I recently sat down with Elizabeth Olsen and Sean Durkin to discuss their latest film, Martha Marcy May Marlene (out in limited release this weekend). We talked show tunes, scripts, fame, and festivals. Enjoy!

Laremy Legel: Earlier we were trying to think up films that had been accepted into Sundance, Cannes, and Toronto. I know Blue Valentine was one of them, but it's a massively rare feat. Did you feel like you'd won the Super Bowl each time, or did you just want to get the film in front of mainstream audiences and be done with the festival circuit?

Sean Durkin: Getting your first feature into any of them is a dream; to have all of them [smiles] ... once Sundance happened everything went from there. You just keep focusing and working hard and good things happen.

Do you read your reviews from each festival?

Elizabeth Olsen: I read the reviews at Sundance, that was really fun.

SD: Sometimes I'll take a glimpse at a couple of them. But mostly my mom has a Google alert for me so she'll read everything and call me. (Hi, Mom!)

Elizabeth, are you still the "It" girl right now? How long will you reign?

EO: I'm doing Nylon magazine for October, as an "It" girl, but I didn't know. So they were videotaping an interview, while you're doing the shoot, and I had no idea they were doing an "It" girl issue, and they were like, "What does it mean to be an "It" girl? And I'm on camera and said, "I think it means something that's ephemeral and of the moment?" Because I can't take it too seriously.

You should have said it was a big honor and you wanted to thank all the "It" voters! But seriously, do you have any trepidation around being famous?

EO: I would love to have a long career. For some reason franchises frighten me, because I think it's hard when something becomes so big to see you as other characters, and all the baggage that comes with that. That's something that frightens me. But none of the tabloid stuff sounds good to me, that all sounds unhealthy. A lot of things are completely out of your control. I'm bad at this, but you have to forget about things that are out of your control.

Sean, did you have any creative differences on set? I think those who haven't been on a movie set vacillate between thinking everything is always pleasant and wondering if actual arguments break out...

SD: Well, you're making something that's very complicated and emotional, and everyone is pouring their lives into it. If there's no conflict at any point you have to wonder what the hell is happening. We had a great set, and you try to keep it [creative conflict] from other people. If you're working something out with somebody, you keep it away so it doesn't affect the vibe. And I don't mean it in a negative way, everybody is trying to do their best to get the best they can. It's from passion and wanting to get to the bottom, to get the answer and work it out.

Did you give John Hawkes notes? Or was what we saw on-screen mostly his interpretation?

SD: When I hire actors I believe in their abilities. I like to let them bring that. If something isn't working we adjust, to get on the same page. A lot of it is in the script, but there's always something extra someone brings. What I think he brought most was humanity. That was in the script, but he took it to a whole different level.

How long do you think it would take someone to lose themselves in the cult-like atmosphere Martha Marcy May Marlene portrays, to where they forgot societal norms?

EO: I think we said six months?

SD: I knew someone who said she was in a group for six months and she felt if she stayed a week longer she wouldn't have made it out. There's no clock, no calendars, no sense of time. There's so many things that make it so much more intense.

Sean, how long does it take you to write a script?

SD: The first one took me a long time because it was my first one and I had to learn how to write. I wrote a lot of shorts that were never made. I started in 2007, we shot in 2010, I had the first idea in late 2006, so I was living with it for a long time. But I also didn't start fully writing until 2009.

Do you worry about movies with similar themes coming out as you're making the film?

SD: You definitely hear about things as you're writing, but stuff takes forever to get made, so you just ignore it and move forward.

What did you shoot the film on?

SD: An Arricam Lite 35mm.

Elizabeth, you mentioned in a previous interview that mental illness fascinates you. Can you expand upon that a little?

EO: The reason I am interested in it is because I think it's the scariest thing that could happen to someone, to lose perception of what's real and what's not real. At least when you have cancer it's actually happening, but if you have a mental illness and someone tells you that you have one you probably don't believe them. That's why I find it awful and interesting. I don't think for the storytelling of this film Martha has a mental illness, but something I connected with as a launching off point was her paranoia. That was something to justify why she had a loss of voice, so that's how I approached it in a grander scheme.

What's your favorite meal?

SD: Rib-eye steak with French fries, medium rare.

EO: My mother's steamed artichokes with her noodles, which I call "nu-nus".

Delightful. Now I read you sang show tunes during the shoot with Sarah Paulson. What would you two sing?

EO: Do you know The First Wives Club, where at the end they are all dressed in white and they sing "You Don't Own Me"? That was our favorite.

Martha Marcy May Marlene is in limited release this weekend, check your local listings!