Two completely different worlds merge as a father fights for his daughter’s freedom in the new suspense film STILLWATER. This powerful story follows Matt Damon's character Bill Baker, an ineffective dad and unemployed oil-rig worker who travels from Oklahoma to Marseilles to support his daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin). He helps her fight for freedom after she is imprisoned for a murder she says she didn’t commit.
Along the journey, Bill meets French actress Virginie (Camille Cottin) and her eight-year-old daughter, Maya (Lilou Siauvaud), and the pair helps him on his quest. This incredible cast sat down with us to explain how the chemistry between characters came together on the big screen.
"The chemistry was different depending on who was there. Like Abi and Camille, they are pros," Matt Damon said. "So we would talk about the work one way, but with Lilou, we were trying to keep it fun for her."
"I refer to her as the Meryl Streep of nine-year-olds, she’s like just incredible and just a natural," Damon added.
Siauvaud's story is pretty incredible. "Never acted a day in her life, doesn’t speak a word of English and just showed up ready to play,” said the film’s director and co-writer, Tom McCarthy.
"The chemistry between her and Matt... you know, Matt’s got four daughters of his own, he knows what it is to be a dad, you could just see it. Matt speaks no French, she speaks no English and they just sort of had this thing between them, it was great."
McCarthy first started working on STILLWATER about ten years ago and at one point set the project aside until he found the inspiration to push it through.
"I thought ‘okay, I love the setup, I don’t like the rest of what I’ve written.’ I’m going to get two new writers, they’re going to be French since the movie takes place primarily in France and we are going to crack this. And I think we did."
Abigail Breslin added, "Everybody was so incredible to work with and we all cared so much about the film and telling the story and getting it right that there was a very collaborative vibe between everybody on set. It was just a really amazing experience altogether."
See how the director and cast felt about filming in Oklahoma and Marseilles by checking out the full interview:
STILLWATER opens on July 30!
All images courtesy of Focus Features.