Shue Plays Challenging Role
She won an Oscar nomination for Leaving Las Vegas. Now Elisabeth Shue stars in the new film called Molly. And she shares with CBS News This Morning what it was like to portray this challenging role.
Shue portrays Molly McKay, a 28-year-old autistic woman who undergoes a special treatment.
"What struck me was her purity of emotion," Shue says. "I love [playing] characters who have an innocent reaction to the world; they are more fun to play."
In the film, Molly goes to live with her brother Buck (Aaron Eckhart), and as he copes with having an unusual sibling to care for, some adjustment problems emerge.
"At first he doesn't want to take care of her, and an institute wants to do experimental surgery. So he sends her there to get her off his hands," Shue explains.
The surgery is a success for a time, and Molly starts to see the world as others do. But then, as in the film Awakenings, she regresses and the film takes a turn, Shue says.
"That's when the movie gets really good," she adds. At that point Buck makes the choice to take care of Molly.
And "the comedy in the movie comes from her not understanding the rules," Shue notes.
"It was one of the most profound experiences of my life," she says. Shue wanted to do the film as an excuse to find out more about people with special needs, she says.
To research her role, she says, she spent a lot of time with autistic and mentally ill people and found out how different each person really is. "So I could be different, too, and I didn't have to be like Dustin Hoffman," she notes.
Shue's next move involves a big budget film with Kevin Bacon. The Hollow Man involves invisibility, so expect great special effects, Shue says.
For more information about Molly, visit the official Web site.
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