The Story: Tense psychodrama. Julie (Stockard Channing) is an executive who has sacrificed everything to her career. Exhausted, unloved, and suspecting she is about to be retrenched, she loses it when her assistant Paula (Julia) is late for a major out of town presentation, sacking her on the spot. When Julie is unexpectedly promoted to CEO, she has nobody to celebrate with. Spotting Paula in the lobby of her hotel, she makes it up to her, and the women embark on a boozy night together. Then Paula reveals that headhunter Nick, also in the hotel, is a rapist, which unleashes an orgy of revenge that threatens to destroy them all.
 
�It was by far one of the best scripts I'd read in a really long time, and Patrick is such a talented filmmaker. His approach to storytelling is incredible, and he wanted to make the movie for all the same reasons that I did. Because the story is basically just the two characters and because it takes place in one night and pretty much in one location, it all comes down to getting inside their heads and exploring all the issues of control and trust. As an actress, that's what's really fun about making movies." "I liked the contrast between where Julie and Paula are in their lives; Stockard's character is looking back, while mine is looking forward. I think it's really poignant at the end when Julie realizes that she's not really sure of who she is anymore, beyond her job. Paula makes Julie realize that maybe she's made too many sacrifices." "I liked that the story is not anecdotal; you do sense sociopolitical questions being brought up�I think one of the things that appealed to me is the story brings up a lot of issues about female sexuality, control, double standards. We all agreed that it's personal and universal at the same time�What's really cool about the way that Patrick writes is he doesn't rely on irrelevant details. Does anyone really know what Julie is selling, and does it matter? A lot of the details need to be filled in, but because we leave it to the audience to figure out, they can project onto it whatever they want to." "..one of the more challenging aspects of playing Paula was for me not to look at her as a typical villain. Because she's so evasive and you don't really know if she's telling the truth or not - or even her intentions, for that matter - it was important for me as an actress not to make up my mind about that, to believe everything I was saying as Paula, in almost a psycho way. Patrick and I agreed about this, which is why I was so impressed by him when we met."
Alternative poster/cover art:
Did You Know? Julia wore five specially designed temporary tattoos for the film. In the images above, one can be seen across her chest, another above her ankle. The others are located below the back of her neck (black widow spider), on her upper arm, and on the small of her back. Julia had recently graduated from Manhattan's Professional Children's School when filming began. The film-makers were looking for an actress older than Julia to play the role of Paula, but were won over by her maturity.
Visit the Official The Business of Strangers site here to view the trailer The Movie Show's David Stratton interview with Julia on The Business Of Strangers here - over 8 mins! |
