And then with Veronica [Viola Davis], you see the ritual between Harry [Liam Neeson] and her since he’s the leader of the gang. Veronica catches her husband in the shower right before, as it turned out, he’s going to leave for his last, fatal job. She has the flask and says, “Oh, don’t forget,” and pours the shot. And she holds it out to him, but instead she downs it.

You always try to get as much efficiency as you can in your scenes, and I was fond of that scene because it establishes so much. It shows the intimacy between the two and the fondness and a ritual. You realize they’ve been together for a long time. You understand that he’s been doing these jobs forever, that it makes her nervous and he understands that, that they have a teasing nature and a sweetness between them. And then later on the flask becomes a plot point.

Steve and I liked the interweaving — going back and forth between those domestic moments and this complete violence with the heist going bad — to make it as stark and strange and bizarre as possible, so that you are caught off-guard in trying to figure out what’s happening. Steve called it a kiss and a slap and a kiss and a slap, which is a perfect way to put it. (As told to Kathryn Shattuck)

[Read our review of “Widows.”]