Judgement Day

QUESTION: Would you do exactly the same thing that Ellie Nesler did?

Christine Lahti: I completely understand why she did what she did. Of course, I don't condone it. It's vigilantism. It would mean anarchy. We cannot take the law into our own hands, but in the playing of her, I never judged her for a moment. All of the circumstances of her life that led up to that moment, informed that moment. It wasn't even just that her son had been sexually abused by this person for so long, it was also that she was abused when she was five years old, from the age of 5-10, I believe. She was sexually abused by her father's friends and had no one to tell, no one to talk to. That was the beginning of this journey that she took to the moment where she actually pulled the trigger on Daniel Driver. There were many things in her life that informed that moment so I never judged her. I couldn't, in the playing of her, and truly had a lot of compassion for her. But, as she told me, "Christine, I am not the devil. I'm not an angel. I'm in the middle. I'm a human being who made a big mistake and I should pay for my mistake, but I hope people can understand that what I did was wrong but can understand why I did it."

QUESTION: Did you follow the case originally?

Christine Lahti: You know, it's interesting. The first time I heard about Ellie Nesler, I read about it in the newspaper and someone called me up that day and said, "You've got to play this woman." I don't know why. It was one of those strange phone calls that, of course, later you think, wow, that was some kind of psychic thing.

QUESTION: What did you learn about murder and yourself from playing this role?

Christine Lahti: I don't like it, don't believe in it. Wow! I hate violence. I really hate guns. I hate any kind of violence. And it cost me a lot to play that scene. I remember the day that we did it, I was dreading it. Again, I hope the message of the movie is that people walk away with the feeling that they understand and have compassion for this woman, but that it was the wrong thing to do.

QUESTION: When you're doing that bizarre interrogation where Ellie is rambling, did you have something to go with? Did you hear the original tapes or transcripts of what she said at that interrogation or something to base it on?

Christine Lahti: There were no tapes for me to listen to or watch. It was all transcripted and I could read everything she said. Stephen and I did a lot of collaboration in finding the best pieces.