Amy Ryan Talks "Win Win," "Gone Baby Gone," "Moonlight Mile"

Mike Flaherty (played by Paul Giamatti) thinks he has a win-win situation. As an elder care lawyer, he has the opportunity to get guardianship for one his clients, which means a monthly stipend, at a time when he's strapped for cash. As far as Mike sees it, he can stick his client in a nursing home, since he has dementia and won't know the difference, and still collect the money. Then his client's grandkid shows up, having run away from the home. Another win-win -- Mike takes in the teenager, who turns out to have a talent for wrestling, and puts him on the local high school's team that he coaches, so they actually have a real chance to win tournaments. While Mike is suddenly adopting these new family members, his wife Jackie (played by Amy Ryan) tries to make sense of it all. Ryan talks about the assembled family on screen as well as behind the scenes of Win Win.

Q: So you and [director] Tom McCarthy both used to live in the West Village -- did you ever talk about working together back then?

A: We used to live a block away from each other, and we'd bump into each in the mornings, getting coffee and an egg sandwich at the deli. We have a bunch of mutual friends, and one night, we were all out for a drink, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale, Peter Dinklage, and they were all talking about The Station Agent [McCarthy's first film as a director]. I remember being wonderfully envious, and hoping someday, I could work in this atmosphere, with friends. And finally being in one of his films is much better than overhearing a conversation about it, I have to say! [Laughs]

Q: Your character Jackie has this marriage with Paul Giamatti's character Mike, where it seems like it's a real marriage. How do you create that?

A: If people believed we were really married, I'd be proud. It happens fast, certainly. We wanted to make it seem like they've probably been together since college. Maybe they want to grammar school together. They have a really happy marriage, and they know each other inside and out. So she knows something is off with Mike, but she's smart enough to wait to get in there. It's probably the first secret they've had between them. But to create that, a lot of it is trust. Certainly it helps to have a great fondness and respect for the other actor. And Paul, he's such an easy person to be around. I loved him in Sideways, but I'm obsessed with Barney's Version. That's one of the greatest performances this year. To seem married to him, it's one thing to be around someone at a breakfast table, in a family setting, than the bedroom. What's their routine? We didn't have any hot, heavy, romantic scenes together, but you have to figure out things, like who sleeps on what side? 

Q: Your character is a good mom, who takes in a kid -- reluctantly at first -- who has a bad mom, because he would be better off with you. Did you see a connection with Gone Baby Gone, how you were on the other side of the equation here? 

A: His mother isn't very good at her job, and there's no way she can send him back there. She wants to beat his mother up! But yeah, it was nice to see the other side of it. When I was playing Helene McCready, I had to find ways to not judge her, but let these be her decisions and her choices, because while I can't condone it, I can understand it. How that could be the cycle. How you could get that deep into a rut. And Melanie [Lynskey] has that side of it here, playing the bad mother. But I don't think either of them is flat out evil. I think they're in deep, deep trouble, and I have great compassion for them. Being a mother myself, it breaks my heart to think of any child in that situation, but I root for the parent just as much. The difference here is that it's consensual. You have the bad mother saying, "Please take care of my child," and the other family saying, "Yes, we will." Casey [Affleck] always made a joke, "It's wrong. Even if it's Morgan Freeman raising your child. It's still kidnapping."

Q: Now that Dennis Lehane has continued the story of Helene and Amanda McCready in Moonlight Mile, would you be interested in returning to the character if there were a sequel to Gone Baby Gone?

A: Hell, yeah! Absolutely! That's the best part I've ever played. I haven't read Moonlight Mile yet. I'll have to read it. I always held out hope that Amanda was in somewhat good hands, because Casey's character was going to be looking out for her, and checking in. But yeah, I do think that's not a win-win situation. There's no easy answer for that.