PR.com (Allison Kugel): What drew you to the part of Sonny in the film Don McKay?

Elisabeth Shue: Fear as to whether I could pull her off (laughs). That always draws me to a character. If I feel like it’s somebody I haven’t played before or whether I might fail is interesting. I just saw the potential for a lot of choices. That was terrifying on one level, but also liberating.

PR.com: When you’re dealing with a character like this one who obviously lacks a moral compass, as an actor do you judge the character, or do you try to find the good in her?

Elisabeth Shue: Yeah, you can never really judge a character, because it’s hard to inhabit them. If you think about it, although we are critical of ourselves as human beings, we don’t really judge ourselves because we probably don’t even know ourselves well enough to fully go that far. I also felt, with Sonny, the nice thing about her is she is so present and she couldn’t really discern between fantasy and reality very well. Everything that seemed like it was fantasy, to her it felt very real. Coming down to the fact that I think she fell very much in love with Don. She just sort of just kept living in the moment, so morality didn’t really factor in. She was just trying to deal with the situation at hand and trying to figure it out. How do I make this work for me, right now, right now, right now? She didn’t think through her choices or what they really meant.

PR.com: Don McKay director Jake Goldberger describes his filmmaking style as being inspired by film noir. What genre of film most inspires you?

Elisabeth Shue: I’ve always really loved movies where you are going on a ride with characters that you learn from, are repulsed by, moved by, but the characters themselves are really what you respond to and then you go on a journey with them. Then whatever the journey is, it can be interesting or fun, but you have to really connect with the characters. I can take that into many genres. The Shining was one of the most brilliant movies I have ever seen. And I hate horror movies; I can’t stand them! I would never willingly go to be scared in a movie. But that movie, and also The Silence of the Lambs. I can’t believe I would see that movie, but I had to because I could just feel that it was going to be such a great movie.

PR.com: How would describe working with Thomas Haden Church in this film?

Elisabeth Shue: I love working with him. I think he’s an exceptional actor because he can work on so many different levels. He’s obviously incredibly funny, but he also brings such depth and honesty to his characters. His comedy comes from complete honesty and a unique sense of humanity that is him. I keep saying that he is such a character (laughs). But he so lives in his skin in such an honest authentic way that you just can’t help but love him.

click to read interview with Elisabeth Shue