The Chat Room: Hurry Up Tomorrow

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The Chat Room: Trey Edward Shults, Jenna Ortega, & Abel Tesfaye - Director and Writer, "Anima" & "The Weeknd", Writer, and Producer Hurry Up Tomorrow (Lionsgate) Starring: Abel Tesfaye, Jenna Ortega, and Barry Keoghan A musician plagued by insomnia is pulled into an odyssey with a stranger who begins to unravel the very core of his existence. Directed By Trey Edward Shults Produced By Abel Tesfaye, p.g.a., Reza Fahim, p.g.a., Kevin Turen, p.g.a., Harrison Kreiss, p.g.a.

Transcript

00:00Well, actually the music was inspired by the film, so the film was the genesis, and the

00:21idea, you know, the story was inspired by an incident that had happened to me a couple

00:27of years ago, loosely inspired, and I went through something a little traumatic, performing

00:34and losing my voice in front of 80,000 people, and then quickly found out that it wasn't

00:39a physical injury, but a psychological injury, and yeah, that ended up kind of being the foundation

00:46of the tone of the film, really psychological.

00:53What drew me to the story was meeting Abel and hearing what happened to him and his

00:57ideas for this movie, and liking the guy, just like really hitting it off and feeling

01:01connected to him, and then yeah, I just got crazy inspired.

01:05I think too, playing with subjectivity and headspace, and what's real and what's not,

01:12and dream logic, that was all very exciting, because I already make subjective films, and

01:16everything, every choice I make in a movie is to put the audience in the main character's

01:21headspace and make them feel how they feel.

01:23So, I think you can naturally push things far if that's being honest to their headspace

01:27and emotion and soul in the film.

01:29So I think all of those things kind of came together and got me really, really excited

01:33about this.

01:34I think she represents the feminine piece of Abel's brain, kind of a bit that maybe

01:45his musical persona doesn't touch on as much, but it's still obviously a huge part of any

01:50individual.

01:51Annie is very emotional and sensitive and in tune with Abel, and she sees that she's hurting,

01:56and she's hurting too, because of him, so it's this weird kind of intertwined, almost

02:03persona-esque, just two becoming one, or two are already one.

02:07So it's definitely, her piece is strictly psychological, I would say.

02:14Honestly, it never really felt like I was playing myself.

02:23When I pitched the idea to Trey, I asked him if he can see himself in the script, and that

02:29that was really important for us.

02:30So I was lucky enough for him to accept it, and we kind of just kind of traded traumas,

02:37and it was kind of like a therapy session between us.

02:40And it ended up being an actual fictional character, loosely based on a reality.

02:45But the film felt like a character I had to study, and understand, and kind of just put

02:53on this costume, and then by the end of it, take it off.

02:57But it was cathartic.

02:58It did feel personal, but I didn't feel like I was playing myself.

03:06For me, it was just really organic.

03:07I said it earlier, but it just started with meeting each other, liking each other, hitting

03:12it off, and having like-minded taste, and like-minded ideas, and supporting those ideas, and building

03:17it up.

03:18So it started at the writing stage, and it just pushed that way through production, and

03:23post, and everything.

03:25And I don't know.

03:26I just love to, I said it earlier, but Abel's like me, he doesn't want to just settle for

03:32something.

03:33Let's just settle for the first version.

03:35He wants to push, and push, and push, and make something the best it can be.

03:38And that went from his character, it went to the film, it went to the music, it went

03:42to everything we did together.

03:44So, yeah.

03:45Yeah.

03:46Yeah, no, that's a good point, honestly.

03:47I felt like we were challenging each other, and the whole time I'm thinking, well, we're

03:53making something experimental, something ambitious, that hopefully this can challenge the audience.

04:00And it just, you know, it's just what it felt like.

04:02It just felt like we were pushing each other, and Jenna was pushing, and it just felt like

04:07a real, I don't know, giant therapy session.

04:10Mm-hmm.

04:11In the best way possible.

04:12Mm-hmm.

04:13Everybody was just so innovative and creative, and a lot of the shots that we were doing were

04:20unlike anything I've ever done before, so it just was incredibly exciting and thrilling.

04:24And Abel was so vulnerable in this film.

04:26It was so easy to work alongside of him because, I don't know, it's just, it was a good, fortunate

04:32connection thing where I didn't really feel like we had to struggle with any sort of chemistry.

04:37He's just a very warm person.

04:39And it was easy, and it was good, and it was, I'm really grateful for that time.

04:45Yes, vice versa, same thing, of course.

04:48But again, she is a master at her craft, and I was kind of like a, you know, a little amateur

04:55actor, so what I noticed about her is that she's really patient, very patient, and cares

05:03about the scene, cares about my performance just as much as her own performance.

05:09And she cares about the writing, and she had incredible ideas, and it just really felt

05:13like a really, truly honest collaboration.

05:18Yeah.

05:19That's what it really felt like.

05:20It felt like this was all of us.

05:22Yeah.

05:23I was a huge fan of Trey's for a while.

05:29I don't know where to go.

05:31No, I was like, I was a huge fan of Trey, Trey's work for years, and especially his film

05:40Waves, it was very, it wasn't a musical, but it was very musical.

05:43Music was such an important character, so when Reza and I were coming up with a concept,

05:48the only person we could think of the entire time was Trey, because I knew I can trust him

05:53with music.

05:56And the music in our film is such a massive character that we were able to adjust it.

06:04I could send him demos, rough ideas, unfinished records, references that he would implement

06:12into the script.

06:14And another cheat code with Trey is that he's an editor.

06:18So he's already hearing and seeing how the film's going to look.

06:21So there was a lot of trust there.

06:23I can focus on being in front of the camera, and later on working on the music and him

06:28implementing it masterfully.

06:31You're a genius.

06:32I agree.

06:33And I just love the way Abel handled it, because he didn't come to me and he was like, here's

06:36my album, now make a movie out of it.

06:37No.

06:38It was organic.

06:39He got that right from the get-go, and it was always organic.

06:43And after our first meeting, we got on the phone, he sent me some music, rough demos

06:47and stuff, and creative juices started flowing.

06:50And then the whole process kept going that way to where, you know, I feel like integrating

06:55a movie and an album could be a gimmicky forced thing, but it never became that.

06:58So it was always organic, and each bounced off of each other and evolved together in

07:03a fluid, beautiful way.

07:04So yeah, I was just grateful for getting to do it that way.

07:07It was a very special experience.

07:08That was a great experience.

07:09It was a joy.

07:16For me, I like going on a ride with a movie, you know what I mean?

07:21I like when a movie's evolving in front of me, and I can't necessarily, I don't know

07:25where it's going.

07:26It's not spoon feeding me.

07:27So that, from the get-go, I just like going on a journey with a movie and discovering

07:32new stuff as it's happening.

07:33And I think molding all of that together in an organic way and not letting it be sloppy

07:37is being honest to the main characters, you know?

07:40Being honest to their soul and their perspective and their head space.

07:44And you stay true to that and ride that.

07:47And yeah, to me, hopefully, yeah, you get a very special experience.

07:50I don't know what I hope that they're feeling, but I truly can say, from the friends and family

08:01that have seen it, from my experience working on it, anybody that I know that have seen this

08:06film, while their lifestyles or their lives or their experiences may be very different

08:10to Ables, they can't help but resonate with that feeling.

08:13And we all know what it's like to feel lost.

08:14We all know what it's like to be scared of the future, to lose trust within yourself very

08:21quickly.

08:22So it's a very emotional film.

08:23And I hope that people are able to resonate with that side of themselves and allow themselves

08:27to, you know, kind of open up and...

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