Sarah Polley, Adrien Brody team up for horror thrills in 'Splice'
TORONTO - Sarah Polley admits "Splice" isn't the kind of film she'd ever tackle as a director, but as an actress, she relished her role as a cocky scientist who embarks on a dangerous path of bio-engineered experiments with horrific consequences.
The "Away From Her" director stars alongside Adrien Brody in the harrowing Canadian co-production, a unique blend of sci-fi, creature-feature and family melodrama with a dose of body horror reminiscent of David Cronenberg's early shockers.
Since debuting at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, "Splice" has earned sharply divisive reviews for its worst-case-scenario look at genetic testing and grotesque sexual elements.
Polley, known for cerebral Canadian dramas like "The Sweet Hereafter," says she knew it would be just the kind of thing some people would hate, but that only made her more interested in the over-the-top thriller.
"People seemed to be kind of stunned by it, which is how I felt when I saw it," Polley says of early screenings of "Splice," which opens Friday.
"There were things about it that I absolutely loved and couldn't believe and thought were amazing and there were also things that definitely tested my limits in terms of what was morally defensible or not. I imagine a lot of people have reactions similar to that but I think that's interesting in a film."
"It definitely pushes a lot of boundaries and it's definitely not an easy or comfortable film."
Polley plays Elsa, a fiercely ambitious scientist who secretly develops a human/animal hybrid along with her more cautious scientist partner, Clive, played by Brody.
Their experiment quickly evolves into a surprisingly complex and captivating creature (played by French actress and model Delphine Chaneac) that elicits the couple's innate parental instincts, and later, their darker impulses.
Brody says he was fascinated by the disturbing script and was eager to dive into such provocative material.
The lanky star won an Oscar for his searing portrayal of a holocaust survivor in "The Pianist" and says he often feels pigeonholed as a serious drama actor who can't do comedy or horror.
"There was a period when I'd done a couple things that people couldn't understand why I was doing comedy or (couldn't believe) that I even had a semblance of a sense of humour," says Brody, who followed up his breakout role with offbeat fare including "The Darjeeling Limited" and "The Brothers Bloom."
"I like to have a sense of humour with my work. I think there's a perception that when you've established yourself as an actor that can do very serious drama that that is all that you should do.... I often try to find things that kind of push the envelope, that go in a complete opposite direction of something that I have done."
The Canada/France co-production counts fantasy master Guillermo del Toro and Hollywood heavyweight Joel Silver among its executive producers, with Silver jumping on board after being wowed by the film at Sundance, says director Vincenzo Natali.
As a result, the film is getting a wide theatrical release on both sides of the border, something Natali calls a "miracle" in light of repeated roadblocks that stymied the film in the past.
"By all rights this shouldn't be happening because it's such a difficult time right now to sell an independent film to the domestic market," says Natali, who made his directorial debut with the 1997 sci-fi film, "Cube."
"We finished it a year ago, and two of the companies that wanted to release it in the States went out of business, so by the time December rolled around last year I just thought, `We're going straight to DVD.' ... But fortunately we got into Sundance and then by some weird confluence of events, Joel Silver saw the film and really liked it and got Warner Bros involved."
Now the film is coming out on 3,000 screens across North America, a feat rarely seen by a Canadian film.
"I feel like this movie's on steroids, it's just totally out of control," says Natali. "It's so far beyond anything else I've made. This is my fourth film but none of my other films received anything remotely like this in terms of their release."
"Had you told me this would happen four months ago I would not have believed you because it truly defies all logic."
"Splice" opens across Canada on Friday.
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