Amy Adams and Emily Blunt in Sunshine Cleaning Courtesy of Overture Films

Should we expect the crime scenes in Sunshine Cleaning to be very gruesome? Is it going to be an R-movie?
I don't know what the rating is; I think there's a few "Fs" in it. I guess it would be pretty highly rated; the crime-scenes are disgusting, particularly with the trailer-park crime-scene, which is what they call a "decomp" in biohazard terms, when a body is there for weeks before anyone discovers it. The mattress was full of just blood and body fluids and piss and vomit. It was just gross. They put flies everywhere, it was kind of disgusting, and it looks so real that it kind of makes you heave, you know?

Most people might be familiar with director Christine Jeffs through Sylvia, which is sort of this oppressively dark, depressing piece. Is Jeffs a dark personality to work with?
Oh no, she's charming and warm, but she really understands drama. She has a deep understanding of it. I don't know if you've seen her other film, Rain; it's wonderful. It was different for her to do a comedy, but I think we needed someone who could understand the drama of what this family is experiencing, which is very sad in a way.

By the way, don't people who do crime-scene cleanup need police certification or something like that? Is this movie meant to be absurd?
[laughs] I guess it's absurd, yeah, but that's the best thing about the film. It's so unusual and the fact that this rather macabre job is given the name Sunshine Cleaning is funny. It is a dark comedy, this film.

Did you and Amy get to spit lines at each other, riff off each other?
Yeah, you know, we riffed around with it, we played with it. She's someone who loves to play. She's my kind of actor, I just loved watching her. She's one of my favorite actresses around, really. That's really the reason I signed on to do the film.

And she's really taken off during this past year.
I know, I know, she's just gone [makes blast-off motion] and deserves to. She's one of the best, without a doubt.

Have they showed you a cut of The Young Victoria yet?
No, I think I'm seeing a bit of footage today. One of the producers is flying in, so I'm gonna see a little bit of it.