Diva company

I totally fell in love with Julia. She just took me under her wing, literally from the read-through, and she is so unbelievably gorgeous and generous and supportive. I didn’t expect she wouldn’t do that, but I just was taken with her. And Ewan McGregor, oh man. He is the nicest man on earth, such a good person, loving father, devoted husband, humble. Everyone was hilarious — Margo Martindale, Ewan, Dermot (Mulroney), they’re a quirky bunch, and everyone just fit perfectly.

How did you want to play your character Ivy, especially when some of the other characters such as the ones played by Julia and Meryl, are so explosive?

I felt like she was the watcher, especially when everybody comes back … because she has that reveal at the end, it felt like it would be good to save the drama. There is so much going on in that movie. There’s a lot of drama. I guess I’m wanting to live out all the drama in my work so that I can live out a calm, nice life for real at home.

The film was adapted from a stage play and a lot of the scenes are filmed in close quarters. Seeing it on the big screen, how do you think the issues came across cinematically?

Julianne Nicholson

It is a movie and it’s entertainment, so what they’re going through is more exaggerated than what you and I might go through day-to-day with families, but even within that, it made me feel for my family and people I love. Also, everyone in that movie is over 40, except Abigail (Breslin, 17) — people who have lived lives and have history and experience and the heartbreak of a life; the joy and the heartbreak of just being alive and making it through the days. I hope that doesn’t sound too depressing!.