I?m not going to lie to you because we all know the blog is a highly respected journalistic medium:  I?ve got a bit of a movie-crush on Kristine Cofsky.  Presumably any red-blooded admirer of women will feel the same way if they catch tomorrow?s screening of When Life Was Good. 

When you watch a movie like Funny HaHa and the cute protagonist makes you squirm with affection there?s not much you can do about it.  But as a TIFF blogger I can at least interview Cofsky, so I did.

Let it be said however, that even if she weren?t in the top 1% of the most desirable people on the planet, I would still be fascinated by Cofsky?s pitch-perfect performance in When Life Was Good and she eloquently manages to bring the focus of the interview back to this.

1) I notice we have a mutual friend in Aaron Hutchinson...what do you think of that bastard?

Small world!  Aaron and I both live in Vancouver, and we worked together on a feature film called Smile of April.

2) Describe your past collaboration with Terry Miles and how this project came to be?

Terry and I had known each other for a little over a year when we started filming When Life Was Good.  We met when he auditioned me for a film called Yumi In Love, which I then worked on. I had also worked with him on numerous short films before WLWG.  The project came to be because Terry wanted to make a film and had a camera and some wireless mics, but no budget.  We all got together and discussed ideas and characters, and then started filming pretty much right away.  Terry would work on a loose script and storyline for the scenes the night before we shot them.

3) There was a lot of wine-drinking in the film, were you drinking real wine Cassavetes/Husbands style?

There may have been some real wine-drinking going on. :)

4) The film has been compared to a JD Salinger short story and there's a Salinger reference in the movie, do you have a favourite Salinger story?

As far as I can remember, the only Salinger stories I've read are Franny and Zooey and Catcher In The Rye.

6) I compared When Life Was Good to "mumblecore" movies like Funny HaHa, or say, Mutual Appreciation. It seemed like a fairly obvious comparison but I didn't see anyone else making it. I know it's a very stupid word, but has "mumblecore" (I don't even like typing it) become a dirty word that films like this want to distance themselves from?

Before doing this film, I had actually never heard of "mumblecore" before.  The guided improvisation style was a new concept for me, and I loved the process.  I learned an unbelievable amount working on this film.

7) Tell us about some of the other films you've been in.

I actually just finished working on another film with Terry called The Red Rooster. (Casey Manderson from WLWG is in it with me as well)  Keep an eye out for it!

8) Favourite film?

Oooh, that question.  I can't even begin to pick a favorite film, only because it is constantly changing for me.

9) What have you seen at the Festival this year?

I just saw Kristian Levrings Fear Me Not today, and it blew me away.  I thought it was fantastic.

10) Why are you so ridiculously charming and attractive in When Life Was Good? I understand the attractiveness is an inherent trait. But is the character's charm an extension of your personality?

Fist of all, thank you, that is so nice of you to say. 

Because of the style in which the film was shot, I think that all of us had huge elements of our real personalities come through, even though the characters themselves were completely fictional.  Because most of the scenes were guided improv, it was easier to forget the camera was there and forget that you were acting out a scene.  There is so much real listening and reacting involved when you are working without a script 70% of the time, which is why I was talking before about how much I learned working on the film. 

Catch the last screening Thursday at 2pm at AMC.

----Stinky old Aaron Hutchinson----