“It’s so funny because we’ve been saying that, and it really is the truth, but I feel like it definitely sounds like we’re crazy,” Herisse adds, with a giggle.
For Herisse, his preparation was all about “connecting” to Elwood. His entry point, he discovered, was the “love that he was brought up with, and that informed everything else about him—all the things you admire and make him such a great kid.” Wilson, meanwhile, singled out one line in Ross and Joslyn Barnes’ screenplay, in which Turner says that he knows his mother loved him, “she just loved liquor more.”
“Him at the same time expressing his loneliness and abandonment, but also still having some remembrance of love in those moments,” Wilson explains. “It kind of revealed his pain.”
Despite the difficulty of the material, the set was full of joy. A counselor was present for some of the most intense scenes of violence, but also was available on more chill days. “She was always present to just talk and hang out,” Herisse says. “You could feel that with everyone on set so I think that’s how we were able to get through it even though what we’re dealing with is very sensitive.”
The experience of watching the finished film was entirely different from the experience of filming it for both men, however. It was only then that the weight of what they’d accomplished sank in. Wilson saw Nickel Boys for the first time all by himself in a screening room. It was physically draining, and emotionally disorienting.
“Something about the first watch—I felt really tired afterwards, but I think it’s because of the experience of the film, like not in a bad way at all,” he says. “I didn’t expect to be affected in that way. Me and Ethan we talk about this, like, lower stomach—for some reason our hands go there when we talk about that experience.”
Herisse, even though he wasn’t alone, felt similar.
“I wasn’t recognizing myself when I saw myself on screen,” he recalls. “That connection wasn’t happening.” He wasn’t seeing Wilson either. When the credits finally rolled, he snapped back into his body.
“Suddenly, when I realized that I had just seen our names, I started crying because that’s the moment I realized, Oh—that was our movie. That’s what we did. That was us.”
