Unforgettable role for ‘perfect Hitchcock blond’
Katherine Heigl unveils a darker side to portray vengeful ex-wife in thriller
Unforgettable Opens April 21
After leaving the series Grey’s Anatomy, Katherine Heigl went on a romantic comedy movie tour.
Her role in Unforgettable is a completely different trip.
In the thriller, Heigl plays Tessa who is trying to cope with her new life and the end of her marriage. Eventually, she settles for revenge against her ex-husband (Geoff Stults) and his new wife (Rosario Dawson) when she feels rejected.
It’s an abrupt against-type portrayal for the actress but veteran producer and first-time director Denise Di Novi was confident about her casting choice after collaborating with Heigl on the comedy-drama Life as We Know It in 2010.
“I watched her on that set shift from comedy to drama with real deep emotion,” says Di Novi with Heigl and the rest of the cast at a Beverly Hills hotel. “I liked her personally, and she has this kind of towering strength and confidence that suited the (Unforgettable) role — this perfect Hitchcock blond.”
In fact, Heigl started to build her psychotic Tessa — with Di Novi’s assistance — beginning with her clothes, shoes, makeup, posture and especially her perfectly straight hair.
“We worked together on that and it set the tone for me, in her perfection and the way she would hold herself, and that hair,” Heigl says. “That was a mistake, but (the hair) works great for the film. It just didn’t work well for my head.”
Aside from the high maintenance facade, the actress was also enthusiastic about diving into the complex portrayal of Tessa, especially when she slides into deep dysfunction.
“I think she’s in huge denial and she’s repressing so much,” Heigl says. “She contains it all. I’ve done that on occasion where I just sort of stuff it down — but I don’t usually try to kill people.”
Certainly, the root of Tessa’s issues begin with her domineering mother played by former Charlie’s Angels star Cheryl Ladd.
“We talked about women who have to look great and have to be smart and need to exist in that culture of perfection which is so unrealistic,” Ladd says.
Indeed, Di Novi and Heigl decided early on that Tessa would not live in a vacuum of evil but have a reason for the behaviour however obvious it might be.
“I felt compassion for (Tessa) and I wanted to have moments where we could do that, so that she wasn’t just maniacal,” Heigl says.
“She’s heartbroken, insecure, afraid and aging, and not knowing how to deal with any of it.”
And yes, the actress did suffer for her art by standing stiffly erect just as she thought Tessa might because “she’s wired so tight.” It was worth the extra effort “but it did cause me a lot of back pain.”
Still, her most difficult sequence was one of her most emotional moments when Heigl’s Tessa scolds her young daughter Lily (Isabella Rice) for ignoring her.
“Tessa truly believes she’s doing the right thing for her child,” says Heigl who has three young children. “She’s trying to teach her a valuable lesson, ‘You only have one mother, so don’t alienate me’.”
All agreed that having a female director, rookie or not, helped provide some finesse to what could have been just another thriller with a female antagonist.
“What I loved about this was the opportunity to work with a bunch of remarkable women and tell a very multi-faceted story about women,” says Dawson.
They did manage to have some fun during the shoot, though. That occurred when Dawson convinced Ladd and Heigl to do a Charlie’s Angels pose for a picture one day.
“We ended up doing it and then we walked away and I remember (Heigl) being like, ‘I wanted to do that but I didn’t want to ask,’ ” recalls Dawson. “I love that picture,” Ladd says. “I know, I love that picture, too,” Heigl agrees. “I framed that picture.”
“It is so the antithesis of what (Unforgettable) is,” Ladd says.