Sienna Miller and Diego Luna star in writer-director Tara Miele’s “Wander Darkly” as a married couple with a baby who get into a horrible car crash.
The film follows both of them as they contemplate and examine their relationship, but it’s unclear if they are alive or were killed in the accident. The independent film was shot on a shoestring budget in and around Los Angeles in less than a month.
I chatted with Miller and Luna from London. Miller is in the U.K. shooting “Anatomy of a Scandal,” David E. Kelley’s Netflix series adaptation of Sarah Vaughan’s novel of the same name. Luna is in London filming the untitled Cassian Andor project, one of the many new “Star Wars” series coming to Disney Plus.
Diego, Tara told me your first day shooting was at the morgue when you had to be put into one of those freezer cabinets.
Luna: They put me in and they shut the door. Like every independent film, this wasn’t constructed or built for this shoot. This was an actual morgue. The sound, the smell — it was a nightmare.
Miller: He got pulled out of that drawer and he was white. He said that the worst part is when they slam the door shut, the sound reverberates around the interior fridge.
Luna: I even asked Tara to record the sound because that’s not something you can do on a stage. I’ve never heard that. I hope I don’t hear it again. No one was aware of what was happening to me or otherwise they would have put a light in there or something. Someone came and opened it up and no one said, “I’m sorry.” [Laughs]
Miller: It was the first day of shooting and it really set the tone for what the experience was. [Laughs]. It was really hard.
Luna: [Laughs] If you’re a director and you put an actor through that and he doesn’t do anything or complain, Tara went, “Okay, we can do whatever with this guy.”
Tara also told me even though many of the scenes were quite emotional, there really was no time to wind down.
Miller: It was grueling. I think we averaged like 17 hours a day. It was hard – you do those scenes where the bottom literally falls out from under you and you’re kind of in the deepest pit of grief, but then you have to be in a party scene. But I do really love that challenge. I’m exhausted by the end of it, but there is a catharsis. It’s a sense of achievement. There’s a sense of everybody is making that film because they want to make that film. There’s no one doing it for the money.
Taking a little bit of a fun turn, I also wanted to ask both of you what you’ve been watching during lockdown.
Miller: “Tiger King.”
Do you think Carole killed her husband?
Miller: I’m not going to comment because I know where that will go. [Laughs]. Also, “The Undoing.” But I haven’t watched the last episode, so don’t tell me what happens. I’m doing David E. Kelley’s next show so it’s sort of within the realm of what I am making now in London. Those six-hour dramas so good.
How about you Diego?
I’m going to sound horrible but nothing. For the first four months of the pandemic, I had no impulse. I had no way to pay attention. I would see something and the next day I would be like, “What did we watch?”
What do you think the future looks like with Joe Biden as president?
Miller: I don’t really watch that much TV, but I have never watched more television than I did [during the election.] I’m in London and I stayed up watching CNN on [Election Day] and by Saturday, I was pretty much still there. It felt like a legislation on, can humanity be saved or not. It felt that big so thank goodness. Thank goodness.
Diego, what do you think this means for Mexico and the U.S.?
Luna: For the entire world, it means a way back to sanity. The problem is that it’s a very slow way back. What happened in these four years cannot be reversed that easily. I keep seeing the numbers and there are still 60 or 70 million people [who voted for Donald Trump] that are not going anywhere. That guy is just a symptom. He’s not the problem.
The Supreme Court just reversed the Trump Administration’s plan to end DACA.
Luna: We’ll be hearing more good news like that. But let’s be reminded that four years ago there were big issues to resolve. There were great challenges, so these things need this amount of attention and participation every day. It can’t be something you only just do every four years or like in my country, every six years. Let’s hope that the attention and awareness stays.
“Wander Darkly” is available now on digital and through on-demand platforms.