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.
This is something of a personal story, correct?
Ari Aster: The beautiful thing about genre filmmaking and the horror genre in general is that you can take a personal story or feeling that you need to work through and push it through this filter
Do you think Nicolas Cage’s casting creates an expectation with the film? And if so, did you intentionally subvert those expectations in any way?
I think it does create an expectation. Certainly, people have certain types of films that they associate with Nic Cage. But we never set out to subvert anything
How did you guys come up with the idea for this project?
Max Barbakow: It was a hipster death bender movie.
At what point in the filmmaking process did you realize you were going to structure the movie as you did, shifting perspective from Eden to Victoria?
Gerard Bush: Well, first, since the movie was based on a nightmare that I had, and since that really is what the nightmare showed me, it felt important to both of us that we respect that source material!
What goes into fully developing characters like Margaret and David?
Andrew Semans: I don’t have any brilliant insights into that, I don’t think. I think it’s just a matter of building up characters bit by bit, little by little, stealing from anybody you know, or any experiences you’ve had that seem to be relevant, and of course stealing from other films and other stories!
What keeps you interested in these characters? Because ultimately it’s the same premise every time: just trying to book a show at the Rivoli, right?
Jay McCarrol: Well, Matt and I have been channeling these pseudo-real versions of ourselves since we met each other, and it’s sort of been giving us the same thing our whole lives.
It’s such a beautiful film with no false notes. I wasn’t surprised to hear it was influenced by personal experience. What was it like to write this and then find someone to portray the protagonist?
Carla Simón: For me, the writing part was quite organic because I had done two previous films that already were inspired by my own story and my family. This was a bit like another chapter. It was interesting because the film was born out of my frustration of not being able to remember my parents because they died when I was a kid.
