Tina Kakadelis
Vicky Krieps’ breakout role was in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread where she went toe-to-toe with Daniel Day Lewis. It was a film steeped in the idea of what it means to make great art, the artist behind it, and the abuse people are willing to put up with for the sake of greatness. Most recently, Krieps stars in Samuel Van Grinsven’s gothic ghost story, Went Up the Hill. Krieps sat down with Film Obsessive News Editor Tina Kakadelis to discuss ghostly possession, the power of perfume in recalling a memory, and her habit of writing a song to exorcise each of the roles she portrays.
Earlier, Krieps’ co-star, Dacre Montgomery, talked with Film Obsessive about the narrative design of Went Up the Hill that was impossible to say no to. Like Montgomery, Krieps was interested in the idea of two actors playing the same, distinctly different third role in a film. For all intents and purposes, Went Up the Hill is primarily built by Krieps as Jill, a grieving widow, Montgomery as Jack, the estranged son of Jill’s wife, and Elizabeth, portrayed by Montgomery and Krieps. Elizabeth is the metaphorical ghost who lingers over Jack and Jill, keeping them trapped in the cycle of abuse that existed when she was alive.
“We live with trauma almost as if we are possessed by ghosts sometimes,” Krieps explains. “If we want to be healthy in our heads and in our hearts and become an independent, self-determined human being, we need to sometimes fight these ghosts. Even kill them in a figure of speech. The idea is philosophic. I liked that he chose to make that ghost into something literal.”
In the initial script, written by Van Grinsven and Jory Anast, the presence of Elizabeth was portrayed through a piece of cloth, like a scarf, that covered the face of either Jack or Jill, whoever Elizabeth was possessing. That version of Went Up the Hill took a more supernatural route, but the piece of cloth wouldn’t make the final cut. And that’s thanks to Krieps.
“I’m always afraid of artifice. I need to be able to say, okay, maybe I failed, but I really tried,” Krieps says. “I feel comfortable with doing something daring, and I’m happy to fail, but I have a problem with anything that’s hiding.”
“I said to them, I like the script and I would love to do that, but only if you remove the scarf,” Krieps recounts. “They said yes, they will remove the scarf. Then I got even more scared, because then I realized now it will be my fault if it doesn’t look good.”
On paper, the idea of two actors as different as Krieps and Montgomery playing the same character could create apprehension in the viewer. Krieps is quick to point out that “it could have gone wrong for so many reasons. It could be two actors being extremely emotional for no reason, and that would be just ridiculous, you know what I mean?”
The duo didn’t try to mimic mannerisms or speech patterns. The way they played Elizabeth is not meant to be a perfect copy. That’s why it works. An abuser puts on a different face for everyone and that’s represented in how they portrayed Elizabeth. The one thing that did stay the same in Krieps and Montgomery’s take on Elizabeth was the perfume they wore. Unbeknownst to each other, they each select a scent for every role they play. From Stranger Things to Phantom Thread to Old and Power Rangers, Krieps and Montgomery have this in common. When they arrived on set, Montgomery came with a scent for Jack while Krieps arrived with two scents: one for Jill and one for Jill when she is possessed by Elizabeth.
“I actually had found someone who made two perfumes that were almost the same. One was white, one was black, and they were both very personal,” Krieps tells Film Obsessive. “They were based on two people who had been in a relationship for 20 years and then were not in a relationship for eight years. Later, they created this perfume, each scent reflecting each person in that relationship.”
“The smell was very strong, very intoxicating. It was so scary because we knew what the perfume meant. After a few scenes that we’d done, discovering how abusive, brutal, and aggressive Elizabeth is, which is always something you discover while you shoot, this is very difficult to to see on the page or even in rehearsal, you feel it. It happens when it happens. Dacre and I both got scared of Elizabeth.”
“Smell is connected to emotion,” continues Krieps. “Very soon, Elizabeth was connected to that smell. If we would come out of our rooms and we were on opposite sides of the house, you already smelled her. I have goosebumps now,” she shudders.
The lingering feelings of fear also drove Krieps and Montgomery away from each other on set. Unlike most films, the two didn’t spend any downtime together. Not because they didn’t get along, but because there was something so stifling about being in that headspace for so many hours of the day.
“We expected we would spend time together because we are such similar artists. We like the same movies, but it was as if we suffered so much in that house from one another knowing that it wasn’t the person. We needed to get away and see anything that has nothing to do with that house. For me, it was walking in the hills. For him…” Krieps trails off. “That’s the point. I don’t even know what he was doing. I think he didn’t know what I was doing, but I was walking and hiking in nature all the time to get away from it and just to stay sane.”
Krieps is no stranger to heavy roles, but it’s clear that Went Up the Hill left a mark on her. One of the ways she lets go of her past characters is to compose a song about them. It’s a practice she does in all of her roles, but the song she wrote about Jill is the first time one of these songs has made it into the film. Sometimes the song takes a while to be written (two years passed before she penned the song for The Dead Don’t Hurt), but Jill’s song came quickly.
“I had it finished very early because I needed to let go of Jill, I think, to even understand Elizabeth. The song was finished halfway and Sam heard it one evening. He asked me if I would agree to record it for them so they could use it in the end credits,” describes Krieps. “I met Merk, who’s from New Zealand, and he then recorded all of my songs together.”
By all of her songs, Krieps does mean all of them, from all of the films she’s starred in. Now comes the question of what to do with these recordings.
“I haven’t released them because I’m still trying to find a way to release them. It’s difficult nowadays because what I do is so handmade. It’s so analog in a way. It has nothing to do in this world of today.”
