Dateline: 1/21/00

One of the films premiering at Sundance this year is Waking The Dead, directed by Keith Gordon and starring Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly. Like most films that make their first appearance at the festival, Waking the Dead, based on Scott Spencer's novel, deals with issues deeper than the usual Hollywood fare.

Jennifer Connelly and Billy Crudup star in Waking the Dead.

In 1972, Fielding Pierce was serving as an officer in the Coast Guard in order to fulfill his military requirement without being sent to Vietnam. Dodging the draft was unthinkable, because Fielding's lifelong goal was to be President of the United States. While on leave, he visits his brother's right-wing publishing company, and meets his soul mate, Sarah Williams. Sarah is equally sure of her purpose in life, to help society by aiding her Catholic church in their missions of aid.

Although Sarah and Fielding do not share the same ideals and opinions, they fall deeply in love. Over time, however, they find themselves strangers in each other's worlds. Sarah's activism causes raised eyebrows at Fielding's political get togethers, and Fielding's jingoism offends Sarah's deeply liberal friends. Just as they seem to be pulling apart, fate intervenes, and Sarah is killed by a car bomb during a mission to help Chilean refugees.

Waking the Dead revisits Fielding ten years later, well on his way to becoming a Congressman on his way to the Presidency. He has aligned himself with powerful political forces who wish to groom him for office, and he has a girlfriend who fits in perfectly with his social order.

However, everything begins to unravel for Fielding when Sarah resurfaces in his life. First he hears her voice, and then he starts to see her in visions. Both Fielding and the audience begin to wonder if Sarah really died at all. In the middle of his campaign for Congress, Fielding finds himself thinking only of Sarah and their life together.

In Waking the Dead, the relationship between Fielding and Sarah is told in a series of flashbacks that touch on the milestones of their lives together. Because it is the centerpiece of the film, the relationship had to be totally comfortable and convincing. Even though Crudup and Connelly had worked together in the past, there was another reason for their on-screen chemistry.

Keith Gordon and Billy Crudup.

Director Keith Gordon explained, "I think something that affected this was that we rehearsed for three weeks. There was a real fondness between these people; there was a real ease of it. We had spent three weeks together in a room, away from the crew, away from eighty people watching. One of the things that I'm happiest with in the film was that you only see so much of their relationship, but you know there is a lot more, and that was something I think the rehearsal process allowed us to do."

Billy Crudup added, "The script, too, as well as Keith's direction, led us in such a way that we could explore all the different facets of it. It presented three-dimensional characters, so you were compelled to fill in the blanks. A lot of things don't do that, so they are consequently not as realistic. We weren't in scenes improvising. It was something based on a reality that we had created from the script."

"But, in fact, you were," Gordon interjected, "and I think that was very valuable. I think you guys need to take some credit for that. Some of the very best stuff in the film is stuff that came out between the two of them on the set; what came out in a take." He went on, "Some of what I think are the most touching moments in the movie happened when I would say, 'Okay, we've done four or five takes, it's fine, it's working okay. Now, let go, say what you really want to say to one another.' Now, it happened out of a whole working process, but there was a freedom for that to happen, that if those things didn't happen, it would have been much more like a regular movie relationship. It was that sense of danger that something more could go on that I think brought scenes to life."

"Making big mistakes is very important in that process," Crudup recalled. "About halfway during the shooting, Keith says, 'Good, you've settled into something. You know, the first couple of days of rehearsal, I didn't know what the f*ck you were doing.'"

Laughing, Gordon responded, "I don't think I said it like that. But, it's true. So much of what completes a good thing is going down blind alleys; trying things. Often, the stuff that works least you learn the most from, and you say, "That didn't work at all, but isn't it interesting how…" So, I would go in and rewrite based on what happened in rehearsals. We knew we'd always find a way to get to the truth of a scene, and we knew that couldn't have happened if we'd all walked on the set the first day and said, "Okay, you two are really in love, and now, go!"

Jennifer Connelly and Billy Crudup.

The rehearsal time also proved valuable to Jennifer Connelly, who had this to say, "I felt to such an extent that by the time we finished our rehearsals, that this whole separate reality had been created. It was so much it's own separate world. I felt that we had explored so much and discussed what our characters had been through, what was between all of the lines, what our families were like, what our lives were. It felt so concrete to me, having had that time to explore." Connelly also appreciated Gordon's directing style. "I remember I had these questions like, "Does Sarah cook pasta by herself, or does she eat cereal out of the box?" I had all of these concerns that, for me, were just so pressing, and Keith would indulge me with all that. That's why, as a director, Keith was such a dream to work with, for me, it just doesn't get much better."

After the rehearsal process was over, cast and crew was ready to bring the love story to the screen. One interesting twist to this romance was the way in which the traditional gender roles were reversed. In Waking the Dead, Sarah was the leader; the one following a dream, and Fielding was prepared to sacrifice his desires to be with her. Gordon explained, "We have seen the more traditional structure that has the man pursuing his dream, and the woman kind of follows along and does whatever he wants. I was immediately attracted to something that kind of flipped that around. She has the clarity of where she's going, and I just thought that was, on a lot of levels, interesting in and of itself. I was very drawn to these two people, both of whom are on very strong paths."

Connelly saw it differently, "I don't think of it that way. I don't think it's inherently female to follow in that way. Perhaps it is contempt for that position that makes her how she is. It's something that she goes through, because she does have such passionate ideas, and the feeling that she has something that she wants to give. At the same time, she's found this thing that could take her away from it. But what's so human about her is that she is so driven; that she has such clear ideas about what she has to do. She has this conflict that she goes through and it's so honest.

When asked if she, too, could sacrifice what she loved for what was right, Connelly said, "That's such a hard thing to answer, because circumstantially, the situation is so different from anything I've ever been through. I suppose, yes, in the sense that you put yourself through things that are very painful when you have a clear sense of the ultimate best thing. You have to decide what will serve the most people, and will be the most mature thing to do."

In Waking the Dead, Fielding has surreal visions and flashbacks of Sarah, which are never thoroughly explained. Gordon admitted that this was intentional on his part. "I think the most important aspect of the film is the questions. Both the moral questions, and ultimately, the story questions, 'Is he going mad? Is she a ghost? Is she real and not dead?' And all of those elements in the filmmaking were to hopefully keep the question alive."

As to what was really happening, Gordon said, "There are lots of possibilities; this is a man in tremendous upheaval. Whether this is long repressed grief finally being dealt with; something is going on, and some of those things seem surreal. Now, does that mean the world is really surreal or not? We all have those moments, when we are in car accidents, when time seems to slow down. But we're leaving open the possibility that maybe this isn't real, or maybe it's real, but he's reinterpreting something that's innocent into something else, or maybe it's completely in his brain. I feel like if we ever gave the audience one answer, it takes a lot about what's special about the film away. In some ways, ultimately, the answers almost become secondary by the end. I was very struck by the idea that, in the end, if you really love someone, and they've really touched your life, they will always be part of you."

Crudup agreed, "That it's a question is a positive thing, because it forces you to reflect on where you find your reality. What emotions, even if they don't manifest themselves, are very alive in you? What ideals, no matter how they manifest themselves, are very alive in you, and how you interpret your reality." His brothers saw Waking the Dead, and had the same questions, Crudup recalled. "Both came to me asking what the answer was. I said, 'That's the answer, that you're discussing it, and the fact that you decide one thing says something about who you are and what you think about life. So you just articulated something that you feel. Something has allowed you to articulate ambiguous, complex, conflicting feelings that speaks to who you are and how you feel about life.'"