LARS AND THE REAL GIRL

About The Story
Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling) is just getting through life. In the small Midwestern town he has always lived in, Lars holds down a nondescript office job, occupies the garage apartment behind his childhood home, where his brother, Gus (Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law Karin (Emily Mortimer) now live. He lives in near isolation, avoids human contact—literally, his social life consists of weekly church attendance and chats with his co-worker with whom he shares an office cubicle. He refuses all invitations from Karin and Gus and runs from the obvious flirtations of his coworker Margo (Kelli Garner). As director Craig Gillespie puts it, “He’s been living in limbo, getting by under the radar. He’s almost invisible.” While Gus has grown accustomed to Lars’ routine, Karin tries desperately to engage him in some interaction, conversation and normal family activities especially now when their family is about to grow – Karin is pregnant with their first child.

But everything changes when Lars introduces Gus and Karin to Bianca, a beautiful half- Danish, half-Brazilian missionary “on sabbatical to experience the world.” Much to Gus and Karin’s horror, Bianca is a RealGirl, a custom-ordered, life-size doll. That she is so is obvious to everyone but Lars, for whom Bianca is a religious girl raised by nuns, she is reliant on a wheelchair, shy and soulful. And she is now their houseguest as they already agreed to Lars’ request that Bianca stay with them lest her modesty be offended.

The strain on the family is apparent from the first moment as Karin and Gus fight over how to react. While Karin is able to respond with compassion and understanding, “Gus is representative of the nay-saying, suspicious, angry outside world that has decided his brother is insane, that this is ridiculous and wrong and awful, and he doesn’t want to think about it,” explains Emily Mortimer. “So I’m immediately stuck in the middle, trying to corral my furious husband while still loving him very much, and wanting he and Lars desperately to be friends.”

“Karin encompasses a lot of what Lars sees as his mother,” suggests Gillespie. “Karin’s very strong and opinionated but she’s also incredibly warm and comforting and nurturing. She’s the glue in the family.”

“Gus gets bullied into playing along,” responds Paul Schneider. “Karin’s so aggressive about it, like if he doesn’t do this he’ll be a bad person, and how could she be married to a bad person?” So now not only does Gus have to deal with the stigma of having a mentally ill brother, “he has to deal with how the person he loves will consider him; he’s the guy who’s going to be in trouble with his girl if he doesn’t do the right thing.”

Gus, director Gillespie notes, represents the audience in this movie in that he’s the most resistant to the premise and, adds Producer John Cameron, Schneider creates such an engaging character that this empathy is maintained throughout the film. “Gus is funny but torn and angstridden and confused for much of the film,” says Cameron, “and Paul does a marvelous job of running through that roller coaster of emotions.”

Paul Schneider adds, “There is more going on with Gus than first appears. The recognition that Lars might be unbalanced brings up long denied feelings of guilt and remorse. “This is a dysfunctional family that has been maintaining its dysfunction for quite some time,” admits Schneider. “Now, all of a sudden my character has to deal with the fact that he’s been a massive failure as a brother. Bianca’s arrival into our lives brings this front and center and, in a very painful way, exorcises all of this.”

Thinking quickly on her feet, Karin suggests to Lars they all take Bianca to the local family physician, Dr. Dagmar Berman (Patricia Clarkson), just to ensure Bianca’s health isn’t affected by the sudden change of climate. A small town necessity, Dagmar also possesses a degree in psychology; surely, Karin argues with Gus, Dagmar will know what to do.

“Actually, I don’t think she knows if she can, at first,” says Patricia Clarkson, who plays the kind physician. “She just does her best. She gives it a go; she’s in it for Lars.” Dagmar quite matter-of-factly makes it clear to Gus and Karin that Bianca is real – for Lars it maybe a delusion he has, but she is actually in the next room and they have to deal with her, like it or not. Dagmar quickly surmises that the only way to treat Lars is to treat Bianca, therefore, she diagnoses a “condition” requiring weekly treatments. Each visit provides Dagmar and Lars the opportunity to talk about Bianca’s difficulties which, not surprisingly, closely mirror Lars’ problems. “But were Lars ever to suspect that Dagmar has ulterior motives,” says director Craig Gillespie, “he could never open up to her. So Patricia really stayed true to that. She was always non-judgmental, accepting, open, and patient.”

Clarkson, who had very little time to rehearse after landing on set, credits Gillespie with keeping her character true. “Dagmar is so calm and centered and still; there’s nothing extraneous about her. Craig has that similar quality, so I could take him in with me and start the scene. He has a great love for this project and for the people involved. And he understands this film beautifully.”

In private, Dagmar counsels Gus and Karin to go along with the delusion, “she points out it is not necessarily a negative, this may be a way to work things out,” says Gillespie. Gus and Karin begrudgingly agree, mindful of the reaction Lars’ mental illness is likely to inspire. They set about informing the community, begging for understanding and cooperation. Though reluctant at first, most agree to help, especially the elderly Mrs. Gruner who has always treated Lars with unconditional acceptance. And Bianca herself turns out to be more useful than anyone at first realized. Before long she’s helping out at the local daycare, “reading” an audio book to the children; she’s modeling at a dress shop, volunteering with Mrs. Gruner at the hospital, and sitting on the school board. It’s a response, says writer Nancy Oliver, that speaks to “the human ability to adapt to whatever is there and incorporate these things into our lives. Bianca becomes a member of the community and serves a purpose. A question I have often asked myself is, if there are so many desperate people walking around with mental illness, what would happen if we treated their illnesses and their delusions with compassion, acceptance and tolerance instead of this medieval shunning thing that we do? If this is the way it is for them, that’s the way it is. Why should we put them on the fringes because of something they can’t help?”

This theme of acceptance and cooperation resonates with the cast. “The film has a lot of affection for its characters and for people in general,” raves Ryan Gosling. “It believes people want to do the right thing; they want to be part of something good. In so many films, the overriding idea is that people will ruin everything; that if we get our hands on something special we’ll destroy it. This film doesn’t believe that.”

“And I admire Lars. Even though he is a very lonely person, he doesn’t make a choice to be loved; he makes a choice to love something. I like the idea that you can love something and it doesn’t necessarily have to love you back. It doesn’t need to be a transaction; you can just give.” “Usually you expect the drama to be between this misfit guy and the society that’s not accepting him,” says Emily Mortimer, “yet Bianca is easily integrated into this community.

They’re good, decent people trying their best to help this lost soul in their midst, they take Bianca seriously and, in fact, all develop their individual relationships with her.” Mortimer explains, for Karin “this doll becomes a companion and a friend, someone I can share secrets with and talk about clothes with, dress her up and brush her hair. There is something lovely about that – especially at a time when I’m getting fatter and fatter and feeling less and less like the sexy lady Bianca is. To have this creature in my midst at that time of my life is both confusing and kind of wonderful.”

Through Bianca, Lars takes his first tentative steps through the minefield that is romance. At the park where he walks Bianca through his childhood haunts, he sums up the courage to serenade her from atop a popular tree house, a suggestion made by Gosling. “At some point in the movie, you need to see Lars truly expose himself to Bianca, to make himself as vulnerable as he can. I was thinking of things that would make me feel very vulnerable, and I realized it would be equally hard for him to sing in private as it would be for me to sing in a movie.”

That Bianca’s presence is having a positive effect becomes clear when Lars accepts an invitation to a coworker’s house party. “Having a girlfriend, even if she is silicone, gives him permission to participate in the community in the way he’s always wanted to,” explains Nancy Oliver. “It makes him feel normal.” Lars brings Bianca and once the initial strangeness is dealt with, she quickly becomes the center of attention—and Lars along with her. The evening proves exhilarating. “Lars has the hottest girl at the party,” says Oliver. “He’s proud of her and he’s proud of himself. He’s never been able to be in a room with so many people talking to him. He’s got a girlfriend and as strange as he is, he’s just like everybody else. It’s a night of beautiful fulfillment for him.”

The scene was critical and nerve-wracking for the cast and director Craig Gillespie. “It ends on this beautiful note where everybody is dancing and they’ve kind of forgotten about Lars,” smiles Gillespie. “The initial curiosity is done with, everyone’s moved on, and he’s been accepted. Ryan had this idea of wanting to be there but in his own world with his eyes closed, dancing by himself. It makes perfect sense for his character, that he’s there but he’s still in his own space. And Ryan did it in the most beautiful way.”

“Oh, my god,” adds Kelli Garner, “that dance broke my heart. My Margo is so in love with Lars that when he does stuff like that it’s so endearing. It’s heartbreaking. It’s so sweet and pure. Ryan’s a magnificent actor.”

As Lars gradually emerges from his cocoon, Dagmar skillfully manages Lars’ deepest issues. She slowly tackles his haphephobia (fear of being touched) and broaches the subject of Karin’s impending delivery and the dangers Lars imagines lay therein. “Lars’ mother died during his birth,” explains Gosling, “so birth for him is closely linked with death. His feelings about pregnancy are visceral so it’s hard for him to separate himself from Karin’s experience.” As Karin’s pregnancy progresses, Lars’ fears intensify.

Lars’ terror is exacerbated by Karin’s maternal personality. “Emily Mortimer has such a wonderful, open quality to her,” confirms writer Nancy Oliver. “At the same time she has a real strength and presence to her that to me is very much part of the character of Karin. From the very first scene when she invites Lars for breakfast, her directness and her love for him is so clear and simple and unsentimental.”

That Lars is growing within becomes apparent when his fear of Margo’s flirtations is replaced by jealousy over her new boyfriend. Margo is “the quirky, kooky female doppelganger of Lars,” believes Garner, and Margo’s equally active imagination explains why “she more than anyone understands what Bianca’s purpose is.”

Garner’s vulnerability is balanced by a joyful joie de vivre that director Craig Gillespie immediately grasped onto. “I really didn’t want to see two damaged people ending up together” he explains. “When Kelli came along she was this beacon of light and optimism. She wasn’t quite where my head was for the role, but once I saw her I said this has got to be. She has this enthusiasm and this pure love of life.”

As with Clarkson, Garner credits Gillespie for helping her find her character. “I felt really awkward on this set, which was a good thing for my character, but Craig made the playing ground really safe. Then one night he talked to me about finding the woman in Margo, which was really interesting because I had been focusing on trying to find the child in Margo, her shiny, childlike spirit. As an actor, you’re often so focused on one thing that you forget to look elsewhere. There was a revolution in my brain when Craig said that, yet it was so simple. Some directors really know how to walk their way through the backdoor of your brain and plug something in.”

News that Margo is now dating a colleague doesn’t sit well with Lars. It is uncomfortable for Lars to have such an emotion, and he is becoming increasingly torn between what he feels developing for Margo while being attached to another woman – Bianca. When Lars returns home to Bianca only to find she’s going out with Mrs. Gruner, his frustration manifests and he is obviously annoyed and upset. Later, when Karin goes to check on Lars, they end up in their first fight and Karin angrily points out Lars’ ingratitude for the lengths everyone has gone to accommodate Bianca. This outburst of emotion is a new experience for Lars, and Karin is thrilled.

As Lars’ affection for Margo surfaces, things with Bianca take a turn for the worse. “Through Bianca Lars is learning how to deal socially with people, particularly women,” says director Craig Gillespie. “He begins to see qualities in Kelly that he’s attracted to. Frustration builds with those feelings because he’s trying to stay true to his woman, and this frustration becomes a catalyst.”

As Bianca’s condition worsens, Karin and Gus are beside themselves with worry that Lars is falling deeper into the abyss. But Dagmar points out the opposite, explains Patricia Clarkson: “The treatments haven’t worked because Lars is moving on from Bianca, literally and figuratively.” Lars is in many ways coming-of-age, discovering new emotions, previously unknown feelings and what it is to be a grown-up. As Dagmar had pointed out, this is a way for him to figure things out and deal with things, Gillespie adds “that is what he is doing with this process and then you see how much love he has to give through this conduit of Bianca.”

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