Carrie Coon and Shea Whigham’s darkly humorous road trip ends on a pretty ambiguous note in Lake George, but there are enough clues for audiences to figure it out, as indicated by the Coon and writer/director Jeffrey Reiner. The crime thriller comedy marked a reunion between Coon and Whigham after having previously starred together in Fargo season 3. Lake George stars Whigham as Don, freshly released from prison and tasked by a mob boss to whom he’s indebted to kill Phyllis (Coon), the gangster’s girlfriend who may know more than she should.

From there, Lake George becomes a redemption story for both Don and Phyllis, as the former can’t bring himself to kill her and is instead convinced to embark on a road trip with her to get revenge on the mobster and take all of the money he has stashed at various safe houses. For Reiner, writing the film proved to be something of a personal spiritual journey as he explored Don’s emotional arc, particularly as he built to the movie’s high-stakes ending.

In honor of the movie’s home media release, ScreenRant interviewed Jeffrey Reiner and Carrie Coon to discuss Lake George. The writer/director reflected on the initial idea for the genre-blending dark comedy, while also explaining why Whigham proved to be the perfect person to play the rare vulnerable male lead in the neo-noir genre. Coon, on the other hand, praised her opportunity to get to explore the realm of physical comedy through her role, while also explaining, alongside Reiner, her opinion on the movie’s seemingly ambiguous ending.

Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for Lake George!

Lake George’s Ending Is Deliberately “Both Ambiguous And Real”

How Audiences Interpret It “Says More About The Viewer Than It Does About The Characters”

After having successfully cleaned out the safe houses of their hidden goods, Lake George‘s ending sees Don finally getting to the тιтular location, though seemingly succumbing to his gunsH๏τ wounds from his final encounters with the mobster and his right-hand man. Just before he drifts away, however, Phyllis pops into view and comforts Don, leaving viewers on the hopes of his getting saved and the two enjoying a peaceful existence together. However, more cynical viewers may see Phyllis’ appearance as simply a dying hallucination, and Reiner agrees the ending is “both ambiguous and real.“

As for Coon, however, she believes that whichever side audiences take “says more about the viewer“ than it does about the film itself, going on to share, “It was fun to ask in Q and As where people landed on that question. It’s interesting how many people are on the bright side, especially film journalists. I think that’s so sweet. I think it also says a lot about where a person is in their life, or what they are looking for.“

Reiner also recalls when they showed the film to potential investors, in which, as one member came up to him, for whom the writer/director really hoped he enjoyed the movie, and shared a uniquely optimistic take on the ending that still plays into the ambiguous nature of it:

Jeffrey Reiner: Yeah, we had screened the movie in Texas for the investors, and a big pastor came, and I was like, “Oh, God, I hope he likes the movie.” He actually really loved it, and he said to me, “Don doesn’t get what he wants, but he gets what he needs.” And I think that maybe explains the ending a little bit. Whatever you need to get, you can get it, whether it’s real or not real.

While Coon feels that Whigham’s “heartbreaking and beautiful” performance on the day was key to making the scene work — particularly as it left Reiner “very emotional” as they wrapped up “a really beautiful experience” — the writer/director instead pointed to her as being said key, with subtle details from the two-time Emmy nominee helping sell the ambiguous nature of the ending:

Jeffrey Reiner: Carrie, I think, probably understood that scene better than anybody. Because if you look at her performance, and you see how modulated it is, I sH๏τ it a very special way, and Todd lit it a very special way. So, that helps, but there’s moments where you feel very connected, like, “Holy f–k, she really is present.” So, I was shooting it and in a way, and the dialogue is a way where it makes it very ambiguous, but Carrie’s performance is so grounded there, and very acting 101 — what’s it called, with senses —

Carrie Coon: Oh, sense memory?

Jeffrey Reiner: Sense memory. When she asked that question about Armen, and she looks around, you could teach that at an acting class, how to get an audience into that small little window of being connected. And that’s why that scene works so well. You have this actor, Shea, who’s playing it so emotional, and then you have a filmmaker who is executing it in a way that makes it very ambiguous. And then you have an actress who makes it very unambiguous in a way. It’s really fun to explore that type of filmmaking.

Even Coon’s Family Agrees Phyllis Is The Closest Character To Herself

“You know, cutting off someone’s fingers is I feel like when I am most myself.”

When we last spoke with Coon for the movie’s theatrical release, she reflected on Lake George‘s Phyllis being the closest “energetically” to herself, for which she further explained that she’s not the only one to think so, as her family also “totally agreed” that they were quite close to one another, “even though the material was disturbing” she said with a laugh.

Reiner would go on to reflect on two Lake George scenes in which he truly felt the real Carrie Coon shine through, both of which he also felt showcased her acting range from a “youthful” comedic exuberance to a “very internal and cerebral” dramatic turn, detailing:

“This is going to seem weird, but there are two moments that I really love. One is when he says that they’re not going to do the next job, and she’s in the H๏τel room, and she goes, ‘I don’t have anything.’ There’s a youthfulness to it. I just crack up every time I see that, because she just explodes in that moment. Yeah, very youthful and it just feels like, ‘Oh, this is a teenager having this moment.’ And then there’s a moment in the motel later on, where she kind of has decided, it’s the last time they see each other until the end, and she’s very internal and cerebral.“

They also reflected on their first interaction with each other on the set of Showtime’s Homeland, on which Reiner directed an episode and Coon’s husband, award-winning playwright and award-nominated actor Tracy Letts, starred, with the future Lake George director immediately recognizing the “no bulls–t” nature of Coon’s personality, along with her sense of humor, while Coon humorously lamented no one let her be funny after David Fincher’s Gone Girl:

Jeffrey Reiner: And that’s Carrie. Carrie is very smart, and she’s very thoughtful and very well-spoken, and there’s no bulls–t with her. There really is no bulls–t. Trust me, I’ve been in this a long time, and I have these two actors who are the nicest people, and that means a lot when you’re working. I had met Carrie on the set of Homeland, and we just had a chat.

Carrie Coon: Yeah, that was a long time ago, with my husband, yeah.

Jeffrey Reiner: Yeah, I was working with Tracy, and then I really didn’t know her outside of that. I remember seeing her in the David Fincher movie [Gone Girl], and I loved her in that movie, and I thought she was so funny, and it’s like, “God, this woman is really funny.”

Carrie Coon: Then no one let me be funny after that.

Jeffrey Reiner: Really weird. But the minute she walked onto the set, she was wearing her sweatsuit. She just came in like she had just had 18 cups of coffee, and was like, “Holy cow, man! She’s got a lot of energy.”

Coon’s 1 Regret From The Film Was Not Going Further With The Fake Burial Scene

“I didn’t expect her to go that far.”

In reflecting on the movie’s unique tonal balance, Reiner admits that writing comedic setpieces proved easier than the deeper character subtext, though acknowledged scenes like the fake burial of Phyllis wouldn’t work without a meaningful story surrounding it. When it came to putting together that scene, in particular, Reiner described Coon as “driving all the energy” of the sequence, while also “not having to give Carrie any direction” as he set up the camera and let her work as she “knew what she wanted to do.”

For Coon, the scene not only tapped into something she doesn’t get to do enough, which is physical comedy, but also came with a bit of regret as she wanted to go even further with the scene by being covered in further dirt, which Reiner says he “could not do that to Carrie” even though she “was ready“.

She went on to explain filming the scene as being “so much fun“, and, “that to be invited to be physical as an actress is such a relief and such a gift. So often, the characters we’re invited to play offer only a level of restraint, physical and sometimes even emotional, and it’s not fun. It’s not as much fun as jumping into a grave feet first, or snapping off someone’s fingers in a garage. I don’t know any actress who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to play a part like that, because it just doesn’t come along very frequently.“

While Coon and Reiner had a humorous disagreement about the extent of the direction she was given when it came to the dirt, they both closed out by expressing their love for putting the scene together, with the writer/director comparing his star to “when thoroughbred race horses are in the gate at the Kentucky Derby and you feel the palpable tension of them escaping,” and that he “didn’t expect her to go that far” by rolling in the dirt.

The Duo See The Film Having A Chance At Being A Cult Classic

Coon Even Pointed To One Of Her Earlier Roles As An Example

While the film did get a limited theatrical release last year, Lake George‘s home release is going to be the best way to get the critically acclaimed movie, which currently holds a 96% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, in front of more audiences. Both Coon and Reiner not only shared their hopes for the “deeply personal movie” to find its audience, but also their beliefs it could find life years from now, with the former pointing to her work on HBO’s The Leftovers as a key example of how this happens:

Carrie Coon: I want more people to see the film, because, like I say, it’s also such a deeply personal movie, and it actually is about guilt and shame and the choices you make. I feel like it’s fun to watch, but there’s a real heart to it, and because also Shea is such a truthful actor, and really just anchors the thing with his — again, not a false bone in his body, that guy. No matter what the role he’s playing, so I just hope more people get to see it.

Jeffrey Reiner: Tracy’s a huge film buff, but don’t you think you discover these movies, sometimes, five years, 10 years later, and they build?

Carrie Coon: Yeah, and they have another life. I would say that’s true. Well, it was certainly true of The Leftovers. Nobody watched The Leftovers while it was on, and it’s become more resonant now than ever.

Whigham’s Character Was Very Key To Distorting Audience’s Expectations Of The Genre

“…you have to show the vulnerable side.”

Even as the movie relishes in its darkly zany comedy and unique dynamic between its lead characters, one area where Lake George shines the most is Shea Whigham’s Don, who is very much not the typical neo-noir male protagonist. He doesn’t want to kill anyone, he generally avoids violence, and he would much rather leave his current life behind in order to be able to see his family again.

For Reiner, it was very important to not only nail the heart of this character, but to also find the perfect person to capture the nuance of the character, which he felt couldn’t be anyone but Whigham. The writer/director pointed particularly to Whigham’s acclaimed performance as Eli in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, as audiences felt he “had that weight of the world in that character“, and could therefore capture the “vulnerable side” of Don for his film:

Jeffrey Reiner: Yeah, that’s a really great question, Grant, thank you for recognizing that. We talked about how, obviously, he’s a stock character at the beginning. Really, that opening in bed is, I always use movie references, but Le Samouraï by Melville, and Alain Delon is inside his H๏τel room, and you’re wondering, “Who is this guy?” But that’s not why I sat down to write the movie. I set out the movie for a guy to examine his past and try to create a future. So, I just wrote from my heart, and I knew that I wanted to reveal him, and basically the premise of the film is a guy who’s forced to kill, and he can’t kill, right?

So, you’re going against the genre anyway, right there, so you have to show the vulnerable side. But I did want to show the backstory eventually, and understand him. But I knew what he wanted, and I knew what he needed, so I was just interested in telling that story. And Shea I had seen in Boardwalk Empire, that character that he played, I thought was one of the best characters on TV that I’ve ever seen, and really undervalued because he’s a family man, and he’s a killer, and he has the weight of the world on him. Shea had that weight of the world in that character, and you couldn’t identify it.

Was it the fact that he wasn’t the firstborn, that he had to kill, that he was a father? And the rage that he played I just thought was so fascinating, and I had worked with Shea on something, and I just loved him. I guess I’d call it the domestification of this character. He and Carrie have a very domesticated relationship, and that’s the twist that I think I love about it. It disarms people who are expecting to see a straight-ahead genre movie.

The Fears About Jaclyn, Kate & Laurie’s White Lotus Season 3 Vacation Are Real

“…this season is rather spring-loaded.”