The setup for “A Bit of Light” sounds plenty dark.
This poignant and emotionally astute film begins with Ella (Anna Paquin) having cratered. She’s newly sober, but also bitter and bereft, spending her days bickering with her concerned but helpless dad (Ray Winstone) and sitting and stewing at the playground where she used to take her daughters.
Ella’s mother died of cancer and her father drank. And Ella grew up angry, drank too much would lose control, taking it out on her young daughters – until she handed custody over to her ex-husband.
It’s at the playground that she meets Neil (Luca Hogan, in a memorable debut), a quirky and precocious adolescent boy, who restores Ella’s hope.
“A Bit of Light” is adapted from a play by Rebecca Callard. The director, Stephen Moyer, first met Paquin when they starred on the Showtime vampire hit “True Blood.” Their characters fell in love, and so did they, marrying in 2010. Moyer did his first directing work on that show and has since directed a feature, the well-received ensemble film, “The Parting Glass,” which also featured Paquin.
Paquin and Moyer spoke to us about the new film, which arrives in theaters and on streaming April 5, and the conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Q. What appealed to you about the play and the role?
Moyer: I like that we are coming in after the fireworks have happened. We meet Ella at that moment where it’s the mundane: “Every day, I’ve got to go to fucking meetings that I loathe and I don’t want to be in this room. I don’t want to be with my dad. I don’t want to be any of this.”I’m sober. I haven’t had a drink in like 23 years. And there are times early on when one is doing that where you think, “Oh my God, it’s only 11:00 a.m. and I’m still sober and that is so boring.”
Paquin: I love how raw and unapologetic and completely broken she is and it’s not dressing up this ugly and sad moment in her life. We allow her to be all the things she is trying to not be but that she is perpetuating because she’s just so full of self-loathing.
Moyer: This idea of Ella going to the playground where she used to take her children to torture herself, by watching other children play was just such a rock-bottom moment. And it was such a beautiful idea, the story of a person at their lowest ebb, who’s invisible and broken, but who gets seen by this boy who decides to try and put her back together again. I loved this idea that even at your lowest ebb, there is somebody there to help you if you allow them in. Ella tries very hard to try him and make him go away, but he’s relentless.
The irony is that when I read the play Rebecca had sold the rights, but a couple of years later when we actually got the rights Anna – who Rebecca had thought of as too young for the role – had reached 39. And Ray Winstone has a daughter called Ellie, who he calls Els and he has another daughter who is the same age as Anna. It was weird how it all came together at the right time.
Q. Anna, did you like being told you finally look old enough for this part?
Paquin: I am so bored of playing significantly younger people than my numerical age. I know you are not ever supposed to complain about looking young in my line of work, but I have absolutely no desire to redo my younger years. It doesn’t necessarily fascinate you when you get older and your priorities and life change. I’ve always been waiting to age into the roles that I want.
Q. Meanwhile, the youngest character, Neil, is probably the most mature despite his own difficulties in life.
Moyer: I loved the fact that he speaks plainly and speaks like an adult but he says the things that nobody else will say – he’s the voice of conscience, if you like, of the whole piece, so he’s not a normal 13-year-old boy.
Q. Like Ella, and also Alan, he’s invisible in his own world.
Moyer: Exactly. I love the idea of Broken Dad also being put back together. The “bit of light” in the title could be the fact that there is just this tiny, tiny piece of hope that Ella has. But it also could be that wherever Neil, this odd spectral character, travels, he’s the bit of light. Whatever other people he runs into, he helps them cope with the moment that they’re in. He made it his quest to put Ella back together, but in doing so, he affects everybody else around her as well.
Q. Ella is in constant emotional turmoil. Was that draining and hard to shake off at the end of the day?
Paquin: I don’t know how to do that. I just give it my absolute all and leave absolutely all of it on the floor and walk away. I like that drained feeling. That makes me feel like I’ve done my job well. But to go to emotionally scary or intense places and really open up, you need to feel safe in your surroundings. And I feel really safe with my husband as the director. I know that he’s got my back. We met doing a chemistry read and we were very comfortable with each other from the get-go.
Q. Is your dynamic the same at home as it is on the set?
Moyer: On the set I’m lovely, but I’m a monster at home.
Paquin: No, he’s so nice.
