Having recently been picked up for theatrical distribution by The Cinema Guild, director Robert Greene’s latest documentary digs deep into the idea of life as performance, which he tested initially with his prior films Fake It So Real and Kati with an I. Actress in turn is a singular portrait of Brandy Burre, an actress whose claim to fame is her portrayal of Theresa D’Agostino from The Wire, yet her rising star actually pushed her away from the limelight and into the role of wife and mother. Greene’s film sees her bored with her adopted roles and anxious to re-enter show business with a new, fresh perspective, but as it turns out the challenges are not just professional.
Actress premiered earlier this year at the True/False Film Festival and has subsequently made the rounds at all the major non-fiction fests since, including Hot Docs, where I had a chance to speak with both Greene and his wildly forthright collaborator. Our conversation begins by touching on Greens’ fascination with life as performance and move on to discuss the pairs collaboration, as well as how Bill Ross, AJ Schnack and Sean Price Williams all came to shoot additional footage for the film. Our complete conversation (in two parts) is just below:
