The following questions and answers are excerpted from a conversation that followed the NBR screening of The Miseducation of Cameron Post. How did this project start? Desiree Akhavan: I was sent the book and I loved it. I really loved it. I gave it to my girlfriend at the time, who read it and loved it. And, […]
There have been other stories about the cartels and the drug war. Why did you want to tell this particular story?
Denis Villeneuve: For me it’s not a movie about cartels. I don’t think anyone will learn new things about cartels from this film.
Just as in the last film, this one starts with an incredible burst of sound, accompanied by some text, that really grabs the audience and lets them know they are in for an incredible experience. Can you talk about that decision?
Denis Villeneuve: When making movies, you try to plan as much as possible in the screenwriting. Even so, there are elements that come to life as you’re shooting. And similarly, in post-production, sometimes unplanned things happen, too.
How did the project begin?
David Petersen: So it began at a dog park, where all projects have to start!
Can you talk about the collaboration between the two of you in terms of writing, producing, and performing this?
Rafael Casal: Yeah, Diggs, can you?
Daveed Diggs: I mean we’ve been working on this for ten years at this point with our two producing partners the whole time, Jess and Keith Calder.
What was your script development process, and what was your reaction to it on first read?
Darren Aronofsky: All of my work outside of filmmaking is environmental work. As a parent, I’m very concerned about the future.
Can you talk about the process developing the physical look of the character?
Riz Ahmed: Ruben is someone, like Lou, who is trying to construct his identity, as many of us do.
Can you discuss the archival material you have in this film? It’s incredibly comprehensive.
Daniel Geller: One of the things, I think, that came later in the process…Leonard began to understand what Dayna and I were trying to do with the movie.
Simon, this is an incredible true story. How did you come to write the script?
Simon Farnaby: I was brought up around golf—my father was a greenskeeper at a little club in northeast England. Golf’s a game I love, but I came at it like Maurice [Flitcroft], from a lower-class angle.
How did you end up bringing it to the screen?
Daniel Pearle: Jim Parsons read the play and he had just started his company, That’s Wonderful.
You’ve been with this project for 18 years. What’s the process been like?
Phyllis Nagy: Until the current team came aboard, there was me and a computer that sat on idle for five years
Can you talk about finding this role and the decision to take it?
I had read the book maybe a year before the script was sent to me and I just loved it. A book hadn’t suspended my disbelief in that way, and I’m always reading. I love to read.
This film was created with something of a new genre in mind: the “IMAX music experience.” Can you talk about that decision?
Brett Morgen: I have been doing biographical documentaries for the past twenty years. And when I finished Montage of Heck, I just… kind of feel like, for music documentaries… I love these speakers [gesturing around the theater]. I don’t think facts need to be delivered through these speakers!
What was the process of making this film?
Meryl Streep: It came together very quickly because Steven Spielberg was making another film with everything ready to go in Italy, except the lead wasn’t cast yet.
Why do audiences love Kirk and Spock so much? What gives their relationship such dynamism?
Pine: I think the Enterprise represents, psychologically speaking, parts of one person. I always think of the triumvirate of McCoy, Kirk and Spock as representing parts of a single human being.