Conversations with Rebecca Hall (2016)

Career Q&A with Rebecca Hall on November 11, 2016.  Moderated by Stacey Wilson Hunt, New York Magazine.

Rebecca Hall is an acclaimed British-American actress who was recognized almost immediately as one of the most exciting actresses of her generation. In a career that encompasses the multiplex, the art house cinema, and the world’s most respected theaters, she has worked with many of the industry’s greatest artists and established herself as a leading talent, one who continues to challenge herself with each new role.

This fall, she stars in Antonio Campos’ Christine, with Michael C Hall, Tracy Letts and Maria Dizzia. Based on events in the life of Christine Chubbuck, the film follows a young, hard-working and troubled newscaster at a small town television station in the 1970s. The film premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and Orchard will be releasing it theatrically October 14, 2016.

Hall recently wrapped lensing the independent feature Permission, with Dan Stevens, Gina Gershon, and Jason Sudeikis. The film-in which she stars and which she also produced-is the story of a couple, Anna (Hall) and Will (Stevens), who have only ever been with each other. On Anna’s thirtieth birthday, a friend jokes that they should sleep around before their inevitable marriage. The joke lingers and eventually Anna proposes that they try it. As they venture outside the boundaries of monogamy they are forced to evolve and finally, grow up. She has also completed production on The Dinner, a mystery thriller based on Herman Koch’s novel of the same name. Directed by Oren Moverman, the film explores the lengths to which some parents will go to protect their children.

Hall was recently seen starring alongside Jason Batman and Joel Edgerton in his box office smash thriller The Gift. Hall and Bateman play a young married couple whose lives get turned upside down when an acquaintance from the husband's past brings mysterious gifts and a horrifying secret to light after more than twenty years. She was also recently seen in Steven Spielberg’s The BFG, with Mark Rylance and Ruby Barnhill. The film is an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s book classic, in which a Big Friendly Giant and an orphan girl he befriends set out to take on people-eating giants who plant to take over the world.

On screen, Hall received critical acclaim for her starring role in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona alongside Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and Javier Bardem. For her performance, she received Golden Globe, BAFTA Orange Rising Star, London Critics Circle and Gotham Award nominations in the performance and breakthrough categories.

Hall’s other film credits include Sean Mewshaw’s Tumbledown opposite Jason Sudeikis; Wally Pfister's directorial debut Transcendence, opposite Johnny Depp and Paul Bettany; Patrice Leconte's A Promise, starring alongside Alan Rickman; John Crowley’s Closed Circuit; Shane Black's Iron Man 3; Stephen Frears' Lay the Favorite; Nick Murphy's The Awakening, for which she earned a British Independent Film Award Nomination and Gotham Independent Film Award nomination for Best Actress; Ben Affleck's The Town, which received the 2010 National Board of Review Award for Best Ensemble; Dan Rush’s Everything Must Go; Nicole Holofcener's Please Give, for which the cast and filmmakers were honored with the Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award and a Gotham Independent Film Award nomination for Best Ensemble Performance; Oliver Parker's Dorian Gray; Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon; for which she shared in a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Cast Performance; Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, for which she received UK Empire Award and London Critics Circle Award nominations for Best Newcomer; and Tom Vaughan's Starter for 10, her feature film debut.