Eileen is a stylish thriller directed by  BAFTA-nominated director William Oldroyd that masterfully plays with expectations – both of the audience and of the characters too. Recently, Oldroyd, who also directed 2016’s Lady Macbeth, sat down with us over Zoom to chat about Eileen. 

Eileen weaves a noirish tale with sexy, almost unbearable tension and a palpable atmosphere appropriate for the thrillers of the era in which it is set. Anne Hathaway delivers a career-best performance as the enigmatic icy-blonde Rebecca, while Thomasin McKenzie brings a transformative charm to the initially dowdy and, some would say, disturbing Eileen. It’s a darkly refreshing film that’s worth seeing. To say we couldn’t wait to talk with Oldroyd about bringing the movie, based on a novel by Ottessa Moshfegh, to screen is an understatement. 

Oldroyd was a delight to speak with about Eileen. We talked about the journey to the movie, starting in March of 2020 when the world was locked down. We chatted about getting into the psychology of McKenzie’s Eileen. And we even talked about that dramatic third act and what it was like on set for Marin Ireland and the rest of the cast. Read the conversation below. 

Ayla Ruby: So Eileen was such an interesting film. It was so sinister in the best ways, and I really loved it. I’m really excited to chat with you.
William Oldroyd: Oh, great. Thank you.

Ayla Ruby: I’m just going to dive right into it, so I want to ask about the opening of the film. I want to ask about the credits or that opening sequence and the homage to Rear Window. Can you talk about that and how that came to be?
William Oldroyd: Throughout the whole process of making the film, we were really interested in drawing from those movies of the sixties. I mean, the book is set in ’63, and so there are a lot of movies from the early mid-sixties that we loved, but without falling into the trap of pastiche. I think that’s always the case in this when you’re putting together a film like this. So the music at the beginning, we wanted a strong opening, which got people to pay attention. The font is absolutely from Rear Window, but it just felt right with that fog, the smoke in the car, building up and that image. I’m interested in presenting images for people that is are not immediately obvious. People have to question where are we? What is going on? Who are these people? And I think we have that also with Eileen, the beginning, the title sequence is leading us into, as the smoke dissipates, we then enter into the world of Eileen, like a fable. And there she is, and we see her in that situation with watching the couple in the car.

Ayla Ruby: I think that’s such an interesting way to describe it and bring us into the story too, because throughout the story I was left wondering, is Eileen the hero? Is she the villain? Is she a victim? It was just all these things at once, and I’m curious to see what your thoughts are on that, what your overall feeling is without spoilers.
William Oldroyd: I like the fact that it opens on her eyes. In the rearview mirror. We have rear window and we have the rearview mirror, and there she is, and we see her staring. And there’s a sea in front of us. We think, “Oh, she must be staring the at the sea.” But then what is revealed is, with a little off camera giggle, that she’s actually averting her eyes from something that’s happening off camera, and then she flicks her eyes to the side. She doesn’t know what it is, but she knows that she shouldn’t be looking. I’m trying to get into the psychology of who Eileen is. She’s somebody who watches from the wings. As her dad says, she’s somebody who’s not front and center, she’s a background character and that’s why she will never experience love, which is so desperate. It’s sad, but how do we present that in an opening image? All of these things, were really informing those opening few beats. Then also the peculiar nature of this young woman. The fact that when she does have these feelings, this sensation, she quells them by putting snow in her underpants, which on some level helps us to understand that she feels she shouldn’t be feeling this, or she wants to quell those desires, which ultimately, she won’t do the end of the film.

Ayla Ruby: She has this transformation. Is it inspired by Rebecca?
William Oldroyd: Absolutely. Yeah, she is the catalyst for sure.

Ayla Ruby: So I’m curious, I think I read that you came into the story during lockdown, right? Or had you come into it before that?
William Oldroyd: No, it was March 2020. I read a ‘Year of Rest and Relaxation’ first, and then once I read that book, I just loved it. I thought I would read all of Ottessa’s books. I read all of them. And then when I read ‘Eileen,’ as I said, I read it in one sitting, and I just thought, “This should be a movie. This would be great.” So I managed to meet Ottessa [Moshfegh] on Zoom. It was actually, I think probably, the first Zoom I ever had because Zoom was so new to me in 2020. And we got on. We got on very well, and she introduced me to her husband, Luke [Goebel], who’s also her co-screenwriting partner. And together, the three of us decided, “Yeah, okay. Well, let’s try and write a screenplay of Eileen.” I said they could write it, and I would be there to give them some thoughts on the direction I thought it could take. It took us about six months to put something together. It was about September of that year when we had something we were happy to share with the producer, and we were lucky enough to get Anthony Bregman and Likely Story to produce the movie for us in New York.

Ayla Ruby: So obviously, you had Ottessa and Luke involved in adapting this. Do you think for fans of the novel, would you say it’s a very faithful adaptation? The movie seems a little bit different in some respects.
William Oldroyd: If you love the book, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. I mean, I felt encouraged by Ottessa’s reaction to it, because, obviously, she was there; she wrote it. She created Eileen. She created the character of Eileen. And Thomasin [McKenzie] was saying the other day, we were talking; she felt encouraged because when she was creating the character of Eileen on screen, she had the Bible she said, which was Ottessa’s book, but she also had God, which was on Ottessa. So when we made this, at each stage we were in conversation about the look of the film, about the casting of the film, about where we were going to shoot at the… Because Ottessa knows these coastal locations from New England, because it’s where she’s from. She’s from outside Boston, and she knows what the feel of the thing is, so when she finally saw a cut of the movie and, she said, “This is Eileen.” Then I thought, “Then we’ve succeeded.” So I think obviously it’s impossible to satisfy everybody’s own interpretation of that book because the movie plays out in their heads in a different way for everybody. But I would say it’s a faithful adaptation of the book that I saw in my head and the one that Ottessa thought she wrote.

Ayla Ruby: Well, that’s awesome. And I think I’m down to my last question, so Thomasin McKenzie, Anne Hathaway are obviously amazing, but towards that end of the movie, there are these amazing sequences with Marin Ireland. And again, I don’t want to give it away, but I’d love to know more about that, just what that was like on set. Anything you can share, because it was amazing.
William Oldroyd: What a day. It was shot in a day, in the basement, in New Jersey, and it was freezing cold. And we had spent some time preparing that together. We would rehearse, and then we just went for it. We shot her angle first, and then she, without giving too much away, she performed for us. And then we had to stop. And then we had a little break and she went to sleep immediately.

Ayla Ruby: It was intense, I can understand.
William Oldroyd: It was awful. It was an awful, awful scene for her to hold onto, and then she finally let go of it in the delivery of it, and then I think it just… She collapsed. I’m so happy that we got to work with her because I think she’s an amazing talent. I’m so happy with the cast. I’m happy with everybody. But certainly with Thomasin, Anne, Marin, and with Shea [Whigham]. I think Shea brought a sensitivity to Dad, which was extraordinary. Really a brutality and a softness in equal measure, which is such a wonderful thing for an actor to find.

Ayla Ruby: Thank you so much. It’s been lovely chatting, and I really appreciate your time.
William Oldroyd: Of course. It’s so nice to meet you.

Eileen will play in select theaters on December 1st before playing nationwide on December 7th.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.