This is why it’s great to be a journalist. I can see a movie one night, relate to one of the characters and the next day book an interview with the actor who played her. Caroline Dhavernas plays Becky in Goodbye World, the story of a group of estranged friends riding out the end of the world together. James (Adrian Grenier) is proud of his self-sufficient farm, Benji (Marc Webber) is a political revolutionary and everyone judges Becky from their college days. I was on Becky’s side as she offered community solutions to the crisis and looked out for others. The morning after the season finale of “Hannibal,” in which she plays Will Graham’s confidante Alana Bloom, I spoke with Dhavernas by phone. Spoiler warning for “Hannibal” if you’re not caught up to the season finale yet.
CraveOnline: Poor Becky, everyone was just judging her.
Caroline Dhavernas: I know. She’s just misunderstood because she’s an awesome chick. She just didn’t get to know them as much back then and she’s a little different. Yeah, she’s the outsider in the movie which I thought was interesting.
She was my favorite character.
Was she? Yay.
Was she all on the page?
Yeah, I guess. Sometimes people ask: do you do research? How do you prepare? I didn’t really do anything. I just instinctually did what I had to do and I guess that’s what came up. There wasn’t a bible describing her or anything. Whatever scenes you saw were written that way and that’s it.
It seems to me she’s the least judgmental of the group. Everyone might preach their ideals, but does Becky know the reality of what’s underneath their ideals?
I mean, she seems to be a little judging because at the table when she says, “You really should know the constitution better. It’s the bedrock of our freedoms.” At the same time, it’s not really judgmental. It is kind of a fact. Just the fact that she’s a libertarian could be seen as a little rigid, but I think she’s been through a lot of injustice in her life. She became a really solid woman and decided to get out of it so maybe she doesn’t have as much patience for people who, in her mind… She’s a little judgmental when you think about it though because when the crisis happens in the street, she says, “These people have nothing better to do than to cause havoc.” I don’t know if she completely gets the social problem that’s going on, the social issue. She links it to laziness more than something a little more profound. She’s had to pull herself out of the dirt so she doesn’t have as much patience for people who are still there.
I think that’s a good point, lacking patience. Maybe I sort of respect that. Cut through the crap and get to it.
Yeah.
And I think when I say less judgmental, it’s to the extent that everyone has opinions and judgments. I was more responding to Adrian’s character is very proud of his self-sufficiency and Marc’s character is very revolutionary. They’re basically saying she’s less than for not being like them.
Right, they’re big egos. She’s more about love. Underneath it all, she’s I think very religious and very about love and understanding and helping each other out and living in a society where there’s a real community happening. So yeah, you’re right.
Whether it comes from religion or her general attitude, I agree with Becky that it’s better to help others than only be self-sufficient or only be revolutionary.
Completely. I think that’s James’s journey in the film. He has to accept that you can only exist if you’re in relationships with others. You have to accept to be vulnerable that way. That’s what he has to go through during the movie.
I think it comes out early on. I think she’s looking out for her husband’s best interests even more than her own. So it’s not her own agenda in that dynamic.
Right, in what way do you see that?
In the beginning, before we even know the extent of what happened with the company, I think Becky would be happy to abandon this altogether and move on with their lives, which might be reasonable.
Yeah, she’s very protective of him. I think she’s very protective of the people she loves. She would never backstab anybody or lack respect, which is a little confronting the way that they greet her. They used to hate her and she’s still there. She’s kind of amazing. I don’t know if anyone would want to go through a whole weekend, what was supposed to be a weekend, of being around people who used to hate you.
That is very selfless of her. So Becky was my favorite character, I loved her, but even if you don’t like every character, do you think the drama of how true they represent themselves is what makes the film work?
Yeah, well the movie reminded me a little bit of The Big Chill, the Lawrence Kasdan film. It’s just a bunch of people who’ve moved on with their lives since they were all a gang together when they were younger. Now how do these people fit together now that they’re not in a school context? It was everything that had happened in their own lives, the frustrations that have built and the end of the world pressure makes the pot kind of explode with all these feelings that have been hidden or these desires. I think all the characters have a very clear note, different notes. You almost wonder how these people could ever be friends because they’re all so different.
Do you always need to know the worldview of the character you’re playing?
No. Not necessarily. Now that you ask that question, I think it’s interesting to have it. No, I’ve never thought about that actually.
You must not always get that with every character either.
Very rarely do you.
And it might not always be relevant to the writer to include.
Most of the time there’s no space for that but it’s interesting, even if it doesn’t come out in the series or the movie that you’re working on, to build that for your character even though it’ll never be seen.
I imagine you don’t always get to choose the scripts you’re offered or get to do. Was Goodbye World a favorable situation for you?
It was absolutely fabulous because I was going to L.A. for a screen test for another film that didn’t turn out, and since I was there I was available to go to a meeting with Denis Hennelly and Sarah [Adina Smith], one of the producers. So we all got to sit down and talk about the film, and a few days later they offered it. So it was really nice because there was no audition, just talking, getting along and all trusting each other and trusting the script because it was really good. That’s how it all happened.
