Walton Goggins on the Downside of Hollywood's "Shiny, Glossy Things

The Big Picture

• Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sits down with the team behind The Uninvited at SXSW 2024.
• Elizabeth Reaser, Walton Goggins, Lois Smith, Eva De Dominici and writer-director Nadia Conners discuss crafting their hugely poignant performance showcase.
• In The Uninvited , while preparing for a party at their Hollywood Hills home, Sammy and Rose get an unexpected visitor, Helen, a woman varying between confusion and lucidity who claims to live there.

Nadia Conners’ narrative feature debut is a true performance showcase. She penned a poignant script brimming with layers and complexity, put the material in the hands of an ensemble full of acting aces, and let them soar with it.

The Uninvited takes place at Sammy (Walton Goggins, Conners’ husband) and Rose’s (Elizabeth Reaser) home in the Hollywood Hills. While preparing to host a party, they get an unexpected visit from a total stranger, Lois Smith’s Helen, a woman who varies between a state of confusion and lucidity, and claims to live in their home. Throughout the evening, Sammy, Rose, Helen and other party guests, including Eva De Dominici’s Delia, a Hollywood ingénue, collide and, in the process, cause one another to confront the paths they’ve taken and the direction they’re heading.

While in Austin for The Uninvited’s SXSW world premiere, Conners, Goggins, Reaser, Smith and Dominici visited the Collider interview studio to discuss their experience taking the story from play to screenplay to the big screen.

Why 'The Uninvited' Is an Especially Authentic Film

The Uninvited may mark Conners’ narrative feature debut, but she’s a trained filmmaker who’s had a foot in the business for years. Given The Uninvited proves her undeniable talent behind the lens, why hasn’t Conners soared to notoriety over the years? She actually explores the answer to that question in the film. She explained:

“I have wanted to direct a narrative features since I was 25. It's been a long, long time since I went to the NYU directors program. I spent a lot of time doing documentaries, ecological films, environmental messaging, but I've always been writing and always trying to direct a movie and, as you know, it's very hard. It has been much harder for women. I think now is obviously really a time, and it's interesting to me that the movie that I finally got to make after having written and almost directed so many movies is really about a woman in midlife, struggling with the regrets and the struggles of all that you have to go through as a woman and the roles that you have to juggle and how hard it is to actually get a shot . I really want to thank our producers, our financiers for giving me that shot. It's a big, big deal.”

In Conners’ director's statement she noted, “Within the pages of the play then film, I found a place to explore the unmentionable and more than that I found, through the process of writing Rose, something that felt like a personal reckoning.” What was it like for Reaser working with a filmmaker who has such a close connection to the character she’s portraying? Here’s what she said:

“I do think it was very personal for you and for me. Oddly it really resonated [with] me. I think that's why I was so drawn to it. A lot of times what's amazing about working with filmmakers and auteurs is that — you know, she wrote it. It was born out of her soul … so it's deep to then be on set with that person playing some version of something that's extremely personal to them, and I think it can be very challenging at times, but I think it also makes it more authentic, and it gives it so much more meaning.”

Eva De Dominici Addresses the Reality of Being an Actor and a Parent in Hollywood

Conners and Reaser weren’t the only members of the team who could connect to what the characters were experiencing. Goggins took a moment to address the harsh reality of being a parent and being a busy artist in Hollywood:

“We have a 13-year-old, Nadia and I, and in success, it is harder to go to work for me, and I think maybe my wife is now experiencing that, than it has ever been because that means that you're gonna be away from your child for a very long time. So it's not just shiny, glossy things. These are real absences and real memories that you won't have the opportunity to make because you're away on location for a really long time. And that's in success, right? Cry me a river, but it's true. It's very painful.”

Dominici has found herself in a similar situation, and she’s determined to do what she can to defy expectations and affirm that women can have both — a career and a family. Here’s how she put it:

“What I found very difficult coming to Hollywood, because I'm very new here, I've been living here for five years now, that I hadn't imagined was getting pregnant, trying to also start a career here, and I don't think it's really prepared for women who want to also have a child . I was really desperate to prove to my agency that I could still — my agency, everyone — that I could still work, and that process was really, really difficult, becoming a mother and coming back to work.”

Walton Goggins Calls "Creative Community" the One Thing He Loves About Hollywood

In addition to discussing misconceptions about the reality of working in Hollywood that they’re eager to demystify, the group also took a moment to shine a spotlight on the highs of the industry, the elements that keep them coming back for more and feeling full as artists. Goggins began:

“The one thing that I love about Hollywood is the creative community. As everybody up here has, I’ve spent a lot of time, and a lot of different groups of people. But the groups of people that I feel most myself around and most comfortable around are artists and storytellers and writers and directors , and people that are passionate about storytelling. That's my home. It resides in my body.”

Smith jumped in to reaffirm Goggins’ point. “It must be done together.” She added, “I feel that way very much about the theater, which is where I began, and still am. But in film, there [are] even more crafts and they are essential. There are so many people who know so many things that make it possible.”

Further solidifying community and collaboration as a top aspect of filmmaking, Reaser noted:

“I think it's really about people. T he best things that have come out of this are the connections and the friendships that you make with people that are unlike any other friendship that you could ever have as an adult because when are you ever gonna be stuck somewhere in a tiny room with someone till four in the morning? Or you're running through the woods in high heels and a tank top and it's raining and no one else is ever gonna understand that experience. [Laughs] And so there's this real intimacy that is created sometimes in these situations, and then these deep friendships that you could also not see someone for 10 years and then see them again, and there's just an understanding and there's a real family there.”

How Elizabeth Reaser Helped Eva De Dominic Level Up in 'The Uninvited'

Dominici continued emphasizing the importance of one’s collaborators, but specifically veered towards the sky-high talent her The Uninvited scene partners had. “If there's something I really love about Hollywood [it’s] that the level of acting is really high. I couldn't even believe that I was working among these monsters." She added, “That really pushes you to be better because there's a lot of competition, and you just have to get better.”

An example of a time when Dominici’s work was elevated via the contribution of a scene partner? It’s a key moment in the film that she shares with Reaser. Dominici recalled:

“I do remember one scene I had with [Elizabeth]. I don't want to spoil it, so I’m thinking, what can I say and what I can’t? [Laughs] Delia is dealing with this urgent matter she has, and she asks for help, and Elizabeth, who's an incredible actress and so real, she's so in the moment, she surprised me with her performance. I had an idea of the scene, but then when I was there, I could feel her pain, and that made me cry. That wasn't written in the scene. The scene became another thing. Much more deep. Really, really deep, and that helped me a lot because when I was able to feel her pain, and for my character who kind of sees herself in Rose in a couple of years, that made me feel, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I want to be this woman. I don't want to be in this pain,’ and that made me cry. And I think that to have an honest partner in a scene is everything because nothing was pushed. It was real. It was happening. And every take she would bring something new.”

Dominici was also quick to sing Smith’s praises. “Every time Lois entered a scene, the crew was like, respect, because she was so in it, so focused.” Reaser added, “I feel like when you work with Lois, it's like getting on the magic carpet ride and just following [her] wherever [she] goes, and it's like you don't have to do anything. If you just listen and show up, you’ve got Lois.”

Eager to hear even more about the making of The Invited? Be sure to check out my full conversation with Conners, Goggins, Reaser, Smith and Dominici in the video at the top of this article.

The Uninvited (2024)

ComedyDrama

A stranger crashes a party, sparking a comedy of errors, and a reordering of life.

Release Date March 11, 2024 Director Nadia Conners Cast Pedro Pascal , Walton Goggins , Rufus Sewell , Elizabeth Reaser , Lois Smith , Eva De Dominici , Kate Comer , Annie Korzen Runtime 97 Minutes

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