Actor quickly signs on for Paul Dano’s directorial debut

Carey Mulligan and Paul Dano have been friends for 11 years, having met when Mulligan and Dano’s partner, Zoe Kazan, costarred in a Broadway revival of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull.” Two summers ago, he sent her a screenplay that he and Kazan wrote, an adaptation of Richard Ford’s novel “Wildlife” that he intended as his directorial debut.

When she read the the story about a 1960s housewife who flies into a rage when her husband (Jake Gyllenhaal) leaves the family to fight a Montana forest fire, much to the confusion of her 14year-old son (Ed Oxenbould), she called Dano back to say, “Yes. One thousand times, yes.”

Mulligan and Dano will appear at the Mill Valley Film Festival to talk about their collaboration when “Wildlife” screens on Oct. 5. During a chat at the Toronto International Film Festival, Mulligan talked about the film and working with first-time director Dano.

Q: What made “Wildlife” a movie you needed to do?

A: Jeanette was a hard character to do, and I like doing things that I don’t quite know how to do. I like reading something and thinking, “Whoa, how do I do that?” I remember reading the sequence where she is visiting the car dealer, Warren Miller (Bill Camp). She’s singing ‘cha-cha-cha’ and dancing. Reading that, I was thinking, “I have no idea how I’m gonna do that.” All that stuff just seemed like wild and totally off the map, and I wanted to do it. It was just a really gut reaction, and I also really wanted to work with Paul and Zoe.

Carey Mulligan plays housewife Jeanette in “Wildlife.” Mulligan and the film’s director Dano will appear when the film screens at the Mill Valley film fest.

Photos by Scott Garfield / IFC Films Carey Mulligan (left) as Jeanette Brinson, Ed Oxenbould as Joe Brinson, and Jake Gyllenhaal as Jerry Brinson in director Paul Dano’s “Wildlife.”