Evanna Lynch on “Addiction: A 60’s Love Story” and How Indie Films Differ from “Harry Potter”

In Addiction: A 60’s [sic] Love Story, Evanna Lynch plays the wife of a heroin addict working in the underground porn industry. The film is based on the true story of the lives of Max and Theresa Bornstein. Evanna recently spoke with Backstage about the pressures of portraying a real person and the differences between indie and big-budget films.

With the real-life Max Bornstein working as a producer on the film, Evanna says she was always on her toes, and she was rewarded by seeing his reaction to an emotional scene.

Midway through the shoot, there was a scene that we did, and it was an emotional scene. And he came off set, and he was crying. After that moment…that was [a new level] of the relationship with Max. I felt way more comfortable, and I felt like he trusted me. ’Cause that’s the thing. As soon as you feel like people trust you, like the director trusts you, the crew trusts you, then you just you feel more able to explore creatively.

Evanna had a difficult task in learning how to speak with a New Jersey accent. Luckily, a woman in the costume department had the same accent as her character, Theresa, and Evanna was able to work with her to get Theresa’s speech just right.

One day, she was doing some costume adjustments, and Max walked by and [said], ‘That’s her. That’s Theresa. That’s how she speaks.’ And every time [she] would speak, he would be like, ‘Oh, you sound just like my wife.’ She was then really, really helpful.

Evanna also reflected on the differences between shooting an indie film like Addiction and shooting big-budget films like Harry Potter.

I need to let go of this perfectionism, which I think I had from ‘Harry Potter’. Because everyone would have their own costume fittings months in advance. And you meet with the director, [so] you’d have loads of time of rehearsal. There were so many people involved.

In [‘Addiction’], everyone was so busy—short on time, short on money, short on resources. And I really learned that I had to ask for what I needed. And I found that it was way more collaborative than any project I’ve done before.

Addiction: A 60’s Love Story also stars Ian Harding (Pretty Little Liars) as Max Bornstein. See the trailer below and check out some clips from the film that we recently shared here and here.

Addiction is in select theaters now and also available on VOD/DVD. Will you be checking out Evanna’s new film?