'Presence' Interview: Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan

Moviefone speaks with Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan about Steven Soderbergh's 'Presence'. "It was really a dream come true working with Steven," Liu said.

(L to R) Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan star in 'Presence'.

Opening in theaters on January 24th is the new supernatural thriller ‘Presence’, which was written by David Koepp (‘Jurassic Park’) and directed by Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh (‘Traffic’ and ‘The Limey’).

Shot entirely in the first-person perspective, the movie stars Lucy Liu (‘Kill Bill: Volume 1’), Chris Sullivan (‘This Is Us’), Julia Fox (‘Uncut Gems’), Callina Liang (‘Bad Genius’), West Mulholland (‘Dark Harvest’), and Eddy Maday.

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan about their work on ‘Presence', collaborating with director Steven Soderbergh on set, navigating shooting from a first-person perspective, and Liu’s character’s different relationship with her children.

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Lucy Liu in 'Presence'. Photo: Neon.

Moviefone: To begin with, Lucy, what was it like working with Steven Soderbergh on this film, particularly in the style in which he was shooting from the first-person perspective? And as an actor, did you have to make any adjustments to work in that way?

Lucy Liu: It was really a dream come true working with Steven and working in this way, in this experimental fashion with this one camera being the audience and the presence was wonderful. Because I think I would prefer working with him in this manner over a traditional style of filmmaking, because it was taking a chance on something new and seeing how it worked. That's exciting to me, because it just makes it that much more fun and interesting that you're taking a risk with somebody who you find to be such an inspiration in that world of cinema.

(L to R) Chris Sullivan and Lucy Liu in 'Presence'. Photo: Neon.

MF: Chris, what was your experience like working with Steven Soderbergh, and because of the way he shot it, did you feel like the camera was another character on set?

Chris Sullivan: Yeah, it was a unique realization. Even reading the script, I was like, okay, this is how this is going to work. Then getting on set, it wasn't even so much the one camera, it was the type of lens that he used, which was this 14mm super wide lens. Just realizing that no matter where you are, you're just always on camera. It took me the first day of shooting to figure out, “Okay, this is how this is going to work. Okay, we can do this”. Because even on that first day, Steven was like, "I'm not sure if this is going to work, so I guess we'll find out." Which was kind of thrilling, because you knew you were in the most capable hands. If anybody was going to try this and it was going to work, Steven Soderbergh was going to make it work, and he has, and it's one of the scariest movies that's been released in a long time. So, there you go. We're not in Kansas anymore, baby!

Callina Liang as Chloe in 'Presence'. Photo: Neon.

MF: Finally, Lucy, Rebecca has a very different relationship with her son than she has with her daughter. Can you talk about that and what it says about the character?

LL: I think the character is not concerned with what other people think about her. I think she is very particular about her affection towards her son. That dialogue that she has with him is almost like the horror movie itself to me, that she really is dislocated so much from her daughter and from her husband, frankly. I think the dynamic of their family and their dysfunction is what is kind of fascinating and at the same time terrifying.