Abigail Spencer is a dreamer.

The Timeless and Suits alum — who simply wrapped a dramatic guest arc on 9-1-1 — actually dreamed her Critics Alternative-nominated Mad Men function into existence.

"I used to be a brand new mother and was having these extremely artistic desires and I wakened and I referred to as my then-manager and I mentioned, ‘Hey, I simply had a dream that I'm speculated to be on Mad Males. I believe it is best to name them,'" Spencer tells Leisure Weekly. "At this level it was going into season 3 and it was the largest present on the town, in order that they go, ‘We don't name them, they name us.'"

However the Mad Males casting group had solid Spencer on her first post-All My Children sequence, Angela’s Eyes, in 2006, so the actress insisted her supervisor make the decision.

“I'm not kidding, 10 minutes later, they name me again: ‘Oh my God, you're by no means going to imagine it, they instructed me they actually simply mentioned your title for a component arising and simply keep tuned,'" she recollects.

“Staying tuned” changed into weeks, and Spencer thought her dream might have died — then, out of the blue, she received a name to satisfy with Mad Males mastermind Matt Weiner and a day later she was on set as Sally’s former instructor and Don’s mistress, Suzanne Farrell.

Abigail Spencer says resurgence of Suits made her 'way more famous than I had ever been before'

It’s that kind of dreaming that led Spencer to provide The Actor, the surreal new movie from director Duke Johnson (Anomalisa) starring André Holland and Gemma Chan. “Duke calls me the non secular producer, as a result of there isn't logic concerned. This film has come to be via a lot instinct,” she says of their adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s novel Reminiscence.

As The Actor hits theaters, Spencer shares with EW the 10-year journey of bringing the movie to life.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You and Duke have a manufacturing firm, Innerlight Movies. How did you even meet?

ABIGAIL SPENCER: Duke and I met on an airplane once I was 21 years previous. He was recent out of NYU, and I used to be recent off a cleaning soap opera. It was a extremely nice meet-cute. I used to be like, "Oh, each director wants an actress, and each actress wants a director." And he actually sort of turned my movie college. We saved in contact through the years and have become very deeply related creatively. And whereas he was [co-directing the Oscar-nominated stop-motion feature] Anomalisa, I went and produced a bunch of shorts so I might be able to tackle much more.

How did Reminiscence turn out to be one thing you wished to adapt?

When Duke was in put up on Anomalisa in 2015, he requested [his co-director] Charlie Kaufman, "Is there something that's good that I ought to learn?" Charlie was studying Reminiscence and handed it to Duke and mentioned, "You must flip this right into a film." It’s an emotional thriller, not a criminal offense novel, which may be very totally different from the remainder of the Westlake catalog. Duke learn it that night time and referred to as me the following day and mentioned, "Hey, Charlie gave me this e book, learn it right this moment." So I did and referred to as him again, "I adore it. That is your subsequent film." And he goes, "Okay, go get the movie rights, producer."

What did you all love a lot in regards to the e book?

It's one man's journey to seek out himself. He loses his reminiscence. He wakes up and doesn't know who he’s. He's in the midst of Ohio within the early Nineteen Fifties and is instructed he's an actor and that he lives in New York, however he doesn't have any relationship to who he was or New York or something. So I believe it's how all of us placed on how we act in our lives. I beloved the literal metaphor.

Was getting the rights a straightforward process?

I tracked down the Westlake property and was very, very lucky that I received in contact with Abigail Westlake, who's Donald Westlake's widow. I wrote her a letter asking for the movie rights and he or she wrote again and he or she's like, "I've by no means met one other Abigail!" She was like "yeah, yeah, yeah" in regards to the film, she was simply so moved and we’ve got this private connection and shared a reputation, so she allow them to have it.

What was the event course of like?

The primary draft of the script was 238 pages lengthy, in order that's too lengthy. However by the summer time of 2019, we had been able to take it out to the trade…. We've received so many nice companions on it: Charlie Kaufman. Ryan Gosling's an govt producer on it. When Ryan got here on, we redeveloped the script for him for a 12 months and a half. Then he needed to go perform a little film referred to as Barbie and we received to have André Holland take over for him.

What made André Holland the fitting lead for this movie?

André’s character is in each body of this film, so we needed to discover an actor that would carry that depth and it not be boring. I met André once I was 18 years previous at Florida State College, when he was an undergrad appearing pupil. My greatest good friend from highschool went to FSU with him. Having the ability to name him and say, "Would you be the lead of our film?" I imply, this complete expertise has been a sequence of unbelievable full-circle second that got here to fruition of seeds planted years and years in the past. So it's very attention-grabbing how all this constellation got here collectively.

Why did you’re feeling like Duke needed to be the one to make this film?

Duke is understood for stop-motion animation, and we received actually excited interested by how you’re taking all of the lighting methods and stop-motion components he created and increase them into live-action. One factor you do in cease movement is you employ the identical puppets for all of the characters and simply placing a special face on them. I used to be like, "What if, since he's misplaced his reminiscence, all of the actors apart from André and Gemma Chan are the identical?" So we’ve got a troupe of 10 actors taking part in all of the characters he meets whereas he’s looking for the one factor he can bear in mind, Gemma. We had our first screening with an viewers on Monday and it was so enjoyable seeing them catch as much as what was occurring.

Now that The Actor is out on the planet, what’s subsequent for you as a producer?

Duke is such a singular — and dare I say, auteur — filmmaker. I do know he’s going to have a protracted profession. He takes a very long time to make his films, so he might not make a variety of films, however every film will likely be so intense. I really feel like he's making a physique of labor, and my job as his producer is to help his physique of labor. The Actor is simply his chapter 2, there’s a lot extra coming.

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The Actor is now in theaters.

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