bradford tatum interview
Could you tells us about how this movie came to be?
Frustration, plain a simple was the impetus. The last film I wrote and worked on was not quite the experience I wanted and so Stacy and I decided to rectify that. I knew we would be paying for it so the picture had to be cheap, simple, use people we already knew and shot in less than two weeks. I think we shot it in eleven days.
I had read a piece in HARPERS about an English couple that adopted children, poisoned them with table salt and then collected the insurance money. The idea was grisly enough but the idea of actually killing some one with a common household condiment was really compelling. I wanted to do something different stylistically from the usual thriller--all day light, pastel colors and no blood. No blood was really important. Once I decided on salt as a weapon amniotic fluid was the next conceptual step. I don't know why, That's just how my mind works. The idea of life, all life coming from salty seas, those same saline levels in our mother's bodies and then taking the natural chemical order of things and using that in service of some maniacal demise just made sense to me.
You took on many roles for this movie: production designer, co-producer (with Stacy), writer, director. How did you balance all these? Which was the hardest?
Since the movie was so small none of it was especially difficult. The only hardship, which was minor, was that three kids were on the set at all times. Sophie, my and Stacy's daughter, and the woman who played Phoebe, she had an infant, whom she was breast feeding at the time, so it got a little tough with that---mostly because I'd get impatient and want to shoot and her baby needed to feed. You can guess who won those altercations---and the sound man had a two year old who he had to watch while his wife worked. So sometimes I'd have to hold the boom while he made sure his daughter was okay. That said, the hardest was producing, making sure everything flowed. Stacy and I cooked for the crew everyday, a nice hot breakfast, plus snacks and lunch, all of which we provided. We were a small bunch but still it was on us to make sure everyone ate. We went past six o'clock in the evening only once and I sent most everyone home while Stacy and Alex (Phoebe) and I shot a pretty sensitive scene.
Could you tell us about your influences? Did you have any schooling, training in directing?
No training in directing other than co-directing my previous movie. I wanted the movie to feel like a womb, a tight toxic womb whose product was a still birth, Randal and Phoebe's still births. So the close ups, the plastic on the windows, everything was in service to that.
How was it directing yourself, your wife, your daughter? (Stace and Sophie could chime in about being directed by you. :D)
BRADFORD: Easy to direct oneself because I don't believe such a thing really exists. You simply do what feels right and who's to say different? Stacy was hard to direct--she resisted elements of the part and I was having to argue with my co-producer so that wasn't easy. She finally had to just trust me but she fought me. She's tough, 43 hours of labor remember when Sophie was born so she's no stranger to a fight.STACY: I see it differently than Brad. We definitely had some arguments but I always trusted him on where the character needed to go. I have a tendency to want to do more than one or two takes but he always knew when he got the shot so sometimes he would indulge my whim and we'd argue sometimes about that.
Salt was shot before we knew Patty, it was quite a surprise to see Stacy in such a different role. Did you write West specifically with Stacy in mind?
All the parts were cast before I wrote a single word. I wrote to the strengths of people I knew I could get to do it, so yes, West was all about Stacy.
I thought Alexandra Wilson did a terrific job playing the abused wife. How did you cast her?
Alex came into the picture because we were friends. Stacy knew her from ROUND TABLE and we all were sitting around with our kids bitching about the industry one day and decided to do something about it. I wrote the part based on my experience of her. We had no rehearsal, no time to really think about how to do it, so the writing was where all that prep took place. I wrote parts I thought would be just outside of our comfort zones.
How much of the art in your house was actually a part of your house?
None of the art is ours. The furniture I built, designed the portrait over the mantle. That house was supposed to look like a nightmare.
I have got to ask... where did that hair color come from and how often do you wear guyliner?
My experience in the art world was one where the dealers were celebrities or at least putative celebrities themselves, they fancy themselves as rock stars, they consider themselves in some cases as relevant as the art--so Randal's appearance needed to reflect that.
I loved the alternate ending, why did you decide on not keeping it?
I was basically told by a festival that shall go un-named that my getting the film into said festival was contingent upon such a change. So I sold out. But not really. I had originally conceived of the film with such a cold blooded ending but the woman who played Phoebe's mother refused to act in it if I didn't change the ending. She was a tantric scholar or something and all that death bruised her aura so I thought about it and decided it could be cool if it were all just a fantasy. I never shot the ending I had originally wrote. There's been lot's of mixed views on the ending, some thought it was a DALLAS -like sellout, others liked the twist. I can see both.
Can you tell us about your festival experiences showing the film? Any memorable reactions from the audience?
One woman said I did for table salt what PSYCHO did for showers and I thanked her for her hyperbole.
Do you have any scripts in the works that would showcase the talents of you and your family?
I have two scripts that have been optioned since but none that figure the family. At least not yet.
