It makes it a non-typical horror film. It's just as much about sorrow as about suspense, says Lucy Liu, who plays one of the lead roles in the film.
"Presence" takes place entirely in a large old house. A family - mother, father, and two teenagers - moves in, wanting to start anew after a tragic event.
The family's arrival is observed by the ghost. The audience experiences what it sees in long takes, which gradually reveals the dysfunctional family. The only one in the family who senses the invisible presence is the daughter.
"Rip in time"
Lucy Liu, known from "Ally McBeal" and "Kill Bill vol 1", plays the mother - does she believe in ghosts?
Yes, 1000 percent. I'm convinced that the world is filled with the energy from human beings. Sometimes, it can create a rip in time, and then it's felt in reality. We humans are basically searching for the soul, she answers.
This exists in animals and small children, they see, they sense, they react. But when we get older, we forget, we lose it, everything becomes more inaccessible.
Soderbergh was "like the ghost"
Steven Soderbergh ("Sex, Lies, and Videotape", "Ocean's Eleven") has, as usual, been his own cameraman. He used a small digital camera, and Lucy Liu describes it as if he sometimes was like the ghost in the film, when the actors thought they weren't on camera, they suddenly were anyway.
It was refreshing. Actors are at their best when everyone is on camera at the same time and there are no cutaways. It's live, it happens.
Like many who have worked with Soderbergh, Lucy Liu praises her director to the skies. She means that he and screenwriter David Koepp trust the audience.
He knows that it's intelligent but wants to stay ahead of it. That's what makes you not relax in the cinema seat. This is an asymmetric horror film. Steven is an artist, he experiments. He doesn't care if it becomes a success or not. He does something that satisfies his curiosity and pushes him to the next place.
Age: 56 years.
Family: Son Rockwell.
Lives: In Los Angeles.
Occupation: Actor.
Previous roles in selection: "Angels of Law", "Cityakuten", "Charlie's Angels", "Ally McBeal", "Kill Bill vol 1", "Ugly Betty", "The Man with the Iron Fists", "Elementary", "Why Women Kill", "Shazam: Fury of the Gods".
Currently in: "Presence", which will have its Swedish cinema premiere on 28/2.
