Director Jake Schreier talks to The Inside Reel about tone, intent and characterization in regards to the home entertainment release of his Marvel movie: "Thunderbolts*".
00:22Well, I'd like not to die today, so maybe somebody else should be driving.
00:27Marvel Studios, Thunderbolts, The New Avengers.
00:32Buy it on digital July 1st.
00:33Own it on Blu-ray July 29th.
00:35Well, I mean, the film is also, you know, there's a notion of what is identity?
00:41Who are we?
00:42You know?
00:43And that's why, like, something like the scene between Alexei and Yelena on the street,
00:48such a quiet scene in all this, says so much.
00:52And that, for me, anchors the entire film, you know, with their feelings, like, because
00:58she's being gone.
00:59She's a little girl who's scared.
01:01And that's her dad.
01:02And that was wonderfully done.
01:03Yeah.
01:04You talk about finding those intimate human moments in the bigger picture, you know?
01:09Yeah, I was so excited to shoot that scene.
01:12I remember, I think it wasn't until the eighth week of production.
01:14And, you know, it got filmed in half a day.
01:17It's very simple coverage.
01:18Because, you know, when you have two actors like that that are just so great together
01:22and, you know, great in their own right, you know, you don't really need to...
01:25There's nothing fancy being done on my end in that scene.
01:29It's really just, like, putting the camera on those guys and letting them, you know,
01:32watching them work, and they're so good at it.
01:34I think that, you know, I was very lucky to have an incredible group of actors who really
01:42showed up every day and wanted to make those moments work just as much as any of the kind
01:47of big heroic moments.
01:49There was no one who showed up and saw this in or who thought it was in any way some kind
01:54of, you know, a project where you didn't need to bring it.
01:58Like, they all wanted those things and pushed me and pushed the writers to give them even more
02:03of those moments to perform.
02:04And I think that when everyone's pushing each other like that and everyone wants it to be the best,
02:09I mean, it makes your job just so much easier.
02:11And especially when the actors are that good.
02:29There you are.
02:30Now what?
02:31Well, get over yourself.
02:33Stay out of my way.
02:34Showing humor is a very specific line because, I mean, there's one scene I think where Yelena is inside the
03:00attic and she just puts her hand on it.
03:03Then she makes a joke and it sort of, you know, deflates it a little bit.
03:07You know, it decompresses it.
03:08I mean, could you talk about finding sort of that yin and yang between the humor and the empathy and
03:13compassion these characters need to display in this kind of movie?
03:17I think that, you know, I've always felt like, you know, no matter how kind of emotional or dramatic a story you're trying to tell, it's only ever helped by having humor be a part of that.
03:34I think that, like, even in our, I think, you know, most people, maybe not everyone, but can relate to the idea that, like, even in our kind of darkest moments, there's often humor that goes alongside that, you know, you don't exist in just a constant state of either sadness or depression.
03:49You know, it goes in stages and waves and sometimes you're able to put fun of it and sometimes you're not.
03:54And I think that if you want a story to feel like life, it needs to have some amount of that balance in it as well.
04:01And so that's always the goal. But then I think, you know, the actors bring so much of themselves to it.
04:07And I think that that's sort of a way that Florence actually is, is that she's extremely kind of giving and kind, but she's also very funny, you know, and I think that she always, they're all such great curators of their characters and they care so deeply about these characters that they've gotten to build, you know, before I even showed up that, you know, I think that this was a, in some ways, like a darker place than we had seen Yelena in the previous work.
04:33And I think Florence was excited to go there, but wanted to make sure to bring those aspects of Yelena along with it.
04:39And I think she did such a beautiful job of holding all those things in balance with each other.
04:44This ends today.
04:45Congressman Barnes. Wow.
04:47You know, I never really thought you'd have a promising political career, but less than half a term. Yikes.
04:55We're taking you in, Val.
04:58I don't think so.
05:00Junior Varsity, Captain America.
05:04Walker.
05:07How nice to see you, Ava.
05:10Yelena.
05:12You look awful.
05:14You sure you're really ready for that public-facing role you asked me about?
05:18It's shit, Valentina.
05:19Where's Bob?
05:20Where's Bob?
05:21Look at you.
05:22You are all so adorable.
05:24Just think.
05:25I send you down there to kill each other.
05:28And instead, you make nice and you form a team.
05:32Who is this old Santa?
05:35I'm Lexi Shostakov.
05:38The Red Guardian.
05:40What?
05:41There's also the idea of power versus responsibility in terms of all these characters.
05:50You know, what they think.
05:51I mean, you know, obviously, Yelena is saying she wants to be something more, you know, to Julia's character.
05:57Could you talk about power versus responsibility?
05:59Because it filters into a thematic of every single person.
06:03I mean, look at Bucky.
06:04You know, could you talk about the thematic or the idea of power versus responsibility in this world with this kind of team?
06:14Yeah, I think that, you know, we're finding all of them at this kind of, you know, I mean, Bucky's in a sort of different place where he's sort of gone through all of those things.
06:23And he's been that hero that hasn't quite found his place within the world or knows exactly like when you've been through all that, like, where do you go next?
06:33And he's trying this different path that ends up not feeling right for him.
06:36And maybe in a certain way, the exact right team for Bucky is the last one that you would expect, which is with these kind of misfits, you know, who have been on both sides of it, like him, who have been in a very dark place.
06:47I think, you know, so we wanted him to be able to be this kind of, like, beacon to them or have some wisdom about where they could eventually get to.
06:55But also, he needs to have his own arc. He can't just be advising them.
06:58He needs to be going through a kind of sense of a little bit of confusion or purposelessness, you know, like, and trying to find his place within the world.
07:05So I think with all of them, I mean, as far as power and responsibility, it's like you talked about identity before and right, like, we're obviously power and responsibility.
07:14It's not unique to this film or in the superhero genre.
07:17But I think in our world, we're hoping it's more about, like, these are people that could have been given that identity where it could have been like, well, you're really powerful.
07:26And what are you going to do with that power? But for all of them, like, things have not worked out the way that they hoped or expected.
07:32And I think that we were much more interested in looking at those kind of moments, you know, that anyone can relate to where, like, you don't become what you thought you were going to become.
07:42And where do you go from there? What do you do with that? Where you still have things to offer.
07:46There's still stuff that you can do, but maybe, you know, maybe only through connection with others or by not doing it in the way you were trying to do it before, you can find a way into that sort of responsibility or power or, you know, what you were looking to be, but just through a different path.
08:03So none of us comply. So what do we all just punch and shoot? I can't think of a worse group of people trying to work together. Everyone here has done bad things. You can't escape the past.
08:18So you can do something about it now or live with it forever.
08:24And my last question, thank you. Wonderful to talk to you about this, because it is such a dynamic film in that way, especially once you get towards the end, it's just so encompassing.
08:36As we said, there's a little bit of a lot of existential dread, but yet a lot of joy that comes out of it, too.
08:42Could you talk about your responsibility? Because, you know, and we talked, you mentioned Lodge 49.
08:48That that show had so much going on within it, too.
08:52But you taking up to such a large scale and something like a Marvel movie is a whole other beast.
08:58Could you talk about that and finding those things?
09:00Because the way like the void works in that one scene in the lab is very, very specific.
09:06And yet it works because of the power of you see it in the void's eyes versus Bob's.
09:12Could you talk about that responsibility and finding that all along the way?
09:15Because these things take years and years. We understand that.
09:18But for you as a director and a creator.
09:21Yeah, I think that it's it's a big responsibility. That's true.
09:26I think that, you know, the what goes along with that is that you're also given this like incredible group of people to work with, you know, who and you're given the time to explore things and to try different versions of the void.
09:39And I think that that's something that, you know, I maybe haven't had as much, you know, in my previous career where like often you kind of got to just make a choice and make it work.
09:48Whereas here there was the room to kind of explore a little bit more with with Grace and with Andrew and our visual effects team and everyone involved like what the void could be, you know, and what that could mean.
09:59And then, yeah, I think just kind of having, you know, you get these incredible resources and these incredible people.
10:09And then I think I also felt maybe the biggest responsibility on this is if you're going to be attempting to represent something like, you know, depression or kind of what Bob and Yelena are going through, like, I just wouldn't want someone to watch the film and feel like it was an oversimplified version of representing those things.
10:30Cause there are things that, you know, matter quite a bit to people and I wouldn't want to be reductive in it.
10:35And so I think that like one, obviously on a visual level, you're trying to explore and make things work, but I think all of the actors and all of the, you know, our writers and everyone who worked on the film was careful throughout to try at least to do our best to, to show a version of this that like, obviously it is on a grander scale.
10:52And, you know, superhero movies need to work on a summer action level and just like anything else, but that if we were going to attempt to talk about some of the things we were talking about, we at least did it in a way that felt like it was attempting to be sensitive to that.
11:05Let's do this.
11:07Ladies and gentlemen, meet the new Avengers.
11:10Avengers.
11:16This has makings of team that can raise to glory.
