Romola Garai Discusses Her Debut Feature Film “Amulet” and Beyond – Top

Spoilers for Amulet follow.

I sat down to speak to Romola Garai, whom you might recognise from films like Atonement, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, and more. The talented actress has now moved into filmmaking, promoting her current film Amulet, which stars Imelda Staunton, Carla Juri and Alec Secareanu.

Amulet follows Secareanu’s Tomaz, an ex-soldier who is homeless in London. After the place that he was bunking in burns down, he is offered a place to stay at a decaying house inhabited by a young woman (Juri) and her dying mother. As he starts to fall for her, he cannot ignore his suspicion that something sinister is going on.

Amulet premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and has been well-received, with most complimenting Garai on a strong directorial debut.

Hi, how are you?
I’m good, how are you?

Good! It’s just very early morning over here in Singapore.
Oh, I’m so sorry.

No, it’s okay! I was very excited for this. When I saw the opportunity to interview you, even though I had to watch a horror movie to do so, I’m a scaredy cat basically, I was all in.
(laughs) I’m sorry to put you through that.

Your choice of the horror genre for your debut film is an interesting one. When I think back to all the films I know you from, like Atonement, Vanity Fair, or the mini series Emma, it is a filmography that is really the opposite of horror. Why a horror film? Do you feel an affinity for the genre?
Well, I love horror, I always have. I’m not big into slasher films. Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, The Shining are great amazing films, brilliant in their execution – these are some of the horror films I absolutely love. While being incredibly lucky as an actor, so fortunate to have played so many roles, incredible collaborators, great directors…I’ve not had a varied career in terms of genre and if I, let’s say, had more opportunities to be in a good horror film, then I definitely would have done.

When you’re an actor, you don’t get to choose every single project you do, you have limits of choice. You get the choices you get, and if you end up playing a particular genre, then you get more work in that genre. I think when I started writing I definitely started writing dramas. My short film was certainly that, and it wasn’t a genre film. It has no genre elements to it.
But when I started writing more features, one of the early features I had written was a ghost story. I didn’t think of it being a genre film actually, and it sort of came quite naturally. Then I realised it was much easier to get a film made in that genre, and it was much easier to get people to take a risk on you as a first-time filmmaker when you’re working in genre. So that was what pushed me. There were also a lot of amazing women coming through, like The Babadook; there were amazing films being made by female filmmakers, and that got me really inspired as well, to try and make a horror film.

Do you feel that it was a natural transition for you, to go from actor, to writer and filmmaker?
Yeah, it was. I mean, when you say ‘natural’ it makes it sound like it was easy, and it wasn’t easy. I haven’t found it easy, because it’s really challenging sometimes to write, writing screenplays and writing novels – it’s really hard. And it takes years. By the time I really started focusing on writing, I was twenty five, twenty six, and I felt like, a year down the line and I’ll be really good at this, and I’ll have cracked it.

After a year my writing was still terrible, it took two years, you know, it took three years! I felt like I was trying to get better. I always wanted to write, and it took a few years for me to realise that I wanted to write my own work. It took time, and it was difficult to move into a different job basically.

Yeah, definitely. For a debut feature, Amulet is truly a ‘wow’ film. The whole time I was watching it, I was hooked, driven to see where the film was headed. The way you layered the transitions between the past and the present, and the way that all build up to the twist. I mean, even at the end I wasn’t sure I was reading it correctly. But that’s the great thing with horror, sometimes you don’t need to have all the answers.
I mean, the film is quite suggestive, and yeah, it doesn’t necessarily give you an explanation all the time. But I’m pretty sure what you think is probably what happened. (laughs)

(laughs) Wait until I ask you questions on the film – you might rethink that. Speaking of the film, I noticed that throughout Amulet, there was a lot of attention paid to food. On one hand, it’s tied to the domestic space, Magda cooks and cleans. But symbolically, it could also refer to carnal appetites. Was this a way for you to show that Tomaz hasn’t been able to truly eliminate that side of himself, that past version that had flared up before?
Yeah, absolutely. The food is two things. Firstly, the expectation that Magda will feed him, he just accepts the food that she makes him, the food she apparently unwillingly makes him – it sets up the nature of the dynamic between them. It has to do with her apeing that male/female dynamic, coming in as an idealised woman in that sense. But yeah, also his greed. I kind of wanted to show that he’s the kind of man that once he gets a taste of something, will carry on until he’s gotten what he wants. He’s in denial, total denial of who he is and what he is. The food is a kind of opportunity for us to see that. He sees himself as a giver; he’s fixing up the house, he’s caring for her. Actually, we just see him consuming, even though she’s explicitly said she doesn’t want him in the house, yet he doesn’t leave. He continues to stay, continues to eat the food she feeds him. He’s quite happy and comfortable to do that.

At one point, Sister Claire tells Tomaz that forward is not the only way. I found this a compelling statement, considering how we are often told to let go of the misdeeds and traumas of the past and move on. Is punishment, or some kind of recompense, then the only course towards rebirth and transformation?
I mean, it was cathartic for me to write about him getting a terrible comeuppance. Usually it’s women who carry the weight of rape, so it was cathartic for me to film him having to carry it. The thing is, he does have a lot of other options all the time, and I suppose the main option that he has is to accept who and what he is, and what he did in the past. The most significant statement he makes in the film is, “I’m a good man”, which he repeats constantly. That’s who he thinks he is, and what he sets himself up to be. And I think it’s very challenging for people to give that up, and understandably so, but necessary in order to be able to truly know yourself. But yeah, he doesn’t take that opportunity.

It made me think that maybe he was never going to pass the test. I mean, the whole thing was set up as test, right? Was his nature always going to prevent him from succeeding?
Yeah, he’s not able to survive the experience. And I mean, it’s a weird test. I remember Alec, the actor who plays Tomaz, asking me about that a lot. It’s kind of like test, but also, in a way, he’s never going to pass it. They know he isn’t going to pass it. In a way, it’s a constructed punishment for him, it’s kind of inevitable, the ending. But I think, at the end, when we see how innately violent he is, then we understand that unless someone is prepared to acknowledge and accept that aspect of themselves, there isn’t a really a kind of forgiveness that you could give them. We can’t offer them forgiveness if they are not prepared to accept that that is who and what they are. Otherwise you’re just allowing them to continue down that path.

Yeah, I really enjoyed that take instead of the usual narrative we get, which is that of forgiveness and repentance, especially since you build up a contrast to Christianity and religion. On one hand, we had all these religious references, with Imelda Staunton’s Sister Claire and the mention of demons, but then at the end, it reveals its truth – that of femininity and womanhood.
I’m so happy that came through.

The ending felt a bit bittersweet to me, since Tomaz’ sinful debts have been paid, and accorded Miriam some closure, but then Magda is still tied to him? She’s still having to help him, even though she doesn’t do it in the most nurturing and caring of ways. Was the ending meant to be conflicted in that way? Or it doesn’t matter that she’s still tied to him?
It was meant to be completely cathartic. I mean, we have just witnessed him experience a terrible punishment. You realise that the woman he wronged is made aware of that, that she’s been revenged. But, you know, I’m not adverse to other readings. (We laugh) I don’t think there’s a right way to view it, but I just wanted the ending to be full of rage and a release from that rage.

Once I truly understood what had happened in the forest, in the past, I felt the same way. Maybe it’s all the religious training, but we’re always encouraged to forgive and allow repentance, which makes it so wonderful to see Amulet take a different stance on it.
Well, good. I’m really pleased. (We laugh)

Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you! It was really nice to speak to you.

Amulet will be released July 24, 2020.