Madsen continues: “I also like the nature of her affection for Miles. It’s a real friendship that develops between them. I think Maya sees Miles at first as this kind of bumbling, poetic guy, but she genuinely likes listening to him talk and she likes the way he gets so uncomfortable. She truly finds him endearing . . . and so do I.”
Madsen particularly enjoyed the opportunity to work so closely with Paul Giamatti. “He’s such a funny and talented actor, I felt like immediately the bar had been raised,” she says, “and I like that. I like the challenge of it, and I like learning every day from someone like Paul. I honestly feel like I’m a better actress after this movie than I was before.”
The foursome that started out with Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen was completed with Sandra Oh as the sexy, betrayed and ultimately vengeful Stephanie.
From the moment he began reading Rex Pickett’s novel, Payne had Oh -- who happens to be Payne's wife -- in mind for the part of the sexy, betrayed and ultimately vengeful Stephanie. “Sandra's so free-spirited as an actress that you can believe she’s impulsive and wild and enough of a lost soul that she would fall in love with Jack,” notes Michael London. “And yet, you really get tremendous pleasure when she learns the truth and takes out her anger on Jack.” Oh saw from the beginning what had attracted Payne to this story. “It’s a very funny, smart, honest comedy,” she says. “I think that the story is about examining the male psyche, and also how women deal with the male psyche! It’s about two completely opposite men who can’t quite grow up and need each other to survive – and it’s about wondering ‘what have I done with my life and where am I going?’”
For Oh, the most extraordinary part of SIDEWAYS was taking part in a four-actor ensemble that sparked its own mysterious chemistry. “Paul, Thomas, Virginia and I became so engaged with one another that something really interesting and naturalistic just started happening between us as characters once the cameras started rolling,” she says. “I don’t even want to label it, but there is something Alexander captured on film about four people just enjoying one another spontaneously that is really special.”
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