" town. Starring Witherspoon and Kidman alongside Laura Dern, Zoe Kravitz, and Shailene Woodley, the series picked up 16 awards on TV's biggest night. 

The series is directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. Reese Witherspoon brought him to helm the venture after she worked with him in 2014's survival movie Wild which brought her Best Actress nomination at the following Academy Awards.

Jean-Marc Vallée is a French-Canadian film director, screenwriter, and film editor from Québec. His movies The Young Victoria (2009), Dallas Buyers Club (2013) earned him Oscar nominations. Directing and winning accolades for Big Little Lies came as the cherry on top for Vallée.

In a conversation with DNA, Vallée talks passionately about handling the sensitive topics like domestic abuse, treating the ocean as a separate character, and working differences between shooting a movie and a TV series. 

What was it about this project that drew you to television?

My first professional gig was called Strangers and it was actually an anthology series for HBO, funnily enough. Then I started to do feature films and that became my thing. Then suddenly, I got an invitation from Amy Adams to direct Sharp Objects, also for HBO, which I’m doing. But the project wasn’t ready yet and so Reese — who I worked with on Wild — came in and said, 'let’s work together again, let’s do this.'

I thought then, okay, I’m going to explore this thing — I've never done it before, but HBO is inviting feature film people to play in their sandbox. I read the first two scripts and I went, 'oh, this is so good.' I couldn’t abandon them and just leave after directing episodes one and two. I'd cast all of the kids, I was emotionally involved with everyone and I loved the girls so much.

How did preparing to shoot this for small screen differ to preparing to shoot a feature film?

I said: I want to shoot like I normally do - a feature film. We shot exactly like I'm used to shooting. We shot episodes one, two, three as a big, long, feature film and then took a break and shot four, five, six, seven as another big feature film. Emotionally and physically, it's longer and tougher — it was 90 days. I'm so proud of it, there's something special about this one.

Did a strong female cast make for a different experience in any way?

Sometimes I had the five of them in front of me and they are intelligent, hard-headed women and of course, it’s a lot to talk to. The beauty of it is, when I say 'action,' I have five amazing actresses. I don’t know where to look and I never wanted to offend one by going to another one first to say, 'You are so good, you break my heart, you're so beautiful.'

David (E Kelley) and I, are not afraid of strong, intelligent, women. We serve this beautiful project knowing that the focus was on the female characters, it was their journey, their story. Yes, the men are there — they’re important, but it’s not really about them. Reese and Nicole came to me, they didn't go to a female director and they went to David to write it. They didn't say, we are only working with women. They said, 'We love these two gentlemen and we're going to ask them to make it with us.' This is my second girly project. People say that I have a feminine side that is very strong. I think that may be true.

How would you describe your directing style in this?

You just try to capture the thing that is so touching and beautiful. It’s all about storytelling. It’s not about trying to interfere and show off with style and camera movement. I have fun in the cutting room with the music and with the cutting sometimes. I go into the head of the characters and I get rid of the sound of reality and I use the music of a headset — like in episode one when Jane (Shailene Woodley) is running. It becomes stylistic, but only to serve the thing, not to put style versus storytelling and emotion. We don’t move the camera. If we move, it's because we're following the character, it's part of the game and it feels real.

Can you explain how significant a role the ocean plays in the show?

When I first went to Monterey, when I saw the Pacific Ocean over there, it was f***ing angry and violent. I've never seen waves like that and the sunset was so incredible. I thought, this has to be a character. And the sound – it would be the sound of the series. I thought, let's find houses where these women will have a connection to the ocean. The ocean is the mother of humanity. It's so powerful, strong and mysterious and such a good symbol. Madeline (Reese Witherspoon) lives by the ocean, on the same level. Celeste (Nicole Kidman) lives on cliffs above it — it’s so angry there. Jane, she has all these waves crashing in front of her place and you hear them — there's so much violence which she lives with and it's so connected to what she's going through. Renata (Laura Dern) lives one mile away, but on top of a mountain where she's like the queen, looking at her empire. Jane is the only one who has some sort of a weird souvenir from the ocean, that connects to something we see in episode three.

How do you create a set where everyone feels safe in an environment that deals with domestic abuse and doing such physical work?

It's tough. That's why we had a stunt double. But I tried to avoid using her as much as possible and Nicole was very courageous, very ballsy. The stunt coordinator was always there, but the way we shoot – handheld with available light, not blocking the light, not reflecting it – it creates a space. There's a feeling of reality; we're doing fiction but it becomes about capturing. I'll shoot the first rehearsal and I don't tell the actors where to go. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it's good and then I react to that. I do coverage depending on the female perspective, what they look at and where they go. If she starts walking and then she stops and he looks at her, or she looks at him - I cut from her perspective and use her looks to tell me where to cut there. It's the same with the violent scenes. Nicole was willing to do this and to shoot with no rehearsal. In episodes six and seven, it's very hard to watch. It was hard to shoot. We put some padding here and there because we knew that he (Perry Wright, Alexander Skarsgard's character) was going to push her. Like in episode two, he pushes her and then they have sex, it becomes a pattern of violence and sex.

How did you approach that storyline and show the contrast between the image of their marriage and the reality?

Everything’s f***ing perfect. The house, their looks, the kids. They're even in sync with their orgasms. That's the sad thing — even in those perfect-looking families, there could be secrets and violence. With Alex (Skarsgard), the conversation was: You've got to be lovable, we've got to care for you, you've got to be a f***ing great father and a f***ing great husband – and show it as much as you can.

The dynamic of this couple is: he feels guilty, so he's going to be nice until the next thing makes him feel insecure or scared of losing her or bad about himself because he just yelled at her. Then, whoops, it escalates and then violence. He is the only one who tells the truth at the therapist because she's protecting him. They get out of the session and there's hope for the first time. She's so grateful to him for telling the truth and for wanting to try to get rid of this demon he has inside. He tries to and it’s heartbreaking.

What was Alexander Skarsgard like to work with?

He went all the way in. 200%. When it was time to be evil, when it was time to be sexy, when it was time to be beautiful, nice, sensitive, loving, and tender — he was f***ing amazing. I was so impressed by how professional, devoted and hardworking he was. He listens and makes things seem effortless.

Catch all the episodes of Big Little Lies, on Star World and Star World HD starting 25th September, Monday - Friday at 10 PM.

(Gif credit - giphy.com)