Opening Night I feel a personal connection to Rowlands because, like she was, I’m married to a director and we’ve collaborated on several movies—and I understand how complicated things can get when the relationship between actor and director and the relationship between husband and wife bleed into one another. Before shooting Black Bear, I watched tons of Cassavetes films, but this one really stood out and spoke to my character’s situation, and the psychologically messy space between fiction and reality that you’re often in when you’re making a movie or putting on a show. In Opening Night, there’s a part when Cassavetes, who plays the other actor in the show Gena’s character is in, has to slap her onstage. She doesn’t want him to do it, but her character needs him to. That scene is so painful to me because it says everything about how complicated the job of an actor can be and how easy it is for people to cross boundaries and dive off the deep end, even when it might jeopardize your mental health or well-being. It’s gnarly.