INTERVIEW
Director Kenneth Lonergan elaborates. “And in some ways, to be able to work on something while you’re running errands, in line at the grocery store, or driving to pick up your kid from school, to just having something to meditate on and prepare for in a kind of inactive sort of way, is actually really pleasant.
“It mixes your real life with your work life,” adds the actress, who is a mum to 11-year-old Matilda, her daughter with the late Heath Ledger.
Dressed in black, and sporting her trademark platinum blonde crop, the petite star is equally honest about the impact such harrowing scenes have.
“You’d get closer to the set and you’d just think, ‘Man, I don’t want to do this day, I hope it starts to hail and then I can go home and not have to do this scene’,” she admits.
“But it turned out everybody else was feeling like that too. It felt like a death march getting to the last scene.”
Yet there was never any hesitation as to whether or not to sign up.
The draw was largely down to Kenneth’s expertise, with Massachusetts-born Casey stating: “Even if I hated the man, I would do anything he brought to me because his work is so good.
“He’s made three movies and they are all incredible. Nobody else has that track record. He’s at 100%.
“A “All of his plays are also really bea beautifully written,” continues the acto actor, who featured in Kenneth’s West End production of This Is Our Youth in 2 2002.
“[It’s] astonishing how well they work; you laugh, you laugh, you laugh, and in the end you’re crying and you don’t know how it happened!
“Also, because I love him so much and he’s such a good friend, even if the writing wasn’t as good as it is, I would probably do it anyway because I like hanging out with him,” Casey adds with a grin.
“I’ve waited this long to work with Kenny,” Michelle chimes. “[I thought], ‘Whatever it is, I am there’.”
But while she’s no stranger to engrossing herself in demanding roles – her credits also include My Week With Marilyn, Brokeback Mountain and Blue Valentine – the Montana-born star says she makes her professional decisions purely on a “moment-to-moment” basis.
“It’s just what comes to me at the time, but right now I’m working on a movie that’s a musical. There’s lots of singing and dancing; it’s for families Michelle Williams as Randi and I’m having so much fun,” she reveals.
“I don’t know if it is ever just one thing necessarily. It’s just how it happened to work out.”
Casey, meanwhile, is planning to return to directing with long-time friend Joaquin Phoenix.
“I found a book that I loved and I had such a good time working with Joaquin (the pair last worked together on 2010 mockumentary I’m Still Here – and it was Joaquin who introduced Casey to Summer, his sister, who Casey married and had two sons with before they separated last year).
“We were supposed to do it last summer and just didn’t get together in time. That’s the only danger of working with a close friend,” Casey admits, flashing a smile. “You never take anything seriously enough and you sit around talking about it endlessly and then the window is gone.
“So we had to kick it down the road; we’re planning to do it later this year.”
Manchester By The Sea is in cinemas from Friday