This story was first published in September 2020 when the film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.
J Blakeson’s “I Care A Lot” follows two women who hustle their way to big bucks in a repulsive way just to grab that brass ring and live the American dream. And it was that satirical approach to the all-too familiar story that drew it stars Rosamund Pike and Eiza González to the script.
“J had written something so delicious and sort of appalling and something that drew you in,” Pike told TheWrap’s Beatrice Verhoeven during the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. “I was completely bewitched by Marla and her hustle because it’s always fun to watch someone who is incredibly good at what they do. Even if what they do is abhorrent, you still marvel at the mind that came up with the plan.
“I thought, ‘God, this is clever’ because it’s a satire on the American Dream,” Pike continued. “She’s unashamedly going for what Americans are told is absolutely right to go for…She tried playing fair and got screwed in the past, so now she’s done playing fair. Playing fair gets you nowhere. And as you can see in the film, the system is set up so that people who don’t play fair win, and it’s sort of appalling but you are riveted by the way it’s possible.”
González agreed, tossing a compliment at her costar and the “mind-bending and ground-breaking” characters she has chosen to play throughout her career.
“They don’t always follow the stereotype of what the woman should be, and I felt Fran and Marla felt like that,” González said. “Marla is this beautiful meaty character, but Fran for me felt very different to anything I had done before… I wanted to be part of a movie where I can watch something that doesn’t feel like the woman has to apologize. It’s nice to be able to be part of a movie that I feel men have so many movies like that and we don’t. I was grateful that J did a script like this and gave actresses the opportunity to do something special and unique.”
“I Care A Lot” follows Marla (Pike) as she sets herself up as the legal guardian of elderly people when they don’t have someone who will take care of them. But soon, she makes a big mistake when she takes on the wrong elderly client. Peter Dinklage, Chris Messina and Dianne Wiest also star.
“I read some news stories about guardians who are predatory guardians — they were exploiting their elderly wards, and I kind of fell down a rabbit hole, Blakeson said. “I thought it would be interesting to create a Machiavellian central character.”
Pike added: “J was saying eloquently earlier: it’s like a crime drama where the main criminal is doing absolutely nothing wrong. By the letter of the law, that is.”
Watch the video above.
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