His Three Daughters cast on grief in cinema and having characters written just for them

Set almost entirely within the confines of their childhood home, old resentments come bubbling to the surface, new ones emerge seemingly by the minute and all sorts of quarrels – both petty and otherwise – interrupt the grieving process that has already commenced with their father lying unresponsive in an adjoining room.

Interestingly – although perhaps not surprisingly given how well suited they are to their roles – each actor was handpicked by Jacobs, who had written their parts specifically with them in mind.

"Aza brought the script to my house, it was analogue," Coon explains in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com.

"My husband [actor and playwright Tracy Letts] worked with him twice, so I was already on board before he showed up. But it was very flattering. It was flattering to be thought of – Aza and I had been friends, and I didn't know if he thought anything of me as an actor!"

Coon plays Katie, the eldest of the siblings, who is presented as rather high-strung and in the actor's own words "very controlling".

But she explains that as a big sister herself, she related to the character and was especially responsive to the "specificity" of the very authentic-feeling relationships between the sisters.

The youngest sister, Christina, is played by Olsen and finds herself acting as something of a bridge between the other two, even as she struggles with the emotional weight of the situation and the added burden of being away from her young children.

Olsen had previously worked with Jacobs on the drama series Sorry For You Loss, but admits to also being a little surprised that he had written a role just for her.

"I've never had someone write something for me outright," she says. "Aza and I had talked about other projects together... but this was, like, completely different than the other characters we've discussed.

"And I think the thing that was most exciting to me was that he wrote it with the intention of it being Natasha and Carrie, who are two actresses that I couldn't actually imagine, like, oh wow if we really all schedule-wise, could figure out a time to shoot this, that would be absurd to me. That seemed like such a dreamer's kind of fantasy thing."

She adds: "I've never been a part of a project where someone's written something so specifically with these actresses [in mind], but then they also all worked it out so quickly, like that part, to me, still blows my mind."

As for Lyonne, she takes on the role of Rachel, who is often treated like an outcast by the other two sisters in part because she is not the biological daughter of their father (she is the child of his second wife).

The Russian Doll star echoes Olsen's point about the project feeling like "this absurdist fantasy" in that everything lined up so perfectly, and says that she too was flattered when Jacobs approached her with the role.

"I have been lucky enough to write things for myself often enough," she says. "And also Rian Johnson and I doing Poker Face, that's something that we're crafting for him to write that character for me, based on a lot of sessions. What I never had was in a vacuum, like, a really seasoned writer, director, auteur [writing something for me] without us ever having a relationship.

"It's always been like me and Amy Poehler, [saying] like 'Babe, let's f***ing make something. Let's write it.' This was so different in that sense, that there was no pre existing conversation."

On more than one occasion throughout the film, Olsen's character makes comments about how the reality of an imminent death and the subsequent grieving process is very different from how it's normally depicted in Hollywood, which tends to favour sweeping, highly emotional moments over the more subdued process that often occurs.

For the most part, the film seems to subvert this by placing an emphasis on the more banal aspects of the ordeal – and this is something that Lyonne found enticing, claiming that the film offers "nowhere to hide".

She mentions a number of films including Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, Bob Fosse's All That Jazz and two works by Hal Ashby – Harold and Maude and Coming Home – as pieces she loves that deal with grief in different ways, and reckons His Three Daughters does things differently again.

"I'm trying to sort of put my finger on when you've seen grief," she says.

"Like you see examples of mortality in cinema, because we're always trying to grapple with that basic same idea. I don't know why those pop to mind in this moment, but here it's like a third thing, like an event we don't often see, which is just the sort of, sitting. It's so rare that you actually have to just sit with a feeling."

She goes on to talk about a time she had to cry on stage during a play, and was told by her director that the best method to ensure tears was "sitting there for a second and just feeling it and seeing if it might happen." So she decided to give this a whirl and was astounded by the results.

"It was nuts," she says. "Because when you actually have to kind of sit, especially someone like me, who's always doing something – I don't want to feel anything! – and to sit for a second, and then you see what hit. And it's sort of like this whole movie does that in a weird way."

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Although the film is for the most part grounded in reality, it also breaks from that approach in one significant moment in the final act. It's best not to give away exactly what happens, but it's an intensely powerful scene that takes the film into the realms of magical realism – something that was instantly appealing to Coon.

"I think my favourite artists are rarely dealing in pure realism," she says. "Because it's impossible to capture actual real experience in art, I think. Because it's often smaller than what we want it to be, we spend a lot of time talking about the deathbed conversation. The deathbed conversation rarely happens, let alone is satisfying in any way!"

She continues: "And so, Aza is not interested in playing by the rules. That was the thing that I loved about it. And I think the art that I love the most rarely plays by the rule book. It breaks the constraints. And that's what Aza does well."

Olsen agrees that adding this element to the play gives it an extra dimension that an entirely grounded approach might not have offered.

"This film is rooted in like an authentic, real, tangible reality," she says. "And I think it's more exciting for Aza a filmmaker to challenge himself, the viewer [and] us in telling a story that actually veers off of that. And I think that is why there's something that is potentially more magical or surreal as an element."

She says that often the films that she is most moved by are ones that deal in metaphor and allegory, which is often easier to connect with than something that is "incredibly specific".

"And I think even though we are in this really realistic space he creates that opportunity for us to actually kind of leave the room a bit and hover in our own fantasies of what we would maybe hope for happening, she adds. "And I find that to almost have more impact than a very harsh or clear reality."

With the film having now played at various festivals – where it has attracted very positive reviews – Olsen, Coon and Lyonne have had the chance to see several responses to the film from viewers, and the latter says that "the whole thing has been pretty moving".

"It's almost like we made it privately just for us, or maybe for Aza," she explains. "And it's just been shocking that because we signed up for that, and because he had such clarity and specificity of vision, and that it was so unlike this sort of standard, more results-oriented type of filmmaking that I think we probably got used also because we've had hits on TV – and Lizzie also in movies!

"And so I think that the shock of it has been that just by sticking to your guns and staying very sort of small and quiet and focused, you end up on the other side getting this response."

She continues: "I've never been in an experience like this, where something so sort of humble in a way, or private, yields... like I can't believe there's a a billboard [for the film]. We didn't even make an announcement that we were shooting the movie! Which tells you that there's a need out there."

Olsen, too, has been moved by the response, but she also singles out the support the film has received from Netflix – a platform that hasn't exactly always won plaudits from cinephiles for the approach it takes to releasing its acquisitions.

"I think with Netflix taking this project on, the thing that's been so moving is how much they've cared about the literal film element of it," she says. "We were able to do a print of this film for special screenings, and they committed to two weeks prior to putting it on the on the platform for it to be in cinemas.

"They've taken this project on, and yes, because of them, we have this much larger opportunity to share the film. But they've also honoured the intention of where we started, which was, this needs to be in a cinema. And it would be a dream if we could have a print where people could actually see it projected the way that Aza [intended].

"So there's been intention every step of the way. And it's amazing that we do also get to have this other audience reflected because of their platform. But the care that's been put on this project... it's been a partnership I didn't expect, and it's been really moving."

His Three Daughters is streaming on Netflix from Friday 20th September – sign up from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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