Supporting Jennifer Connelly in this nuanced journey into the heart of the supernatural is a highly accomplished cast that includes a trio of Oscar® nominees. One of Hollywood’s most versatile, prolific and acclaimed actors, John C. Reilly, an Oscar® and Golden Globe® nominee for “Chicago,” stars as Mr. Murray, the self-serving managing agent of the Roosevelt Island apartment complex, whose nature is at once creepy and comical.
Reilly was drawn to the project simply because he couldn’t put the screenplay down. “I couldn’t get enough of it,” he recalls. “It was such a compelling story. As a parent, I found it very unsettling, but as an actor, I immediately wanted to be a part of it. I was really struck by the way it struck a very familiar chord of alienation and isolation that anyone can relate to in the world today.”
The story also sparked memories of Reilly’s own first experiences in New York City. “A lot of the themes in the movie made me remember exactly what it was like when I first came to New York—the feeling that the city might crush me if I didn’t fight my way through it every day. I was struggling with who was telling me the truth, who was really my friend, how was I going to survive in this place…and that’s where Jennifer’s character is when the movie starts. Her family’s breaking up, she’s just trying to pick up the pieces of her life and still provide for her daughter, and she doesn’t know who to trust—and now the walls are literally coming down around her.”
Reilly especially enjoyed dissecting the personality of Mr. Murray, a dark character who nevertheless evades black-and-white descriptions. “Murray’s important because, for better or worse, he convinces Dahlia and Ceci to take this next step in their life,” notes Reilly. “He’s not really a bad person. Rather, he’s sort of evil by neglect. I felt I understood what the guy was about. In terms of the description of the character, most of it wasn’t even on the written page, but I felt like, how many apartments and houses have I looked at over the years and how many of these guys have I met. It takes a certain kind of hustler to be involved in real estate and I play Reilly as an amalgamation of different real estate types, from the aggressive to the eccentric.”
For Jennifer Connelly, Reilly’s performance proved to be one of many elements that brought the film to a higher level. “I thought he was brilliant,” she says. “He’s just so funny and he brings so much to the role that wasn’t there on paper. He did all kinds of research about Roosevelt Island so that when he was showing me through the apartment, there was something very real about it. Actually, he reminds me a lot of the Ruth Gordon character in ‘Rosemary’s Baby.’”
Meanwhile, for the role of Veeck, the building’s moody, mysterious and not-veryresponsive janitor, the filmmakers turned to veteran character actor Pete Postlethwaite, who received an Academy Award® nomination for his role in Jim Sheridan’s “In the Name of the Father.” “Pete has one of the most incredible faces in film; there’s a million stories playing inside there,” observes producer Bill Mechanic. “I believe he’s one of the great character actors of our time. To have him play the role—or rather, inhabit the role—of this guy who is as much a part of a building as the floors, the walls and everything else was phenomenal for the movie.”
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