Halley Feiffer ’07 started her semester with a trip to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT. Feiffer has a substantial part in the upcoming film “The Squid and the Whale,” a dark divorce drama from director and writer Noah Baumbach, who took home directing and writing honors at the event.
Feiffer plays Sophie, the girlfriend of teenager Walt (Jesse Eisenberg), whose divorcing parents are played by Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels.
With some prior experience in the acting world, Feiffer auditioned for the part in tenth grade, got the part in twelfth grade and filmed the movie last summer. The completed version is expected to be released later this year.
“It took them a while to get the money for [the film],” Feiffer said. “Finally, they said it was going to shoot this summer.”
That was perfect timing for Feiffer, who avoided having to miss school.
The film took 24 days to shoot, and Feiffer spent 10 of those days on the set in Brooklyn. It was a relatively painless process for her.
“I was expecting a lot of hurry up and wait,” she said, “but there wasn’t a lot of that.”
Feiffer, who became friends with much of the staff, often hung out with the cast and crew when she wasn’t needed in front of the camera.
“Everyone working on the film was some of the best in the field,” she said.
Despite her level of comfort with the crew, she still found parts of the job nerve-racking. One part of the script called for her character Sophie to cry.
“It was really hard for me,” she said. “It’s been my Achilles’ heel.”
Baumbach told her that it was OK if she couldn’t do it; it became, however, a mission for Feiffer. She brought every emotional keepsake she could think of to the set, including family photos. Eventually she broke down and cried far more than the director had intended.
“It was way too much preparation,” she said.
The star treatment was also a bit of a shock for Feiffer, even on a film with a shoestring budget of only $1 million. When it rained, they rushed to cover her up and she was constantly being asked if she wanted anything.
Her agent—yes, she has an agent—reminded Feiffer, to her amusement, that she would probably not get an Oscar for her role.
“I said, ‘I know that!’” she said.
The film has a gritty, indie quality, with lots of handheld shots on grainy filmstock.
According to Feiffer, the material is very honest, with all blemishes included.
“It shows raw reality, as pretentious as that sounds,” she said.
The somewhat autobiographical film blends the content of Baumbach’s life with fiction.
“He’s writing about himself 20 years later,” said Feiffer, who added that the distance allowed him enough perspective to laugh at his younger self.
This may be Feiffer’s largest acting gig, but it’s not her first. She had a small part in the 2000 release, “You Can Count on Me,” appeared in an episode of “Law and Order,” and has acted on the stage.
She is also an accomplished playwright. Her play, “Easter Candy,” was featured in the Young Playwrights Festival last year, and a new work will be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.
While her success is the result of much hard work and dedication, the New York native also comes from creative roots. Her father is famed cartoonist Jules Feiffer and her mother is accomplished journalist and stand-up comic Jenny Allen.
“My family is very creative, but not very showbizzy,” she said. “I’m lucky that my family is into theater.”
She said that theater is much more challenging than film—a challenge she’s taking on at Wesleyan.
Feiffer is co-directing a series of student-written plays on campus for a series called, “Four Play.” She has also formed the Wesleyan Playwriting Collective with Jess Chayes ’07.
While she continues to audition for movies and theater pieces, she says that school is her first priority.
“For me, it’s important to get a broad liberal arts education,” she said.
“The Squid and the Whale” currently lacks a distributor, but the film has received considerable attention coming out of Sundance, and is to be released in the fall.
“I’m so excited about it,” she said.
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