LAKE GEORGE: Carrie Coon And Shea Whigham Tell Us About Their New Neo-Noir!

Synopsis

In Lake George, mobsters are tasked with ending Phyllis’s life. Don is unable to pull the trigger, so the two set off on a road trip that evolves into something much more. Phyllis has designs of her own and proposes a little tag team action to Don: combine forces to steal all the money from the people who want her dead.

Meet Carrie Coon and Shea Whigham

Carrie Coon is one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents with a wide variety of roles across film, television, and theatre. She has garnered acclaim throughout her career and continues cultivating her impressive work. Carrie is most recently seen in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the sequel to Afterlife. Upcoming, she will co-star in Azazel Jacobs’ His Three Daughters, alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen. Currently, Carrie is in production on season three of the Emmy-winning anthology series The White Lotus. 

Shea Whigham is currently in production on Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, opposite Tom Cruise. He also starred in the Sundance triumph Eileen, starring Anne Hathaway. Up next, Whigham will be seen in Netflix’s American Primeval as Jim Bridger in the mini-series which explores the birth of the American West. Whigham can also be seen in Starz’s Gaslit, reteaming with Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. He also had a memorable run on the critically acclaimed HBO series Boardwalk Empire.

Interview

Cinema Scholars’ own Glen Dower sat down with Carrie Coon and Shea Whigham to talk about their new neo-noir dark comedy, Lake George. They discuss how they both came to the project, how ‘Phyllis’ is the closest character to Carrie that she’s ever played, and how the film is deeply personal to writer/director Jeffrey Reiner, among other topics.

Glen Dower:

We have a neo-noir road movie, a mini heist movie with elements of farce, which is an awesome mixture. How did your veteran writer and director pitch Lake George to you?

Shea Whigham:

He wrote this character, Don, and he said, look, this is an incredibly, I mean, it’s a difficult character and I kind of wrote it with you in mind and I’m a sucker for anyone’s vision. So I read it and I read it in one sitting. And oddly, that’s a kind of a big litmus test for me. If I can do it and not get up and walk around. And I read it and I said, yes. And then it took two years. It took you two years to try to get it together.

And then we had a kumbaya moment where we went to an Armenian restaurant in Glendale. And I said I know the perfect person for this. And he goes, I happen to love Carrie Coon. And I said, let’s see if I can kind of hook her in here. And we did. And she said yes. Within an hour, she read it, which no one in Hollywood does. She promised me that. 

Carrie Coon:

I’m a fast reader.

Shea Whigham:

Yeah. And when people see her performance in this, I mean it. I think they’re going to be blown away. She’s the new leading lady.

Carrie Coon:

We’ll see!

Glen Dower:

And can we also call Phyllis the new ‘femme fatale’? Because, wow, she did tick every box.

Carrie Coon:

Yeah. I mean, she’s a hoot. I loved reading her. And I mean, maybe I shouldn’t admit it, but her energy is much closer to my real-life energy. So in some ways, Phyllis is the closest character to me I’ve ever played! I mean, I don’t think people expect me to be like that. But I am. I’m a very energetic person. And she was very familiar to me in that way. And also, I love just getting invited into this genre that requires some physical comedy and some action. And, you know, it’s just so rare that I get asked to do that sort of thing. And so it’s always a delight.

And then when you get to do it with Shea, who is one of our most talented and richest actors alive, working alive. You always know you’re in good hands when you see Shea Whigham in a thing. But he’s always very transformative. And his characters are always really thinking. And you always believe what he’s doing. And it’s hard to play a character that’s not speaking and still compel. And Shea does that. And it’s a pleasure to act with that, with him.

Glen Dower:

It all seems so natural between the two of you. Those car journey moments just seem very natural. But then we have the crazy moments! The mighty highlights were, what I’ve called the ‘Grave Photoshoot’ – I was just chuckling so much I had to pause it because I was missing some of the dialogue. And then also ‘In the Garage with Artie’. How much fun were those particular scenes? 

Carrie Coon:

It was exactly what you think. We just had a ball. Shea was really shoveling dirt on my face. Shea really doesn’t know how to use a phone. All that’s very authentic. We certainly had a great time in the garage. You know, it’s a fine line. That physical comedy stuff is…you don’t want to play the comedy. You’re trying to play the reality of the moment.

And you can find yourself getting away from you sometimes. So we would kind of catch ourselves and pull it back. And you have to trust your director, too. And, I mean, we had such a great ensemble. Max is so funny, and Glenn is fantastic. And Troy Metcalf is the actor who plays Artie. And he was so game. I mean, we put him through it in that garage. So a shout out to him because he was extraordinary. Really amazing. It was so fun to do. 

Glen Dower:

And so much fun to watch as well. So it really comes through as well.

Carrie Coon:

Thank you.

Glen Dower:

The film also has a timeless aspect. Your costumes were very timeless, we could have been at any point in time. Your denim jumpsuit, Ms. Coon, was especially fetching. And then you went into the sweatpants. So did you have any input into those and how did the costumes influence your performances?

Carrie Coon:

Well, we knew we were going to wear those clothes every single day. Right? So there was a lot of consideration. And I feel like the color of Shay’s shirt, the yellowing of Shay’s shirt, became something really important to drag. Right?

Shea Whigham:

Yeah. You know, look, man, this is a real personal film for Jeffrey. And I thought this one, I was really, this is what I thought he wore. And I said, listen, man, that’s what, he was so amenable. Jeffrey wasn’t so locked in and precious. And I said, look, I know it’s going to be bland, but that’s Don. And that’s, you know, and we want to see him grow throughout this piece and go through something. But like the arm, Don’s arm, that comes from a real play. That’s a friend of his whose arm got messed up in a biking accident.

And so he had to carry that through. And so everybody would say, they’d be out and they’d be like, hey, what happened to your arm? And his buddy would go, what arm? And that’d be the big, you know. So all of this was, it’s just a real personal film. And therefore that lends itself to surprise you in places that you never thought, you never see coming in this thing. So I think it is a throwback.

Glen Dower:

There are many twists and turns as well. I just want to give a quick shout-out to your co-star, Glenn Fessler, as Armin. Every time he came on screen I thought, ‘Great! This is going to be fun.’ Because he walks that fine line between crazy and cuddly. For example, when he has that little mini breakdown. And then he switches back. What was it like working with him? It must have been a joy as well.

Carrie Coon:

He’s great. You know, Shea has said they really needed to find somebody who could play the menace. But also be able to deliver the pathos in that moment. It’s a sneaky twist that you don’t see coming. And you have a lot of actors that can do one or the other. But not everybody can do both. And Glenn really delivers. And we shot in the Glendale mansion first. So he had to come in hot and just do all his stuff in those interiors right away in the first couple of days of shooting. Right, Shea?

Shea Whigham:

There are secret weapons that I call them in what we do. And they are actors’ actors. And they are brilliant at their craft. Carrie is right at the top of my list. And Glenn, he came in on Boardwalk Empire. I’ll never forget. He came in on Boardwalk. And Tim Van Patten and I and Steve Buscemi were like, that’s a great actor. And then Waco, Mike Shannon, and I, an actor dropped out. And I said I got the guy. And he got on a plane and came out and delivered.

So this, along with Max and Troy. But, you know, we knew we needed a baller, man. We needed somebody who could come in and go to that place three-fourths of the way through the movie, you know, to really go to that place, man. Otherwise, if you get caught winking to the camera and something like that, you’re done. And I don’t, I’m not. It’s too hard to make these things that I try to. If I get a say in it, which I had a little say in this, I’m bringing the best of the best. And that’s who these people are.

Glen Dower:

Let’s get back to your characters. They both have quite dark pasts we learn about throughout the film. Ms. Coon, you said Phyllis was very much your energy. But we learned a lot about her, let’s say, sordid history. Did that influence the way you played her?

Carrie Coon: 

You know, I think for me, Phyllis is such a survivor. And the thing that struck me about her when I first read the script was her relentless positivity. And I find that some people are born with an inexplicable resilience. You can throw anything you want at them that would crush any other human being. And somehow they survive and some people I love very dearly have lived their lives that way. I always wonder, is it something you’re born with? Or is it something you learn? And with Phyllis, it feels like it’s innate. And that was very instructive.

So I didn’t necessarily think of her darkness because I don’t think she thinks of her darkness. She is living moment to moment in survival mode. And if she’s grifting, she believes the story she’s telling. Otherwise, it wouldn’t work. And so that’s, I guess, what I really embraced about her and what made her fun to play.

Shea Whigham:

And Don, on the page, I have to be careful. You never can play a boring character as boring. Don’s not boring. Don, I said very early on to Jeffrey, that I have to be affected by this woman. It can be in looks. It came in a lot of looks, especially in the car early on. And I said that tells a story. And we can’t be afraid to have me have to go, hey, what are you doing back there in the backseat? None of that. It’s none of that. It’s in the looks. And she starts to get to him beautifully. Because these two need each other at this point in life. And they don’t know they need each other. And that’s interesting to watch on screen.

Glen Dower:

And it was. OK, folks, it’s been a real pleasure to meet you both and I just have time for my Columbo question…it’s just ‘one more thing’. As you’ve guessed from my shirt Ms. Coon, I’m a lifelong Ghostbusters fan, you have no idea. But I don’t want to go all crazy about it but can I just ask you, what has been the most positive, unexpected aspect of joining the Ghostbusters universe?

Carrie Coon:

Well, I mean, as you can imagine, the scenes I’ve been privileged to be a part of. For a kid who grew up in the 80s when those movies were just playing on TV all the time, I’m going to hear that music for the rest of my life. I was in a room with Dan, Ernie, and Bill when they were saying goodbye to Harold Ramis on film. And I got to be in the room feeling the poignancy of that absence for them as actors, as people, as friends who lost someone. That is the deepest insight into that franchise one could ever hope to have.

And so really, it’s just like the privilege of being invited into that intimacy is just something that fans like you Glen would just kill for. And here I am. It’s something that’s happening in my life, just very unexpectedly. And nothing I could have guessed in 1986 when I was eating Cheetos in front of the TV. I never would have foreseen that for myself. So it’s something I can’t quite really wrap my head around, honestly.

Glen Dower:

Wow, I believe you. Folks, it has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for your time and good luck with the release of Lake George.

Magnet Releasing will release LAKE GEORGE in theaters and on digital December 6th, 2024.

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