In Stuck, Mena Suvari plays a woman who hits a homeless man with her car, then leaves him to bleed to death in her windshield. To play the role of Brandi, Suvari had to justify how she felt like the victim, persecuted by this man who just won't die and leave her alone.
Suvari Talks Stuck
"She has to turn it around," said Suvari. "She has to validate it for herself that he’s doing this to her. She says, 'Just go to sleep' when she just wants it to end. I think that’s part of why in the beginning and afterwards when it happens, again she’s hopped up on Ecstasy and drinking and she has her boyfriend who’s saying, 'Oh yeah, yeah, yeah' like it’s no problem and, 'Here, just forget about it.' I think she sucks up that opportunity because why would she want to deal with it? It’s too much. I think she tries to do the best that she can and then it just gets worse and worse and she goes to him because she feels like he’ll be able to take care of it for her."
In the pantheon of psychological thrillers, Suvari latched onto a classic as her inspiration. "I actually watched Misery several times because that was my inspiration for this film: Kathy Bates in that movie really just kind of going to that extreme."
There is a dark humor to Brandi's perspective and to all the efforts her victim goes through to escape. "When I say 'Why are you doing this to me?,' watching it with an audience, people reacting to that and laughing. It was such a sick and twisted humor. That was a concern of mine too because this film is based on a true story but the real man, his name was Gregory Biggs, he was 37 years old and he died. I battled with that while making this movie, like what we were really doing. I didn’t want it to be so kind of weirdly humorous. To me, there was a reality to this story and I didn’t want to lose sight of that or disrespect anyone."
The son of Gregory Biggs has seen the film, though he did not meet Suvari. "We had a screening in Texas and I heard that the son came with his wife. I think he had asked a question about how much we knew about the characters. I guess Stuart [Gordon] saw them and they were having a conversation afterwards, talking about it, comforting one another."
Stuck
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