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Molly Parker talks Trigger

By Anne Brodie Aug 2, 2011, 15:23 GMT

Trigger is the story of two rock n\' roll women who once shared a friendship, a band and a whole lot of chaos... ...more

Molly Parker had a life changing experience making the film Trigger with long-time friend Tracey Wright.  Not only was it a home coming, working again with director Bruce McDonald on Daniel McIvor’s script, it was unexpectedly emotional.  Wright was dying of cancer. 

Trigger’s about two middle aged former rock stars who have a turbulent relationship, coming together after years apart for a special benefit performance. The film was finished just before Wright passed away. 

Monsters and Critics spoke with Parker
 
M&C: There’s a shared history between these women.  What’s the relationship like when we meet them?

Parker: These women haven’t seen each other in 12 – 15 years. That’s said they grew up together.  They were each other’s best friends and they found a way to be okay in the world because they found music together. 

For whatever reasons, it’s the friends I’ve had for twenty years, will take time to write me when I go astray.  It’s a great thing.  When you’ve gone away and you think you’ve changed, they tell you you’re exactly the way you were, and you were just like that when you were twenty.  You need to hear that.  It’s great.  And that’s what this movie is about.

M&C: And you have a personal history with Tracy, don’t you?

Parker: We were both in Twitch City and we are both in The Five Senses, there are a number of things we were in but didn’t work together.  So it was Twitch City, that’s where I met her.  And that was fourteen years ago.  But Tracy and I were not close, close friends. 

I knew her for a long time in a professional and social sense, with Don McKellar, this small group, Daniel McIvor, Bruce McDonald, and these people who all came up together.

M&C: So Trigger was shot pretty fast, but I understand it turned your life upside down.

Parker: Honestly, how do you talk about this kind of experience?   Daniel wrote this thing for us to do.  Bruce sent me a postcard about it a year before.  We were going to shoot it summer of 2010. 

Then Tracy was diagnosed at Christmas time and so Daniel called me to see if I would come to Toronto that weekend to do this.  So I came and we read it and they videotaped it.  It was great.  It read like it was really was fun and we all wanted to do it. 

And Don (Tracy’s long-time partner) told us the only way we could do it was to do it right now.  Like right now.  So we started shooting the next weekend. 

I flew back and forth every weekend form LA and we shot this movie in nine days but it was stretched over these periods of time, tense days and then breaks which was the only way we could have done it because there was no preparation. 

So the very first day we shot, it was 35 pages of dialogue, but thankfully, they edited it.  But it was in the script, that was the first day of shooting and we had no time to prepare and it was fine.  Don McKellar lay under the table on the floor with the text just in case we forgot a line and it was that kind of thing.

It was like coming home, it was like family, it was for me, I was very conscious the whole time that this was the only time I was going to get to spend with her but also that we got to spend time doing the thing we really love to do and I think we both tried to be present. 

And to play these characters to the best of our ability in that limited time.

M&C: Is it hard watching?

Parker: I saw a rough cut right after Tracy passed away a couple of days after and I don’t know what I saw to be honest.  What I saw was her and that’s what I saw and yet one of the things that’s so amazing about her was her absolute just being in it, she played the character and did the work and didn’t complain and she was a terrific actor.

M&C: Did it change the way you looked at acting having that experience?

Parker: I liked acting more on those days than I have in years.  It wasn’t that it we thought here’s real life and we’re making this fake thing and it doesn’t matter. 

It felt it had value just in the doing on it, never mind the result necessarily which is not a possible  way to make film all the time, it’s just not, but in this circumstance, I really felt in love with Toronto and people and her and making movies.

I live in Los Angeles I’ve lived there ten years. I have never felt like I could only work on one place.  My entire career I have worked in Canada, the states Europe and that seemed just impossible for me.  I feel very lucky.

I would fly myself to Toronto to audition for things and I’d fly myself to London to audition for things.  And then I still do that so that I can have that kind of career. That said, I am aware that I’m incredibly lucky to have a Canadian career, because it’s difficult to make a living making films anymore, anywhere. 

There are so fewer films getting made, and in the States there are very few films being made and we are still making films here and that’s pretty incredible.  That’s because we have system of support.  It’s great to be from a country that supports its artists the way we do.

M&C: You look so glamorous in the film, whereas you’re usually au naturel. Was that something you had to get used to?

Parker: I’m glad to hear that.  As it was written, Daniel wrote that character as my uber-LA look, of not a lot of makeup, but great skin, perfect eyebrows.

There’s a look and that’s kind of what I was going for – but I also wanted there to be this kind of chick who was a rock chick and an original sense of style came from that place, but she lives in this television world now.
 
What I wanted for her was to feel insecure about what she was wearing.  And it’s in the script, she shows up and she has this outfit on because she’s planning to go and do this show but then she realizes she’s overdressed, so she wants to go to her friend’s house and put on this crappy t shirt. 

I get that, I totally get that.  But I had totally great boots in that movie that I borrowed from a friend in LA and they made me feel pretty fab.

M&C: Are shoes part of your prep for a character?

Parker: Shoes are important in acting; shoes are SO important, for real. Because they ground you for one thing, they define how you walk, they define you hold your body and they say a lot about a character.

The right shoes feel good when you put them on, you put on shit-kicking boots and you feel stronger.

M&C: Cool!

Parker: I put on stilettos and you have very different identity starting with your feet going upwards.  This happens a lot when you’re shooting, particularly for women. Whatever the costume is, you’re in stilettoes and your feet kill you all day.

They say, don’t worry, you can put running shoes on, but then as soon as you put the running shoes on, you’ve lost her! You have to put the shoes back on that hurt you.

M&C: What do these big black boots say about you?

Parker: I’m very, very intelligent. I just bought them and I have blisters.  I got new shoes to be here with you.

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