Ron Eldard recalls that what immediate intrigued him about the drama was its unexpected twists and turns. “I remember reading it and wondering what was going to happen, and every time I thought I knew where it was going, it went somewhere else. It had a great thriller aspect to it.”
The actor also found it interesting that relatively small choices on the part of each character were enough to instigate shattering results. “The little decisions are often what matter most in life,” Eldard offers. “There are big things going on, but it’s those tiny little steps that turn the tide bit by bit.”
Lester’s own relationship with Kathy grows from his impulse to help a woman in need. “He sees that she needs help, and his heart opens up to her,” Eldard says. “Maybe it began as his instinctive reaction as a policeman to a person in trouble. He sees her as someone who is really vulnerable and on the verge of imploding. But his trying to protect her becomes a catalyst for much of what happens.”
“Lester idealizes the situation with Kathy; he thinks he is going to be a knight in shining armor, rushing in to save this poor woman,” Perelman comments. “He has nothing but compassion for her initially, but his compassion leads to a kind of mutual dependence, which leads to a blind love that makes him believe he is doing the right thing up to the very end.”
“I think Ron makes you believe deeply in Lester’s obsession with Kathy—that he has fallen in love with this woman, putting everything else in his life in jeopardy,” London adds. “He leaves behind a wife and two children and a home, because he feels there is something missing for him emotionally there. In reaching out to Kathy, he’s trying to start life anew.”
“It’s funny,” Perelman sums it up: “Behrani wants up, Kathy wants in, and Lester wants out.”
Kathy also finds an unlikely source of compassion in Behrani’s wife, Nadi, who regards Kathy as a person wounded by life. She comes to treat Kathy more like a daughter than as a person who poses a threat to her home, and the two women form an uneasy bond. “You can see in the way Kathy responds to Behrani’s wife how much she wishes to have a real connection with someone who is good and kind,” Connelly says.
Nadi is portrayed by Iranian stage and screen star Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Perelman attests that the character was not too far removed from the actress herself, not only by virtue of her nationality, but by virtue of her heart. “Shohreh has this incredible heart and great compassion. She is so earnest about everything, which is really endearing. I found myself directing her a lot—not that she needed it, but because I enjoyed working with her. She was everybody’s mother on the set.”
London reveals that Aghdashloo was the first and last person they considered for the role. “Vadim and I looked at her tape, and she had all the qualities we’d ever imagined in Nadi. We brought her in, and she read and made everyone cry. There was never any debate or conversation. She was just it. I think much of Shohreh’s life experience was channeled into Nadi’s love for her family and for Iran.”
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