Peter Sarsgaard on ‘Memory’ and Playing a Man with Dementia: ‘Acting Is Easy When It’s Going Well’

variety.com:

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor Though he plays a man dealing with dementia in the upcoming film “Memory,” Peter Sarsgaard found the experience immensely joyful. “I loved playing him,” the actor reveals on this week’s episode of Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “I told my wife when I was playing him – I mean, it sounds arrogant, but it was true – I said, I’ don’t feel like I can miss.

Like anything that comes my way. I don’t think I just am.’” And though his heralded performance has already won the prestigious Volpi Cup Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival, Sarsgaard downplays any suffering he did for the role. “Acting is easy when it’s going well,” he notes. “Even Daniel Day-Lewis would tell you that ‘My Left Foot’ was easy because he was clearly on a roll.

You show up and you just know instinctively what to do.” Listen below. Written and directed by Michel Franco, “Memory” stars Jessica Chastain as a social worker who reconnects with a former classmate, Saul, played by Sarsgaard, after he follows her home from a high school reunion.

She soon learns that Saul suffers from dementia. Despite his condition, the two forge a touching bond in a film that is surprising, heartfelt and even full of humor.