00:00I was just remember thinking, oh, my God.
00:01So I had like sheets here and there and everywhere.
00:04We just sort of talked a lot of nonsense.
00:06Guys, good afternoon or good morning or good evening.
00:09I'm not sure where you are.
00:10What time is there?
00:11But hello.
00:13Congrats, congrats on this film.
00:14This job feels so much easier when it's really good.
00:18Like as a journalist, when you really love the movie.
00:20It must be a hell of a lot easier for you guys when
00:23when you know it's come together as well as it has as well.
00:25Yeah. No, you know, it's it's already exciting.
00:28You know, when Steven Soderbergh comes to you and wants you to be part
00:32of something he's doing and then, you know,
00:36David's job on the script was, you know, exceptional.
00:40And then this cast just started to form.
00:42So it was it was exciting from from the get go.
00:45And it all happened really fast
00:47in terms of talking to Steven and then actually being on set and shooting.
00:51Yeah.
00:52And so, yeah, I really
00:54feel privileged to be part of it and work with him again.
00:59It kind of feels it feels to me like I had a similar reaction to Conclave
01:03when I saw it, when you've got like this really, really well casted film
01:07with a brilliant script and everything shot perfectly and nothing's labored.
01:10And it all just kind of fits together like so sweetly.
01:14And I guess you guys don't really know that until you see kind of the edicts.
01:17I'm sure you've filmed stuff before,
01:18which you thought would be much better or worse than it turned out to be.
01:20But like the people I spoke to afterwards, well, I could have watched that
01:25for another 10 minutes.
01:25I could have watched that for another 20 minutes,
01:27which is kind of a sign of something that's it's great.
01:29Yeah, I think you could see around the table, especially when we were all together
01:33as an ensemble at the dinner table scenes, the different personalities
01:38at the table, the different energies that were, you know, at work there.
01:41And you're like, oh, this is cool.
01:43Each person was very sort of individual.
01:47And and that was exciting to see,
01:49because a lot of the rest of the time we were all, you know, paired off
01:53or, you know, whatever it was.
01:54But to be collectively at the table for those tension scenes as well.
01:58It was cool.
01:58Those scenes were absolutely immaculate.
02:02Like Steven Soderbergh's known for kind of his non intrusive direction,
02:05directing style traditionally was was that the case on those those scenes?
02:09Did he kind of just like wind you guys up, then like leave you to it
02:11to kind of play for a while?
02:14Like, how did that how did that energy kind of come about?
02:17They were the only scenes that we rehearsed, actually, the two dinner scenes,
02:21because they were the scenes that were keeping him up at night
02:24in terms of how he was going to film it, you know, how he was going to,
02:29you know, differentiate between the one, the first dinner scene
02:34and then the second one where he was going to put the camera,
02:37how he was visually going to tell the stories. So.
02:41For us, it wasn't really any different, but for him, you know, that was
02:45that was important for him to get in there
02:47and for us to rehearse on site to see, you know, where he was going to put the camera.
02:52We just sort of talked a lot of nonsense.
02:54Yeah. Speaking about talking a lot of nonsense.
02:57I mean, you guys together probably shared my favorite secret scene outside of that.
03:01And it's taken everything within me not to ask whether you're tightening
03:04your anal sphincters right now.
03:07Like there must be times you've read a lot of scripts in your life,
03:09but there must be times when you do kind of lose it.
03:11When you read out that scene for the first time, you go, that's just
03:15I cannot wait to sit down and try and put this on camera.
03:19And did it take like a while?
03:20You know, was it difficult to actually get through that with with straight faces
03:24and in character?
03:25It was just difficult for me to get through it,
03:27because the way it was written in the script, I had learned it a certain way.
03:32And then Stephen was like, no, I'm going to shoot them like all through.
03:36And so the chronological order of what I was saying was changed.
03:41So I was just remember thinking, oh, my God.
03:43So I had like sheets here and there and everywhere
03:46just to sort of keep on track where I was supposed to be.
03:49In the end, I didn't have to worry because the camera wasn't really on me.
03:52It's more like that's the other thing that's great about the way Stephen shoots.
03:56It's like when he decides to go to the person.
04:00Who you're looking at for a reaction or somebody who's listening,
04:03as opposed to the person that's talking, you know, it's so good
04:06the way he does that in this movie.
04:08But yeah, reading that scene, I was like, that was funny.
04:10And then the other scene that we have, which was one of my favorites,
04:13where I go around to Clarissa's house and surprise her.
04:19You know, there was there's, you know, really funny moments in that as well.
04:23Very quickly before they before they took me out.
04:25I mean, we we've had an interesting place in independent cinema at the moment.
04:29I know Soderbergh was kind of known as a bastion of that.
04:31I know this is a studio movie, but the success of kneecap
04:34and then the success of kind of Sean Bakerton or the Oscars.
04:37What's your take on this?
04:38Are we are we in a good place for kind of independent cinema?
04:42And these kind of smaller stories being told at the moment, Michael?
04:46Yeah, look, I think, you know, the budgets that you have just sort of,
04:50you know, is either you get a sort of twelve million
04:53is kind of the cap for an independent film, really.
04:56You know, the the odd person like Steven Soderbergh can get that middle range,
05:01which, you know, is the films that I sort of always sort of loved,
05:04which is like 30, 40, 50 million.
05:06But not many people can get that.
05:08That's kind of the barren area of film at the moment.
05:11It's, you know, the independents get capped off around 12 million, like I say.
05:15And then you've got the big tentpole ones, which are like 200 million.
05:20But that that that area in the middle, I think, is it still suffers?
05:25Well, I'm hoping that this grabs imaginations the way it grabbed mine,
05:27because I'm completely in agreement.
05:29Those that kind of ballpark movie for me is what we need a lot more of at the moment.
05:33And it's when it's done like it's done in this movie is it is like joyful.
05:37It's so it's so fun to watch.
05:39Anyway, guys, can't take up too much of your time.
05:40Congratulations.
05:42I'll see you on the next one and all the very best on this one.
05:46Thanks, Charlie. Thanks, guys.
Comments