Carolina Caroline director Adam Carter Rehmeier and star Kyra Sedgwick spoke with ComingSoon’s Tyler Treese to discuss the acclaimed new crime movie. The duo discussed the film’s leads, Sedgwick appearing in the film’s most important scene, and how shooting the film sequentially was such a help for Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner. Carolina Caroline is now available on Digital to rent and own.
“Acclaimed director Adam Carter Rehmeier’s romantic crime thriller stars Samara Weaving as Caroline Daniels, whose desire to leave her small Texas town brings her into the orbit of a charismatic con man (Kyle Gallner), and together they weave a path of crime and passion across the American Southeast. Also starring Kyra Sedgwick, the film features a wide-ranging country music soundtrack, with tracks from artists such as Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton, Loretta Lynn, and over a dozen others,” says the official synopsis of Carolina Caroline.
Tyler Treese: Adam, Samara mentioned that you shot a lot of the film chronologically, which is a rare thing to do for a movie. Can you speak to that choice and what you feel it really adds to the film?
Adam Carter Rehmeier: Yeah, I think primarily for me, making sure that you shoot when people meet for the first time is really important. To do that first and get it out of the way and have, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a fluff day, but the getting-to-know-you part is super important. Movies can get scheduled really crazy, where you’re doing the ending of the movie on day three. I just don’t feel like that’s enough time to really have the emotionality that the scene needs. Actors are great. They can fake it, but there’s something to be said for doing the ending of the movie on the last night. We did the roadhouse scene on the last night. So we had this tremendous runway on the tarmac, if you will, where we had 10 days where Kyle and Sam were not even working, but they were together. Then you go for six or seven weeks, and there’s just more emotionality in those final moments if you’re able to shoot it more chronologically. So it’s not always going to work with a schedule. It’s not always going to work with locations. But as much of it as you can do, I try to.
Tyler Treese: Kyra, you’re only in one segment of the film, but it’s such a pivotal one. You come in a little over halfway through, and it’s really what the film had been building up to at that point. How do you approach that as an actor where you have a limited role, but it’s one that’s so central to the text and requires you to really knock it out of the park, which you did?
Kyra Sedgwick: Yeah, well, I think, yes, all those things. You need to come in incredibly prepared and bring it. You’re also coming into a crew and a cast that’s been working together, and you don’t want to gum up the works. What was so great, first of all, is that it was a brilliant scene. I sort of could have come in there and done anything, and it would’ve been good, honestly. But there was so much in it about her past that made the job a lot easier for me because I always do a backstory, and you’re always building memories of the character, so that when you come in, those are just sort of living in you.
But there was so much already there about her living in this small town and getting married and saying, “I don’t want to live in a place where everyone’s telling me what to do. I’m just not that person.” So it was amazing. I think it can be a little intimidating and daunting, but I really trusted Adam. I think he’s an incredible director, and I knew Samara was going to be lovely. The crew was so great. But you absolutely have to know that it’s a big responsibility, and you’ve got to honor that.
Adam, the chemistry between Samara and Kyle Gallner is just off the charts. Obviously, you worked with Kyle before, but when did you know you really had something special with those two?
Adam Carter Rehmeier: Right away. I could tell that they were going to vibe well together, even before we shot. Samara was very interested in working with Kyle. She had seen Dinner in America with her sister and was very supportive and wanted to do the movie with him. When we shot, it was one of those things where, from day one, the very first shot of the movie was her and Kyle having the exchange, the initial scene where she meets him. That was the first thing we shot, and it was apparent in that scene, with the energy between the two of them. Even some things you can’t control, like the cicadas and the sounds of the summer, it all just worked. You knew it was going to be good. Everybody on the crew was feeling it.
This was a very daunting 25-day schedule with almost 100 locations. I know, it’s crazy. Sam was in the chair for two to two and a half hours every day getting tattoos taken off and stuff. If you add up two and a half hours times five days, that’s basically a workday right there.
Kyra Sedgwick: That’s insane.
Rehmeier: She’s in every scene. But yeah, it’s one of those things that’s all intuition. You want to be able to look at two people and feel it, and I felt it. Having just met Samara at the time, but having known Kyle for a while, I could feel that their energy would be really good together.
Thanks to Adam Carter Rehmeier and Kyra Sedgwick for talking about Carolina Caroline.
