Interview: “The Nest” Director Sean Durkin
BY DOMINIC ERICKSON
“The Nest,” written and directed by Sean Durkin, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. The film follows Rory (Jude Law) and his wife Allison (Carrie Coon) moving their family from a safe home in American suburbia to his native England. When the promise of a lavish life begins to crumble due to the tumultuous business scene in the 80s, the family must face uncomfortable truths about their relationships.
This is Durkin’s long-awaited follow-up to “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” which earned him the Dramatic Directing Award at Sundance in 2011. I spoke with him about his writing process and working in his native UK.
Dominic Erickson: When you made “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” you said you started with the single simple idea – a cult – and moved from there. Was there a simple idea here or did you start with a broader subject in mind?
Sean Durkin: I think it started in the same way. To boil it down to the equivalent, it was about wanting to look at a family in a specific place in time and about how a big move affects them.
DE: You’ve talked about remembering the different atmospheres between England and the United States. Have we lost that texture difference since you’ve grown up?
SD: Yeah, I think so. I don’t say that with any judgment, but there is a difference. Even within cities, we lose that texture. We’ve lost parts of what makes New York New York and what makes London London. Over time, places are looking more and more the same. Of course, those cities keep part of their core, but there’s just a general sameness. [laughs] Terrible word.
DE: Your last couple of projects were shot in England. Why is the UK a great place to make a film?
SD: For me, it was a personal thing of wanting to get back to a place I felt was home. I met great people there. I met great producers. It’s more specific to my personal relationships and what I wanted to explore. Truth is, I haven’t made a film in America in ten years, so I almost can’t even compare. At least in my experience, England is a great place to make a film. I think that has a lot to do with my team.
DE: Jude Law’s character wants to make the American Dream happen in England. Was there ever a point where you were focused on achieving a nonspecific goal without a second thought of how to get there?
SD: No, I don’t think so. I think it’s more something I picked up watching. Obviously, I have dreams and goals, but it’s never ahead of the work itself. In some ways, I’m sort of the flip side of that part of Rory. For me, loving each part of the process is what it’s all about. I’m very detail-oriented.
DE: Is it easier to make a character that you don’t identify with?
SD: I think there’s a part of me in everyone I write. And then I try to move them as far away from me as I can, in a way. Some move further than others, but I think I consciously do that. That’s also what’s more interesting to me. I don’t want to say something about me. [laughs] A character might start with a couple of details from someone I’ve seen and then I’ll merge them with another detail and they’ll start to take their shape. It’s a step-by-step process.
DE: Of the research you did for this movie – the Big Bang, deregulation, privatization – what is the most significant piece of information that you reviewed that helped shape the movie?
SD: Cracking onto Rory’s pitch and the vision he has for the firm. That came out of understanding what a midsize British firm was in 1986, and then what it would become, and how they basically had no future because of these large firms that were buying everything up. Once I understood the dynamics of that within the industry, it was crucial to understanding what Rory would be doing.
DE: There have been many movies lately in which the house is a character itself. Can you speculate as to what draws audiences in, or why the house is such an effective vehicle?
SD: Setting is always going to be a defining characteristic in cinema. It can also be quite personal. The thing that’s personal and universal is our own experience of a house and what it means to them, good or bad. It’s quite human to key into.
DE: I love the lighting in this movie. Can you tell me about that mood you create?
SD: Mátyás Erdély, my cinematographer, is a master. We have really similar tastes. We want things to feel natural but look stunning. To find beauty in simplicity and not let things go dark and have people fall into the shadows. We’re always on the same page and so we created a feel from that.
DE: How does becoming a parent affect your scripts?
SD: Your worldview can change when you’re a parent, and it certainly did for me. In ways I can’t always say, I understand now that everyone is a child and a parent. That certainly feeds into “The Nest.” After my daughter was born, I don’t remember what it was like when she didn’t live in the world. It’s like she’s existed forever. Something changes.
DE: Your advice for new directors is “if you want to be a director, say you’re a director.” I’ve heard that same advice for journalism. You’re not a student journalist. Not an aspiring journalist. You are what you say you are.
SD: That was a big thing for me. It was hard. I knew from age nine I wanted to be a director. I didn’t know what that meant, I just knew I wanted to make movies. But that was hard to say. The world I came from didn’t really support the arts and it wasn’t a realistic thing. As a kid in the 90s, there was a real financial boom and the idea of being a filmmaker was an outside dream. So, I kept to myself in a lot of ways. Even when I got to film school, I started off saying I wanted to be a cinematographer. If you feel you have something to get out, if you feel like you’re a filmmaker and you feel the urge to create, find a way to do it. Say it out loud. Believe it.
DE: One thing I gather from you is you like to take things slower and you avoid being sucked into the fast-paced life and instead focus on the smaller things. What do you do especially now to keep your head in the right place but also stay in touch with the world around you?
SD: It’s tricky for all of us right now. I miss my friends, I miss cinemas, I miss live music and going to sports. Those are the things that typically keep me refreshed and balanced. But we find ways. My wife and daughter are very fun people. [laughs] We have a lot of fun in our house. One of the things recently that’s helped my missing cinema is watching a lot of the Criterion Channel. Typically, whatever city I’m in I’d see whatever retrospectives are playing, and not having that this year, Criterion Channel has been a huge part of fulfilling that.
DE: The film industry has experienced a more public focus on representation lately. What steps are you taking to make the world of filmmaking more inclusive?
SD: I’m working on projects that are meaningful to me and truthful. I think each project is a specific thing, and it’s about making them complete and human. I think about that as a whole, but I don’t get too lost in it because each film will offer its own opportunities on how to do that. “The Nest” is very much a story of a woman fighting against and stepping out of a set of values that she grew up in. But I wasn’t thinking about it in those terms. Those things just naturally find their way, making it full and real.
“The Nest” is now available to rent or purchase online.
Dominic is a junior at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. He is majoring in multimedia journalism and communication studies with a minor in film studies. He is the managing editor for the college's newspaper The Concordian, for which he also writes movie reviews. Dominic hopes to continue writing about film around the Fargo-Moorhead area.
