Why does Aubrey Plaza love Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes?
Aubrey Plaza doing “the Aubrey Plaza thing” appears to have become a phenomenon. A deadpan sarcastic, witty comment with barely a hint of sincerity. However, this is not necessarily the thing that Plaza herself is always going for. She sees herself as a serious actor and recently paid her respects to the great John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands.
While discussing Cassavetes and Rowlands’ 1974 film A Woman Under the Influence with Criterion, Plaza said, “Gena Rowlands is one of my heroes. She and Cassavetes mean a lot to me, and the two have influenced my career and my understanding of acting in countless ways. Because this is the first Cassavetes movie I ever saw, I feel obligated to put it at the top.”
Cassavetes’ A Woman Under the Influence tells of a woman (Rowlands) who drinks heavily and exhibits bizarre behaviour. Her actions, which include flirting with several other men, lead to several conflicts with her husband (Cassavetes) and their children. The film received two Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Actress.
Plaza added on her admiration for Rowlands, “I feel a personal connection to Rowlands because, like she was, ‘I’m married to a director and we’ve collaborated on several movies’—and I understand how complicated things can get when the relationship between actor and director and the relationship between husband and wife bleed into one another.”
Another Cassavetes and Rowlands’ film that Plaza admires is Opening Night. She said, “Before shooting Black Bear, I watched tons of Cassavetes films, but this one really stood out and spoke to my character’s situation and the psychologically messy space between fiction and reality that you’re often in when you’re making a movie or putting on a show.”
Opening Night arrives three years after A Woman Under the Influence. Cassavetes again wrote and directed the film and cast his wife in the lead role. The film focuses on an actress who witnesses the death of one of her fans. Following this incident, she is visited by the fan’s ghost on several occasions, and this leads to a breakdown in her mental well-being.
“In Opening Night, there’s a part when Cassavetes, who plays the other actor in the show Gena’s character is in, has to slap her onstage,” Plaza added. “She doesn’t want him to do it, but her character needs him to. That scene is so painful to me because it says everything about how complicated the job of an actor can be and how easy it is for people to cross boundaries and dive off the deep end, even when it might jeopardise their mental health or well-being. It’s gnarly.”
