The movie was fast-paced, but not in an Avengers or an abysmal Jurassic Park sequel type of way,filled with a mindless plot or a billion-dollar budget in special effects, according to Camila. It's the airless, cutthroat dimension of the modern workplace that forces the audience to look at it.
Camila watched the moment Peter realized the impending failure of the company and told Seth to tell Will immediately. The disbelief and then acceptance of the toxic mortgages that Paul Bettany showed was compelling to see. As the film progressed, the audience saw the hierarchy, including Chairman John, played by Jeremy Irons. Jeremy needed support from Sam to pull off the fire sale of toxic assets, but Sam was not all in. All of the cast was exceptional, and the reactions to the crisis the company faced were all realistic and exciting to see. But it was Seth's cry in the toilet that lingered on after the credits rolled.
That raw, emotional scene acted as the film's emotional gut punch. The camera didn't give him any privacy. Instead, it pinned him to the corner of the stark bathroom, cold tiles on all sides, fluorescent lights humming above. It wasn't a noble cry at all but the tears of a man trying to maintain some dignity. It was ugly. Mucus, choked breaths, animalistic sobbing that had no grace.
Seth's world was caving in, and there was nowhere left to run. Camila jotted down her thoughts in her notebook.
Camila noticed the crowd around her stiffen during this scene. For most of the film, the audience had been captivated by slick suits, cold conference rooms, and the tension of morally grey decisions. But Seth's collapse was unexpected and tore through the facade.
So many people in life get fired and then think that life has no meaning or is over. What am I without a job? I don't want a supercar or a flashy office but the ability to write good articles. Seth's sobs show that total collapse and deep desire for money. This scene shows the endless loop of capitalism so well.
People who had been sipping their drinks paused mid-sip. One older man, who'd earlier chuckled at Jared's ignorance about computers, leaned forward as if physically drawn toward the screen. Camila glanced at a woman two rows down who was covering her mouth with her hand, as if watching something indecent.
But that's exactly the point.
The breakdown wasn't for anyone else's consumption. It wasn't a Hollywood cry cueing in violins or gentle tracking shots. It was Seth, the youngest, least seasoned person in the room, collapsing under the weight of the market.
When Seth came out of the stall to see Jared, the CEO, who was shaving, he tried to go back to normal.
Jared said, "You alright?"
"You just fired me."
"I'm sorry…"
"This is all I've ever wanted to do."
"Really?"
"Yes…"
In that one-minute scene, you saw the fake pity that Jared had toward Seth. As long as he was fine, then fuck the world. They were both similar in age, but there was a huge gap in power. The interaction between the characters made the audience change their opinion of Seth. Now, they sympathized with him.
Camila noticed something else about the performance. Ryan never seemed to ask the audience to feel sorry for Seth. He didn't play him like an innocent victim of Wall Street. Seth wanted the money. He wanted the status. He wanted to survive while the people around him carried their cardboard boxes out of the building. That made his breakdown harder to dismiss. He wasn't separate from the machine. He was part of it, and now the same machine was throwing him away.
Almost everybody knows a Seth. But how many actors can capture it so well without looking down at the character? l want to speak to Seth and tell him that he would survive it.
After some time, the screen showed Mary Rogers, ex-wife to Sam, telling Sam that she was going to call the police because he was burying his dog in her backyard.
"Well, I am going to go back to bed," Mary said.
"The alarm is on, so don't try to break in." Sam smiled. "Well, you take care of yourself."
"Is it alright if I finish up here?"
"Yes."
The screen went black.
The film ended with a two-minute applause that surprised J.C. People looked around and discussed their thoughts: "Wasn't Kevin great?", "Was this really J.C.'s first film?", "Spock is so cool," and some people asked, "Who played Seth?"
Ryan heard that last question from somewhere behind him.
He didn't turn around.
For weeks, he had wondered if anybody would even notice Seth beside actors like Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci, and Demi Moore. Now, strangers who had no reason to compliment him were asking his name.
He looked down and smiled.
The audience settled down to get ready for the questions.
The Q&A session began with the cast walking onstage, followed by polite applause for each of the actors. The announcer chose a blonde-haired college student with an "I Voted" sticker on her jacket for the first question, and she asked, "What was your motivation?"
The audience laughed.
J.C. Chandor responded with, "To feed my children."
Ryan put his hands in his pockets, a bit surprised at the eagerness of the audience.
The woman added, "There was obviously complicated information that you portrayed in a comprehensive manner. Can you describe how you did that?" She sat back down.
"I wrote this in November of 2008 as this was going on. Basically, l wrote this to shoot it for myself and, umm, knew that someone wasn't going to give me much money to do it, especially at that time. So a lot of the elements that seem simple were the requirements of how l was going to be able to shoot this. I took this one piece of information and just ran it up the chain of command. I hope that answered your question."
The audience clapped, and the announcer pointed at a bald man, which brought about another routine question: "How did each of you get interested in this project?"
Kevin grabbed the mic from J.C. and replied, "l thought the script was brilliant. I liked this character. l felt like there was an opportunity to show the complexity of the kind of decisions that people had to make to keep their jobs. There were a lot of people we met for this film who just worked on the floor who weren't the big CEOs and didn't make the decisions, yet they were thrown into the barrel that all the bankers are greedy and horrible people. It was a truly interesting project. Ryan."
Ryan stepped forward a half-step and commanded the theater. He had the demeanor of a seasoned performer on Broadway or an elite tennis player up 6-0, 6-0. He grinned and said, "My story was so unique. J.C. flew on a Gulfstream G200 and bribed me with Merrill Lynch stock to join the film."
The audience giggled, rolling through the theater like a wave.
"No. In all seriousness, l knew that l wanted to do this movie since my audition a week before the job."
"It was horrible. You bombed it," Zach said. "No, he did great, right, J.C.?"
"Yeah. l wrote Seth to show the perspective of all the people in the chain of command, not just the big guys. And Ryan elevated the role into something bigger."
The audience clapped for two seconds in recognition of his debut performance.
Ryan wasn't prepared for that. He had expected the attention to stay on Kevin, Jeremy, Zachary, and the other established actors. He lowered his head for a second and smiled before passing the microphone along.
The rest of the cast gave the usual answers: the script was great, getting paid was nice, and working with Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, and Stanley Tucci was enticing. The questions had a normal rhythm to them, but the love for films, special only at Sundance, gathered around the Eccles Theatre.
Camila had spent most of the Q&A taking notes, but she kept returning to the same sentence she had written during the bathroom scene.
Who is Ryan Stone?
The article she had expected to write about a lucky young actor suddenly seemed much more interesting.
Then Camila stood up, took a breath, and looked into Ryan's eyes.
She asked, "Ryan, what was it like shooting that crying scene?"