An ex-con faces a rough homecoming in Director Nora Fingscheidt’s drama, The Unforgivable.
Fingscheidt’s film tells the story of Ruth Slater (Sandra Bullock), a woman recently released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime. As she attempts to re-enter a society that refuses to forgive her past, her only hope for redemption is finding the estranged younger sister she was forced to leave behind.
On December 12, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Fingscheidt discussed the making of The Unforgivable during a Q&A moderated by Director Suzi Yoonessi (Unlovable).
During the conversation, Fingscheidt spoke about her rehearsal process.
“Rehearsing the day before on set isn’t always possible because you have a shooting schedule to stick to and people need to go home to have enough turnaround time. If possible, we did that, or we did at least a reading. And it doesn’t have to be in a three-hour rehearsal, it can just be half an hour, 45 minutes, and you read the scene. Then you can already see what sort of works and what doesn’t. I always say, ‘Don’t throw everything out there, just rehearse with like 70 percent,’ and then everybody can go home and have time to sleep on it and I have time to go over what parts need to be adjusted or how can we change our camera plan in order to capture the moment. Then on the next day, we do one cold read and we shoot.”
In addition to The Unforgivable, Fingscheidt’s directorial credits include the feature films, System Crasher and Brüderlein; and the documentary Ohne diese Welt. Fingscheidt joined the DGA in 2020.
You can listen to Fingscheidt's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.