00:00 Emerald, Vanell, Saltburn.
00:03 Where do we start with this one?
00:04 I interviewed you on the carpet of London Film Festival
00:08 before I'd seen it, and then I watched it,
00:10 I think like the day after, and I was like,
00:12 "God, I wish I'd seen this beforehand."
00:14 It is the first film I've seen in a good long while
00:17 that made me audibly gasp in my seat.
00:20 I'd like to watch it again,
00:21 just to watch other people's reactions to it
00:24 and see if they're as shocked as I was at moments.
00:27 Was there any time in writing this
00:29 where you were like,
00:31 "God, I hope they let me get away with this.
00:34 "I hope I can get away with this soon."
00:36 I mean, honestly, I think almost all of filmmaking
00:40 is the exercise of, "I hope they let me get away with this."
00:44 But absolutely, I mean, what's been so thrilling
00:47 about watching it is that it's just different
00:50 in every room, in every place,
00:51 'cause we've been in America going all around all the states
00:55 and then here in England,
00:56 there is not one room
00:59 that doesn't have a completely different dynamic.
01:01 And it's exactly that.
01:02 Some people are gasping,
01:03 some people are laughing with kind of horror
01:05 or embarrassment,
01:06 some people are like shushing
01:08 because they want to hear every single moment.
01:10 And it's kind of just so, that's the thing.
01:12 That's why you make movies, for the theatre,
01:16 for the cinematic experience,
01:17 for everyone in that room to just like, yeah, feel it.
01:22 - Are those the most satisfying kind of things to write,
01:25 but the most nerve-wracking things to kind of like,
01:27 put into action when making a film?
01:30 Like getting signed off
01:31 and talking the actors through what you want.
01:33 Those kind of scenes that challenge an audience
01:36 to keep watching,
01:37 but really like push them in that way
01:41 when they want to like gasp and cover their eyes at times.
01:46 - Well, I think it's sort of about
01:47 finding your collaborators.
01:49 Like that's what's so great about,
01:50 the way that I work is nobody knows what I'm working on
01:53 and then until the script is ready
01:55 and very much sort of finished, I would say.
02:00 It means that when you're talking to,
02:03 Linus, the cinematographer,
02:04 or the actors or the production designer,
02:07 they have a pretty good idea of the sort of film
02:09 that we're going to make.
02:11 And so it just means that you're all kind of,
02:13 all of you working in one direction
02:15 and that direction is to do, as you say, kind of push.
02:18 Is to keep kind of pushing and finding where those like,
02:22 you know, I kind of, you want to like slip your hand
02:24 in the underbelly and kind of see where the tenderness is.
02:29 That's what's so interesting, isn't it?
02:30 - I definitely felt the hand in my underbelly.
02:32 (laughing)
02:33 I don't know what to do with myself.
02:35 I felt like a prudish old lady.
02:37 (laughing)
02:38 It was great, I loved it.
02:40 Speaking about collaborators,
02:41 there's obviously a lot of heat over like Barry,
02:43 over Jacob, I think Rosamund Pike was like the,
02:46 a scene stealer like throughout this movie.
02:49 As actors, I guess a lot of it is on the page
02:52 already, but how much of a buzz is it behind the camera
02:55 to see how those characters come to life
02:58 through their interpretation of what was on the page
03:01 and how different was it on camera and on screen
03:04 to what it was in your mind when you put it to page?
03:07 - I think it's sort of a combination of both.
03:09 It's that when you get actors as good as the actors are
03:13 in this film, is that you kind of have that uncanny feeling
03:16 of this is exactly what I wanted.
03:19 And then also more than that, better.
03:22 More kind of excruciating, more hilarious.
03:26 They're so, so brilliant, all of them.
03:29 And also all of them like really exceptional comic actors
03:32 'cause this really is like in its heart
03:34 a very, very, very dark comedy.
03:36 So it was important that everyone felt real,
03:38 but there was also this kind of sick humor
03:42 that everyone really, really understood.
03:43 And I think Jacob gives such an exceptional
03:46 like comic performance.
03:48 And then Richard, who's just so good,
03:52 every line is just devastating.
03:54 And then you find people like, not find,
03:58 but you're introduced to people like Archie and Alison
04:02 who play Venetia and Farley,
04:04 who you've never worked with before,
04:05 who were just like transcendently good.
04:08 It's, yeah, it's one of the most exciting
04:10 and the most important parts of making a film
04:12 is that casting process.
04:13 - I think when the, I don't wanna give too much away,
04:15 but when like Richard's character sort of turns
04:18 towards the end and becomes a lot more sort of formidable,
04:21 I think that's quite exciting to watch.
04:23 Let's talk about when it was set.
04:27 I love the soundtrack to this
04:28 'cause I started uni in '07.
04:29 This is set in '06, so it was all like great music,
04:32 crack plumbers. - Period dramas.
04:33 - And I love that, but I wondered what inspired you.
04:36 Was it your own like sense of nostalgia
04:38 or something else that made you wanna root
04:40 this story in that time?
04:41 - Totally, well, it's, yeah, so it's set kind of
04:43 for the most part in the sort of summer of 2007
04:46 and absolutely that was when I was at university.
04:49 But more than anything, because the way that this film is,
04:52 this film is a kind of take on the Gothic tradition,
04:54 this sort of British country house Gothic,
04:57 you know, that you have at Brideshead
04:59 or The Go-Between, for example,
05:00 and it's always a narrator telling you about
05:03 something that happened in their past
05:04 that they never got over.
05:06 And so it kind of, it always had to have
05:08 that framing narrative, which meant it needed to be set
05:11 to some degree in the past.
05:12 And 15 years ago feels perfect
05:14 'cause it's wherever you are in time 15 years ago
05:17 is not cool.
05:18 It's like, it's just, it's always bad clothes, bad hair.
05:23 It's not become trendy yet.
05:25 So that was really part of it,
05:27 was kind of humanizing this family
05:29 and also making the world feel,
05:31 if you're dealing with a very timeless, beautiful world,
05:34 making it actually feel sort of timely.
05:37 It would have been, if we'd set it now,
05:39 it would have been too cool.
05:40 You know, it just would have been beautiful people
05:42 in beautiful clothes.
05:43 There's something really funny about all of them
05:44 having Carpe Diem tattoos,
05:46 Livestrong bracelets, bad tans,
05:48 you know, bad jeans.
05:51 That's kind of part of the whole world, really.
05:53 - Well, I'm not sure everyone would have cool clothes now,
05:55 considering I'm wearing a novelty T-shirt in 2019.
05:58 - And good for you.
05:58 - Thank you.
05:59 I've got to live my truth.
06:00 - Absolutely.
06:01 - And I'm not sure whether it was the purpose of the film,
06:03 but it just made me very nostalgic.
06:05 In a way, I was like, send me back.
06:07 - Really?
06:08 - In a way.
06:08 Obviously, the whole hedonistic kind of like,
06:11 the whole world I had no idea of, of course,
06:14 but to listen to Block Party again every day would be sick.
06:17 - No, to listen to Block Party would be amazing.
06:18 What was quite devastating was the costume department
06:21 would be like, oh my God, Emerald,
06:22 we found the most disgusting T-shirt,
06:24 you're going to love it.
06:25 And it was literally something I still wear.
06:26 It's still in my wardrobe.
06:28 And I was like, ha ha ha, how awful.
06:30 - At least the sweat bands have mostly disappeared.
06:33 - Mostly.
06:34 - Congratulations on the movie.
06:35 - Thank you.
06:36 - Bang it, if you ask me.
06:37 Really enjoyed it.
06:37 I'm sure lots of people will as well.
06:39 - Thank you.
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