To make the characters of Lost Souls believable, the filmmakers knew they would need actors who could bring them to life with all the palpable subtleties of real people. "What we found in Winona Ryder and Ben Chaplin were two people who really developed an unusually deep knowledge of their characters," says Janusz Kaminski. "They were very instrumental in shaping this movie and making it utterly real."
Kaminski imagined Winona Ryder, with whom he had worked as cinematographer on How to Make an American Quilt, in the role of Maya even as he was reading the script. "As I read the lines, I could hear Winona delivering them," admits Kaminski. "She has that great vulnerability to her mixed with a tremendous strength. And she has a very unpredictable quality, where you feel like anything can happen. Ultimately, I felt that she brought a certain sense of wonder to the movie. She goes in directions that aren't expected of her."
That unexpected quality is exactly what drew Ryder, a two time Oscar nominee, to Maya. "I think I was attracted to this movie because it goes into a world I know nothing about, it tackles issues I had never really thought about before," says Ryder. "I saw it as being a tremendous challenge: to play a character who believes in something so strongly even though I don't necessarily believe in it.
Ryder also was drawn to the script's psychologically probing style. "It's scary," she says, "but not in a gory sense. It reminded me of Roman Polanski or Nicholas Roeg-classic films filled with wonderful, eerie images and questions about what is real and what isn't. That to me is the most terrifying thing of all: is what's happening to Maya real or is she just going insane?"
Finally, Ryder could not resist the chance to work with Janusz Kaminski as a director. "I've always thought he was brilliant," she comments. "He's incredibly sensitive to story and he's not impatient and he has a tremendous respect for actors. And he's also a visual genius who is always discovering different ways to shoot things and make things scary. He's completely modern and yet he's classic, too. And, on top of that, he's hilarious and fun to be around."
Ryder too had a chance to interview Father Lebar about the mechanics of exorcism. "I was surprised by his answers," she admits. "They were very scientific and yet he really took it seriously. There's a great mystery to it. I think sometimes if a person just believes that a priest is casting the devil out of them, it helps them whether it's in their heads or real."
While Ryder's character maintains a steadfast faith throughout Lost Souls, Ben Chaplin's arcs from arrogant skepticism to mild curiosity to ardent, desperate belief. To allow audiences to join him on this roller-coaster of heart and mind, the filmmakers chose Ben Chaplin, who came to the fore in the comedy The Truth about Cats and Dogs and Terence Malick's The Thin Red Line. The character of Peter, no matter how outwardly successful and charismatic, has an inner emptiness that allows him to become a vessel for evil.
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