00:00 Aggie Review in Australia.
00:01 Hello, Jamie. - What's up?
00:02 Hey, man.
00:03 - How are you?
00:04 - Doing great.
00:05 - I'm first of all, gonna give you a shout out
00:07 for "Bones and All" 'cause that was unnerving.
00:11 (laughing)
00:13 - I love that.
00:13 That was a very, that was a trippy experience.
00:15 It's not often that I could be convinced
00:17 to stand in front of a camera,
00:18 but if it's Luca, I'll do anything.
00:21 - Yeah, no, I understand that.
00:23 And like after the Halloween trilogy,
00:26 we'll, I mean, we'll call them horror fans,
00:29 but they were quite vocal about certain things.
00:33 And then going into "The Exorcist,"
00:36 like was there a certain pressure taken off
00:39 because you sort of weathered the storm with Halloween?
00:43 - I mean, I put a lot of pressure on myself
00:47 and I surround myself with kind of a circle of trust
00:50 of creative collaborators I've been working with
00:51 for 20 years.
00:52 So, you know, I'm always gonna make things
00:54 that are divisive, I know that.
00:56 I guess my own criteria is make it as personal as possible,
01:00 make what I really wanna make.
01:02 Don't let it be engineered by the system or institution
01:05 or just a fan base.
01:07 It's good to acknowledge that that exists.
01:09 And for me, it's a great opportunity to make a movie
01:11 that people will open their eyes or turn their heads
01:13 and maybe buy a ticket to.
01:15 So I get excited about that,
01:16 but I'm always gonna be there to push buttons
01:20 and challenge myself and challenge an audience.
01:23 - Yeah, no, 'cause I spoke to Andy Matichak
01:26 for "Halloween Ends" and she was just like,
01:29 basically the line was like,
01:30 just don't be precious about it.
01:31 I'm like, that's what we need to take away.
01:33 Horror fans, don't be precious about stuff,
01:35 just go into it and enjoy it for what it is.
01:38 - I remember just being a kid
01:39 and playing with my "Star Wars" action figures
01:41 and creating stories and doing things.
01:43 And I feel like I'm just a grownup version
01:46 of that same playful kid that I get to play
01:48 in these sandboxes, whether it's Michael Myers
01:50 or Chris McNeil, and to be able to have
01:53 these iconic franchises and get in that playground
01:57 is an incredible opportunity
01:59 and I'm trying to maximise what I wanna do in there.
02:02 - Yeah, and on the topic of Chris McNeil,
02:04 I mean, when yourself and Scott and Danny and Peter
02:07 are sort of creating this story,
02:10 was the narrative always there for Ellen Burstyn to return
02:14 or did you have other things in place
02:17 in case you couldn't get her to say yes?
02:20 - Yeah, we're not idiots.
02:21 We were protecting ourselves,
02:23 much like on Halloween with Laurie.
02:26 You kinda hope there's these ingredients,
02:29 you hope that you can include them
02:31 in what you're trying to do,
02:32 particularly when it's a legacy that means a lot to me,
02:34 it means a lot to so many people,
02:37 if you could convince them to do that.
02:38 And getting to know Ellen was amazing
02:41 and I can't say it wasn't challenging to get her there.
02:43 You're very sceptical of what we're trying to do.
02:45 A lot of people had come to her in the past
02:47 and so her immediate answer was no.
02:50 But we worked together, we sculpted a character together
02:52 that I think was meaningful to her
02:54 and in a lot of ways mirrored
02:56 some of her real life experience in the 50 years
02:59 after the success of the "Exorcist" film.
03:02 And then we became great collaborators
03:04 and formed a great partnership and are really good friends.
03:07 So that's a thrill for me as a young movie junkie
03:10 to be hanging out with Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.
03:13 - And on the subject of Ellen,
03:16 like obviously casting the young children in this
03:20 is so crucial to the film's success.
03:22 And Lydia and Olivia, insane performances.
03:26 Like how was that casting process
03:28 when you sort of realised,
03:29 I'm gonna be making these kids say and do certain things?
03:34 - Yeah, well, you know, we had a script
03:36 that was a blueprint of where we would go.
03:38 And I looked to them for the early stage of the film,
03:40 I looked to them for the authenticity
03:41 of what these young vivacious young ladies would be saying
03:46 and how they would be interacting.
03:48 And so most of that's not even scripted.
03:49 They just would say things and do things
03:51 and we'd do a series and leave the camera rolling
03:53 and see what happened and then edit it together.
03:56 And then the emotional attributes of the possession
04:00 as that started to, and under the heavy duress
04:03 of such, of the makeup and the demonic look
04:08 that Christopher Nelson and his makeup team created for them,
04:11 it was amazing to see them turn it on and turn it off.
04:13 The makeup really, it just turned into
04:16 an interpretive dance kind of thing.
04:18 And when we'd be dark, they'd be dark.
04:20 And when we'd say cut, they would just joke around
04:23 and play Taylor Swift songs
04:24 and it became really light on the set.
04:26 So they were really the grounding for the entire crew.
04:30 - Yeah, well, I'm just excited to see how people respond
04:33 to this one because like, I think when you take on horror,
04:36 it's always an experience.
04:37 And as I said, I spoke to you for Halloween kills
04:41 and like, I love, I mentioned like your Highness.
04:43 So whenever you wanna go back
04:44 to doing ridiculous comedy, I'm all for it.
04:47 - I'm ready, I'm ready, I love it.
04:48 I love it, just making it all a beautiful world
04:51 and I'm always trying to explore
04:52 and push myself in new directions.
04:54 So we'll see.
04:55 - Yeah, awesome.
04:56 Now, thank you so much, David.
04:57 - Good talking to you.
04:58 - Cheers.
04:59 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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