An Interview with Debra Granik, Director of Winter's Bone
Ashlee Thompson as Ashlee, Jennifer Lawrence as Ree Dolly and Isaiah Stone as Sonny in WINTER’S BONE, directed by Debra Granik. Photo Credit: Sebastian Mlynarski
If you hadn’t heard of the film Winter’s Bone prior to this year’s Seattle International Film Festival, you likely have by now. The independent film screened at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, walking away with a major award (Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic) and a distributor (Roadside Attractions). It then blew through SIFF with two sold-out screenings and the Golden Space Needle Audience Award for Best Director (Debra Granik) and Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence).
Adapted by Granik and co-writer Anne Rosselini (founder, One Reel Film Festival and former SIFF programmer) from Daniel Woodrell’s 2006 novel of the same name, Winter’s Bone is a slow-paced, simmering thriller about a girl’s search for her missing father. 17-year-old Ree Dolly (Lawrence) combats the threat of losing her home to her father’s bail bond agreement with a tight-lipped, violent clan of relations. We spoke with director Debra Granik about the development of the film and the immersive experience of shooting on location in the Missouri Ozarks.
Winter’s Bone has done incredibly well with film festival audiences, both at Sundance this year and at SIFF.
It really always comes as a huge surprise. There is no way to predict what film will find an audience or what film will be appealing and interesting to people. There’s huge relief too, that something can find an audience and resonate with people.
Films are made by so many people, its such a collaborative art form, you never feel like its just you. A whole bunch of contributions are resting on this idea, that people in the end did find it worthy, that the work we put into it was found to be meaningful.
How did you come to collaborate with [co-writer] Anne Rosselini, and how did you end up selecting this project?
Working with Anne predates finding this novel. The first film Anne and I made together was called Down to the Bone. Our collaboration was founded on that film, and she and I found Winter’s Bone together.
The book was making the rounds to find filmmakers that would be interested. The book was circulating, we were passed it, and we read it, and we conferred that we both felt very passionately about it. First, that we had found a female protagonist that we really liked, and would feel great about bringing to the screen - this confidant, vivacious, full-bodied female.
Second was the idea that the story was set in a place that we didn’t know. We didn’t know any of the details about that kind of life. We thought, what would be the ability of filmmakers from a very specific geography to then go to a place they don’t know? Could we find the collaborators down there, and could that process be interesting and rich? Could we all make a film together? That takes long time to cultivate, and takes repeated visits, and is built brick by brick. But, it’s a really rich experience.
Those two things also seem to be coming out positively in much of the critical commentary, both the stand-out character of Ree Dolly and the unique setting in the Missouri Ozarks.
One thing that strikes me, and Anne as well, and is pleasant and encouraging to see, is that there is interest in other places. The audiences responding to this film are saying: it is curious and rich and interesting for us to see life in this other part of this really vast country.
And to see a location, or specific region, treated with such respect and care, and truth.
That came from local people working with us so closely, meaning that once you’re allowed to use real locations, it’s not like you’re impersonating it or trying to recreate it. It’s more that they’re informing you: this is what we have in our yard, our house is heated by this kind of stove, and this is what the smoke looks like when it comes out of the chimney. We have a seven year-old that lives in this house; these are her toys. This is her trampoline. This is what she looks like when she plays.
Ashley, the granddaughter of the landowner on the property in which we filmed, plays Ree’s sister. She allowed me to “see”, over time, over my many visits. She showed me the different dogs on the property, about caring for the horses, or riding an ATV. I wouldn’t know what a young girl in those coordinates liked to do, what made her life lyrical, but she could show me.
That we had a chance to bring the book to life where we were being taught and coached and shown these details, it allowed us to tell the story in a way that was very real for those coordinates - the area called Forsythe, in southern Missouri. We believed that this was a location that the character of Ree could have come from.
That trampoline imagery was really strong for me. It cropped up several times throughout the film.
[Laughs] It’s not like we said, “Why don’t we put a trampoline in there.” Instead it was kind of a reverse process where we were like - let’s put this trampoline in the screenplay because it is outside of Ashley’s house, and she clearly enjoys playing with it.
Did you then build any sets for this movie?
We did not build any sets for this film. In addition to Ashley’s family we had been hooked up with neighbors in the area, so we were very fortunate. One yard that was very fabulous in terms of photographing and in terms of richness in detail was the house of Glen and Pat Kenyan, which ended up being “Megan’s” house, who is a girl in the film who is close to Ree’s age.
This yard had such an accumulation of objects. What that felt like for us was this unusual depth of field. Everywhere we looked in the yard there was something very mood-evoking. Glen had this kind of externalized chimney where you could really see the smoke coming out from it. He had a clothes line, he had these abandoned vehicles that had these grasses growing through. That contrast of metal and weeds, that’s already so strong. When the wind blew, things moved in the yard. These things ended up being the camera’s best friends. They add texture and an atmosphere. During this project our hardest task was to be very detailed observers of this rich, lived-in environment, to record and organize that carefully, and put that on screen.
That atmosphere really came through for me as well. I remember thinking, watching the movie, that the art department had done a really good job arranging debris in a yard. It’s a really strong visual element.
That was the details and flavor of the place we found ourselves. We did have an art department, and they still had that very arduous task of continuity, and organizing, and to keep the actual protocols of filming. And when they did have to change things, how gentle could that change be, or non-invasive. Purposeful.
How then did you end up casting Jennifer Lawrence?
Jennifer was someone that was unknown to us; we had not seen any of her previous work. The fact Jen was born and raised in Kentucky meant that she had a very lyrical way of pronouncing the script. She had this sensibility, and she let us know that she didn’t think it would be that hard for her to come to the region and start to listen very carefully and absorb and take notes, and be immersed. She was willing to put that effort in. Always with an actor, it’s a wonderful feeling like there’s the potential to collaborate with them profoundly. Especially if that actor is going to be in every scene - you have to be given a sign from that person. They have to want it. Part of finding Jen though, was incredible luck.
Debra Granik. Photo Credit: Sebastian Mlynarski
For me, depicting violence is a really hard thing for me to do. I have very rigid standards for myself as to what kind of violence would be worth representing. I take it very seriously, if I’m going to do that there had to be some meaning to it. It’s hard for actors to commit violence. It’s not always the person who pretends to receive it; it’s also very hard to get in the mindset to perpetrate it.
I think that using people’s imaginations is a more involving way to depict violence in the sense that someone had to participate in terms of trying to conjure and understand it, and identify with what that might feel like. If it’s all very graphic you’ve got a bunch of simulations or special effects, and I’ve never been convinced that that is as effective as what an audience will do to feel compassion for the woundable body of another person.
What has been Daniel Woodrell’s response to the adaptation of his book?
I think he was very charmed to see such a close adaptation of his work. We pulled a lot of dialog verbatim from the novel. Not actually being from the area we had no expertise to really alter that.
Daniel is a very passionate film lover himself, and is someone who responds to very strong performances. In the end I think he felt very pleased that characters he had conjured in his imagination were brought to life by the likes of Jen and John [Hawkes], that they were an interesting Ree and an interesting Teardrop to watch. We got very powerful affirmation from him that he had enjoyed the acting in the film.
The authors that end up being fruitful to work with are the ones who do understand that novels and screen are different ways of exploring human story telling. The snow is described hugely in his book, but we couldn’t make the snow happen, and ice and slush. I told him - Daniel, it will be very hard for us to achieve snow; we can’t manufacture it; we can only have snow that’s given by nature. He was very understanding; he didn’t want to revoke his trust in us. He understood that the cold in the story could also be achieved through the sound of the wind and through seeing the characters huddle near their stove…
Your previous project, Down to the Bone, was an original script, and here with Winter’s Bone you were making an adaptation. Which process do you prefer?
They are such different experiences. This was so much easier, because Daniel had already grappled with the structure, and had put this very helpful time-limit element in. That makes it easier to film, because it shows Ree just in the here and now, for ten days of her life.
Often with original stuff, people have the temptation to want to tell the story over time, and that often very hard to structure. Film is very unforgiving, the amount of time you have in a film, what knowledge the viewer has in terms of backstory….
I would like to work both ways in the future. When there’s a story that catches my mind and my heart, often those stories haven’t been written. And other times, there’s those unforgettable stories that we’ve all read. Some of these stories have never been topped, and never been surpassed. So I am truly open.
What will your next project be?
We've been researching a story that takes place back in the Northern Arkansas and Missouri area. Anne and I really were very inspired by the woman who curated the music for the film and sings in the film - her name is Marideth Sisco. She is an Ozarks researcher, has lived there and written about it and spoken about it all her life, and she pitched us a couple stories. She could be the person who could really help us find the root of entry into a story.
Once you make a film, a lot of interesting fallout happens. Often you get your seed for your next film from the process of making one.
Winter's Bone is currently screening at Landmark Guild 45th, Uptown Cinema, and Lincoln Square Cinema.
