Lake Bell Interview: Star of the Thriller, No Escape

ComingSoon.net talks to actress Lake Bell about her role in No Escape 

Although actress Lake Bell has been working for well over a decade, in recent years she’s established herself in the world of comedy thanks to the double duties she’s pulled on the Adult Swim show Childrens Hospital, which she started directing a few years ago, leading to her directing her first feature In a World…

Although she doesn’t have as much experience in the thriller genre–Katie Aselton’s Black Rock was one exception–No Escape teams Bell with Owen Wilson as Jack and Annie Dwyer, a couple with two daughters who travel to Asia just as a coup has created political turmoil with angry protesters killing any Americans they encounter. This sends them on the run trying to get out of the warzone, getting some help from a mysterious stranger, played by Pierce Brosnan.

ComingSoon.net got on the phone with Bell for the brief interview below, shortly after talking to the filmmakers, John Erick and Drew Dowdle (Devil).

ComingSoon.net: You’ve been acting for a while, but you’ve been veering towards comedy in recent years, so it’s surprising to see you do a straight thriller. Was this something you did to mix it up and take a break from comedy?

Lake Bell: Part of what’s really appealing about this project is the fact that it’s not a comedy in that effectively goes down the path of something very different than I’ve done in recent years. I think part of what I love about being an actor is getting to take on different worlds and investigate different genres and travel to different lands. And frankly just challenge me physically and emotionally so it was definitely an exciting prospect for me in a myriad of ways.

CS: The Dowdles mentioned that they spent four months in Thailand or was that just for them and it took less time to film?

Bell: I was there for about two months, but I guess they were there ahead of time location scouting. Obviously, there’s a language barrier and there’s not as much of an infrastructure to shoot, I’m sure they had to get there early to understand the lay of the land before their actors got there.

Bell: Oh, yeah. We were brought in two weeks ahead of time to just kind of bond and rehearse and just to acclimatize to the time zone, but also to get the cultural lay of the land. I think just if you’re at rehearsal for instance, “Hey, where’s the bathroom?” “Oh, it’s just down the hall and take a left.” Even that little trip to the bathroom will be a cultural experience, so being in Thailand alone offered so many moments to bond between the four of us, this little family tribe that we created.

CS: I didn’t get to ask them too much about working with the young actors in those roles, but there’s a lot of disturbing things happening in the movie, so how were you able to handle that stuff without them freaking out?

Bell: You know what? I’m with you. I was totally protective about them and what they were exposed to. I felt it was very easy to click into the Momma Bear instinct, because these little girls, yeah, sure, they’re actors and they’re phenomenal at their jobs, but they are just little girls. To play out these really, sometimes nauseating circumstances that are super scary, even though their Moms are on set somewhere, they’re not in the trenches of the scene with them. They’re not on the muddy floor of a shack in the middle of a borough in deep Chiang Mai with the rain pounding down. It’s scary stuff and I felt a huge responsibility to check in with them and really be the adult in charge. 

CS: One of the pivotal scenes is the roof-throwing scene we see in the ads and it’s pretty intense when you watch it in the movie. The Dowdles mentioned that they even had the DP on wires, so what was it like shooting that scene?

Bell: It was amazing. I’d never had an experience like that, let alone how we had to rehearse it so many times and then get comfortable with the logistics and the technology of the jump and then making sure that the girls were comfortable with it as well. That in itself was a bonding experience. We all had to quite literally jump that hurdle together. 

CS: I want to talk about Pierce Brosnan, who I’ve met a few times, but when you’re working on him and he’s playing a character like this, does he stay in that character or does he switch it on and off?

Bell: He’s the quintessential movie star. When he’s on set, he was just lovely and so generous in his spirit and kind. I don’t think he was too entrenched in any kind of method about it, but I dunno. I guess it’s not really that kind of thing. It wasn’t like he was walking around talking like he was from Southeast London. I just think he’s sort of a consummate professional and a consummate gentleman. He knows what he’s doing. He turns it on when he needs to and he tells us wonderful stories of Hollywood antics in between.

CS: Would you go back to Thailand after this experience?

Bell: Oh, yes. It was great! I lived there for two months so I feel nostalgic for it. I didn’t have a boatload of friends there or anything so I had a very intimate experience with it. I was assigned an assistant and a driver and the three of us would go around and see the sights. It was a really special experience and I’d love to return.

CS: You’ve been doing some cool stuff as a director in recent years. Everyone loved “In a World” and are waiting to see what you do next so have you started thinking about that yet?

Bell: Oh, yeah. I’ve been in preproduction and development for this other project for two years called “The Emperor’s Children.” I think we’re shooting this fall, so if all goes as planned, that will be the next project and then there’s another project that I wrote that’s called “What’s the Point?” which will likely happen next year.

CS: The first one was written by Noah Baumbach, so have you been working with him on that?

Bell: No, he wrote it but it’s based on this novel and he wrote it for Imagine Entertainment and at one point, he was going to direct it. So it’s taken on different incarnations, so now I’m taking it on and have been for the last year and a half or so and it’s been fun.

CS: I assume this is going to be a bigger movie than “In a World”?

Bell: Yes, totally. It’s a different beast. It’s also a vastly different tone.

CS: I saw that you appear in “Shot Caller” directed by Rick Waugh. Did you actually finish shooting that? It was supposed to be for Relativity and I know they’ve had some problems, so did they get to finish it?

Bell: Oh, I have no idea. I shot my bit in Albuquerque and then I went back to L.A. for pre-production on “Emperor’s Children” and then I shot “Childrens Hospital” Season 7 and then back to New York for “Emperor’s Children,” so I don’t know. I turned in my homework and then I left.

CS: When you do these other movies as an actor, are you constantly learning stuff that you can use for when you’re directing?

Bell: That’s how I learned to make movies. I feel that being an actor is a front row seat into seeing how everybody else makes their movies. Basically, being in the trenches for ten years is like a college-level course in filmmaking if not more. It feels like every director I work with and every set that I visit as an actor, I see someone else’s definition of filmmaking. That’s from a logistics standpoint, a technical standpoint, an energetic place, there’s so many things to sponge from the experience of working on a movie. I take it very seriously and I just like to be a quiet observer and that’s I collect the things that work or don’t work.

No Escape opens nationwide on Wednesday, August 26, and you can check out our interview with the Dowdle Brothers later this week over on ShockTillYouDrop.com. You can read our review of the movie here.

(Photo Credit: ER/FameFlynet Pictures)