It was always a matter of time for Annie Baker. In the words of its creator for her second produced play, “Circle Mirror Transformation,” she lays down the law on how one can accurately perform silences as she writes them: a “quick pause” lasts one second, a “pause” is 2 , a “long pause” is closer to 4 and a “silence” is a minimum of 5.
“If you skip or pass through these silences, you are performing a special play,” writes Baker in the word, published in 2010.
Now, 14 years and seven performances later, the Pulitzer winner has gone from the stage to the big screen with her debut feature “Janet Planet,” which follows a single mother, Janet (Julianne Nicholson), and her loving 11-year-old daughter. , Lacy (Zoe Ziegler), whose affection for her guardian is reaching a silent but definitive breaking point. Expanding its limited release at A24 this weekend after a premiere in New York, the film offers a fresh, contemporary take on Baker’s signature mastery of the loose rhythms of small talk and agonizing, emotionally evocative silences.
“It was really pure manic pleasure to have the ability to manage…” (A brief pause.) “…the pace…” (A pause.) “…of an efficiency, six months after it happened,” Baker said in a Zoom interview . “Sometimes Julianne would text me and say, ‘We haven’t spoken in 4 months.’ And I would say, ‘I’m dating you.'”
“I’m so sick of your face!” Nicholson jokes, sitting next to Baker at A24’s New York offices.
“No!” Baker smiles. “It fulfilled a need I’ve had for a long time to really dig in my claws when it comes to a performance.”
Nicholson and Ziegler take a lot of pregnant pauses in “Janet Planet.” The film begins with Lacy making a name for herself in the hours of darkness, demanding that Janet come get her from camp for the night. It’s a sudden return home that her mother hasn’t adequately considered. As a carousel of dubious romantic partners and Janet’s problematic guests enters her orbit, the onslaught of embarrassing experiences casts a curious shadow over Lacy, who can only witness her mother’s private life when she is thoughtlessly included in it.
Julianne Nicholson and Zoe Ziegler in ‘Janet Planet’
A24/Everett Assortment
According to common business logic, one page of a screenplay is typically about a minute in length. To match, the original “Janet Planet” script was 70 pages long, with about 50 pages in the final cut; the runtime is about two hours, letting viewers sit with Lacy through the full extent of her inarticulable discomfort.
“And I have a brand new script that I recently completed that’s 67 pages long. I know it’s at least 95 minutes long,” says Baker. “But I’m starting to introduce it to people and people think, ‘Is 67 minutes a long enough movie?’ I don’t know how anyone can convince people that it’s a very long film.”
Baker is aware that his writing has a rhythm of its own. Even then, she appears to physically recoil when asked if she would consider directing a film written by someone else.
“I can’t think of directing something I didn’t write,” says Baker. “Except I’m directing some really mind-blowing musical films – I would actually be very excited to direct someone else’s material if it was a track. However, I do not wish to direct anyone’s dialogue.”
But once the rhythm is over, “Janet Planet” comes with an even more definitive personal investment for Baker. The story is set in 1990s Western Massachusetts, where the filmmaker and Nicholson were raised. The pair were eager to get back there for production. Gentle glimpses into Lacy’s day-to-day life, like her long walks through the woods to passionless piano lessons and her mother’s hippie lifestyle, bring a specificity to the film that fosters a sense of privacy around its characters.
“I was used to that world of people who seek to find connections and do so through a way of life that was then considered different: acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractors. Yet everything was simply being discovered,” says Nicholson. “It was extremely personal to be able to return to these places. I have clearer memories of when I was eight, 9, 10, 11 than I do from, like, five years ago. And I wouldn’t have gone again in any other case. I don’t know if it would have a purpose.”
Julianne Nicholson and Annie Baker on the set of ‘Janet Planet’
A24
Regional precision also enlivens the film’s portrayal of an inevitable but formative childhood experience: the dawning realization that a guardian is not a deity but rather a flawed person who occupies a world beyond his control. This arc is an essential element of Baker’s premise of indirectly updating Lacy for every scene in the film; Even when Janet forgets that her own daughter is in the same room, some playful framing always re-centers Lacy’s perspective.
“I also have this with my son normally. I start talking to a good friend and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, right. My little one has been hearing this dialogue,” Baker says.
At this level within the interview, Ziegler provides a little shuffling in his seat between Baker and Nicholson. The child actress has been there for all this dialogue, too, although her director and co-star are very consciously accommodating to her — much more constant in this than Janet is to Lacy. Quiet as a mouse in a press environment, Ziegler still offers a solution when asked whether she has continued acting since filming “Janet Planet” two years ago.
“After I did a movie called ‘Howl.’ Directed by Sara Crow,” says Ziegler. “It’s a brief film.”
Nicholson turns and asks, “Was it like when we were filming?”
“A little, yes.”
“We saw the film together for the first time at the New York Film Festival.”
“You were very happy,” adds Baker.
“Yeah,” Ziegler says. “It’s cool.”
Annie Baker, Julianne Nicholson and Zoe Ziegler talk onstage with Dennis Lim after ‘Janet Planet’ screening at the 61st New York Film Competition
Photos by Theo Wargo/Getty for FLC
The journey to casting Ziegler was a long one for Baker, who remembers discovering the first-time actor with seismic gratitude.
“You feel Zoe’s intelligence instantly when you meet her. I’m just going to embarrass her,” Baker says, turning to Ziegler apologetically. “It’s a nightmare to be 12 and be described like that in front of her face.”
“Annie was in business, canvassing the streets and the galas and the schools and the mall,” says Nicholson, “She was, for a year, working in any and all avenues, from professional actors to approaching people on the street. …And I learn from some talented young actors, who were great, but who weren’t Lacy.
“It’s really scary when you’re casting a movie that starts shooting in six months, then four months, then two months, and then one month, to keep saying no,” says Baker. “And so, man, you don’t really know until the first day of capture if you’ve forged the right son. But it was in the first five minutes: I thought, ‘Phew! Now we have a movie!’”
In addition to Nicholson’s numerous readings with young actors, Baker also credits her star as shepherding the film throughout production.
“It was really helpful to always have you there for the experience and to be able to test you periodically on many issues and many hires. We check in on each other a few times,” Baker said, speaking to Nicholson. “We were recording this wild sound in a van and you said, ‘You might want to try doing it this way.’ And I thought, ‘Oh my God, she’s cool.’ Julianne is definitely very, very good at making movies.”
The chirping of insects, the cawing of birds and the summer breeze cover the soundscape of “Janet Planet”. Although the characters are sometimes silent, the film rarely does so. Baker intended to have no musical classification from the earliest stages of growth. Instead, the production recorded hours upon hours of themed recordings, blending the natural sounds of western Massachusetts summer for a transportive sonic spell.
Julianne Nicholson and Zoe Ziegler in ‘Janet Planet’
Variety A24/Everett
“How does this driveway sound to those walking to the mailbox at 5 a.m.? It’s always higher than what we could provide to you,” says Baker. “If there was a classification, it would be what this child is hearing in her life, whether it’s overheard dialogue or the music her mom is playing when she’s high or the bugs outside her window. … Whoever was my sound designer would be the composer. It would be pretty loud.”
And just like with his audio, Baker also found that it was best to spoil himself with materials while working alongside his actors as well. Given the unusual alternative of directing her personal writing, the first-time director soon realized that it was best never to choose an explicit interpretation of a scene along with her actors, instead pushing for a mode of perpetual experimentation distinct from filmmaking.
“With theater, I’m seeing it happen in front of me and that’s how it’s going to be on stage. The beauty of filmmaking – and the humbling factor – is that you don’t know how slow or fast you need to be until you get to editing. Nobody has knowledge. Like, no one knows! Baker says. “Sometimes I thought, ‘Well, thank God, we have a really quick shot’ – I mean, ‘quick’ for me is a different thing than for other people. … The best thing you can do is act and let the actors act. After that, be the maniac later.”