ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What attracted you toBrooklynand to Tony in particular?
EMORY COHEN:I wanted to do a love story.
I had never done that before.
Credit: Kerry Brown/Twentieth Century Fox
Tony is so sweet and its clear he really cares about Eilis.
How did you bring out the romantic in him?
I thought of him like a dog, an obedient dog who loves his owner.
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I tried to see if I could capture that myself.
By the end of the movie, both Tony and Jim seem like very strong romantic choices for Eilis.
How did you make him an equal counterpart to Jim?
The thing that I really like about Tony is that hes all heart; hes a fun guy.
Theres that underdog thing where this guy is never going to have a lot of money.
Tony is in complete adoration of Eilis throughout the movie.
Was it challenging to play someone in love as compared to the darker roles youve done in the past?
Its more challenging because love is a universal experience and you have to go deeper into yourself.
you’ve got the option to go into a bad guy and understand, Im not this guy.
I dont kill people or deal drugs or do whatever some of those bad characters do.
When it comes to a love story, youre like, Ive been in love before.
So its closer to you than the other stuff, and for me that can be less comfortable.
What was your experience like working with Saoirse?
Shes a really, really brilliant actress.
I call it playing tennis, and shes a great tennis player.
If you play the period, youre acting, pretending.
Youre doing something that you think is like the 50s because youve seen it in a movie before.
What is your personal connection to the material?
My personal connection is kind of the opposite, which is a lot of what Tonys connections are too.
Im a fourth generation New Yorker.
My family has been in New York for many, many years.
I was the only New Yorker on the film.
You said that youd been wanting to do a love story.
What other sorts of projects would you like to do in the future that you havent done yet?
