Cinematical Visits Set of Jessica Alba's Upcoming Thriller 'The Eye'

Lionsgate recently invited Cinematical out to the set of The Eye, a new supernatural thriller starring Jessica Alba, Alessandro Nivola, and Parker Posey, and directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud. They were shooting in downtown Los Angeles and ironically, the weather was completely sunny and beautiful all weekend but they had to make it look like a nasty gray downpour was happening. Come Monday morning, it was completely gray and rainy for real throughout Los Angeles, just the way the filmmakers would have wanted it. The sheer amount of work involved just to make it look like it is raining when it's not (they don't just crank the knob on a hose) is pretty impressive, and it makes you realize how much work has to go into something so simple.

We watched them coordinate massive amounts of water, corral extras, block actors and meticulously plan out camera shots. There was a massive amount of work going into this, because it's the first time we see Allison (Alba) in the film. Besides the pouring rain, she has to juggle a violin, her bag, a cane, an umbrella, and pull it off like someone who has been doing it for years. Oh yeah, and she's also blind. All of this information in a single shot helps not only establish the look and feel of the film, but it tells you loads about Alba's character without a single line of dialogue.

The Eye is a remake of the Chinese film Gin Gwai, directed by the Pang Brothers, about a young woman who has been blind for most of her life, then has a corneal transplant that restores her vision. However, she has difficulty dealing with the transition, and begins to hallucinate. Her new vision not only allows her to see what we see, but she can peep into the 'spirit realms' as well. She sets out to discover the mystery behind her vision, and to learn more about the donor of her corneas. The original is more about the mystery of it all than about spooky ghosts and ghouls flying around, and hopefully this remake will stay true to that. We're all starting to feel a bit burnt out on the Japanese horror remakes.

We sat down with Jessica and the directors over lunch to discuss the film at the Downtown Standard hotel, which has a really amazing rooftop bar and seating area. It's a trendy L.A. spot to see and be seen, and was featured prominently in the movie Crank. The fare they treated us to was interesting: hummus, french fries, mini-hamburger, and chicken skewers. I guess it was "Lunch of Many Cultures Day." Sadly, as Jessica was quick to observe, they weren't serving us alcohol. Darn those working lunches. She picked up a mini-burger and some java and quipped, "This'll go down so smoothly ... coffee and hamburger. This would go better with scotch." I agree. We settled into our uber-uncomfortable, but trendy-looking seats and got down to brass tacks.


Question: We've heard from the actors that your style of shooting is conducive to working together. How do you guys work together, and how has it been working with Jessica and Alessandro?

David: "Working with Jessica was a nightmare, but hopefully she is not here (laughter -- she's sitting right next to him munching a burger). Working with Xavier is great, we basically do everything together. It's not about splitting things, we do pre-production and everything together, and when we are on the set, maybe there might be one of us who speaks more than the other (Jessica points to David)."

Jessica: "They're excellent, they really compliment each other. They're like a great married couple, the ideal marriage. They really are each others yin and yang."

Question: Does that make it feel like they play good cop, bad cop? Or mom and dad?

David: "I think it's like bad cop ... well, I won't say who the good cop is. It's more like mom and dad."

Jessica: "But you guys really have the same vision, right?"

David: "Nope. (laughter) It's more like ping pong. When you're alone facing your own jobs, there's just you and ... when you are two, you're exposed more, and think, 'Maybe we should do that.' "

Xavier: "It helps you concentrate on the story. Sometimes when you're alone you think, 'maybe we should concentrate on this', but when you are both together, you focus on the story more."

Question: Jessica, what was your choice for going to the thriller genre? It's not something we've seen you do before. "I've wanted to do it for a long time, and I wanted to do something that transcended the genre. Fantastic Four is a big Hollywood comic-book movie, but what attracted me to it was that the female superhero was more of a maternal figure. She was in a family dynamic, and that to me was much more interesting than a girl who is just in leather, being sexy, and cutting people's heads off. So, I purposefully went to doing a comic-book movie that, to me, goes into being a family movie as well. With The Eye, its really intelligent, and its a beautiful story with this girl and her sight, dealing with never having it, gaining it, and losing her sanity. It just happens to be wrapped up in a horror movie, and I think that is so more interesting than playing something ... running around in a white t-shirt."

David: "Well ... sometimes that can be interesting!"

Jessica: "I totally appreciate that stuff, I do ... but it's a lot more interesting for me to play someone who is blind, and a classical violin player ..."

David: "Who is running through the streets, in a t-shirt, with a violin, in the rain. (laughter)"

Question: What was it like learning the violin?

Jessica: "It's impossible."

David: "Don't say that!"

Jessica: (laughs) "Bullshit! It's impossible. And he (she points at David) picked really, really difficult music! What I'm learning is what people play in university, after they've been playing since they were five. So, they play their entire life, go to university then play Mozart. Nooooo, that's what I'm doing now! Three months of just learning how to even hold the instrument, I'm having to memorize ..."

David: "But all the notes are accurate."

Jessica: "All the notes are accurate, and I am playing the actual notes of the music and it sounds ..."

David: "Very good!

Jessica: Like a cat in heat. (laughter)."

Question: How many hours a day are you rehearsing for that? "On average an hour and a half, when I can ... three hours yesterday, 15 minutes during lunch sometimes, because we're shooting 16 hour days, so I only had like 15 minutes to study that day. It takes a lot of dedication and hard work, but that's why we're in this crazy-ass business, because we get to do so many things. Like pick up instruments that you would never in a million years pick up. I have a great appreciation for it, and I want to represent musicians and people who are blind in the best way I can. I don't take it lightly, it's a nice challenge to have."

Question: Can you describe the scene we are going to see today?

David: "We are shooting the beginning of the movie where we see Sydney for the first time, and she's getting out of a cab under the rain."

Jessica: "Can you please tell them how difficult it is?"

David: "And she's blind ..."

Jessica: "I have my violin strapped to me, a purse, my cane, and an umbrella ... and it's a torrential downpour. I'm like, how the hell am I supposed to get out of the taxi like this? So I have someone, who you can't see, pushing me out. It's not a cute thing for a few hours."

Question: How challenging is it to play someone who is blind? "It was very challenging. It was weird because ... I don't know if you have ever thought about losing your sight, but it's quite daunting. I would go around my house with a cane and sleep shades on in complete darkness, and you get really claustrophobic. I mean, even just drinking water and anything, it just feels very claustrophobic. There's been a few little panic attacks and nightmares about being blind. It's a really different reality to live in.

Now I look for Braille everywhere I go. There are no menus in Braille! If someone is not sighted and they go to a restaurant, they just have to trust whoever is reading the menu to them. I don't know, there are things that I would never even think about ... on the sodas at McDonald's they have a little bit of Braille on the lids.

It's definitely interesting. People who are blind can function in the world just like everyone else, and I always thought it was such a handicap that you couldn't really do what everyone else does. But, they do everything. This woman who we met in New Mexico, she's 25 years old and she's a classical vocalist, and she lived in London for two years. She lives in Boston now, and she travels everywhere by herself, all the time, and doesn't need anyone to help her get around. She competes with people who are sighted, for concerts ... she's really inspiring and she's kind of my inspiration for the movie, for sure."