Exclusive: Betty Buckley Talks Split and More!
On television she played everyone’s favorite stepmother, Abby Bradford, in the lighthearted series “Eight is Enough” and also had a recurring role in the gritty HBO prison drama “Oz.” Now Betty Buckley has gained an entirely new set of fans for her recurring role on “Pretty Little Liars.”
But of course we horror hounds love her best as Ms. Collins, the doomed gym teacher in Brian De Palma’s classic Carrie — when we asked her if she still is recognized on the street for it, she said, “From time to time, but no, not very often. Sometimes people recognize me for different things. But yeah, that’s a great movie and a great anniversary.” (Carrie recently celebrated its 40th, which we covered here.)
Buckley has been focusing mostly on Broadway and music, but on occasion she steps back into the genre. She did it for director M. Night Shyamalan in 2008 for The Happening and returns again for the mind-bending helmer as a psychologist in Split.
Dread Central: You are very convincing as a psychiatrist in Split. What steps did you take to prepare?
Betty Buckley: I worked with a psychologist for several weeks before we started rehearsals and she was very helpful, she had worked with D.I.D. patients and Night recommended a couple of books for me to read and then there was a third book that I had and so it was pretty well researched. The psychologist was also very supportive, she let me call her in the nights before we were shooting, the scenes between James and I. I was also interested in some subject matter from my youth, a film I love, The Three Faces of Eve, which Joanne Woodward won the Oscar for, and then some years later Sybil, which is a brilliant book about split personalities and then the wonderful film that Sally Field did. I’ve been in analysis my whole life, my adult life, so I have the equivalent of a college degree, so I was really happy to play a role in a movie, a thriller so well written as this. It was my second film with Night and it was an honor to get to work with him, he said he wrote the roll for me so it was really special, and [James] McAvoy was genius in the movie, he was a pleasure to work with.
DC: He’s a bit scary in the film! Tell us about the James McAvoy you know.
BB: He’s just a really nice, humble, down-to-earth guy and both our roots are in the theater so we have a very similar way of working, just being connected to another actor, a real give and take relationship. It was very spontaneous so I was very fortunate to get to be his partner in those wonderful scenes.
DC: Shyamalan’s movies are always thought-provoking and seem to hit different people in different ways. What do you hope is the takeaway from Split?
BB: Well, I think people get different things out of it, it’s just a great movie, it’s a wonderful story, but I think there’s a subliminal theme that human beings are capable of so much more than we begin to take responsibility for or even realize so I think it appeals to a lot of different people, a lot of different age groups for different reasons, but it’s a wonderful movie, very well made, the story very economically told, very modern in the style of it. It’s brilliant and doing so great.
Night’s just a very fun guy, very joyous, and very passionate on the set. He’s very childlike, his excitement about what he’s doing. He works with a team of people in Philadelphia, most of whom have worked with him on the majority of his movies so there’s a real family like atmosphere on the set. He’s also very mischievous and so am I and so is McAvoy so it made it really fun between takes. We just all really loved the work, loved being storytellers; it was a blast.
DC: Congrats on your new album! It’s called Story Songs, and… how did it come about?
BB: Basically, my pianist/arranger/music director for the past eight years I guess, Christian Jacob, he’s a brilliant musician, brilliant pianist and arranger, he also was the composer, along with his bandmates The Tierney Sutton Band, for the Sully score, the film Clint Eastwood just did this past year so yeah, he’s a brilliant guy and that soundtrack is out as well. So every year for the past several years we’ve done a new collection of songs and we did this one last summer when I was doing “Gray Gardens” in LA at the Ahmanson Theater. The Ahmanson kindly gave me a rehearsal studio where Christian and I worked during the daytime, we just went through all kinds of songs, we came up with this collection and it turned out very well. We were very excited about it and debuted it in Joe’s Pub in October of last year. It got rave reviews, especially from the New York Times, and then we went to the West Coast for two shows in San Francisco and three in Costa Mesa. We like the music so well we did multi-track recordings of the Costa Mesa shows and then I called my friend Missy Golato at Palmetto and said we have this live recording, would she be interested in releasing it? She said yes, and then I asked her if she would do five bonus tracks from the previous year’s show at Joe’s Pub and add three stories as well. She liked that idea and said yes, gave us a budget, and we put it all together with these brilliant engineers and it’s a nice record, I’m really excited about it.
Look for Split On Demand now and on Blu-ray and DVD on April 18th.
Split was directed by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable) and stars James McAvoy (Victor Frankenstein), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Morgan), Betty Buckley, Haley Lu Richardson, and Jessica Sula. It was produced by Jason Blum (Insidious, Ouija, The Visit).
Synopsis:
Though Kevin (James McAvoy) has evidenced 23 personalities to his trusted psychiatrist, Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley), there remains one still submerged who is set to materialize and dominate all the others. Compelled to abduct three teenage girls led by the willful, observant Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those contained within him—as well as everyone around him—as the walls between his compartments shatter apart.
Blu-ray/DVD Bonus Features:
- Alternate Ending
- Deleted Scenes
- The Making of Split – Filmmakers, cast, and crew discuss what attracted them to the project and how they were able to bring such a unique premise to life.
- The Many Faces of James McAvoy – A look at how James McAvoy approached the challenge of playing so many different identities.
- The Filmmaker’s Eye: M. Night Shyamalan – Director and writer M. Night Shyamalan has a singular, big-picture vision of his projects. Producers, cast, and crew discuss how Night’s process gives them the freedom to execute their roles to the fullest.
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