Patti LuPone says her character is not the villain of Beau Is Afraid

Musical theater legend Patti LuPone admits she was a little surprised when Hereditary and Midsommar writer-director Ari Aster approached her about taking the non-singing role of Mona, the mother of the titular character in Aster's latest release, Beau Is Afraid.

"My manager called and said that Ari Aster wanted to do a Zoom with me and I didn't know who Ari was," admits LuPone, whose previous onscreen credits include the TV shows Penny Dreadful and American Horror Story. "My 32-year-old son went, 'Mom, this is the guy! This is the guy!' I saw Hereditary and Midsommar and was really surprised that he wanted to speak with me. I said, 'Ari, why me?' He had seen me in a Mamet play on Broadway called The Anarchist, and so he didn't see me from musical theater, he saw me from my legitimate side, and I was thrilled to death. I actually wrote to David and said, 'Thanks for getting me the part.'"

Beau Is Afraid stars Joaquin Phoenix as Beau, a deeply anxious individual who has a difficult relationship with his mother. Beau's stress levels fly off the charts when a trip to visit his mom turns into a nightmarish phantasmagoria.

"It's a wild ride," says LuPone of the film. "It's a mad genius' fever dream."

LuPone bonded with Aster and Phoenix over early morning cups of joe during the shoot in Montreal.

"Ari, me, and Joaquin, we were put in a wedding destination hotel that had three balconies that faced the lake," recalls the actress. "In the morning, I would go out in my nightgown with some French coffee, and I would pour Ari and I would pour Joaquin and myself coffee, and we would just sit there and talk as human beings. Usually on movies it's, 'How do you do?' and then you go at it. We got to spend a little time together as people and that helped us, helped Joaquin trust me as an actor and as a human being, so it was a wonderful shoot."

LuPone also hung out with Zoe Lister-Jones, who plays a younger version of Mona in the film.

"We went to a museum, we went to dinner, she got to know me, I got to know her," says LuPone. "I think just the fact that we bonded helped us both play the part."

Lister-Jones describes LuPone as "the coolest hang. Oh, my God. Yeah, we had a lot of fun together in Montreal. I recorded her saying all of our scenes so that I could then get her cadence and her tone as best I could. What a dream job, to have to study Patti LuPone's cadence and tone!"

The guilt-tripping Mona could be seen as the villain of Aster's film but LuPone says there's a lot more to her.

"You can't play a villain unless you show their good side," she says. "And I don't think you can think villainously unless you have really good reason, and the reasons usually aren't villainous — they come out of some sort of hurt, some sort of miscommunication, something that changed them. In this particular case, I think she does say that it was the most important thing in her life to have a child and Beau lets her down."

"You can interpret Mona in so many different ways," she concludes. "I choose to think she loves her son and he just constantly disappoints her."

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Related content:

• Patti LuPone spills major secrets on Agatha: Coven of Chaos role as Lilia Calderu
• Richard Kind has 'no idea' what Beau Is Afraid is about (and he's in it!)
• Beau Is Afraid director Aria Aster is happy if you are confused by his film