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As an audience member, you go back and forth between sympathizing with each character.
I really liked that about the movie. I think that neither of them is a typical American cinema hero. None of the central characters. For Ben's character, his was life and I'm having an affair with a married man.
I think that in the novel, it's written in the first person, sort of an alternate first person, so there's a chapter written in Lester's point of view and one written from Behrani's point of view and one from Kathy's point of view, and it goes back and forth.

You're sympathies shift. They're all pitted against one another in a way in this conflict, but because of the way it's structured, you understand everyone's point of view. You find yourself siding with one and then the other, and feeling sort of torn. I think the movie captured that. I think there are times when Kathy's very sympathetic. You understand what she's going through and she's sort of this broken little girl who's desperately clinging on to this - the house is sort of like a lifeboat for her. You see her isolation, you see her with Nadi's character and I think you understand that all she wants is a family, and that she's really never had it. But then she's out of control and she's acting the way people do when they're desperate, which is acting out and spilling over everywhere. I really liked that about the movie.

I liked that it was a movie that had flawed central characters. I liked that they were all contradictions. It felt a bit scary to do it because I thought to myself, ?Oh, God, I'm not liking her behavior right now.? But I don't always like my own behavior.

I haven't known anyone who's perfect all the time, and I thought it was interesting to put characters like that up there.

You seem to be in a constant state of emotional turmoil throughout the movie. How do you summon up that much emotion? Is it exhausting?
I try not to. I just do a lot of research beforehand so I know where I want to go on the day of the scene. I do as much preparation as I can and then I try not to get too stressed about it because I find that's the worst thing. I try just to, once I know what the different options of what it could be, I try to just let it be when I get onto the set. In my experiences, if you get too attached to how you want it to come out the other side, I just wind up freezing up. II just think about what everything means to her and what the situation is and sort of throw myself into it and trust that it will work out in the end. And hopefully it will.

Did you read the book before the script?
Absolutely. In this case, as I said since it was written in first person, it was sort of like having your character's journal.

You brought a vulnerability to Kathy that didn't seem evident in the book. Was that a conscious decision?
When thinking about it, I just thought about what it was she really wanted. What she really wanted was her family and a place in life. I think she found herself in this situation as being sort of what we think of as bad girls, you know, taking drugs and having this sort of rock 'n' roll husband. But I don't think that's what she wanted. I think what she wanted was to be married and have children and quite a simple life. You know, sort of a house and kids and that sort of American dream. In her fantasies I don't think she saw herself as a trashy girl out at parties and being wild, which is why I thought when she goes out on a date, she's in this really dorky, flowered dress as opposed to a really trashy number. That's the way she seems from the outside, but I don't think that's how she perceives herself. I think you see that with Nadi, when she encounters Nadi, who seems like a kind of an iconic mother figure. And how quickly she responds to her and sort of melts, and you sort of start to feel that this is a place where if had she spent time with a woman like this, things would have been really different.

PAGE 3:Handling Stress, the Oscars, and Family Life

ADDITIONAL ?HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG? INTERVIEWS:
Sir Ben Kingsley, Writer/Director Vadim Perelman, Ron Eldard and Shohreh Aghdashloo

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
"House of Sand and Fog? Photo Gallery
"House of Sand and Fog? Trailer, Credits, and Movie News