00:00My dog had his cameo and he was cut from the film.
00:03Okay, I was just about to say, wait, your dog's in the film.
00:06Has he been told that he was cut?
00:09I haven't broken it to him yet. Have you?
00:12No. I was going to tell him on his birthday.
00:21We'd just finished a movie.
00:23We were working on the film up until the very last minute.
00:27The print arrived a few days before the premiere
00:31and it was the first time I got to actually see it properly, the print.
00:35It felt incredibly fast to just be done and then show it
00:40and sit in an audience in a room full of people and watch it together
00:43and have this communal experience with this thing that we've been working on
00:47in our little bubble for, you know, a couple of years.
00:50So that's, yeah, it's important.
00:52You don't ever expect any kind of reception.
00:56In fact, for me, I always assume everybody's going to hate everything until they don't.
01:00And it's helped me in life.
01:02Yeah, it does.
01:03You know, I don't get disappointed very often because of it,
01:06but it's just everything you would want.
01:08If you can have an ideal world, ideal perception, it would be what we got.
01:13Did you all do particular warm-ups or like what did you do to start the day before you got into it?
01:20On the days when you're doing the movement and the noises and all of that, what do you, how do you get into it?
01:27We did a lot of group exercise.
01:29It's a bit like theater camp, you know, that's moving because we have so much physical work and voice work to do.
01:35So you guys would start your day warming up with the dancers on the day.
01:40The dancers really know how to stretch.
01:42They really do, yeah.
01:43Yeah.
01:44And so we learn a lot.
01:45But we do a lot of, and we do a lot of like, throughout the day, the whole crew,
01:50we will do a lot of like, you know, heart opening meditations and, you know.
01:55Good stretches to like.
01:56Good stretches and everyone kind of gets in on it.
01:59It's really physical for the crew as well.
02:01You have a lot of really long sequence, handheld takes, and so I think everyone sort of joined in a lot in like that,
02:09like warming up and getting into it.
02:11I will say that there was like, in the beginning when we were in the studio, we did that kind of like, exorcism of sorts.
02:20Which was a long process of us kind of like, and I think that you kind of, Mona, end up in the movie with that scene with Stacey and Scott.
02:29There's this scene where you kind of, where Anne first witnesses kind of this form of practice,
02:35where you kind of almost put the audience through the same experience that you put us through,
02:40which was kind of like, exercising all of the kind of like, your social instincts to maybe laugh at first or to like, judge.
02:49And then you sort of give in and surrender, and then you sort of kind of fall into this bizarre hypnosis.
02:55And that was a really kind of integral part of the process.
02:58It's choreographed to a point, and then there's just, you have to let go.
03:02And that was part of the ecstasy of what these people did in ecstatic dancing.
03:09And you have to let go.
03:11And that room was separated by people who held on a little bit, whether it was ego or fear, whatever it was,
03:19between them and the people who were just like completely giving themselves over to the film, to whatever would come, to the vulnerability.
03:26And that is you. You are, you, it was a beautiful thing to witness, because I didn't know it was very well.
03:32And you just gave in to this exercise, and I was like, oh, this, he's like a bonafide, like true artist.
03:38And you also, you know, you, obviously you're a very good actor, but it's a, it's a, you go, it goes way deeper than that.
03:45And I think, you know, this movie challenges you.
03:48Truly, yeah. I was just following you guys' lead.
03:51Shut up.
03:52There's nowhere to really hide in this movie, because if, and any given scene, you're either worried about your dancing,
03:59your singing, your Mancunian accent, that there's no real evidence to how it actually sounded at the time.
04:05So we're all kind of collectively agreeing to this one thing.
04:09And so that like, yeah, I think that there's no, where are you going to hide? You have to just dive head first.
04:16And trust.
04:17And trust.
04:18And trust.
04:19Total trust.
04:20Total trust.
04:21Well, and each other, that you, that you have each other's back.
04:24Oh my God, we've, we've been through some things.
04:27Oh my God.
04:28Oh, it pains me.
04:30And it also breeds just hilarity at times.
04:35Like what are you, like what, for example, are you thinking of right now?
04:39Name it.
04:40When I'm speaking in tongues.
04:42Oh, that one.
04:43And everybody behind me.
04:44Well, you learned, you spoke, you speak, you spoke Latin.
04:47Yeah, but then it.
04:48You did the whole Latin.
04:49But then it, the diet, how do you say it?
04:51The diegetic audio.
04:52Diegetic audio comes in.
04:54And then I can speak and say anything I want.
04:57And I was starting to like, fuck with people.
05:00Because it was so like, la, la, la, la, la.
05:04It was really, and so you guys were trying not to laugh.
05:07And people were throwing shit at me.
05:09And, and it was, and I'm watching it back.
05:11I just had a, it was just wonderful.
05:13Because I remember it just being so fun.
05:15So fun.
05:16Like the, it breeds such unpredictability and freedom.
05:19And it's just, and we can all, you know, obviously it was hard to not laugh sometimes together.
05:25But it was just, it was really, I felt like we could indulge in that in a way that we can't usually.
05:30And Lee didn't write anything down herself.
05:33She was illiterate.
05:34And the story is based on testimonies from her, her followers and witnesses to her life.
05:41There's very little record of working class people, especially from that time period.
05:46So, but we would, yeah, we dug deep and we found something that made a lot of sense to us.
05:51And then based it on that.
05:52The other one, what is a, especially when you're traveling for work or for production,
05:57like what's a creature comfort that you need to bring with you?
06:00Heating pad.
06:01Heating pad?
06:02Electric heating pad.
06:03I sleep with my kids guilty.
06:06And so there's nothing warm in my bed.
06:09So I have to put it there.
06:11Maybe like an eye mask that covers my ears as well.
06:14So then just like kind of a full sensory, um, death, uh, death, death, replication.
06:22Yeah.
06:23He likes to feel like he might be dead.
06:25Dying.
06:26Kind of like a relaxing, dying feeling.
06:28Actually, I know we have no time.
06:31But Mona and I moved in together at the end of the shoot because our families had left.
06:38And we had two weeks and she made this place.
06:42She would be up.
06:44Music would be playing out of the speaker.
06:46She had French press coffee made and candles going.
06:49And she was just making her director's notes for the day.
06:52And I'd be like, oh my God, this is lying.
06:54So I did one thing for her.
06:55I did her laundry and she was like, it's everything.
06:57And I was like, it made me cry.
06:59You create that cozy.
07:02What's that word?
07:03It starts with an H.
07:04Hika.
07:05Yeah.
07:06Hika.
07:07You create that like naturally and to live with her.
07:09I didn't want to go home.
07:11So thank you.
07:12That's beautiful.
07:13Aww.
07:14You too.
07:15No, I looked at my little like bold up socks and things in my closet.
07:18Am I just like, what is the least I could do for you, Mona?
07:21Like in this business, we're missing the commentary.
07:24The director's commentary.
07:25The director's commentary.
07:26Because this should be taught, I believe, what Mona does should be taught in film schools
07:31and in film seminars.
07:32Because like, if you just gently spoke throughout the movie, it would give so much context that
07:39people don't necessarily need, but that they really, really want.
07:43Yeah.
07:44And I have so many questions about why did you choose this?
07:48Why did you, you know, it's a feat what you did.
07:51And I think it's like, the commentary needs to come back.
07:54We need to get DVD players again.
07:56That's why we're here.
07:57We are selling some great DVDs.
07:58We're here to announce a great new DVD player company.
08:02We're here to announce a page.
08:05We'll see you next time.
08:06Anyway.
08:07Take care.
Comments