Dickinson: Yeah, I’ll answer the exercise thing first. We didn’t do a lot of that. We had a one-day rehearsal, and it was just a very brief period where Nicole, Halina, and I sat down and spoke and looked through all the scenes. We were lucky in the sense that me and Nicole bonded really quickly. We felt very comfortable with each other very, very soon. So that was a tick off the list. And then we just got into it and we just did it.
But, Halina, yeah, as an actor, I think it changes what you expect from yourself. Because even with the crew, she’s showing us what she imagines it to be, and she’s throwing herself around the floor, like, [with] no shame. Same with Nicole. Nicole has got this mad playfulness as a performer. She’s so bold with stuff. She’s not scared to try stuff. And then you think, oh, I can try stuff as well.
Malle: What’s an example of something that she tried that made you feel like you could be free to do something kooky or goofy?
Dickinson: The rave, for example. A lot of that was scripted, but she just threw herself into it. She was, like, grabbing people and kissing them and stuff.
Marius: Your breakout was seven years ago now, with Eliza Hittman’s Beach Rats. I know you self-taped for that role; what was your life like at that moment? And what was sort of on your mind as you were preparing to put yourself out there in that way?
Dickinson: I just wanted to work. I just wanted to do anything. I was working in a hotel, I’d done some theater, and I’d done some smaller, unpaid stuff, and the irony of that situation is I spent six, seven weeks in L.A. doing pilot season, and I saved up from my hotel job, and I didn’t get a thing, which is very normal. Seven weeks went by, I went back to the hotel, and I saved up for another seven, eight months, and I went back and did it again. And again, I didn’t get anything, so I went home and begged for my job back at the hotel. And then I got a self-tape through, and did it in my childhood bedroom, and it ended up being the thing that ultimately launched my career. But yeah, I just really wanted to work. I just wanted to do stuff and learn. I hadn’t been to drama school, so for me, being on set was like my education in some way, as well.
