Another Friday, another link in our Butterknife email chain. This week, Butterknife star Ronnie Bronstein interviews Mary Bronstein, his Butterknife co-star and real-life wife. In addition to appearing in Butterknife and Ronnie’s award-winning feature Frownland, Mary is currently working on her directorial debut, and word on the street is that she’s also putting together a small little something involving puppets.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be bringing you interviews with the cast and crew of Butterknife every Friday. Next week, Mary interviews Butterknife cinematographer Sean Price Williams. As always, check out the Butterknife page on Spout for further updates.

Previous links in the chain: Karina interviews Joe, Joe interviews Ronnie.

RONNIE: Hey baby! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. First off is a hold-over from Joe’s interview with me. He wants to know why I get so stressed out sometimes. Yeesh. While we’re married and best friends and I’m supposed to ostensibly know everything you think about me, I’m pretty curious to hear your take on this. ‘Cause it’s not the kind of thing I’d normally ask you around the house.

MARY: Let’s see…that is a very good question. You do get very stressed out. But you aren’t an uptight, stressful person. I think that your brain naturally analyzes every stimulus it receives so completely that everything becomes sort of threatening. Sort of like, if Joe asks you to be in Butterknife, your brain goes over “Why?” with a fine tooth comb until the only logical answer is that it can’t be because you are an interesting and creative dude, it must be some other reason you can’t figure out! Maybe it is because Joe wants to expose your flaws! And this drives you nuts! I can’t imagine walking around this way! Everything is potentially stressful, embarrassing and a threat to your integrity. Now, I don’t want people to think you are crazy, because you aren’t. You are simply an over-thinker, which leads to you driving everyone ELSE crazy! I wish I knew how to counteract it, but I figure I have about 60 more years of marriage to come up with a solution. Until then, I’ll just brave it out.

RONNIE: In Butterknife you spend alot of time telling anecdotes culled from your real life job. Whereas most struggling actors tend to grope their way through low-rent gigs like waiting tables and stuff, you make your living as a children’s therapist. It’s an odd and seemingly disjointed parallel track, no? How’d you fall into that? Why? Do you see any kind of natural link between therapy and acting?

MARY: I think it all started from my intense DISinterest in being a struggling actor. Meaning, I have been studying and practicing the craft of acting quite seriously since I was 14 years old…I even (perhaps misguidedly) majored in it in college. However, by the time I was a sophomore I was pretty sure I did not have an interest in trying to make a living at it. What is more depressing than imaging oneself waiting tables while waiting for someone to LET you do your chosen craft, only to have it be in some tampon commercial or something? That life was not for me. All of this was further solidified after I went abroad during my senior year of college. I went to some very poverty stricken areas in countries like China, Vietnam and India. Nothing seemed more irrelevant to me after those experiences than the pursuit of show business as my life’s ambition.

So…upon completing Frownland I went to graduate school and trained to work with hospitalized children. My interest in human behavior, as well as my intuitive ability to read emotional situations, I believe come from my interest in acting and aid me in my work. Having a humanistic and intellectually stimulating day job affords me the luxury to only take part in projects that truly inspire me creatively…rather than financially. And besides…how can an artist have anything to say about the world if all they do is wait around to be an artist?

RONNIE: Joe seems to cast actors solely on the basis of their real life personalities. This in turn has made me sort of self-conscious…gummed me up a bit. How about you? Do you have a clear sense of why you were cast?
MARY: Yes, I do: the number one reason I was cast is because I am your wife. The number two reason is also that maybe Joe finds me a little interesting? Maybe because I am so ridiculously cute on camera? Just kidding. I don’t know. But this brings up an interesting thing that we’ve discussed many times. I am quite shy naturally and only really open up my personality once I know someone well and don’t feel the need to impress them. You are so much better than me at being naturally entertaining and attracting people to you in social siuations, even though I know you work hard at it. I often hang back and observe or let you do all the work. I need to get better.

Anyway, it is always in the back of my mind that anything good that happens to me, such as this project, or any friends that I make are just because I come along with the Bronstein package. Of course, I know this is not completely true…it’s a weird complex that I have. I’m interesting guys! I swear!! Just give me a chance!

RONNIE: The thought of a real life couple performing alongside one another carries a sort of romantic mystique with it. Do you think we’ve managed to tap into something private and honest here? Also, what are some things about our relationship that you think would be interesting to showcase as the series progresses/if the series progresses?

MARY: It IS a very romantic concept…I think we have tapped into what is actually very novel and interesting about our relationship: we are a completely functional couple who are in love with each other! This may not be so novel in real life, but how many times is this type of relationship depicted in any sort of creative project? I think the default is to think that dysfunction or the falling apart of a relationship is more interesting to watch. But, showing functional relationships and a loving dynamic can actually be more challenging. Kudos to Joe for recognizing this. I think we are doing a good job in showing the loving and supportive way we act towards each other in everyday situations.

To get to the second part of your question…what about those weird fights we have? You know, the ones that make no sense and end with us both apologizing and laughing? We aren’t a perfect couple by any means…I would maybe like to show some blemishes and how we deal with them. Because the audience KNOWS we aren’t going to break up over them and they are so ridiculous. Remember when we fought because you hypothetically asked what would happen if the only way you could make money was by maintaining an internet porn site and then to apologize for my overly-serious and righteous freak out I drew a pornographic apology note? Like that.

RONNIE: You’ve recently taken a blind stab at directing. Eeeek! Has Joe’s sort of free-and-easy approach inspired you in some way?

MARY: Blind stab is the exact way to discribe it. Yeesh. It was SUCH a blind stab that I didnt realize having a script, ideas and actors wasn’t enough to make a movie. It turns out you actually have to know HOW to make a movie! But, yes, Joe and a lot of other filmmakers we’ve met since Frownland started making the festival rounds inpsired me to make my own attempt. I had this idea, fully formed, in my head for I don’t know how long. I first tried to get you to agree to make it. Then i realized maybe I should just try to make it. And I was so lucky and spoiled because I had you, Michael Tully, Sean Williams and every other filmmaker in the tri-state area willing to help me. I have no ambitions to be a filmmaker, I consider myself to be an actor who made a film, but I do think we made something interesting and unique and I am planning future projects already. So, even though I dont even know how to turn on a camera, I’ve come to realize that in order to make the type of work I want to make, to say the kinds of things I want to say through acting, I must make my own opportunities in addition to taking part in opportunities other people give me. This is my first experiment with that idea and hopefully people will appreciate what it’s all about. Maybe some people will even like it? I hope?