What was your experience like coming to this project?
Jason Segel: I had made a decision that I wanted to do something entirely different than what I had been doing.


What was your experience like coming to this project?
Jason Segel: I had made a decision that I wanted to do something entirely different than what I had been doing.

In a narrative film, a character might have some piece of wardrobe or a prop that helps them inform the character. How did you work together to develop the voice of Snake?
Marc Maron: When we first got there, they showed me the sketches for the character but I think they were still trying to figure out how to get him to move.

Steven, how did you conceive of Jacob initially?
Steven Yeun: When I read Isaac’s script, it was really honest from all perspectives and that was really the foundation of it all.

Sometimes as a documentarian, you don’t have total control. But it this film you were able to script things and envision scenarios.
Kirsten Johnson: Honestly I was trying to engage in not being in control.

Josephine, can you speak a bit about that rehearsal process?
When I was going into it, I thought we needed three weeks of rehearsal. Of course, we had like a day and a half!

Let’s start from the beginning. Where did this come from?
Boots Riley: I knew I wanted to write something that happened in the world of telemarketing.

I want to start out by talking about how you got the idea to do this. How do you collaborate to come up with this incredible work that we just saw?
Meredith Bragg: We’re not entirely sure where we first learned that pinball was illegal in many cities…

Was the El Capitan free solo climb always the thing, or were you interested in Alex more generally?
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi: We were interested in Alex and interested in his process and interested in who he is as a human.

When you were first pitched this story, what really clicked for you? Was there a moment or scene that really convinced you that you wanted to make this?
Peter Cattaneo: Well, it’s based on a memoir, and I think what felt really exciting was that you would never dream up this set of facts.

Kate, as a first-time director, you went out looking for a story. How did you discover these women and this story?
We took a wrong turn, found a woman and she said, if you want an amazing story, head east of Wall and you’ll find Tabatha. That’s what I did. And I met these two incredible women along with the rest of the teenagers on the ranch.

Can you talk about the decision to set the film in 2013, and why that specific year was the right choice for this story?
Austin Peters: If you think about where we, as a country, were at in 2013… It was such a different time.

We’d been trying to cast Sam for months. And we were having a really hard time. My younger sister was, at the time, an eighteen-year-old senior in high school. Almost as a joke, I asked her, do you know any actors? Like, help me out here! And that was how I found Lily. I still can’t believe that’s our story.

A lot of people have talked about the content of this film being edgy and subversive, but it’s actually a pretty sweet story about self-acceptance. Can you talk diving into that idea?
Halina Reijn: For me, that’s core of the film. There was a question that I wanted to ask myself. Is it possible to love all the different parts of yourself?

Albrecht, you said rehearsal was the most challenging of your career. Why?
Albrecht Schuch: It was, without question, the hardest preparation I’ve ever faced. At first, I couldn’t find the center of the character. He felt like someone without emotions, almost as if he were absent from his own life.