Arturo Hilario
El Observador
“Wander Darkly” is a twisting and surreal tale of love and grief where a couple, Adrienne (Sienna Miller) and Matteo (Diego Luna), embark on a journey of self-reflection as they weave through the memories of their relationship after a car accident leaves them in a strange state of being.
Writer/director Tara Miele based the story on her own experience of being involved in a traumatic car accident and the reflections of life she and her husband had afterwards.
Recently I had the opportunity to chat with the two leads of the film, Diego Luna and Sienna Miller, about their experiences working together and finding chemistry in their collaboration, to the parts of the poetic-like narrative they connected to most.
“Wander Darkly” is out now on streaming platforms.
To start off, I just wanted to know which aspects of the story and themes did each of you personally connect with most?
Sienna
For me, the idea of being able to go back, I think the thing that I find most interesting about life in general is the connection between people and really my obsession about being a human is to do with love.
And what that is, it feels so elusive and so fascinating and so overbearing and beautiful and painful and like I’m obsessed with that that thing that exists. And so, the concept of being a couple who are kind of on the wrong track together, going back to the inception of that relationship and examining the moments where you pivoted and went wrong, the little things that you miscommunicated over, the little kind of corrosive things that happened that sent you on the wrong track.
The idea, the concept of going back and looking at that with somebody was just beautiful to me. I’d love to do that in real life. That was what got me.
Diego
To me, I guess, I mean. Also, the honesty that the script has to talk about, the challenges of our relationship, the challenges of parenthood, the challenges of how this is dynamic, you know, it gets dramatically confronted when the most beautiful thing that can happen to you happens, you know?
And I think that’s really interesting. How when you’re supposed to be reaching the top in terms of love – it’s a moment where the most is expected out of you and how much you can boycott yourself and how much or how little we understand, you know, how to perform that task, that at the same time is so natural.
It’s a very interesting film to watch because it somehow reminds you that whatever you’ve gone through can’t be that wrong, that we all are confronted [with] actually not knowing what’s best and just making one mistake after another. And it was nice to exercise that and through Matteo, get the guilt out, you know, in a way.
How was it working with each other in terms of creating the chemistry for that relationship on screen? Can you talk about that for a little bit, please?
Sienna
I feel like it’s nothing you can really work towards. You either have it or you don’t. The fortunate thing, I think with Diego and I, we’ve been friends on and off for a while, we’ve known each other.
We kind of grown up together in that town of the film industry of Hollywood, and we both come from a theater background. And this film felt very much like a play in many ways. Like it was it was a real leap of faith, it was very surreal. It took it needed people who were willing to kind of jump and try things and be brave in a way that you just sort of have to do when you were rehearsing a play, that probably helped.
But I think if I’d been with a male actor, you had a massive ego or a load of arrogance or kind of narcissism, and that does exist in that town, I don’t know that it would have worked. Because there was so much vulnerability from both sides that it just it took someone who just was available and open, and Diego is that.
Diego
I feel kind of the same. You know, if I think about the choice, it’s the most dangerous choice probably I’ve done professionally, obviously. But being next to someone you can trust; someone you can open up to and really show what you’re feeling and who you are. It’s the only way to transit through a process like this. And I guess that was essential.
So, besides the chemistry you see there, it’s like the chemistry behind every decision, the necessity of holding someone’s hand and saying, “Yeah, right? You should do this to keep going, are we in this together?”
It was it was beautiful to experience because that’s what filmmaking should be about, it’s the collaboration that matters.
