This movie is based on a beloved book by John Green. Has he seen the film and how does he feel about it?
Godfrey: He saw it very early on and was involved in the production, and loved it, thank god. But I think he knew all along from the screenplay to the casting that we were putting together a team that loved the book as deeply as its fans and that we were going to pay honor to it in whatever way we could.
You all shot for a few nights on the actual BART platform where this tragedy took place. Can you talk about that experience?
Diaz: It was one of the most intense things. You can still feel the ghosts there, the presence of the pain and violence and fear and everything that went down that night. That day was special. We started off with a prayer. It was powerful.
Talk about the inspiration for this piece.
Anderson: There’s this writer Stefan Zweig, who I had never heard of up until six or seven years ago. I read “Beware of Pity” – which I loved – and I thought about trying to adapt this book. But then I read more of his fiction and I kind of liked many of the pieces, and then his memoir, “The World of Yesterday,” ended up inspiring the whole setting of the movie. So I ultimately decided to do something Zweig-like, instead of adapting only one of them.
Can you talk about the origins of this project?
Tony Kushner: Steven told me the story that’s the core of the movie on the first day of filming Munich, in 2005, in Malta.
It is obvious from the first frame that a tremendous amount of work went into this film, even by the high standards of feature animation. Can you discuss the seven year process?
Tomm Moore: The story development went hand in hand with the art development.
Were you the one who conceived of this tour in the first place?
Tim Seelig: We were coming out of the 40th anniversary of the gay men’s chorus. San Fransisco Gay Men’s Chorus birthed the movement.
What made the story right for a modern day interpretation?
Nicholls: I think if you pitch the story – an independent woman has to choose between three different contrasting men while maintaining her independence – I think that would feel very modern and contemporary.
How did you come across the book and what compelled you to champion this project?
Coogan: I was in New York making a film. And because my career’s been in comedy—I’ve written a lot of television comedy— I wanted to find something more substantial, that had more substance.
How did your filmmaking process begin?
Stephen Basilone: When I started my career, I had a writing partner for a very long time and we started off writing features.
The following questions and answers are excerpted from a conversation that followed the NBR screening of Hold Your Fire. The film took place in my old neighborhood—I lived a block and a half from where those events took place, right on the J line. It’s a major intersection, a very busy hub. To me, this is […]
Can you talk about the germination of this idea, for you?
Jeymes Samuel: The film has been in my head since I was a kid.
How did you find this story?
David Lowery: It was a true story about this guy whose life was too good to be true in terms of a narrative.
What were your first thoughts, after reading the script?
Simon Rex: I was just like… whoa. Whoa. WHOA!
When did you first start noticing a disconnect between Yogi Berra’s reputation and the player the stats showed him to be?
Sean Mullin: I think that’s what this was all about. When I started doing the research, I was like, wait, this guy was criminally overlooked.
Can you talk about making the transition from athletics to a visual and creative artist?
Savanah Leaf: In a way, I think a film is this combination of working in a team environment.