After turns in “Fargo” and “Gone Girl,” the actress is seeing her career rise up with her mesmerizing performance in “The Nest.”
Carrie Coon has been a star of theater, winning an Obie Award for “Mary Jane” and earning a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut as Honey in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” She has been a TV star too, earning an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in “Fargo” while also playing a major role in The Leftovers. In movies, Coon has largely been in small (“The Post”) or supporting (“Gone Girl”) roles. That’s changing with her mesmerizing performance in “The Nest.” The film centers on the cracks in the foundation of the marriage between Rory (Jude Law) and Allison (Coon). Rory, a poor boy who made it big in finance the go-go ‘80s pressures and manipulates Allison, a horse trainer, to make sacrifices and play the supportive wife. The couple and their two children are soon ensconced in a drafty, even spooky, English mansion, and the film uses horror genre undertones as everything starts to crumble. “It’s a movie about marriage and the tacit agreements we make,” says Coon, who is married in real life to the acclaimed playwright and actor Tracy Letts. “I’m married, so I understand the negotiations that have to happen and the idea that you had expectations for the other person and they’re not always based on reality. You have to be able to drop your illusions and see if you can move forward.” Coon chatted last week about the movie, her hope for more film roles, and her concerns about the state of theater during the pandemic. Meanwhile, she’s shooting a new series, “The Gilded Age,” even as the virus continues taking its toll. “The protocols are really solid and we’re feeling very safe,” she says. “We’ve got the gold standard of testing in place and I get tested every time I work.” Q. What drew you to this role? One of the main reasons I did it is because they asked me to. [laughs] I don’t get the opportunity to play leading ladies very often.
