Rose Byrne

And it is as a parent, those things become overstimulating.

It's relentless.

And she wanted to capture that claustrophobia.

And the sound design was really extraordinary in that sense too, really captured that.

One thing I should add is that we never fully know as viewers what kind of illness the daughter has, nor do we see the daughter's face through most of the movie.

Yes.

Again, she sort of provides more questions than answers.

And the conceit of not seeing the daughter, and Mary's spoken to this many times, but sort of a two-pronged thing in that, you know, I don't think...

linda my character can see her daughter at this point she's so um drowning and uh beginning this sort of real descent into her crisis her mental health crisis that she can't even see this little she sort of lost her shape which can happen with your family or you know when you're in a day in and day out and you just they lose their physical shape in front of you your kids or your husband or wife or whomever and um i feel like that's linda's perspective and also

For the audience to have that choice taken away, to not see the daughter, you're forced to reckon with the mother.

Because as soon as you put a child on screen, your empathy, as it should, goes to the child.

They're so vulnerable and immediately your concern will go to them.

And so she takes that choice away from the viewer.

So you're forced to be in the perspective of the mother.

Yeah.

Rose Byrne, congrats on the Tony nomination, and thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you, Anne-Marie.

Thank you so much.

This is Fresh Air.

I'm Terry Gross.