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B
en Affleck is a longtime fan
of best-selling crime author
Dennis Lehane, and his
new movie,
Live By Night
, marks
the second collaboration for these
Boston natives; Lehane’s
Gone
Baby Gone
serving as Affleck’s
2006 directorial debut.
But the actor feared he might
not get the opportunity to adapt
Live By Night –
Lehane’s second
novel in the Joe Coughlin trilogy
about Prohibition era Boston
mobsters – after Leonardo DiCaprio
snapped up the rights as a potential
vehicle for himself.
Thankfully for Affleck, that never came
to pass, and today he directs and also
co-wrote this DiCaprio-produced glossy
period drama as well as starring in the
lead role of mobster Joe Coughlin, who
graduates from small time Boston thug
to running the mob’s liquor trafficking
operation in Florida.
Lehane’s other books
Mystic River,
Shutter Island
and
The Drop
were all
award darlings, leaving Affleck with much
to live up to on
Live By Night.
Showcasing Sienna Miller’s gaudy
moll, Elle Fanning’s born again Christian
and Zoe Saldana’s sensuous rum-runner
against a veteran cast including Chris
Cooper and Brendan Gleeson, the film
proved an epic undertaking involving
massive sets and location work.
Not all of his cast agreed with Affleck’s
vision, however, including Saldana, who
twice turned down the offer to play his
onscreen wife.
“I didn’t audition for this, and I didn’t
want it. I said no. ‘I don’t f–ing want to do
this movie.’ But Ben was very persistent,”
recalls Saldana when
STACK
meets with
her in Los Angeles. “A year and a half
later he was like, ‘So did you read the
new draft?’ I was pregnant with twins at
the time and I was in a foul mood that
morning. So we sat down and I
was brutally honest with him
and then he was brutally
honest with me. And
that inspired me. He
was like, ‘Dare to do
this for me. I love this
era. I want to do this. I love this
story, I love this writer. I believe in
this adaptation that I am making,
I’m working with the best people
because that’s the formula. And
I want you to do it with me.
Honestly, I don’t want anyone else
for this part.’ One, he tickles your
ego. Bastard! And two, you want
to believe what he sees in you.”
Portraying Coughlin’s first
love, Emma Gould, Sienna Miller
disappears behind a thick Irish
brogue, silk flapper dresses and ‘20s
era make-up, causing her co-star Chris
Messina to note, “She is unrecognisable
from movie to movie. If you watch
Foxcatcher
and then
Mississippi Grind
and
American Sniper
and then see this, there’s
a chance you’ll watch all four movies and
not know she’s in it until the credits roll.”
Miller believes Affleck deserves kudos
for hiring the best people in their fields,
including award-winning costume and
production designers. “It was the most
stunning experience to be on these sets.
You could open up any drawer in any room
and there’d be a 1920s coin, a lighter or
someone’s old garter. There was no stone
left unturned. It was decadent and luxe
and authentic. He really created an
amazing atmosphere,” she says.
Fanning, 18, admits she
was initially intimidated
working with the writer-
director-actor. “A lot of my
scenes were with Ben so
I felt the pressure where
I’m like, ‘Oh, I have a scene
with the director?!’ So you do
the scene and then he’ll say ‘Cut’,
and then go and watch it on the
monitor. But Ben can do so many
things, it’s pretty extraordinary.”
While the actresses don’t share
any scenes, Saldana puts it thus: “I’m
happy just to know that we are going to
share screen time together. It gets really
lonely being the only female, so when
you know there are going to be kick-ass
women coming and going in the story,
and their relevance is substantial to the
story, you feel great.”
2 1
There was no stone left
unturned. It was decadent
and luxe and authentic
•
Live By Night
is in
cinemas now.
NIGHT LIFE
continued
DVD&BD