‘No Unexpected Move’ Scene-Stealer Amy Seimetz on Steven Soderbergh Movie

Indie moviemaker Amy Seimetz pulls off the ultimate heist in “No Sudden Shift.”

Although relatively mysterious to most viewers, Seimetz slyly steals the star-studded film out from below the likes of Don Cheadle and Benicio del Toro with her portrayal of a housewife who will get caught up in a hazardous plot to steal a priceless doc.

The Steven Soderbergh film is now streaming on HBO Max, and Seimetz is almost nothing short of a revelation. Her character, Mary Wertz, is kidnapped by a team of small-time crooks who want to power her philandering, car govt partner (David Harbour) to crack into his place of work safe in purchase to give them some trade secrets. Just as she finds herself and her kids staring down the barrel of a gun, Mary also discovers that her marriage is a sham when just one of the robbers casually notes that her husband is sleeping with his boss’ secretary. Seimetz expertly plays her dread and mounting resentment, even though nursing an ever current cigarette, supplying a masterclass in sluggish-burn off outrage. Her performance is likely the just one that will linger longest with audiences.

“No Unexpected Move” marked a reunion of sorts for Soderbergh and Seimetz, who formerly collaborated on the Starz series “The Girlfriend Working experience.” Seimetz co-wrote, co-directed and executive generated the display, which was dependent on a film of the exact title that Soderbergh designed. Seimetz has ongoing to forge a multi-hyphenated path, starring in the likes of “Pet Sematary” and “Alien: Covenant,” when also directing the 2020 indie thriller “She Dies Tomorrow.”

Why did you want to make the motion picture?

Effectively, I suggest it is Steven Soderbergh. He govt manufactured “The Girlfriend Encounter,” so I realized that he favored my filmmaking, but it had been years because we’d labored jointly. I began thinking it’s possible Steven doesn’t think I’m a good actor. But then he texted me and asked if I had time to be in some thing. Considering the fact that my background is in indie filmmaking, I imagined he’d set me in a thing like “Bubble” or a single of his experiments. Then he despatched me the script and I realized it was a lot additional expansive. It was entertaining and twisty and I was thrilled to be a portion of Steven’s heist universe.

What is Steven like as a director?

Steven is a gentleman of few phrases. He’s really dry. He did not make clear significantly. I instructed Carmen Cuba, the casting director, who is a very good good friend of mine, that I was heading to do an accent. And she was like, “don’t tell Steven since he’ll tell you not to do it.” I showed up the first working day and did the scene with an accent and he did not say anything, so I assumed I’ll continue to keep doing it. Then two weeks later on I acquired a textual content from him, because he goes property and edits the movie at evening, and he wrote, “your accent is killing me.” So I assumed, oh shit, he’s going to want me to end and I’ve by now shot all these scenes. He’s going to flip the digital camera on any person else or edit me out. I questioned him if he wished me to fall the accent, and he reported, “Not at all. It’s hilarious.” So we held it.

The movie is established in Detroit. How did you make your Midwestern accent?

My dad is from Indiana and my grandmother, Jane, who passed, was the template of acquiring the voice. My grandma Shirley, who life in Pennsylvania, was handy in conditions of producing the character. She represented this difficult, interesting, funny lady who showed some disdain for her spouse. My grandmothers aided me explore the levels of emotion of what it was like for a lady dwelling in the 1950s. These ladies didn’t like the 1950s. They ended up welcoming of the variations that came in the 1960s. That is when they were being able to get their have jobs, and that was something they beloved. They loved possessing work opportunities.

The movie implies that your character is not glad getting a homemaker. When she’s launched, the dishes are piled up in the sink, the laundry is not accomplished, and the dwelling is messy. Was that a little something that the film tries to convey, that she’s not as interested in domestic responsibilities as modern society at the time wished females to be?

Indeed, and that was incredibly a great deal legitimate of my grandmothers. It is not that they weren’t maternal or just about anything, mainly because they beloved their young children and their grandchildren, but they had their individual existential crises. They didn’t want to be homemakers, so to speak, but they felt like they didn’t have other options. I utilized that. Thankfully, we are living in an age now where by there are so lots of other possibilities out there for women of all ages and they really don’t have to only be worried with what people today are taking in for evening meal and acquiring their children off to faculty.

Not to make a plug for onscreen smoking, but you do some fantastic points with a cigarette in this film. You can read your character’s thoughts, her worry and anger, by the way she stubs out a cigarette or exhales smoke. How necessary was that prop?

Steven and I realized it was acceptable to the interval. It is constantly fantastic as an actor to have a prop and my cigarette was my talisman. Of system, my mother created note of it. She was like, “you’re using tobacco furiously in this trailer. I don’t like it.” My mom has notes that she would like to give to Steven if he allows me on one particular of his sets once more. She does not want me smoking cigarettes. She also experienced notes on my accent. She has notes on all the things. She’s my harshest critic.

Your character is thrust into this crazy condition wherever she’s becoming held hostage at gunpoint although possessing to method the revelation that her partner has been having an affair. What was it like to portray that?

Steven’s films constantly have all these layers. They’re heist movies, but they are also actually humorous with these nuanced characters. I just really approached it by imagining what is a model of my grandma in a Soderbergh film? I’m not an actor that immerses myself in character, but I method it as a filmmaker. How can I react very well in the minute? How can I support my other actors? So, my way in is normally how do I not get slash out of this movie?

Did you consider points from the way Steven directs that will influence the way you strategy the movies you make?

He’s intriguing. I’ve never ever been on a set for a movie which is shot this way. He only shoots what you have to have. He understands you have limited means, so he does one or two can take and then moves on. He doesn’t always run the complete scene. He in some cases just shoots the very first couple of traces in the way he needs just before he moves on to the following trade. That keeps you current and in the moment. You’re not contemplating where by does my character have to land by the end of this scene. Personally, probably twenty yrs from now, I’ll belief myself to do that, but I’d be far too anxious to work like that. I do like to uncover things in the edit.

You shot this movie in September prior to COVID vaccines were readily available. Ended up you anxious about returning to a movie set?

It was the initial movie I’d carried out given that coming again. But he is aware a ton about infectious conditions from his time creating “Contagion.” He was in contact with people he’d fulfilled from that movie — researchers and physicians and professors to figure out how to do this securely. I understood he was not likely to do nearly anything except he knew he could pull it off. We have been in good fingers.