Sydney Sweeney and Ana de Armas talk “Eden,” a darker Ron Howard film than usual

thanks for being here to talk about Eden which is a wild a wild ride I think it's safe to say um Ron I think some people will be surprised um about this dark tale of survival seems like almost everybody is surprised they so dark yes I know like floriana is about as far from Mayberry as you can possibly get what interested you in this particular story and Drew you to it it's interesting that you would say that I was doing one of the scenes that was really complic and I have to admit it I actually did in my mind I said Well Ron you ain't in Mayberry anymore oh I literally just thought what a what a what a what a journey and this movie you know does it does reflect and you know an an excitement that I have and a desire to keep stretching and keep and keep pushing those boundaries but what I've what I've really done I was talking to Anna about it just just just before is all I've tried to do over time is learn grow listen collaborate and and sort of build to the point as a as a as a creative person so that I could take any movie as a director to the place it needs to go and so this tone as sort of bizarre as it is as outrageous as it can be and as dangerous as it can be I based on the on the real events and the real people who lived those events that's where this movie needed to go and I and I was grateful that you the cast was was courageous enough to to go there as well yeah it looks like about 90% of this was filmed outside um maybe even more just tell me about the filming in the elements in Australia um they must have been insane well it was really kind of all outside because even our sets were just the sets built on that location and uh um you know again we were all so game I think each of you at some point I would say GE I'm sorry it's it's so hot I'm sorry for the poisonous snakes I'm sorry for the for the rain for the rain and and everybody would say it it's what our characters live through it's okay it helps the movie and I swear it really did it really helped the movie helped us it it felt like very organic being there we were there for like two and a half 3 months maybe and it was it was kind of like I mean we like a little bit of torture and that kind like I you know to to be able now to talk about it yeah we did it you know we were there um but you know it was it was tough too you know it was long hours like very full packed days and the Heat of the summer in Australia is no joke and up the hill down the hilling animals houses so storm entertaining yeah yeah do you think this is said nearly a century ago but I think there's some some of the circumstances they're facing in this in this time are maybe familiar to us now there's economic uncertainty there's fascism there's a lot of scary stuff going on and I wonder if there are any lessons or messages that you all took from it for the way we are today you can go as far as you possibly can but you really bring yourself with you and the Place wherever you go will be a mirror a reflection of who you are and that and it's kind of like a it will react to the way you're treating it or other people around you so you can't escape that um and I feel like if you're not um flexible enough with your ideals or your or your passions or your or your dreams or your feelings or your whatever you believe in that that future that you're looking for might be it might not go well because life changes and they put people and circumstances in front of you that you have to like if you really want to make it work you have to be understanding and see this the other side I guess if you type in uh Off the Grid you know it's one of the most visited sites uh on the internet because people all kind of have this this fantasy when you look at the actual characters and you do the research you realize kind of how unique and you know kind of outrageous but also how different they all were and when I first encountered the story 15 years ago I I mean I knew it was it was it was outlandish and bizarre and intense and scary and all of those things that but I but I was a little frightened of it I was intrigued But as time has gone on and shows like White Lotus uh uh you know or the or Survivor you know or or Fargo or succession have been uh proven that audiences are sort of ready to ride that balance of something that feels authentic and viable um and uh you know and also could be kind of outrageous you know could really work in this case it it all happened to be inspired by truth as well I was thinking as dark as this tale might be but it also gives you hope because if you think of you know that family that set out uh to to start a new and to uh to to save the family um and prevailed and no matter how harsh and and and wild and dangerous the circumstances were um it gives you hope thinking of you know if you leave something behind that is so traumatic and and horrific and and and that's why you know I your question was you know if if it resonates with today you know with also all of us sometimes I guess feel that hopelessness and and frustration and you know pessimism you know but it gives you hope that there's always a chance to break out and to to leave things behind and maybe try something new um and maybe sometimes away from civilization so I didn't go to the Galapagos but I also moved to a little island because I've had enough of the life in a in in a big city and of all the madness surrounding me and my boys my my family so and I'm very happy there on that island without poisonous snakes without that I must say um and without me having to build the entire house but um so no I guess I guess this film will also resonate with with modern audiences Sydney your character at first seems sort of Meek timid in some ways but really proves to be very formidable um in the end how did you tap into that strength especially in I'm thinking of that harrowing birth scene which was maybe the most stressful birth scene I've SE seen in a while oh dear um just tell me a little about that for Margaret she went because her husband brought her and her entire job was to take care of a family and I don't think that she ever had yet put something be for herself like everything's always been for other people her husband Harry and she finds his inner strength through such a traumatic experience that I think allows her to understand that she can survive anything and just family can survive anything and they can as a family that is what is most powerful unit it's not by those themselves or trying to like do something selfish like she learns that the family unit is the most powerful strength that she has being a mother is her superpower and she uses that and they I mean to this day like she lived and died on the island and opened up a hotel and it's the most crazy story but it's it's true like the the family power prevailed through all of it and also just having Ron navigate and help me find the different moments of strength for for Margaret and and finding different like nuances throughout it as well Anna your character is um the baroness who was this fantastically entertaining um dare I say villain or I I I don't know how you perceive her but how did you T into the humanity underneath all of that that was a big thing for me and one of the probably the the the the the main theme I think with it with our conversations Ron and I were just talking about that because she's so um ex you know extreme and she's very like oppos she's all opposite um that I I just didn't I I wanted to find those colors and I wanted to find that vulnerability in this woman because at the end of the day she's really broken and she's uh fearful of being found out like who she really is and and it was really important for me to to to have the opportunity to show those little bits in different scenes and and and how you know just complex people are and um and I enjoy very much both things like being um vulnerable and childish and scared as well as being eccentric and effervescent and wild and sexy and you know all of that it was it was really really exciting and terrifying job yeah it was a it was a great great opportunity and how much for all of you the act the cast did you did the real life characters like were there aspects that you uncovered in research that helped you tap into the characters like certain elements of their biography or in their writing yeah I mean I was really luy where I had Margaret's book so I was able to read that and there's also the little bit of documentary footage that we can watch as well um so I was able to get inside Margaret's mind and then also just watch the way that she walks how she holds her hands um how she'd smile it's like different little features like that for me it was um uh again because Eloise build you know creates this character the baroness it was uh it was really interesting seeing the the documentary and you could see the dynamic between her and the lovers and and how she was with Hancock and her smoking and how modern she was the shorts and the tennis shoes and I was like sometimes I was like really that's how people dressed in the 30s like you would think it was more I don't know it it felt really modern I could feel her her energy coming through in the documentary but also I wanted to leave some room for making up that character that you know Cabaret dancer in Paris what what would have what what did she do in Paris what was her life what was that journey and then spending clearly some time in in the um in Ecuador with the you know pretending being a baroness with fake pearls and all that so it was kind of like a little bit of the truth of what what we had and taking it Up N and making her a little bit more you know while anybody who either reported on the story or both Margaret and Dora um um dor Rouch Vanessa Kirby character wrote about the baress and you could just feel the the rage and the judgment and but they were very but because they felt so emotional about it they wrote a lot of detail about her so the baroness never wrote about herself you know she just told these stories and but people everybody needed to talk about the baroness and reflect what they you know their experience with her so there was a lot of information that way had one conversation interesting one with Daniel at one point which was we were talking about cologne and Germany which is where the vitar came from it happens to be where Daniel's from and uh um and like even in in uh laying out the house and putting things in certain places I remember Daniel was kind of saying oh he's from cologne I'll bet they would hang across on the side of the wall or you know and all those kinds of details yeah yeah to try to get it to be as sort of culturally specific as it could be right