00:00 I dare you to play footsie with me throughout this whole interview.
00:03 I can do that.
00:04 Do you want to soul smash?
00:06 And not even smile.
00:07 Okay.
00:08 I'm not going to smile, but I will make this face.
00:16 All pie is good pie.
00:17 There's a level of detail in the movie that is so specifically actually Garret Johnson.
00:21 Whenever somebody would come up and he would say, "I'm going to be the guy you asked me,
00:25 how do you like your pie?"
00:27 And I'll say, "All pie is good pie."
00:28 That's really Garret Johnson.
00:29 I think what the fun part about studying to try to play Garret was really looking at everybody
00:35 in my life differently.
00:36 Being like, "Oh, could they be a hit man?
00:39 Could they be..."
00:40 You know what I mean?
00:41 And you do look at friends of yours.
00:43 You're like, "Okay, that guy's a hit man."
00:45 I find that to be my favorite part of pre-production is you study people in a different way.
00:49 You kind of take in the world in a different way.
00:50 It's fun.
00:51 It's all human behavior.
00:52 And this is why Richard Linklater is the perfect person to direct this movie.
00:56 He is a psychologist, he's a philosopher, he's really thinking about these things all
01:01 the time.
01:02 And he's such an honest filmmaker that I feel like once you kind of go into genre, I feel
01:07 like you start playing into tropes.
01:08 He's like, "Let's not live in a movie land.
01:10 What would actually happen?"
01:11 And that was always something I really learned from Rick is I'm a big fan of movies.
01:14 He's a big fan of movies.
01:15 We watch a lot of movies together.
01:19 But he never wants things to be...
01:20 Oh, you're good.
01:21 Sorry.
01:22 Oh, you're good.
01:23 Sorry, that's just glue on my nipple.
01:26 Another day in the neighborhood.
01:30 Every actor pretends like they can do everything, but deep down inside you're aware that you
01:36 can't.
01:37 You try to do as much as you possibly can, but your job is to push yourself.
01:41 But then there are also limits to what is believable or viable or what an audience will
01:46 accept.
01:47 And you have to kind of have enough self-awareness to know where that line is.
01:51 I find that fewer takes actually is more merciful in the longer run to get a better
01:57 product.
01:58 Sometimes knowing that you only have three shots, that three bites at the apple makes
02:02 you sharper.
02:04 It also conserves energy over the course of the day and conserves the crew's energy.
02:08 Everybody else is on point.
02:09 People aren't tired of making mistakes in other places.
02:12 So it's really about crew morale, too.
02:15 Oh, I'm really excited for people to see all the different characters that this man plays
02:21 and his amazing ability as an actor.
02:25 Not that they haven't seen it already.
02:26 No, no, no.
02:27 Now I'm in my own head about it all.
02:28 No, I think just in this movie.
02:29 I have a lot to think about tonight.
02:33 So I've never written a crime story before.
02:35 You know, anything that had thrilling elements or that sort of stuff.
02:38 So that was kind of a first for me.
02:39 So Rick and I, and Rick's not really that guy either.
02:42 He's not really a plot-driven kind of filmmaker.
02:44 He's more character-driven.
02:45 So we really had to put ourselves in the audience's shoes.
02:48 Because the type of audience that loves those movies, they're very smart.
02:53 They consume them like crazy.
02:55 So you want to create a simple enough story that it's more about the character, but also
02:59 a compelling enough story where people are actually leaning in.
03:03 He's a fantasy to her, and she's a fantasy to him.
03:07 There's a lot of points in the story where she's ahead of Gary.
03:10 And then there's points in the story where you always have somebody who's unaware that
03:15 she's unaware that he's Gary Johnson.
03:17 And then there are points in the movie where he's very unaware of her motives and what
03:21 she's asking and why she's asking and those sort of things.
03:24 I think this movie is the kitchen sink of every fun thing you go to the movies for.
03:28 It's sexy.
03:29 Thrilling.
03:30 Really sexy.
03:32 Mysterious.
03:33 And sexiest.
03:35 And funnel.
03:37 And also funny sexy.
03:39 Oh my god.
03:40 I'm so sorry.
03:45 (whooshing)
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