Perhaps the biggest challenge for director Lenny Abrahamson relative to his critically acclaimed Room (A24) was getting the opportunity to make the film to begin with.
Room tells the story of a woman (portrayed by Brie Larson) who’s been in one-room captivity for seven years, since she was 17, and her five-year-old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) who was fathered by their captor.
“Someone with Element Pictures, a company I work with, said I should read this book [Room by Emma Donoghue],” recalled Abrahamson. “I was so moved by the novel due in part to the fact that I had a little boy at that point not far from the age of Jack. I could project him into the film. The story was so true, offering the perspective of the hopeful kind of curious boy who I had at the time. It captured that strange, cozy but a little fuzzy world of childhood with its myths, confusion and all at the same time wondrous things.”
But Abrahamson realized that his love of the novel wouldn’t necessarily translate into his being involved in the film adaptation. “I knew persuading Emma to give the book rights to a relatively small independent Irish production company was a long shot,” acknowledged Abrahamson. “The book was getting attention from big companies in L.A. Still I had a sense of the novel and how it worked. I had a strong sense of how it could be translated into a film. I wrote Emma a very long letter as clear and strong as I could make it. She thought it was great, the best thing that they had read about the novel. However, we still had a journey to make. At the time I had made two small, well-received but smaller arthouse films. There might have been a question about me as a worthwhile candidate. I feel fortunate in that she didn’t love anybody else’s pitches which gave me time to make more films that got attention. I then reached the point where they felt more comfortable with me.”
Once he got the gig, Abrahamson faced the inherent challenge of Room, which he described as “what’s it going to feel like to spend half of your film in this very small space? It’s a nice challenge to try to solve, working with Danny [DP Cohen, BSC] and Ethan [production designer Tobman] to construct the room to give us access without cheating—with the camera always inside the dimensions of that space. Though the space is small, it feels like a complete world as Jack would see it.”
The casting of an actor to play Jack was pivotal. “Finding the right kid was crucial,” said Abrahamson who knew he had done just that with the emergence of Tremblay.
In the big picture, Abrahamson observed, “In one way, this is an escape story. It’s also a liberation story. Once our protagonists escape physically, they aren’t yet liberated. It takes the whole film to set them free. You have to preserve the audience’s attention through the escape, showing in the second half what the protagonists have to deal with after physically leaving the room.”
Collaborative relationships
Room marked Abrahamson’s first collaboration with DP Cohen. “We had a conversation and I warmed to him,” said Abrahamson of Cohen. “I saw the great range of his work from This Is England, which was loose and real, to The King’s Speech, a very formal and classically shot drama. We talked and developed a natural rapport.”
Production designer Tobman too is a first-time collaborator with Abrahamson. “We knew we were going to be shooting in Canada and we weren’t going to bring the entire crew with us. We were in the market for a Canadian designer and Ethan’s pitch was so thorough, so much work went into it. He had such a clear idea of the spaces in the film, including what the room should look like. His design principles, his insightful presentation made it impossible not to give him the film. He offered some very lovely underlying elements that never hit the audience over the head—but at the same time made the story and environments cohesive for the audience. He removed any cliches.”
Whereas Cohen and Tobman connected with Abrahamson for the first time, the director brought some long-time collaborators into the Room fold, including editor Nathan Nugent and composer Stephen Rennicks. Room is the third film Nugent has cut for Abrahamson, the first two being What Richard Did and Frank. Abrahamson said of Nugent, “He’s a vital component in the creative process for me, a great editor.” As for Rennicks, he has composed all five of the features helmed by Abrahamson. “We’ve been friends since elementary school. His concern is not the music but the film. He never tries to demonstrate what a great composer he is. He always asks himself, ‘How can the music work in this particular film to advance the story.’ This is not a bleak film. From a child’s point of view, you can feel the possibilities, the hope. It’s ultimately a redemptive film. The music has to walk a careful line. On one hand it has to acknowledge the dark situation they’re in. Like any good fairytale in a sense it’s two people in a cottage with a warm fire but they’re in the middle of a dangerous forest. You have to give the feel of the world the boy experiences without lapsing into the childish, simplistic or sentimental. The score intensifies your emotion, underpins the reality of what’s happening. Stephen did a wonderful job.”
Over his career, Abrahamson has fared well on the awards show circuit with, for example, his film Frank scoring a Best Director nomination at the British Independent Film Awards last year, an Audience Award nom at SXSW, and a Best Director win at the Irish Film and Television Awards. The latter competition also saw Abrahamson win Best Film Director honors for Adam & Paul in 2004, Garage in 2008 and What Richard Did in 2013, as well as a Best Director for Television Award for Prosperity in 2007.
But perhaps most significantly, last month Room won the top honor, the People’s Choice Award, at the Toronto International Film Festival. Toronto’s audience award has previously been a harbinger of awards season success. Past major Toronto winners include 12 Years a Slave and The King’s Speech, which both went on to win Best Picture Oscars.
Table of Contents:
Lenny Abrahamson
Scott Cooper
Cary Joji Fukunaga
Brendan Gibbons
Lauren Greenfield
Todd Haynes
Ridley Scott
