By director/co-writer Tina Sutter and based on her play Is This a Room, the HBO Original Movie Reality tells the story of what happened when 25-year-old former US intelligence specialist Reality Winner (Sidney Sweeney, who delivers a truly outstanding performance) had FBI agents show up at her home to question her. Once there, they spent June 3, 2017 trying to get to the bottom of her role in the mishandling of classified information about Russian interference in the 2016 US election. And more than just being based on true events, the dialogue in the film is directly from the transcript of their conversations, which adds a level of intensity that is both charming and compelling.
During this interview with Collider, Sweeney and Sater talked about tackling the challenges of this project, embodying a living, breathing human being, riding the emotional trajectory of the story, making smart casting choices, and humanizing the man behind the headlines.
Collider: Sydney, I want to congratulate you for making what I think are really smart choices in the work that you do, especially since Euphoria. Cassie is such a specific character that it was really cool to see you take on so many different projects that show all these different sides of you. What made you most nervous about playing Reality Winner and how were you able to get over those nerves to deliver this performance?
SIDNEY SWEENEY: First of all, thank you very much. I really appreciate that. I was definitely very intimidated by the script itself because it was the script and because I’m usually very free with my characters’ dialogue. I wanted to make sure the dialogue was as accurate as possible and that was a new challenge for me. I would beat myself up trying to make sure I understood it perfectly. That was its own challenge. And also, I’m just playing a real person and I want to make sure that I embody that living, breathing human being in the best possible way.
Tina, as the director of this, what were the biggest challenges in making an hour and 20 minute back-and-forth compelling? I was hooked the whole time, but I feel like on paper it might not seem possible.
SATER: I’m really glad to hear that you found this because I had faith in this content. It was fascinating for me to read it and then start imagining it. Because the reality felt like such a strong character and was real, there was something about it. But of course it’s inherently challenging. And then, it’s about finding actors and other amazing collaborators that are needed to make a movie, really planning and thinking, “How do we ride the emotional trajectory of this and how do we blow up the close-ups and the tension?” ?” There is a natural cycle in this transcript. It’s very repetitive in terms of its rhythms, so we had to stay creative on how to reduce that. It also offers its own unexpected twists, literally in what they often talk about afterwards. So, just instinctively, we had to figure out where to serve it and how to let it do its thing, and stick to the rigor of keeping it where it was, which felt like if we could do it , it can be really exciting. This is what she experienced, so it stayed here in this space for her. We were really all up for the challenge of seeing if it could hold up and keep the tension that she obviously felt and the emotional journey that she obviously went through that day, real.
About 50 minutes in, there are some close-ups that are so emotionally gripping to watch when Reality talks about folding the papers and taking them out in her pantyhose. How did you find this out and how did you solve it? Sydney, did you just go by instinct on what you wanted to express since you really have eyes to convey so much? What were those conversations between the two of you to figure that out?
SATHER: Sid is so smart about this emotional stuff. I actually learned so much working with her through this. It really was that conversation. It’s basically an emotional close-up for the entire movie, let alone 50 minutes. And Sydney was always very smart to say, “I think I can give a little bit here. Here maybe I can wait.”We always communicate and make sure we have some opportunities and possibilities. We talked a lot about those particular moments and how nuanced and delicate those emotional revelations had to be, knowing that there was more to come, or what came before. It was a bit of a dance, within what Sydney had to do within the portrait of reality, especially in those particular moments, about 50 minutes.
SWEENEY: It was definitely a push and pull of “How much are you giving at this point?” because there was still somewhere to go after that.
How did you guys feel about Reality Winner being involved in all of this? And then after digging into her and this story, after doing this, after living in her place, after putting all of that together, did that change your feelings about her at all?
SWEENEY: I didn’t know Reality’s story going into it. I was able to get close to him and learn about Reality as a human being. That’s how I approached the whole process, and that’s what I love so much about the film. It humanizes this moment in time that so many people have just read headlines about.
SATHER: I have something similar with him. I didn’t know much about it until I came across the transcript. I had vaguely heard of her and then on June 3rd 2017 I came across this article and the transcript and I was just really intrigued by this complex, amazing person that I was learning more about and that was coming out in my reading of the transcript. And I have to say, it didn’t really change, it just deepened the things I felt when I first came across this document, which is that this person is super smart, super funny, and there’s a lot we don’t know about her . She made some really complicated choices, and the feeling of that only deepened and became more interesting, frankly, as you got to know her. Really, she’s totally that person that you see in the transcript and that Sydney portrays so beautifully. She’s just really human. It sounds a bit cliche. She has done things that carry so many different feelings, good and bad, but they are very human choices. It continues to be an honor to see a human being after spending so much time thinking about her and working to make this image of her.
I thought it was so brilliantly handled because we don’t have time to see her backstory or see her with her family or anything like that before we really get into it. So showing these moments of how much she cares for her pets and constantly checking on them speaks so much about who she is. It really humanizes her in a way that backstory doesn’t have time to do, but still allows the audience to care about her.
SWEENEY: That’s what she was really worried about.
SATER: Absolutely. This is true.
Reality airs on HBO on May 29 and is available to stream on Max.