Ira Sachs, Rebecca Hall and Ben Whishaw on 'Peter Hujar's Day' | THR Studio at Park City

1 year ago

'Peter Hujar's Day' director Ira Sachs and stars Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall stop by THR's studio in Park City to talk all about their new film.

Transcript

00:00I think my father was working with Maurice Sendak in some capacity and many, many, many years later

00:08I stumbled across a copy, my copy clearly, of Higgledy Piggledy Pop from when I was a child

00:14and I opened it up thinking I should read this to my daughter and there was a drawing of a sheep

00:18dog inside it and it said, Rebecca, I hope you enjoy this, Maurice Sendak. And then I felt very

00:27starstruck in that moment knowing that I would have met Maurice Sendak at two years old and he

00:31had drew like little wild things. Oh my god. Is it on your wall? Yeah, no, it's not. I mean the book is in a case.

00:44In 1974 there was a conversation between a woman named Linda Rosencrantz and her friend,

00:50the photographer Peter Hujar. She had an idea to write a book about artist's daily life and

00:55she invited a number of artists over to speak to her about what they did yesterday and she

01:01recorded those conversations and then she proceeded to lose the audiotapes of all the

01:07conversations but this particular one she had transcribed and typed and then it

01:13disappeared. 50 years later it was found in the Peter Hujar archive at the Morgan Library

01:19by a young archivist and historian and it was published as a book called Peter Hujar's Day

01:25and I read the book while I was working with Ben in Paris on passages and thought in a really like

01:34on the last page I was like we should make this as a movie. It was as one, like that Ben and I

01:39should make a movie of this material and we share I would say a love and interest in Peter's work

01:47and also in queer life and queer creation in New York in the 70s and 80s which for me has been very

01:53inspiring as I try to continue like to see what those artists did and what they did

02:00during that time and how they did it with a certain kind of freedom and risk-taking

02:06has been very inspiring to me. Peter had no money that we definitely know he was when he died he

02:13was really penniless everyone was kind of horrified that he had really nothing at all

02:18so that's obviously not good but I think there's a freedom that comes with

02:24the situation that they were working in and a kind of radical radicality that was possible

02:31and it's mixed I would say yeah. It's one thing I'm thinking as you talk is the nice

02:40thing about being together is you actually learn from like as you're describing Peter I think I

02:45need to keep this in mind for myself that not having money for creative things is positive

02:51that it gives you actually attention and yeah that's a beautiful way to describe it. I sort

02:56of always thought that it would be a good idea to actually you know write to a filmmaker when

03:03you enjoy a film and say I really love that film but I often sort of chicken out of it because I'm

03:08like oh I know that seems I don't know too much why would they want it I don't know but in this

03:12instance I did it and I was like more than write to Iris X I'm gonna I'm gonna set up a breakfast

03:18in New York City and did and was able to just express what a fan I was of him like he said he

03:28did offer me a job and I was actually very disappointed I couldn't take that job because

03:31of scheduling reasons at the time and I just wanted to sort of know him and be in his orbit

03:37and have an opportunity to work with him so when this came up when he suggested this it was really

03:42exciting to me for all the reasons that you said you know I live in New York I have done actually

03:47for many many years now and I also have a fascination with that era I think a lot of

03:53people do but there's something there is it's easy yes to romanticize it but I think there

03:59is a good way to romanticize it in the sense that there was a sort of there was a community

04:06and there was a sense of striving to create and stick it to the man I guess that I think is is

04:14very different to the place that artists find themselves in now where you know that there isn't

04:20really any counterculture in a way there is only culture which is good and bad but the sort of

04:26sense that there's no that these that these were people who were just creating art for art's sake

04:33and not thinking about the commerce angle or the yes they needed money desperately that they that

04:38wasn't their sort of they weren't thinking about how to do something that could be have integrity

04:43to them and make money or be a brand or whatever and I think for me what was interesting about the

04:50text and what I imagined and what has sort of developed with these two is is also a story of

04:57a friendship and I think that is really the unexpected part of the film and the part that

05:02makes it actually seem in the present like you try to make a film that is maybe a period film

05:07but you want that period nature to disappear and I think that's what happens because of

05:12kind of the emotional life between these two people Bette and Rebecca and also through these

05:18two characters Peter and Linda.

Ira Sachs, Rebecca Hall and Ben Whishaw on 'Peter Hujar's Day' | THR Studio at Park City

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