The following questions and answers are excerpted from a conversation that followed the NBR screening of Changing the Game. Michael, I understand you came to the project when a friend shared that they had a child that was transgender. How important was it to make this film in order to become that much more of an […]
The following questions and answers are excerpted from a conversation that followed the NBR screening of Florence Foster Jenkins. The opening scene is really beautiful, and frames the story so well. Can you discuss how that was conceived? Meryl Streep: Well, it’s interesting that you mention that scene, because the script that we both received […]
here did this idea come from, and how did the project get moving?
Max Walker-Silverman: Umm… that’s the most reasonable question in the world, and I’ve never figured out the cleanest answer to it.
How did you guys come up with the idea for this project?
Max Barbakow: It was a hipster death bender movie.
There was such incredible chemistry amongst the cast. How did you build that? What was the rehearsal process?
Viggo Mortensen: Early on, which was great and doesn’t always happen, Matt brought me into read with the last couple of kids we were casting.
This film has a different editorial pace and perspective than you usually portray in your films. Would you be able to talk about your approach with these older men in the film?
Martin Scorsese: This is not a film we could have created or made as effectively if we had tried to make it ten years ago.
There’s a lot of complexity there. Did you really see it as love story? I kept questioning whether he loved her.
Absolutely. And her too. How much did she know? She must have sensed something.
It was fascinating to learn that you had already been in the process of making a film about wildfires when the camp and woolsey fires occurred. Can you tell us about that?
Lucy Walker: That’s right. The reason I was able to really embed, and I knew what I was looking at and could just jump in, and start asking the right questions was because I’d actually been working on the film already for about a year at that point.
Mr. Weitz, did you write this role for Ms. Tomlin knowing she’d play the part?
Paul Weitz: Yes, I— well, no, I didn’t know she’d play the part!
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.
How do you approach these two very different characters who are the same person?
With excitement, because it’s a nice challenge. To play an older man, and then a younger man.
Can you talk about conceiving this story, and you’re writing process?
Noah Baumbach: It was inherent in the title that we are asking, “Does anyone really know what the story of a marriage is, and if that story has an end of sorts, does it mean it wasn’t a marriage?”
How did you two come to work on this project together?
We started working on what we thought would be a triptych, looking at sex, birth, and death on screen from a women’s perspective. We started the one about sex and it was an avalanche of ideas and people and different actors that we wanted to speak with, and that’s really where it began.
The following questions and answers are excerpted from a conversation that followed the NBR screening of I Used to Go Here. What was the inspiration for the film? Kris Rey: I found the inspiration for the movie when I was on tour with my last film [Unexpected] four years ago. I got invited to a bunch […]
How did that expansion work? How do you open up that short story?
Kogonada: I had the best experience a filmmaker can have with an author.