The Testament of Ann Lee, Lewis Pullman interview

"I honestly was more intrigued with the project as a whole and getting the chance to work with Mona. I, when I met with her, I was ready to play any character, however small. And she was the one who kind of encouraged me—you know, because I was like, 'I'm not a singer, I'm not a great dancer, I don't know how to do a Mancunian accent'—and she was like really kind of encouraged me and instilled me with a lot of confidence to play William.

And then I, I felt like very similar to William. I have an older sister who's come tonight who I like, worship, and it was very easy to kind of just transfer that onto Amanda, who's just a miraculous person.

Well, I think what Mona was looking for was this very kind of pedestrian kind of sonic landscape. And so, um, my kind of lack of experience as a singer was actually what she wanted to kind of build that quilt out. And, aside from Amanda, obviously, who's an extraordinary musician... but my sister is a singer, my mother is a modern dancer, and so I was able to work with both of them in preparation for it before I went out to Budapest, which was really special.

It was great, you know, to be able to do that with somebody who you know so well and who you feel so comfortable with. Like, my mom continually encouraging me to, like—you know, a lot of these performances don't work if there's no conviction, if there's no purpose behind it, you know? You have to find your own reasoning for why you are dancing. And so my mom was continually reminding me of that. And my sister similarly was like, 'As long as you are genuinely seeking something in, in song, then there'll be something that, that transcends however skilled you are.'

I think there was a lot of meta elements, you know? It was very much a family-style operation. Everyone was there for the right reasons. It was a hard shoot... I keep, you know, doing these interviews and being reminded of certain, like, challenges, but I don't really in my memory of this experience see those. I really just remember being very close. It felt like a, like theater group or something, where it was like we were all just spending so much time together, whether it was doing dance rehearsals, or going over to Daniel's house and recording some of the tracks, or doing the dances together in between scenes. It was like... it was a creative dream."