All About Sunshine Cleaning
At the center of Sunshine Cleaning are Rose and Norah Lorkowski, a pair of underachieving siblings hoping to make something of themselves in the field of biohazard removal. Finding actresses with just the right chemistry to play the roles opened up the story in ways that astonished even the writer. “They are different than I had imagined,” says Holley. “Better than what I had imagined. They bring a complexity that I didn’t dream of while I was writing in my room.”
Amy Adams, who plays Rose, was an early frontrunner for the role. “Amy is one of those actors who comes up with something different every take,” says producer Jeb Brody. “She’s incredibly exciting to watch, because it’s rare to see somebody who can move you in so many ways. She has the right mixture of ex-cheerleader and real depth. That depth hasn’t really been tapped very often, and this is her opportunity to show it.”
Adams says that exploring the Lorkowski family dynamic is what first attracted her to the film. “I thought Christine had such a great perspective on sisters,” she says. “We ended up having this whole conversation about sister relationships, which was something I enjoyed examining. I also really could identify with wanting to be more than you are, in a different place than you were born into, to sort of elevate your status in the world. That’s something I think a lot of people identify with.”
The actress and the director met up in Albuquerque a couple of weeks before shooting began to go over the script in depth. “Christine is so creative. She’s pushed me to make Rose quirkier and more sympathetic, and that’s been a lot of fun. She gave me some ideas that I wouldn’t have come up with myself, a couple clues that took it in a completely different direction and gave it more dimension than I thought possible.”
The casting process for the role of Norah Lorkowski led the filmmakers to versatile, award-winning actress Emily Blunt. “It was so exciting to imagine who could play Amy’s sister,” says Jeffs. “Emily turned out to be perfect.”
Working with actors whose previous roles she knows and admires was a bonus for Adams. “I was also really looking forward to working with an actress who is a peer,” she says about Blunt. “When I found out it was Emily, I was completely intimidated. I knew I was really going to have to step up.
“She’s become my partner in crime-or in crime cleanup, as it were,” Adams laughs. “When you’re playing sisters, it’s really important to pick up on each other’s rhythms. And it feels just so natural to be working with Emily. I can see her as one of my sisters.”
Adams and Blunt were virtually inseparable during production, says Jeffs. “They totally supported each other and were like dynamite together. They just had fantastic chemistry-it was an exciting combination.”
Peter Saraf had been watching Blunt’s career since he first saw her in My Summer of Love at the Toronto Film Festival. “It was my favorite movie at the festival, and I fell in love with both of the performances in that film,” he says. “And when I went to see The Devil Wears Prada, I was blown away by the fact that it was the same actress. Her performance in one movie was so beautiful and passionate and dramatic, and in the other movie it was laugh-out-loud funny. That’s exactly what Norah needed to be.
“It would have been easy to paint Norah as a character who’s a bit of a stoner and who just hasn’t done anything with her time because she’s lazy, but that’s an incredibly boring character,” says producer Glenn Williamson. “Emily brought a great amount of depth to the role. She’s so naturally funny without pushing it, and she can also just be incredibly sweet and real.”
About The Setting
Originally set in Baltimore, close to the writer’s own stomping grounds, Sunshine Cleaning was filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “Albuquerque has a great feel, from the buildings to the landscape,” says Jeffs.
The financial incentives offered by the state were also a draw, but it was the unique look and feel of the southwestern city that cinched the deal, says Williamson. “We were considering several places. We were flying to Albuquerque to scout the location and we were maybe five minutes from touching down when Christine said `I love it. I want to make the movie here.’ We hadn’t even landed yet!”
Jeffs had seen photos of the city that embodied the atmosphere she sought for the film. “There is interesting book of American photography by Jeff Brouws called Approaching Nowhere,” Jeffs explains. “There are some amazing photos of Albuquerque in the book, and the city just has such a iconic kind of feel. It was strip malls and Old World all a combination of arid desert and franchise landscape.”
Albuquerque, they decided, was also the just right size town for the story. “We wanted a city that wasn’t too big,” says Turtletaub. “It also has two sides of the train tracks. Rose is somebody who had all these aspirations in high school and then ends up on the wrong side of the tracks. Albuquerque offered us that.”
Brody is sure they will be returning to Albuquerque to film in the future. “Everybody here knows exactly what they’re doing,” he says. “We worked with a group of people who had read the script and loved the project and were contributing to it as fully as they possibly could.
“Plus, you’ve got all different kinds of looks. You’ve got Route 66 with all those great old signs. You got the strip malls. You’ve got a poor demographic and a richer demographic. You’ve got a university. It’s just got so much going on.”
According to John Toon, Sunshine Cleaning’s director of photography and Jeffs’ longtime collaborator, New Mexico also afforded them the opportunity for some singular visuals. “It has a really unique flavor,” he says. “It looks different from anywhere that I’ve seen before. In terms of visual style, you can shoot wide shots, you can shoot landscapes and the light is fantastic. Everything is in close proximity, so you can travel around the city really easily.
“The production team ought to be congratulated on this film because they’re fairly free thinkers,” he continues. “They have an expansive view of how to make a movie, and they allowed us a lot of visual freedom in the making of this film. I think it will have a unique look.”
The film marks the fourth time director Jeffs worked with Toon, and she was thrilled to enlist the services of her trusted DP once again. “John does fantastic stuff,” she says. “He allowed the intimacy with the actors that I like the camera to have. He has an amazing visual sense.”
For production designer Joe Garrity and art director Guy Barnes, Sunshine Cleaning’s subject matter presented some unusual challenges. While the crime scenes needed to be realistic, they could not become the central focus of the scenes. “What Christine wanted more then anything else was realism,” says Garrity. “But the film is about the people, not about the kind of dramatic and very visual images used in horror movies. It’s more about what’s happening to these people, and we see it as a part of heir seeing it.”
Jeffs sought to strike a careful balance within the film’s tone and imagery. “I wanted it to be graphic and intimate at the same time,” she says. “The colors and spaces of Albuquerque were important to achieving that. Joe Garrity, costumer Alix Friedberg and John Toon were also huge contributors.”
Sunshine Cleaning (2009)
Directed by: Christine Jeffs
Starring: Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin, Steve Zahn, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Clifton Collins, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Eric Christian Olsen, Amy Redford, Ivan Brutsche, Christopher Dempsey
Screenplay by: Megan Holley
Production Design by: Joseph T. Garrity
Film Editing by: Heather Persons
Costume Design by: Alix Friedberg
Cinematography by: John Toon
Set Decoration by: Wendy Ozols-Barnes
Art Direction by: Guy Barnes
Music by: Michael Penn
MPAA Rating: R for language, disturbing images, some sexuality and drug use.
Distributed by: Overture Films
Release Date: March 13, 2009
Visits: 112
