A few days ago at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, we got to sit down with Oscar Isaac, the charismatic star of “Inside Llewyn Davis” and last year’s amazing (and amazingly under-seen) “A Most Violent Year.” We were there to chat about his new movie, the deeply brilliant sci-fi film “Ex Machina,” wherein he plays a mad scientist and tech billionaire who recruits an underling (played by Domhnall Gleeson) to test out some cutting edge new artificial intelligence and things go awry. It’s awesome and we’ll be bringing you lots more from the movie (and our interview with Isaac) in the weeks ahead.
But while we were chatting, I couldn’t help but bring up the fact that he will soon be seen in a little art house movie called “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” directed by some guy named J.J. Abrams. So I quizzed him about that without ever overstepping my bounds (I hope), including what he thought about the reaction to the trailer, what it was like to be inside of an X-Wing, and whether or not he’s excited about working with his “Star Wars: Episode VIII” director Rian Johnson (“Brick,” “Looper,” some very cool episodes of “Breaking Bad”). We also got into the fact that he’s going to be starring as the titular villain in “X-Men: Apocalypse,” a role that he actually went after himself. Sometimes it’s not enough to be one of the most handsome and talented young actors in the business. Sometimes you’ve really got to want it.
Moviefone: Your next movie will be seen by every living soul on this planet.
Oscar Isaac: Yes. It’ll be very cool. I’m very excited about it. I’m excited to see it, to see how it all comes together.
What did you think of people’s reaction to the trailer?
It was awesome. It was very fun. It was very fun to see that spirit get ignited again.
What was it like being in an X-Wing?
It was very cool, but a little nauseating because the thing is on a gimbal and moving all around. I forgot to breathe and I was like, “Whoa.” But it was very cool.
Were these movies super important to you as a kid? What was your motivation to get on board?
Well the history of it. The first movie I remember seeing in a theater was “Return of the Jedi.” And then J.J., on top of the whole thing was J.J. Nostalgia can only go so far and at a certain point you have to have someone who has a real vision of what they want to do.
And your next director isn’t too shabby either. Are you excited about working with Rian?
Yes. Very excited.
Have you talked to him yet?
No, not yet.
They’re doing these spinoffs now. Is there any possibility for your character to star in one of those?
I don’t know, you’re going to have to ask them about it…
And you’re doing “X-Men” too! What made you decide that?
My first comic book I ever collected was “X-Factor” and I actually really loved Apocalypse. And yeah, so when I heard that maybe that would be the next villain, I was like, “Guys, get me in there, I want to meet with them.”
Oh, really?
Yeah, totally. Apocalypse is so cool and weird and scary and I wanted to be a part of that.
Are you going to be on set or is it a motion capture situation?
[dramatic pause] I’m going to be on set… Although I don’t know the details of the whole situation.
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” hit theaters December 18, 2015. “X-Men: Apocalypse” is due out May 27, 2016.
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The short is centered around Anna’s birthday; Elsa, having spent so many years in seclusion, wants it to be perfect. But since she’s come down with a cold, things don’t go exactly as planned. (We’ll keep things vague — we don’t want to spoil a second if it!) The entire “Frozen” team returns for the short, from voice talents Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, and Josh Gad, to songwriters Bobby and Kristen Lopez (yes, there’s another insidiously infectious song to worm its way into your brain) to much of the animation team, led by returning directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck.
We were able to chat with Lee and Buck about where the short came from, how close it was to not getting finished, what their favorite piece of “Frozen” merchandise is, and how the “Frozen” ride at EPCOT in Walt Disney World is shaping up.
Moviefone: When did you first start thinking about this short?
Chris Buck: The idea of doing a short came up last spring. We were talking to John Lasseter about it, too, and it really seemed like a “thank you” to all of the fans. Just a short little thing like this, and we got excited about that. We were a little tired after the feature and the months after, so not until we really sat down in a room with our head story artists and started brainstorming about what it could be did we get excited. And then one of our story artists, Mark Smith, came to me and said, “What if Elsa got a cold?” And we all went, “Hmmm, okay!” We didn’t get a chance to have much fun with Elsa in the feature so this was the chance. We all got really excited.
Was there any discussion about what to use in the short and what to hold back for potential sequels or follow-ups?
Jennifer Lee: No, I think, obviously, this is coming from us and Bobby and Kristen Lopez too, we know the “Frozen” characters very well, we know what they would and wouldn’t do, we know the choices they would make and things we don’t want to happen and we obviously stay true to that. But the bigger thing was just making sure we were creatively open and saying “What if?” and shaking things up a bit. We had to get everything that happened with “Frozen” out of our heads just so we could think, What would Anna do? What would Elsa do? And staying true to them and exploring things like how Elsa and Kristoff had never talked to each other in the feature so that would be nice to see, so we did. But being that short and being that it takes place in one day, it wouldn’t take away from the fun people were having about where these characters were going next.
Can you talk about developing the look of “Frozen Fever”? It’s kind of fun to see the kingdom with a springier color scheme.
Buck: We got a lot of our team back together to do the film, so our art director was back and we gave it that “Frozen” look. He’s great with color and design so we wanted to stay true to the original and Arendelle. So it’s pretty much Arendelle set in the summertime and how beautiful that could be. That was it. Instead of the wintery color scheme from the movie we got to play with more summery stuff.
What was it like working with the Lopezes again? They’re obviously a huge part of the make-up of the franchise’s success.
Lee: Well, what’s nice is that we worked very, very intensely with them for a good 14 to 15 months and shaped the story with them, so we had a shorthand throwing out story ideas and giving them the broad strokes of where we were going and supporting that with visual gags and things. And they find the hook — that song that they can write that resonates. We hit a nice balance, since the song is quite sincere and it’s the emotion of the film; it’s the girls, it’s their relationship, and the visuals support it with playfulness. And that’s what we’ve done a lot with them. It was a bit of a groove that we came to know, which was very helpful. But we also couldn’t imagine doing it without them. They know these characters as well as we do.
How difficult was it to get this short done on time?
Buck: It was tight. We started working on it last June. That was just coming up with the idea. And production-wise, we had to squeeze in at the end of “Big Hero 6,” before the animators started in on the next one. Everybody wanted to work on it. A lot of the animators had such a good time on the first one that they came to us and said, “Can I just do one scene?” And even our head animator on Olaf came back and did one scene.
Lee: So we have a lot of animators on this because everyone said, “Can I just do one?” That meant a lot to us — that people wanted to come back. The concern in the beginning was always, Will it be good enough? Will it do it justice? Do you have the creative energy to do it? So we couldn’t put it into production until we had found it. So the summer was pretty intense in terms of getting it right or getting it to where it could go with animation. The song came about pretty quickly, which helped. But we were recording voices in August and we had just sat down with it in June. But we tend to work that way — really intense, really fast.
This movie has clearly taken on a life of its own. What is your favorite bit of “Frozen”-related merchandise?
Lee: Ooooo…
Buck: Uhhhh…
Lee: Could it be good or bad? My mind is now spinning.
Buck: For the bad, the bad would be that there was a Halloween costume for women… It was Olaf…
Buck: That would probably be my favorite bad one. I don’t think it was Disney sanctioned. It was pretty impressive though.
Lee: For good I think to the thing that inspired a lot of eBay price fights, which were the dresses. Because when I was growing up as a girl, they didn’t have these. They didn’t have the Disney Princess dresses. And I was obsessed with “Cinderella” and making dresses out of my mom’s slips and things.
Buck: You said the mice were helping you with that!
Lee: So particularly Elsa’s dress, every time I saw a little girl in that, I could just feel how they were feeling and how much they were enjoying throwing their arms out and pretending to make snow. That doesn’t get old.
“Frozen” will be a franchise that will go on for many years. How do you delegate shepherding the “Frozen” brand with working on other projects of your own?
Lee: I’ll let you know once we figure out how to do it right. It’s a challenge, and it’s a good challenge to have. We can be quite tired, but I would say that’s a champagne problem to have this amount of support creatively from Disney on all fronts — the musical, the “Wrinkle in Time” animation, the parks; just the fact that they want us from us keeps us going, even when we’re tired.
Buck: What’s great too is that they’ve actually asked us to hop on these things. Sometimes in the past, once you finish the film, you hand it over and that was it. That was the last time you had any input that came after the film, so it’s nice that we’re asked and are able to tell them what worked, what didn’t work, and give them some advice in keeping them true. It helps to keep the integrity of these characters and this property.
You brought up the parks. What’s the status of the Norway ride at EPCOT and how’s it coming along?
Buck: I’m not sure of the date, I think spring of next year. It’s looking very, very good. We’ve been in on the early designing and I’m excited by the look of it.
Lee: Chris has been working with them daily, and I of course threw up when they showed us the 3D version in the simulator. So I’m not going anywhere near it.
Buck: It’s going to have real state-of-the-art audio animatoronics and it’s going to look amazing.
What has it been like seeing the characters embraced at the parks?
Buck: Oh, it’s crazy. Especially when you see the response with the meet-and-greet characters. I was walking by the meet-and-greet at Disneyland last summer, when the lines were extremely long, and I was with someone and they said, “You should tell them you’re the director.” And it’s like this four-hour line of parents and kids, and I said, “I’m not going to tell anyone I had anything to do with it.”
Chances are you know Game of Thrones.” As one of the members of the besieged Stark clan, Madden stood tall while facing certain death. That’s a tough thing to play, especially when you’re so handsome.
Madden is bringing his handsomeness and his history with fantasy to Disney’s new, live-action “Cinderella,” directed by Kenneth Branagh, and co-starring Lily James and Cate Blanchett. In this version, Madden plays a kinder, gentler Prince Charming, one that Cinderella actually meets before the ball. Yes, there are complex new dimensions to this “Cinderella.” And it is glorious.
We got on the phone and spoke to Madden about what it was like going from dark fantasy to light fantasy (and what the reaction was to “Game of Thrones’” infamous Red Wedding), whether or not it was fun to play with fairy tale conventions, and grill him on his jock strap (he recently went on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to discuss). He also tells us that he’s dying to be in a movie with spaceships or dinosaurs or both. Struggling Hollywood screenwriters, you have your newest assignment.
Moviefone: What was it like going from the dark fantasy world of “Game of Thrones” to the much happier, cheerier fantasy world of “Cinderella”?
Richard Madden: It was a relief. It was nice to be a part of something with a happy ending, where I’m not constantly worried that somebody is going to slaughter my family.
While we’re on the subject, were you taken aback by how people responded to The Red Wedding?
Absolutely. I’m always surprised. Because for me I just shot this TV show in Ireland and suddenly it’s this massive TV show and people really care about it. It’s quite wonderful, actually, because it means you’re doing something right if that many people watch it and care about it and get upset when characters die.
Were you a fan of the original animated “Cinderella”? And what’s your favorite Disney animated movie?
My favorite one is “Aladdin.” But I grew up with two sisters so I watched all of these movies and knew them inside out and knew all the songs. But I loved the original animated “Cinderella.” I love our version much more though because of the modernization and the message that we’re giving. It’s a message that she isn’t just a damsel in distress who needs a man to save her from her life. She’s an independent, brave woman, and the Prince and Cinderella bring out the best in each other. I think that’s a much better story than the original animation.
Was it fun playing with these conventions?
Absolutely. I just love to be able to actually build a character. In the original animation he’s maybe in two or three scenes. You don’t even get to know his name whereas in this story you get to see him as a son and a soldier and as a friend as well as a Prince to Cinderella. It was really fun to build a character from scratch.
I imagine every actor wants to work with Kenneth Branagh.
Absolutely.
What was that experience like?
He’s inspirational. It was like taking a master class every day in acting and just how to conduct yourself and me and him and Lily have a great chemistry together, and a great working relationship and we’re working together in 2016. Lily and I are playing Romeo and Juliet on stage, and Kenneth is directing on the West End in London. Doing Shakespeare on stage with Kenneth Branagh, I don’t think it gets better than that.
Did he push you as an actor?
Oh, he pushed me every day. He would give me books on a weekly basis to read and he was always pushing to get the best out of me. He’s super intelligent and also a total gentleman.
The costumes in this movie are incredible.
Yeah, I get to wear some cool stuff. It was great because I had these conversations with [costume designer] Sandy Powell where I wanted to retain the masculinity for the Prince and I thought the costumes were a great opportunity to do that even though they’re really decadent costumes. I went slightly white when I saw the ball outfit because it’s very white with sequins and glitter and I was going, “This isn’t very masculine.” But it actually makes you feel very regal and empowers. It’s really very special.
Yes! Branagh is involved in every detail. He’s got such an eye for detail for things right down to the jock strap, where we had to get it right. So a lot of time and thought went into it, and Sandy Powell was such an extraordinary costume designer; you’re in safe hands.
What was it like working with Cate?
Well, not only is she stunningly beautiful but she’s also a proper movie star in every sense of it. The way she conducts herself on set is just a joy to watch. It’s like a master class, every day, being on set.
Did you go to drama school coming up?
Yeah, I went to drama school in Scotland.
So this was drama graduate school?
Yes! Exactly!
You’re now a famous Disney character. How would you feel about the Richard Madden version of Prince Charming walking around Disneyland?
A-ha! That would be quite cool! I could go and see him. That’ll be me if I don’t get another job lined up.
And your next movie, “Columbus Day,” is a modern thriller, right?
Yes. I actually get to wear jeans and a T-shirt for a change, instead of armor, like I’m used to.
What can you tell us about that?
It’s a thriller and it’s action and it’s me and Idris Elba, which I think is funny because it’s such an odd pairing as a couple of actors. But it’s hopefully got a bit of humor and tension and drama and it’s got some exciting pieces. And it was just a thrill to be able to do something that is so different than anything I’ve ever done before.
Is “Romeo and Juliet” going to be traditional period as well?
That will all be revealed in time.
Is there a genre you’re particularly looking to tackle next?
Sci-fi! I’m dying to do something sci-fi! I would love to be on a spaceship and firing a laser gun! Something like that would be really awesome. Or something with dinosaurs. Or preferably both at once.
They’re restarting “Jurassic Park” and “Star Wars.” You could get into one of those movies.
Yeah, well… Maybe a “Star Wars”/”Jurassic Park” mash-up is something I could do in the future.
“Cinderella” is in theaters March 13th.
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Talking with Kenneth Branagh, the legendary director of “Hamlet,” “Frankenstein” and “Thor,” is such an effervescent, invigorating experience that the moment I got off the phone with him, I started imaging a vivid fantasy scenario where he taught me, “Kingsman“-like, how to become a proper English gentleman. He’s that kind of classy.
I was talking to Branagh about his work as director of “Cinderella,” a job that he got after the original filmmaker, Mark Romanek (known mostly for his visionary music video work), departed the project, leaving no one to locate Cinderella’s lost glass slipper. In recent years, Branagh has gone from the director of Shakespeare adaptations to a hired gun for blockbusters like “Thor” and “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.” It’s been a fascinating and surprising career turn, which I talked to him about.
Branagh also addressed similarities between his film and the original animated Disney classic, why he thought he was right for this project, whether or not he’d return to the Marvel fold, his upcoming stage production of “Romeo and Juliet” (set to feature “Cinderella” stars Lily James and Richard Madden), and I even get him to tell me a story about “Wild Wild West,” the infamous Barry Sonnenfeld-directed bomb that starred Will Smith (Branagh played a legless Confederate bad guy). Yes, I went there.
Moviefone: When you became involved in the movie, did you look at any of the stuff Mark Romanek had been developing and did you incorporate any of that into the new movie?
Kenneth Branagh: I was approached about it after they had parted company and really what I responded to was the screenplay that Chris Weitz had sent me, which was really excellent. I thought I saw a way through that. The next process was to meet with Dante Feretti, the production designer, who was already working on it and Sandy Powell, the costume designer, and with those three people see whether my instinct about where the script could go could meet where they were. And it seemed like a pretty organic thing. So I never referred to where it had been, I just sort of landed where I was and said, “Here’s where I’d like to take it.” It was at a moment when it was all quite malleable so it was fluid and they were very open to the direction I wanted to go in.
You’re primarily known for the Shakespeare adaptations. But was a fairy tale something you had always wanted to tackle?
Well, it hadn’t occurred to me, to be perfectly honest. But I was very enticed by the surprise of it. And also to do something that was such a woman’s story was very enticing too. I felt that this was all new territory to me and the invitation to maybe be evoking these great set pieces, the pumpkin transformation, the runaway from the ball, et cetera, these are very exciting cinematic possibilities. So I was excited by that and also the possibility of reinventing the character from the inside by making her someone who was no longer passive and waiting for a prince but rather someone who is her own person and understand why the stepmother was the way she was.
Was it fun to try to figure out what to maintain from the original animated Disney classic and what to reinvent?
It was a fun process, yes. We abandoned a lot of singing and a lot of animal material although everyone I talked to said, “Oh, leave the mice in, leave Gus Gus in.” The world was telling me. So let’s not alienate the mouse population. But I felt that I really wanted to give people what they wanted, because I wanted it — that classical framework to this story. I wanted to feel that kind of opulence and flamboyance and really wanted to immerse myself in the world. I wanted it to be something you could smell and taste and smell the natural world and the beauty of the ballroom and everything. And occasionally, with the odd shot, tip our hat to the 1950 animated classic. The world has moved on and it remains a slice of genius for that time but the story, which has been knocking about for the last 2,000 years was something that could bear reinvention.
Speaking of reinvention, you’ve had this amazing career renaissance in the past few years. What about that has surprised you the most?
It’s funny to be in rooms where you were originally referred to as “The Shakespeare Guy” and to suddenly be in the position where you’re “The Blockbuster Guy.” That’s a pretty unusual turnabout, I must say. So the kind of material that comes across my desk is pretty different. But it’s very varied, which continues to be a delight. Still, the small character-driven stories come my way as do now, increasingly, stories that feel like anything’s possible. You’d be amazed at the range of things that people send me because they seem delighted in the fact that they can’t quite put me in a box. The surprise factor is heavily at work.
I’m actually a really big fan of your performance in “Wild Wild West.” Can I get one crazy story from that movie?
Well, I’m very glad to hear you say that because I think that you, very sweetly, Drew, are in the minority about that and are possibly in the minority about having actually seen the film. I just remember the first time they put me in the chair and it was a kind of conversation about budget — how much would they be able to, through visual effects and blue-screen trousers worn by me, be able to take my legs away and make my incredible spidery machine work and how much they would do the old fashioned way. And Barry Sonnenfeld said, “Well, we’ll do some of the old-fashioned stuff.” And with that they put a plate over my knees and screwed me into the box, basically. My knees were tucked underneath me, and I remember thinking, Yeah, this is pretty old-fashioned. Basically, the lower half of my body is trapped in a box; I’m not in Vegas, and I thought they did these things with CGI. I certainly had a lot of stretching to do after that job.
A couple of years ago you directed “Thor.” Was that a good experience? Would you come back to the Marvel fold?
I’m very proud to be a part of that early part of the Universe, as it were. When I was working we were only the third part of that first phase. And we were definitely one where, tonally, everyone was so concerned with a blonde guy riding a horse across a rainbow bridge in space with a lot of equally suspect characters and we managed to give that a kind of framework that made you find it acceptable, gave me a real sense of pride. I’ve got a good relationship there, and I liked working with my colleagues very much. Whether another property like that comes up, I can’t say. We all still talk, so who knows?
Lily and Richard have talked about how excited they are to do your “Romeo and Juliet.”
Yes, that’s very exciting. We’re very excited to be doing that. When you look at “Thor” or indeed “Cinderella” you see this interplay of people who have been in my film life, people who have been in my theater life and I’m glad that that intermingling continues. It feels like an extension with two people who I feel like are fantastic talents and have a unique chemistry. I think it’s going to make a big difference to that great play, which is the first one I directed 30 years ago and didn’t do very well with. So I look forward to doing much better this time.
“Cinderella” is in theaters everywhere March 13th.
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Disney’s “Cinderella,” opening this week, is a sumptuous period fantasy, full of dazzling costumes, eye-popping sets, and at one genuinely revelatory performance in the form of Lily James, who plays the title character, going from being a sooty nobody to, thanks to some magic slippers, the most sought-after maiden in the entire kingdom.
James’s performance is subtle but dynamic. She’s able to craft a character whose strength comes from within, whose life isn’t dictated by her wicked stepmother (played, gloriously, by Cate Blanchett) or the Prince himself (Richard Madden from “Game of Thrones”). She’s determined and self-sufficient even before her Fairy Godmother (Helena Bonham Carter) grants her one magical night out.
We got a chance to speak to James about how she was able to make the character her own, how she initially wanted to play one of the wicked stepsisters, what it was like working with Cate and director Kenneth Branagh, and what her role in the blood-soaked “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” looks like.
Moviefone: Were you involved with the Mark Romanek version?
Lily James: No, I came onboard the Branagh version. And, actually, I originally auditioned for one of the sisters.
Oh, so you didn’t think playing Cinderella was even a possibility?
Well, I don’t know. I got the call for the sister and I was actually really excited to play that part. I love playing the quirky or funny or offbeat characters where you don’t have to think about being pretty or nice and I was like, “Yay!” And then when I was there, the casting director was there and since I had blonde hair for “Downton Abbey,” and she said, “Oh, why don’t you read for Cinderella while you’re here?”
Did you always want to do a fairy tale?
I loved fairy tales growing up. So I had my dress-up costume with the little plastic royal slippers and thankfully I had two brothers who stopped me from being too princess-y. Belle was always my favorite. I loved her spirit of adventure. And, I think that, as the Disney princesses have progressed over the years, they’ve become really wonderful, spirited girls, and I liked that.
Was there any particular spin you wanted to put on the character to make her your own?
Well, I felt like they had already done it. When I read the script I was really moved and I was really taken aback by the fact that it was such a classical retelling but there were these differences that made it feel more modern and more relevant. I love that, in this version, Ella isn’t waiting around for the prince to save her. She’s a much stronger character. That was my spin. If I wanted to do anything with the part, it was that I wanted her to be a strong heroine and to be in charge of her own destiny.
Do you think that your Cinderella is a feminist?
I don’t know — what is a feminist? That would be a big, big answer. Do you think she’s a feminist?
She’s certainly empowered and never lets any man dictate her emotional state or agency.
Yeah, I agree. I feel like she, even at the end when the Prince comes to rescue her, she says, “This is who I am. I’m this girl. I have no dowry and I’m not a princess. And if you can love me, then fine. And if not, then that’s okay too.” She’s still in charge of her destiny, even in that moment. What’s amazing with what Ken has done is that the sequence still feels really romantic. I think she’s empowered and I think she rescues the Prince as much as he rescues her.
Can you talk about what it was like working with Cate?
Oh, just amazing. She’s an inspiration to me. I can’t even begin to tell you how exhilarating it was to work with her. Her stepmother is so rich and full and when I looked at her, it was so interesting to see what she did with her character and I think that, even though it’s a fairy tale, it was all a part of making her feel real and deep and multi-dimensional. She kind of forces you into the moment because she’s so bloody brilliant.
And what about Kenneth Branagh? I assume he’s someone every actor wants to work with.
Oh, yes. It completely excelled all of my expectations. He’s so kind and generous and he takes so much time with you and he’s got such a big heart. So to be directed by him is rewarding and so refreshing as an actor to completely trust your director. It was the best experience I’ve ever had acting.
You’re doing “Romeo and Juliet” with Richard for Branagh on stage next year, right?
Yes! I’m so excited! When all of this stuff is finished, it’ll be sometime next year before we start on the play, so I’ll miss him and I’ll be ready to work with him again.
The costumes in this movie are incredible, but obviously everyone is curious about were the glass slippers like? Were you actually wearing anything?
Well, the slippers were made of Swarovski crystal and they were so beautiful and valuable that there was not a chance in hell that I could actually wear them. So they were CGI’d in, onto my foot. I know that’s not very magical, but since I didn’t actually wear the slipper, we can say that Prince Charming is still out there searching for his Cinderella!
What if there’s a Lily James version of Cinderella that gets introduced into the theme parks?
I don’t know. The good thing is that even though I’ve worn this dress and stuff I already feel like it doesn’t feel like the character belongs to me. The character feels quite separate already. So, in some ways, I think like it’d be version of me walking around, which would be really weird.
What can we expect from “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”?
I don’t know. I filmed it already and it was a really weird, wild, wonderful time. I have no idea what it’s going to be like. But what was really cool about it was it was such a different character from Cinderella. With Cinderella, all her strength came from within, but with Elizabeth Bennett, in our version, she’s a zombie slaying warrior. So I got to use all my strength, physically, so it was cool to get to do that right after Cinderella.
Would you like to do a full-on action movie?
I never thought I would say this, but I’m desperate to do an action film. I absolutely loved it.
“Cinderella” casts its spell in theaters March 13.
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In just three movies, South African filmmaker Neill Blomkamp (who now lives in Canada, actually) has established himself as a science-fiction visionary, fearlessly taking audiences into the distant future while reminding them very much of the world in which they live. This can mean shining a light on refugee aliens in a derelict Johannesburg in “District 9” (an allegory for immigration and Apartheid, amongst other things) and making the gap between the wealthy and the poor a glittery technological gulf exemplified by a ritzy space station in the unfairly maligned “Elysium.”
In his newest film, “Chappie,” Blomkamp returns to Johannesburg to focus on a broken police robot who is given a new personality chip by an intrepid inventor (Dev Patel) and then promptly stolen by a couple of low level thugs, played by Ninja and Yolandi Visser from the South African rap-rock outfit Die Antwoord. Oh, and Hugh Jackman plays a cargo short-wearing Luddite.
Sounds like a Neill Blomkamp movie, right?
We sat down with Blomkamp in New York recently and spoke about the response to “Elysium” (including the hilarious Sony leak that warned to marketers to de-emphasize the movie’s sociopolitical commentary), why designing the main robot in “Chappie” was so difficult, Hans Zimmer’s amazing, all-electronic score, and why exploding bodies is essential to his oeuvre.
Moviefone: Let’s rewind for a minute and talk about “Elysium.” Were you happy with how that turned out? Some things came out in the Sony leaks that made it seem like they were unsure of how to market it.
Neill Blomkamp: Sh*t, I was excited there for a minute man, like about something I didn’t know about.
But were you happy with the film?
No. Not really. I haven’t overly analyzed the film. I don’t think I’ll have specific enough answers for you but I feel like, generally, there are pieces of it that I really like. I love the core concept of it. I still love it. So much that I kind of want to go back and do it properly. Not remake it, but go back and do something in that world. But no… I just think as an artist or as a filmmaker, you either feel like you did what you were trying to do and you did it correctly… Or you didn’t. And whether you can isolate those elements or not… I feel like “Elysium” wasn’t perfect. And even if “District 9” and “Chappie” aren’t perfect to other people, I feel like they’re as close as I could get to that. That’s all you really ask for. Where I didn’t feel like that for “Elysium.”
Was it the scale?
No. Scale is irrelevant. There’s literally no difference between “Chappie” and “Elysium.” I would put it down to the screenplay, if I had to pick one thing. But there’s probably more factors than that. The story could have been better. I could have been more satirical, I feel like I was a little bit too direct.
So, this was not a calculated “let’s get back down to a smaller movie”?
No. People ask me about that — like the calculated smaller film, or they’ll say things like, “Did you feel pressure after ‘District 9’?” when I was making “Elysium.” I don’t feel any of that stuff. I just seem to feel instinctual choices. Maybe on a subconscious level, you know what I mean? But I’m not conscious of it. I’m just saying, “I love this movie about this robot; I want to make it.”
You seemed to describe this movie as a much simpler comedy.
Did I say comedy though?
I thought you did.
I feel like there was confusion over this other project I want to do. Because around the time I was marketing “Elysium,” I was talking about this other project, that I still want to do, that is a comedy, that I know I talked about. And then I spoke about “Chappie.” And maybe they got mixed.
Can you talk about working with the Die Antwoord guys? Was that always in the mix?
That was there from the beginning. That was my choice from the second I came up with the idea. I came up with the raw idea while I was writing “Elysium.” And the idea was basically one sentence: Die Antwoord raises a police robot that has artificial intelligence software loaded onto it. So they were a part of the concept from minute one.
Were you ever nervous that they couldn’t pull it off?
No, because even outside of the realm of acting ability, which I suppose is somewhat untested although everyone knew they were performers from the music videos. So I knew that there was a weird magnetism that everyone would be drawn to. I think if actors on-screen have some sort of weird, undeniable magnetic thing that makes you intrigued by them, then you’re in a good place. You can only go up from there. If they can say the lines and stuff, they’re in a better place. And that’s how it all worked out.
They’re playing versions of themselves?
Yeah, they’re versions of themselves. They’re like humans at volume 11.
Can you talk about designing Chappie with WETA?
Well, I guess the design came from a couple of places. I first wanted it to trace back to my original short I did in 2003. Just because that short was about an autonomous robotics company that has replaced law enforcement in South Africa and that was very close to the idea of what “Chappie” was, so I thought it would be cool to link it back to the short, and at least have the name of the company in the short be the name in “Chappie.” So I had a template of a design because I wanted to base it on that and I also had done a lot of thought processes in 2003. Because I knew the robot would be anthropomorphic and it would be designed in a cost-effective way for the police, so it could drive cars and go through doors and hold guns that the police use. So there were economic factors that made its design. And once those basic parameters were there, then it became movie design. Like, what do you want to do? So, if you think about it, it’s a really hard design brief because the robots at the beginning of the film have to be taken seriously by criminals and the exact same design has to be this infant child who you have to sympathize with. That’s a super weird design brief because they’re in such opposition of each other. That made it super difficult, in the face mainly.
The ears help.
Yes, the ears are a huge help.
Chappie looks like some of the robots in “Elysium.”
There are no ears in “Elysium.” That’s because I wrote “Elysium” and this idea came during the writing of “Elysium,” because I was writing about those droids. “Chappie” was birthed out of that idea.
But there’s not a shared universe?
Definitely not.
Was blood shed during the creative process of “Chappie”?
Blood is always shed. It’s no one person or place’s fault. It’s just the nature of spending tens of millions of dollars of other people’s cash on a creative endeavor. That doesn’t come easily if you’re trying to be specific about what you’re trying to make. If you’re more nonspecific, which seems like what most VFX films are, then it’s easy. You’re just like, “Oh, I can do that.” I just don’t want to answer to anyone. I just want to do my own stuff. And to do that, everything has to be self-funded. You have to answer to no one. So you have very understanding, cool studios, but you’re still spending their money and have to justify what you’re doing.
“Chappie” was relatively low budget, at least compared to “Elysium.”
Yeah, sort of. It’s not a cheap film.
Have you talked to Peter Jackson about this at all?
Pete has a really good model figured out. He is a very inspirational model when it comes to how to navigate Hollywood. He’s done something pretty incredible. He’s also created one of the coolest centers of creativity in film, which is WETA. It’s pretty incredible what they pulled off.
Can you talk about working with Hans Zimmer on the score?
Zimmer might be my favorite crewmember — or whatever the term is — that I’ve ever worked with. I literally love that guy. He’s got this great place in Santa Monica and it’s like this candy factory of awesome creativity. It was such a cool process from beginning to end. There was no friction and no issues. We got into the process pretty late. We started composing later than we should have. I had a bunch of different ideas for how to do the music but it never congealed correctly. I knew I wanted something electronic. So when I went to him I said, “Can this be all electronic? Like, not a single organic instrument in the entire thing? And could we put ’70s/’80s synth in there?” And the idea of hearing synth with more of an action theme is a really interesting concept, and he wanted to do the same thing and over the years had bought up all of these very specific Roland synthesizers. I think you can’t actually get them because he has most of them now, so someone couldn’t even emulate the sound. And he didn’t orchestrate a single thing — it’s all-digital mixed with synthesizer. I love how it sounds. Music is a huge part of filmmaking to me. And that score just feels like, to my ears, it’s exactly perfect to the movie.
One of the hallmarks of your films is someone exploding.
I couldn’t do as much of that in this film, unfortunately. The problem is the main robot that we follow around is this innocent child. I actually had one more thing that he did to Hugh Jackman at the end but I pulled back on it, reluctantly. But it was the correct choice for the character. I won’t say what it is. Maybe I’ll put it on the Blu-ray. But he f*cked him up. The theme and the idea of the film didn’t allow for the exploding of people, which is essential. So I may do that in the next one, if I do one.
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Quite frankly, it’s shocking that Togetherness”), while appearing in or co-directing or producing one out of every three movies that debuts at Sundance or South by Southwest (things like “Safety Not Guaranteed,” “The One I Love,” “Creep,” etc.) and filming bits in high profile studio movies (everything from “Zero Dark Thirty” to “Tammy”). Homeboy is busy.
In “The Lazarus Effect,” though, he plays a character who might have even more on his mind than Duplass himself, as a grad school scientist working on a new serum that can bring people back from the dead. When his wife and fellow scientist (played by Olivia Wilde) is killed during an experiment, he makes the decision to use the serum on her… and things go horribly, horribly wrong.
We got to chat with Duplass on the phone about why he likes horror movies so much, where his acoustic version of the old HBO theme song came from, how he decides what projects to tackle, and why he won’t admit that he had to turn down “Jurassic World” even though we all know that he totally did (it was directed by his “Safety Not Guaranteed” collaborator Colin Trevorrow).
Moviefone: You certainly have an affinity for these types of movies. Where does that come from and do you want to do direct one of these movies?
Mark Duplass: Well, you know, we’ve flirted with the horror genre a little bit. There’s a movie called “Baghead” that I directed in 2008 that’s kind of touching on that genre a little bit. I grew up watching cheesy horror movies in the late ’80s after going to the mall with my friends. So there was always a deep love and appreciation for it. As a director, I’ve gravitated to more emotionally sensitive dramedies but there’s always been this interest in me to explore all types of genres, not just horror movies. I’m lucky to be at a point in my career where I’m asked to be in a movie like “Lazarus Effect.” Part of the reason I haven’t done a lot of this stuff before isn’t me not wanting to be in them but not having the profile to get those cool jobs.
What was the appeal of “Lazarus Effect” specifically? It seems indebted to some of those ’80s horror movies you mention, particularly “Flatliners.”
Oh for sure. I saw “Flatliners” in the theater. But mostly it was a desire to be a lead in a movie for Jason Blum and to work with David Gelb. When I met with him I was a huge fan of “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” but what’s to say — a guy who directs a really slow-paced food documentary can make a slick horror movie. But then I realized that he’s one of our country’s premiere trailer cutters and directs a bunch of commercials so I thought, This is good – this guy can do slick and he can do heart. And if I’m going to take a chance on a horror movie, Blumhouse + David Gelb is the train I want to hitch myself to.
The movie is currently PG-13. Was there ever a version of the movie that was harsher?
All of these movies are built to go one way or the other. But when we were making this movie, we all felt that because of the DNA of the film, because the script really obeys the horror genre really well and has all the elements that would allow for it to be a 3,000-screen movie, it would be smart of us to make a PG-13 movie. I’m a big fan of reverse engineering your art to something that can be successful. To me that’s less selling out and more buying in and being intelligent about what is going to get the most eyeballs on your stuff. I do the same thing with my independent films. I think it’s smart to have a little business sense about you. That’s part of what I love about Blumhouse. But we all had our eyes on this thing be a bigger play and PG-13 was a big part of that.
And I’m sure there’ll be a slightly scarier version on Blu-ray.
I bet there will! I can’t be sure but there could be something!
Can you talk about working with this ensemble?
Yeah, the goal was really simple: when you’re normally dealing with a high concept, like, say, bringing people back from the dead, it’s usually set in the future where people are wearing all shiny black leather and they talk strange and they don’t feel human. So we were like, if we have any take on this at all, it’s that these people should feel normal and kind of dorky, like a group of researchers and in an ideal world it will connect people more closely to what they’re going through.
Not to give too much away but the ending of the movie certainly leaves the possibility open for a sequel. Would you come back?
That’s a really great question. To be honest with you, I haven’t even thought about it. But anytime there’d be a team like David and these actors and Jason doing anything together, I’d definitely have to think about it.
You did another Blumhouse horror movie before this called “Mercy.” It’s finally on Netflix but was very much shelved. What was that experience like and did that experience color your interaction with Blumhouse?
I see what you’re saying. But no. Jason called me up and said, “I’ve lost an actor, want to come do this thing for three days and it starts shooting in 20 minutes.” And I was like, “F*ck yeah I’ll do it.” So I had no emotional attachment to that movie whatsoever. I have a long history with Jason Blum and we’re good friends and we see the industry in similar ways. We both believe that movies should be made cheaply and being aggressive and taking chances. I’m very much ideologically aligned with Blumhouse. As much as our content looks extremely different, from a philosophical standpoint we could be twins.
There was another horror movie you did last year called “Creep,” which I saw at South by Southwest and loved. When the Weinstein Company picked it up there was talk that it was going to be the beginning of a trilogy. Do you know what’s going on with that?
We’re figuring it all out right now. There’s still a desire from all of us to do this thing as a trilogy but since then my life has kind of exploded, and Patrick Brice, who directed that movie, has kind of exploded as well. So we’re all trying to figure out the timing of when we can get that thing done. The love is still there. The schedule is starting to be a bit of a problem. But we’re in the middle of it.
You’re always working. How do you decide what to do? And how do you delegate your time between projects?
It’s changing on a year-by-year basis. It used to be what can I get. Like, “What can I get? Yeah I’ll do it.” But now I’m getting to this point in my career, just to be candid, where I have to turn down things because I don’t have enough time for them. And that’s crazy. The things I’ve had to say no to in the past year have, quite honestly, been heartbreaking, just because I’m on “The League,” I have “Togetherness” to do, I have four Netflix movies that I’m producing, I have all my Sundance movies. I have a full slate. So it’s changing for me right now and I’m looking at carving out a little more time for those cool acting projects. Like spending a week doing “Zero Dark Thirty” was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life and I’m actively looking to do more things like that.
Can you talk about some of the things you turned down? Did you turn down “Jurassic World”?
I can’t really talk about it because I feel weird for the actors who ended up taking them because most directors say, “You’re my first choice.” And that would be really weird. But I will definitely say that there have been some huge movies that I’ve had to say no to that if I knew that five years ago I would think, What the f*ck are you doing? And that is a growing pain of where I’m at right now. That said, I get to do so much amazing stuff. Being able to make “Togetherness” with my brother and some of my best friends and to be on “The League” with some of the funniest people on the planet who are also some of my best friends and to get to produce movies for people like Patrick and foster their careers, like I am so lucky. And you don’t get to do everything.
Didn’t you shoot all of “Togetherness” before even turning it into HBO?
Yes we did. My brother and I write and direct all of the episodes of the show and we make it like an independent film where we shoot and edit it all ourselves. And they’re incredibly supportive. We’re ramping up Season 2 right now and we’re going to do it the same way.
One of the great joys of “Togetherness” coming out was that great HBO theme song you guys did. Where did that come from?
You’re talking about the dumbest thing we’ve ever done that was actually kind of fun. Well, Jay and I played in bands growing up, always, and one of our joke things we used to do when we were the Indigo Boys, basically two dudes playing acoustic guitars in coffee shops, in the middle of a set we would break out the HBO theme song and slowly people would realize it was happening and every time we did it we would blow the place up. So we were trying to think of something special to honor our 30 year love and commitment and marriage to HBO and it seemed like the right thing.
“The Lazarus Effect” is in theaters now.
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Evan Peters knows a thing or two about scaring you silly.
Peters has been a regular cast member of “American Horror Story” since it’s groundbreaking first season, playing (in short order) a high school psychopath, an insane asylum inmate (who had a close encounter with extraterrestrials, mutants, and a serial killer), a frat-boy Frankenstein monster, and, most recently, a freak-show performer with lobster claws for hands. Scary right?
Well in this week’s “The Lazarus Effect,” the latest production by “Paranormal Activity” and “Insidious” mastermind Jason Blum, Peters is back in the oogey-boogey business, this time playing a grad student who is working, along with Olivia Wilde, Mark Duplass, and Donald Glover, on a top secret project that could bring people back from the dead. What could go wrong, right? Riiiiiight.
We recently spoke to Peters about what he finds so appealing about the horror genre, whether or not he’ll be back for the next season of “American Horror Story” (which, in between the time of our interview and its publication, was revealed to be about a haunted hotel), his scene-stealing role in “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” and why running really fast is now his forte.
Moviefone: Between this and “American Horror Story,” you have certainly made your mark in the horror genre. What is it that specifically appeals to you?
Evan Peters: I just think it’s fun to scare people. And I think that this was a particularly cool story because it dealt with the scientific aspect of horror, which I’m a big fan of — and that was bringing people back from the dead. I love “Frankenstein.” And I just love the idea of that actually happening and then sort of dealing with what happens and what the consequences are.
What was it like going from the over-the-top horror world of “American Horror Story” to the more grounded scientific realm of “The Lazarus Effect”?
It was cool. In horror films, things go wrong. There’s always something that goes horribly wrong and bad. So there was that aspect that I was sort of used to doing but it was really cool to have it more contained and to have these five characters all together dealing with this situation in such a small space. I love that idea and it was fun to get to play around with this crazy idea.
Obviously, Jason Blum and his team at Blumhouse know how to do this kind of thing better than anybody.
Yeah.
What was it like working for that team?
It was cool. It’s amazing what they can do with such a little amount of money and they make it all work and seem very professional and put-together. They do it all. It’s quite an unbelievable thing to see.
And you get to work with a really great group of actors. What was that like?
Everybody was very nice and very funny. I believe Donald said it, he said, “Comedy and horror are intertwined — with a comedy movie, you’re looking to see if you’re getting laughs and with horror you’re looking to see if you’re getting screams.” They go hand-in-hand, I think, in some odd way. It was cool to work with people who work a lot in comedy but are also very good dramatic actors as well and to push it to the limit and see what we could to in this small area.
The movie definitely seems to owe a debt to both “Flatliners” and “Pet Sematary.” Were those movies that you were aware of and paid homage to?
Oh definitely. I love those movies.
The movie, not to give too much away, certainly leaves things open for sequels — and if anybody knows how to make a horror franchise it’s Blumhouse. Would you be game to come back?
Yeah, of course. It would have to be some different version of Clay. It could be fun, definitely.
This season of “American Horror Story” was terrific. I know that people are sort of scattered to the wind for different Ryan Murphy projects, between “Scream Queens” and the “American Crime Story” spinoff. Are you going to one of these spinoffs or are you sticking around?
I’m always down to come back to “American Horror Story.” I would love to come back. Yeah, I’m not on any of the other shows, I don’t think. I’m very happy for everybody who is — I think they’re great shows and I want to check them out. But yeah…
Do you know where it’s headed?
I have no idea. I wish I did. I’ll let you know when I know.
Has Emma started on “Scream Queens” yet?
No, I think she starts in March. It’s definitely going to be fun. I’m going to come and hang out and watch her film. I think it’ll be great.
Another thing that you did recently was the “X-Men” movie and you stole the show, totally.
It was awesome. It was a lot of technical work. But it was really fun to do and in the end I was really blown away by the end result. It was like, “Is that me?” It was so weird and very, very cool. I think the directing and the editing and the special effects guys are just mind-blowing in that movie, and I owe a lot of it to them. I did very little. They were the real orchestrators and I thought it was very cool. And I hope in the next one I get to do some cool stuff as well.
So you will be back?
Yeah, I hope so. Knock on wood.
What was more fun — shooting your big scene or shooting that Carl’s Jr. commercial?
[Laughs] The Carl’s Jr. commercial was great! I had fun doing that, too. It was a lot of similar stuff — people being frozen and me running around. It’s a fun thing to do.
They say nobody does it better!
[Laughs] Freeze people and have him run around — the Evan Peters Special!
Are you excited to see what Aaron Taylor-Johnson does with the character?
I am! I can’t wait to see that movie! I’m a big fan of those movies and a big fan of Aaron’s so I’m excited to see it!
Is there another hero you’d be excited to play?
I always wanted to play someone with a superpower, specifically an X-Man because I loved the movies so much as a kid. And I think it’s really cool to play one of the fastest people in the world. It’s a really cool superpower to have. So I’m pretty happy to have it.
You were in “Kick-Ass,” but you didn’t have a superpower.
Yeah, I was just drinking coffee and reading comic books. If that’s a superpower, I’m damn good at that, too.
What’s the next big mountain you want to climb, career-wise?
I want to do a movie like a Joaquin Phoenix movie or a Paul Thomas Anderson movie or a Clint Eastwood movie. Something that, on it’s own, is really much more serious and dramatic and slow-paced. I think that would be something cool to do.
A movie where you have to do very little running?
[Laughs] Yes. No running. My character is very slow in the next one.
“The Lazarus Effect” is in theaters February 27.
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Niki Caro is one of the more fascinating filmmakers working today. The New Zealand native made a splash, both literally and figuratively, with her breakout feature “Whale Rider,” a tender fairy tale laced with subtext about female empowerment and the cultural subjugation of women the world over. She followed it up with a brassy Hollywood debut, with the “Norma Rae”-esque “North Country” (starring Charlize Theron), before returning to New Zealand to direct another small film.
Now she’s back, with the tremendous “McFarland, USA,” a Disney based-on-a-true-story sports movie starring Kevin Costner as Jim White, a coach who, in the late ’80s, led a group of inexperienced Latino kids to become champion cross-country runners. It’s a typical Disney sports movie — full of grit and hardwork and determination, but with a wonderful cultural specificity and gorgeous (35 mm!) photography.
We sat down with Caro (who, it should be noted, was rocking some amazing rings) and talked about what brought her back to Hollywood, why this story was so important, whether or not the movie had more of a feminist bent before the final cut, and if her adaptation of “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” starring the lovely Jessica Chastain, is still next on her docket.
Moviefone: Why come back to Hollywood?
Niki Caro: Because I was inspired by this story. It’s as simple as that. I’m not useful for a lot of Hollywood movies. My agent despairs, she says there’s only about three percent of actual product in this industry that I am useful for. But this was one.
What about this story spoke to you?
Look, it would have been more than enough — Jim White, that team, and what they achieved. And obviously that legacy that they have left and will endure. If that wasn’t enough to inspire me to make a movie, it was, for me, personally, the people. I was profoundly unaware of what life is like for immigrant field workers and I am astonished, impressed, absolutely floored by their endurance, and I felt very privileged to be in that world for a little while and appreciate the contribution they make to this country, which is undeniable. When I wrote that speech for Kevin — “You guys are superhuman…” They freakin’ are! There is not a piece of lettuce in a burger that has not been picked by somebody there. Central Valley contributes seventy-five percent of the fresh food to this country. It’s not picked by a machine, my friend! It’s picked by people like you and me. But a lot tougher.
What was it like working with actors as seasoned as Costner alongside relative unknowns?
It’s been mentioned to me a couple of times today that I’ve taken a big risk on kids who have never acted before. And I don’t. I take casting very, very seriously and I take equally seriously my instinct for who can be great. I need no instinct to know that Costner or Maria [Bello] are going to be great but with these kids we had to cast unknowns because there’s just not a deep enough pool of Mexican teenage boys that can act and run really fast. There’s just not. There’s one. And we had to teach him to run. So we did huge open calls, saw thousands of kids, and I knew when I had my seven — and I had to fight for some of them — that I had gold. I knew they had the goods, I knew I had the goods and I came to appreciate that Kevin Costner was not just going to be magnificent on screen, but off screen as well, supporting those boys and allowing them to have confidence to stand with him on set. It was perfect.
The movie has such an amazing cultural specificity. Did you have to fight for that?
No. We shouted it from the rooftops. Disney wanted that as much as I wanted it, they backed me one-hundred-and-fifty percent.
Your previous movies have a decidedly feminist bent. And when reading about this story, I discovered the Maria Bello character had a much stronger connection to the team than she does in the movie. Was there any inclination to bring that to the forefront?
Of course there was. When I watched it assembled, every scene, it was three and a quarter hours long. Something had to go. And it was very clear to us that no matter how magnificent Maria and the whole family story was, where the gold was was the boys. That was the more dynamic story. Unfortunately, you can look at the DVD extras. It’s not that there wasn’t great work but the movie couldn’t be three hours long.
The “Disney sports movie” is its own genre now. Do you like these movies and was there any pressure to live up to what had come before?
Disney sports movies, particularly the films of the past ten years, are all made by the same producers, who produced this. For me, the sports was the least attractive of all the attractive elements. If I had to put all the elements in order, it wasn’t the sports that drew me to this — it was the people, the culture, the expression of family, of community, of home. Although shooting the sports was extremely cool because it was so cinematic. It’s the body in motion but you can also take them to amazing landscapes.
I was going to ask you about the look of the movie. It’s absolutely stunning. How did you develop that?
Well Adam [Arkapaw], the DP, is a very young Australian guy. This was his first big movie. He had shot Jane Campion’s “Top of the Lake” in New Zealand. And when I saw that, I thought that he really gets it. Because he didn’t shoot New Zealand like a chocolate box — very picturesque, which it is. Instead, he really got under it and found that sense of place and that’s what I demand from all of my photography. It’s as it is but we light it up, we make it as beautiful as it can be. We wanted to photograph McFarland as a very hostile place when Jim White first gets there. And over the course of the movie, it begins to feel like home and he did that. The other big thing was that we were one of the few films allowed to shoot in California. Go Disney! They stood by their whole authentic, specific thing, and allowed us to shoot in California even though it’s more expensive. The other thing is that we shot on film. What Adam was he ran the numbers and he said, “Look this is how much it’s going to cost to shoot digitally, this is how much it will cost to shoot film.” Oh! It’s the same! So they took film. It’s a very subtle thing but it’s the dust in the air, it expresses that place better than a digital camera can.
Has there been any movement with “The Zookeeper’s Wife”? Is that still the next thing for you? And Jessica Chastain is still attached?
Yes. There is a lot of movement, a lot of forward momentum. I am pinned to the back of my chair actually. It’s going to be amazing.
“McFarland, USA” is in theaters now.
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When you watch “McFarland, USA,” the wonderful new Disney sports movie about a coach who, in 1987, took a group of untested kids in California (mostly sons of migrant field workers) and turned them into track champions, it’s hard to imagine that Kevin Costner, who plays the coach, hasn’t been in one of these films before. The actor, who has seen his career rebound in recent years thanks to brief roles in big movies like “Man of Steel” and “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit,” is perfect as the grizzled coach who crafted this nearly legendary team.
We got to sit down and chat with Costner recently, which is pretty amazing given his legacy not only as an actor (in things like “Revenge” and “JFK”) but as a filmmaker (including the Oscar-winning “Dances with Wolves” and underrated Western “Open Range”). We chatted about a whole range of topics — everything from how many enchiladas he ate during a dinner sequence in “McFarland, USA,” to the validity of director’s cuts, to what went wrong on his Euro action movie “3 Days to Kill.” It’s a wide-ranging and incredibly fun chat.
Moviefone: First, a hard-hitting journalistic question: How many enchiladas did you eat during that scene?
Kevin Costner: It was hard because I had to eat a little bit. A lot of the times you can fake it. But this one I had to eat a lot — I probably had eight or nine of those.
Were you a fan beforehand?
Oh, I love enchiladas. But at a certain point you’re like, What the f*ck? And part of it had to show me eating it, and I found myself in situations where it’s like, when in Rome, you’ve got to do something like that. So it was a clever scene.
It could have been worse.
Yes, it could have been one of those dumb TV shows where you’re eating beetles.
What initially drew you to this project?
They pursued me for this. They just felt that I was the person to do this. And I had read about this story about 15 years earlier in Sports Illustrated and I thought, Whoa. And it interesting because it was a school I had played against in high school. I had played McFarland. So I know the central valley and I know the kids and I fought with them and I played with them and everything else. I knew their families. It wasn’t lost on me what was going on here. And that story, then to circle back around to me 20-something years later and for them to ask me to play this, it’s like, Whoa. It’s kind of a weird circle. I thought it was very inspirational. Number one, it’s true. And it’s this part of the world that people just don’t talk about and don’t recognize. It wrapped itself up in a movie very nicely. Don’t forget – they paid me.
After giving $9 million to “Black or White,” you’ve got to recoup some of that.
Well, I’ve never really grown my wealth as much as I’ve used it to do the things that are important to me, or that I’ve wanted to do. Not wise business, usually. Let’s invest this here, let’s invest that there; it’s never really been my way.
Part of that has been directing your own projects. Are you going to direct again soon?
I think so.
Another Western?
I hope so.
You’ve done these movies based on historical fact before — has your approach been the same over the years, or have you switched it up?
It’s always a little different. With “JFK,” Oliver [Stone] didn’t want a physical resemblance between Jim Garrison and me. He just didn’t want that. He said, “I want you to be the essence of this man.” Kenny O’Donnell in “Thirteen Days,” I mimicked myself after he behaved — his language, his accent, his movements, his haircuts. I did that because I felt that is what should happen in that particular movie. But in “JFK.” it was really playing the essence of somebody. In this instance there was a physical resemblance to Jim and I. But the minute certain facts weren’t factual to his life, that’s when, for me, all pretenses of “oh, I’m playing him exactly” drop away. So what the essence of a coach is and what he was to these young guys in McFarland became more important to me than any twitch. It wasn’t important how he carried his body — it was all out the window. Because for me, you can’t have both.
You said you played these guys. Did you incorporate anything from your coach?
No. But I obviously know what a coach can mean to kids and there’s a thing called tough love that’s very important. Like anything, they resist stuff because they’re teenagers, too. But the script was crafted and we made sure that it was crafted, so that you saw the arcs. Scenes have been cut out of it for running time, which I’m not a fan of. I’m more like, If you thought it was important and you shot it and edited it and thought it was good, why are we cutting it? They say people won’t stay over two hours and I go, “Really?” So I always come from a different camp.
Well, was there something you had shot or something you had discovered while working on the movie that you wish was still in there?
There are some great scenes that I wish were in there. Niki [Caro] had the hard job. Every day, she had to direct this, and every day and she was just great and I’m sure, for her, she hated to lose some scenes. The way American cinema is today, running length is a really big deal. It isn’t to me.
You’ve been involved in a number of movies that have had director’s cuts.
Well, when it comes to my movies, the cut is the director’s cut. I invented the three-hour thing. The studio started to understand that people really like to look deep behind the thing and the scenes going on. And that became a whole cottage industry — “See the director’s cut!” I don’t get that.
“Dances With Wolves” was a solid three hours.
And “Open Range” was 2 hours and 17 minutes. And “Postman” was 2 hours and 24 minutes. They were what they were. I’m happy with what “Postman” is. Is it cut in a conventional way, down to 2 hours? Is that more enjoyable? Maybe it’s more enjoyable to you. But I make a movie that I enjoy and then want to share. That’s how I approach it.
And then you did the miniseries “Hatfields & McCoys.” So you had a whole week.
Well, no I didn’t. Because they wanted to cut it down to a more conventional thing, it was only going to be two nights. And I said, “Tell me what scene in here you don’t like.” And they said, “Well, we like every scene.” And I said, “Me too.” And I said, “I think it needs about three or four more scenes to have a level of meaning. I’ll write them and I’ll show you what I mean.” So I did that and they loved them. So I said, “This is going to be three, maybe four nights.” They said, “We don’t do that.” So I said, “I can’t change your mind, I can only decide what I’ll do, and if it’s not going to be three to four nights, I’m not going to do it.” And through real, honest discussion, it became that. And now everybody is doing these five-night miniseries, which I think audiences are really enjoying… if they’re done well.
Would you do it again?
Yeah, I would do it again. I have a Western that could either be four features, all about the same story, or it could be 12-hours of TV with the last being a feature film.
Is that what you’re trying to decide right now?
Yeah, I’m trying to decide that right now.
“McFarland, USA” is a Disney sports movie, which has almost become its own genre. Do you like those movies?
Yeah, I love Disney. I’ve always loved Disney and what they’ve stood for and what they’ve been for. And this movie had a bit of an edge and I hope as much of it could stay in it as possible.
You’re a filmmaker yourself. Did you make any suggestions?
Niki was really good to me and really open in the scripting process. But at the end of the day, once the movie was shot, I wasn’t consulted with what would stay and what would go.
Were you happy with the final movie?
Yeah, I was happy with it. You kind of have to take a minute and absorb things because you’re thinking about things you did or didn’t do. It’s what happens in life.
Were there any of your movies that you’d like to see expanded into director’s cuts?
Yeah. They weren’t movies that I directed but they followed the script at one point and then certain stuff is taken out, with people saying, “Oh, that’s too hard on the audience.” And I’m saying, “You’re wrong. You’re wrong to take that out.” I don’t think there was anything like that here in this movie. But I often say, “You try to soften it, you try to move it into another demographic, you moved it from an R to a PG-13 because you thought more people would see it.” But the truth was that the people who would really appreciate it would only appreciate it as an R. You lost those adult bones that make it an R. I don’t know if you’ve seen “Black or White,” but there’s a line where he says, “Maybe you’re not a drunk. Maybe you’re just an angry f*cking motherf*cker.” And they were going to give me an R for saying it one time. In “Django” they say it a million times. I had to go to them and say, “Please don’t give me an R.” But I would have not compromised the movie.
Did you end up getting a PG-13?
Yeah. But I had to go before a board and beg for it and they were really cool to me. But what I’m saying is that if they hadn’t, because it was my money, I would have kept it as an R.
Did that happen with “3 Days to Kill?” It seems like it was softened.
Yeah, it was. There were some subplots that were never in the script. Like The Wolf. They said we needed a bad guy. I said, “No you don’t, you just need guys that he’ll go kill because he’s f*cked up his life. And what guys do is throw money at problems.” So this guy would kill anybody. He doesn’t have to kill an important person. All I have to do is kill a bad person. We didn’t need the ultimate criminal. At least that movie didn’t. And the original writer wrote it that way. We didn’t need the big shoot out. But there it was. My guy was not going after the best criminal in the world and I wasn’t the best CIA agent in the world. I was a jobber. Sometimes people think that you have to blow things up more than it already is.
In “McFarland,” they say we win nine times. We don’t say they won 11. And because it’s a true story, we don’t have to say six. They won nine times. These little guys. It’s pretty amazing. They had a goal and they just succeeded wildly. It’s really life affirming. We didn’t have to make stuff up. That’s why I made “3 Days to Kill,” because it could have been a perfect action movie for me, because it had a lot of character and a lot of funny scenes mixed with these scenes of violence. That’s what I can do. That could be really mature. But it slipped in several key categories.
You brought up “Django Unchained.” You were supposed to be in the movie, right?
Yeah, there was a possibility that I could have been in it.
Is Quentin Tarantino somebody you still want to work with?
Oh yeah. I would work with him in a second. I hope that I do. But with that one, at the end of the day, it just wasn’t right. And maybe you just get one chance with Quentin. Look, people’s feelings are important and his process, and he made a Western and didn’t ask me to be in it, so maybe that was a problem.
Are you coming back for anymore Superman movies?
I don’t know. It has to be what it has to be. Didn’t he already save the world? Is it in peril again?
“McFarland, USA” opens everywhere Friday, February 20.%Slideshow-84357%
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