ICYMI, our book-lover-in-chief, Reese Witherspoon sat down with Daisy Edgar Jones, Taylor John Smith, and Director Livi Newman to discuss Where the Crawdads Sing, exclusively in movie theaters starting July 15th. Thanks for submitting your questions in advance!
Highlights include everything from how Daisy & Taylor fell in love with the book, why Reese wanted to turn the book into a movie, and how Taylor Swift got involved. Watch the interview and scroll down for the key moments.
Q: What about the book did you fall in love with while you were reading it?
Taylor: The first thing it reminded me of was Stand by Me which was one of my favorite movies growing up. It had this beautiful coming-of-age aspect to it and this romance that I didn’t think I’d connect with initially but that’s what dragged me through to the very end: the love that Kya and Tate have for each other. It feels like an epic.
Q: Were there any beautiful or surreal moments where you felt like Kya out on the marsh?
Reese: When I walked into Kya’s house, which is so vivid in the book, I started to cry. I was so moved by every shell and every feather and every picture. Every artisan on this movie worked so hard to make that book come to life… To have this story of this young woman who’s just surviving on her own in the wilderness was so beautiful, and I was just really moved by that.
Q: Can you share a little bit about your experience as a producer and a director and what did it mean to work with so many amazing women on this project?
Livi: When I first pitched to get the job, a big incentive was working with Hello Sunshine and 3000 Pictures. From my first meeting with Lauren and Erin, I felt these were incredibly smart, passionate, creative women… And then as I met Elizabeth Gabler and then Reese, I just thought, how lucky am I to be surrounded by these powerhouse, incredibly smart storytellers.
We interviewed so many people and the artists that really stood out as the best for the job happened to be women. I think that’s because all of us, we connected so deeply and instinctively to Kya. To her experiences overcoming great obstacles, finding her sense of self worth, being the hero of her own story. I think that there’s just something that we all really related to, and connected to, in the book, and wanted to bring to life in the most faithful and exciting way. It happened to be all women but I don’t think it’s a coincidence.
Q: (To Daisy) How did you [nail the accent]?
Daisy: I grew up in a house with lots of accents. A lot of characters I’ve played have had accents very different from mine and I feel like it opens up an aspect of a character that I hadn’t otherwise discovered. There was a real lyricism to Kya’s voice and a gentleness to it which really helped me, because I think as a character she is, at times very tough and resilient, but she’s also incredibly gentle and curious and graceful, and I think there was something in the accent that really helped me capture that.
Q: What was your reaction when you first heard Carolina?
Reese: I freaked out. First of all, she’s one of my favorite artists of all time. Her songwriting is so moving and it’s why she has millions and millions of fans across the world. The fact that she read this book and loved it so much and then she heard we were making a movie… She was making her Folklore album and then she wrote a song with that Folklore team which was so haunting and magical with beautiful instruments. I was blown away.
Livi: I couldn’t believe that she had gone and written this song out of pure inspiration. She wrote this gorgeous letter explaining how they had chosen instruments that were only available before 1953 and she recorded it in one take the way they recorded songs of the time. What was so haunting about it was that you have a very specific feeling when the book ends, which we really wanted to capture at the end of the movie. Her song just leans right into that. The first time I listened to it, I just started bawling.
Q: Favorite Taylor Swift Song?
Taylor: Love Story. She was the first concert I ever went to. It was at the Delaware State Fair when I was 12 or 13.
Daisy: You Belong With Me. Whenever I hear her music, it reminds me so much of my childhood. I think “Love Story” was the first time I remember falling truly in love with a song. Caroline is probably now my second favorite. It’s amazing and it really captures the haunting quality of that environment and Kya as a character. It’s such a stunning song and it could not be more perfect.
Q: Did you try any southern food you really like?
Daisy: I love food generally. I remember [Livi] took me for hush puppies and they weren’t what I expected. I thought they were like a pudding. Pudding is a general word for dessert at home. But they were really tasty.
Reese: My favorite southern food is probably shrimp and grits.
Taylor: Crawfish boils are fun! It’s an all-day event, it’s a party. [Daisy] had a hard time getting to the claws so she had to stick to the body.
Q: Didn’t y’all have all these weird animal experiences on set?
Taylor: I’d say one of the craziest things was we were filming this scene at the end and my character, Tate, is in waders and the water is up to his chest, and there’s a walkie-talkie in the boat next to me so I can hear the wildlife wrangler. He starts whispering that there may or may not be a gator floating near me. I hear “rolling” and I’m like, “wait, what?” All I’m seeing out of the corner of my eye is what looks like a giant log just drifting pass. And then the log started blinking.
Q: If you were a marshy animal, what would you be?
Reese: I’d probably be a dragonfly.
Q: If they haven’t read the book, what should they expect?
Daisy: It takes you on such a journey. This murder mystery aspect keeps you gripped but its also such a love letter to nature and to human connection and relationships and how much someone’s kindness can fundamentally change life for the better… It’s a beautiful story and I think it’s a really great one to see in the cinemas too because it’s hard to ignore the beauty of that nature and the cinematography of this film captures it so well.
Q: Why did you want to turn this into a movie?
Reese: First of all, I loved the book. It’s a story about a woman surviving and I think women save themselves everyday… It’s important for people to see that in film and really understand that you can be the savior and the hero of your own story.
Livi: I found the ending completely unexpected. When I read the book, I was blown away by the ending and the ending is everything. Without the ending it’s a very different story. I really can’t wait to hear the chatter at the end of the movie.
