Postlethwaite enjoyed playing a character who in his quiet eccentricity naturally invites curiosity and suspicion. “He’s truly an enigma,” says Postlethwaite. “You can’t really get a read on Veeck other than feeling he’s very dodgy. And that he feels ill-used. Not just by Murray and the tenants, but by the world in general.”
He continues: “I found it quite interesting that you don’t really know where he’s coming from or how much he knows. I came to think of him as being childlike in his approach to things. He surely realizes that something’s wrong in the building but, just like a kid, he thinks that if he doesn’t say anything about it, it will somehow all turn out okay.”
Walter Salles found himself riveted by Postlethwaite’s performance. “He’s basically a Shakespearean actor who brings something very alive, very dense and yet very economical to this role,” says the director. “Though he has very few lines, the character is fully brought to life.” Another Academy Award® nominee, Tim Roth, who received both Oscar® and Golden Globe® nods for “Rob Roy,” portrays Jeff Platzer, the fast-talking but soft-hearted attorney who reluctantly agrees to help Dahlia in her custody battle with her ex-husband. Much like the rest of the cast, Roth was attracted to this horror story’s unusual emphasis on forging rich characters. “Every single person who appears in the movie has some kind of twist to their character,” Roth notes, “which makes it quite fun. No one is quite who he seems. My character, Platzer, is a lawyer, but he basically works out of his car. It’s quite unusual and unique.” The unusual nature of DARK WATER was a large part of what brought together such an illustrious cast, says Roth. “If this film took a more conventional approach, I don’t think Walter, Jennifer or any of us would have been here,” he states. “That’s why I think this manages to be a very, very scary movie while also transcending that genre.”
Salles adds, “I have been a fan of both John C. Reilly and Tim Roth for years. They are two of the most extraordinary actors in contemporary cinema, and I felt extremely privileged to collaborate with them. These two guys have the ability to constantly surprise you. They are so good that they can also save you on a set.”
Finally, one of the film’s hardest roles to cast was that of Kyle, Dahlia’s battling ex who forces them to move to Roosevelt Island and into the clutches of fear. The filmmakers hoped to find someone who could bring a fresh humanity to a role that could all too easily be played broadly as a villain. Explains Bill Mechanic: “We wanted someone who could simultaneously be seen as a guy who was involved in a bad marriage and does all those things that people in bad marriages do but at the same time could seem redeemable in his daughter’s eyes. That’s a very difficult thing to achieve. Fortunately, I had worked with Dougray Scott before and I knew he had the chops to make this work.”
Scott, who is himself the father of twins, decided to highlight the character’s mixed emotions. “I talked a lot with Walter about Kyle at the beginning and we both agreed that we didn’t want Kyle to just come across as a standard ‘bad guy,’” recalls the actor. “Instead, we wanted to show that a lot of his actions come from pain and frustration and, most of all, the fear of losing his daughter. When you split up with someone, you forget about the good times you had together. And when you bring a child between two adults who love that child, the most horrendous things can be said. And that’s where Kyle and Dahlia’s relationship is at the beginning of the film. She looks at Kyle as being a hard-nosed bully, the man who’s trying to control everything. And he looks at her as someone who wants to harm his relationship with his daughter.”
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