Mira Sorvino had 'so much fun' haunting Courteney Cox on Shining Vale : 'It's basically a seduction'
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Mira Sorvino had the time of her life playing Rosemary on Shining Vale.
Somewhat ironically, her character is dead, but she so desperately wants to live. When the Phelps family moves into the home she's inhabited both in life and death since the 1950s, Rosemary sees an opportunity in haunting Pat (Courteney Cox).
So far this season, we've seen little glimpses of Rosemary's life on earth, and plenty of her in the afterlife serving as both muse — and possible possessive demon — to poor Pat. There's still much more to come from Rosemary, though, to cap off the horror-comedy's freshman season (which airs Sundays on Starz).
Here, Sorvino teases what to expect and explains why Rosemary is the most "fun and range-y" character she's ever played.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So, first of all, what was it like haunting Courteney Cox?
MIRA SORVINO: It was a privilege and an honor. She's so wonderful in this. And getting to have her as a scene partner and play with her was a delight. She's really present, and she's really vulnerable, very reactive, very responsive. And when she first walked in to the Tiki bar, the first time I meet her down there, when she says, "Are you my muse?" It reminds me of the vulnerability of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the childhood Claymation special. It's soft and vulnerable and childlike, even though she's been showing this sort of proper side to her kids or husband, or even the ladies at lunch. And I think it was because of that openness and vulnerability, that it was so much fun for me to try to... It's basically a seduction. It's not necessarily a sexual one, but it's one where I'm enticing her to the path less traveled, the wild path. And it was so much fun. I mean, it couldn't have been more fun and creative.
Kat Marcinowski/Starz Courteney Cox and Mira Sorvino in 'Shining Vale.'
You play a ghost on a show that is both a horror and a comedy. Are you yourself a fan of horror?
I'm a fan of being scared, but not to the point of nightmares. So when I was a child, too early, I saw two really scary movies. I saw Scanners by David Cronenberg. And then I saw The Fog. Scanners, because they have these mind battles and they start blowing each other's skulls off, with the power of their mind and their whole heads explode with blood and brains, it was so disturbing to me that I couldn't sleep for three months afterwards. As I would start to fall asleep, the image of the exploding head would come to my mind, and I'd be shocked awake again. And The Fog, I had to leave after the first 10 minutes, after some creature in the fog came and pierced the eyes out of somebody on the boat. I was like, "That's it. I'm out." And I left the theater. Basically, I've come to the point where anything with blood and gore, I just close my eyes, and I wait for the person watching it with me to tell me I can open them again. So I watch things that have these great structures and this elegance and this masterful storytelling and beautiful visual horror that builds. I just can't watch the blood and guts part.
So how does Shining Vale fit into that for you?
I feel like Shining Vale kind of falls in that sweet spot of something that I would watch if I were not in it, because it has so many tips of the hat to classic horror. But the blood and guts are, I think, sort of kept to an acceptable minimum for me as a watcher. It's not sadistic. It's so entertaining. And it's got so many relatable themes. Shining Vale is so relatable to anyone who is re-examining their life. Whether it be a woman or a man, I think people do relate to Greg Kinnear's Terry. I think they will relate to Pat, Courteney's character, who's just like, "What am I doing with my life? Where am I right now? I wrote her hit novels many years ago. I'm trying be a mom. My kids sometimes hate me. I don't know who I am. And how do I establish a life that I feel good about right now? I've kind of found this path through my own actions, my affair in the city, but now how do I right the ship and my life?" And I think that's really what this is about. How do I battle depression? How do I define myself? How do I live authentically? And that's at the heart of the show, even though it is a comedy horror movie, or a movie stretched out over eight episodes.
Rosemary is quite complex. How should we try to understand her?
Good or bad, she has that lust for being alive. And I think that when we get to know her '50s housewife, real life persona, when she was alive, we can see that she was an incredibly repressed, depressed person who had little control over her own agency. She really didn't have it. Her husband took it all and then he mistreated her. He was brutal and disloyal. And she felt so lost in her life and was so miserable. I think we relate to the person who's being abused, who's being controlled through subtle and not-so-subtle ways. And then Rosemary, the spirit, is the apotheosis of Rosemary the person. She's bolder and better and more glamorous than Rosemary ever could be in life. She's living in this elevated way, according to her vision of what the good life was, from basically '50s movies and TV. She's talking like a character in a '50s movie, she's dressing like a siren.
For her, this is the high life. So she's getting to finally escape the shackles of her memories of what her earthly existence is when she's dancing and talking about going to Paris and doing shots. And everything is like, it's like this delight. And then whether she's going to create some mischief, it's not really her fault. So Rosemary, being from that of the ectoplasm, it's going to be in her nature to create mayhem, but I hope you're still connected to her or enjoying her in some way.
Kat Marcinowski/Starz Courteney Cox and Mira Sorvino face off in 'Shining Vale.'
The series has played around with the idea that maybe Rosemary and her nefarious deeds are more a product of Pat and less of Rosemary. Will we learn the true nature behind Rosemary?
You find out. But through episode four, we see Pat starting to be subtly, or not just subtly, be influenced by Rosemary. The fact that she's taking the pills and she's drinking again and she's getting more sexual. She has sex in the tub with her husband. All of these things are being urged on by my character. How far that goes is where this season takes us. So you'll see. In episode five, Pat goes to see a Wiccan, who's an expert on all things occult. And she goes there to try and sage Rosemary out, because maybe she's feeling like Rosemary is starting to have too much influence. And then we see where that goes. I think [Pat's] aware that she's dealing with an entity that she needs to be more careful about. But on some level, she can't help herself because it's also what she wants. I think Rosemary represents all of our dark half in the Jungian way, or the Id in Freudian way. She is the pure want. It's not about what's a good idea, it's about what I want.
You've said this role is the most "fun and range-y" you've ever played. Do you still feel that way?
Yes. I mean, there's a movie that I did, The Triumph of Love, which very sadly came out just at the time of 9/11, so no one saw it. And I thought it had a lot of merit, but no one saw it, which is completely understandable. And that was one of those roles where I got to play multiple people. So that was fantastic, but that was in 2000. So now here we are, and I have this brilliantly written role by Jeff Astrof and Sharon Horgan and all the wonderful women in the writers room. Our whole writers room is female except for Jeff. And I like to call Jeff an honorary woman because he's so supportive of and understands women so well. But they created this person that is very mercurial, is completely alive, has these '50s elements that I got to have a lot of fun with. I also get to sing and dance in the show. That's coming up. But there's also the historic Rosemary under it. She's either gloriously happy and the hostess with the mostest, or a seductress, or then sometimes a little bit evil, but then with this suffering person who's on the inside of it. It's really a fascinating, fun role to inhabit.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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