Director Pablo Trapero and star Noah Jupe dish on their latest film '& Sons' at THR's TIFF suite at the 1 Hotel in Toronto. Trapero reveals what initially intrigued him about this story, moving the location out of New York and working with Bill Nighy on his character's look. Plus, Jupe reveals how he read the script in two hours and was eager to join the project.
00:00When I first met Bill, and we know how sharp he is, right?
00:05I mean, he's this gentleman all the way.
00:08And I came to him and I said, listen, Bill, this Andrew's character is exactly the opposite of what you look like in general, in life, right?
00:20I remember meeting him for the first time and he would come up to me and be like, I really don't look like this normally.
00:26Like, please, like, this is awful.
00:30What was it about the story that intrigued you from that first 10 years ago?
00:36I mean, what's, of course, on the original book, but of course, also on first Sarah's draft is this family portrait, but mostly or above anything else is this, the legacy thing.
00:54So what we leave behind, what's our meaning here, what we are living.
00:58And between these two elements, I think the whole plot is being developed.
01:04Moving it out of New York in the book, was that just like a logistical thing, storytelling for you?
01:11What was that decision?
01:12Yeah, one of the first challenges was how do we make something that originally was meant to be very local with a bunch of references
01:19into something somehow more universal or more abstract, so the idea of trying to have something that can be translated into different audiences with different backgrounds,
01:34and by moving it into these areas or these spaces, I believe that that was very helpful in order to make it a little wider or open for people that were not related to very specific things about, for example, in this case, New York.
01:49Noah, how do you pick the projects you're going to do? Is it about who the character is? Is it about the actors you get to work with?
01:58I got sent a script and I read it in like two hours and I was blown away and I was so excited about it that I was like, I heard Pablo was in London and I was like,
02:06I'm just going to fly to London for like two days and I'm just going to go meet him and see him and just like tell him how much I love the script and how much I want to work with him.
02:15And so I did and and it worked. So, which is true because I was in London and we were and we were trying to meet Noah and then we learned he wasn't there and suddenly he was there.
02:27Yeah, I just arrived. I think I was the first one that was cast.
02:31Yeah, that's correct.
02:33And so with someone like Bill, who I think is just, you know, I grew up with him. He's like my childhood and and I have so much respect for him.
02:42But then when we're doing these scenes and it's so vulnerable and and genuinely vulnerable with these people, you suddenly break through that.
02:52And I think, you know, in an in a character way, but I think underneath it in a human way as well that his look in this film, was that your idea?
03:02Was that his idea? How did you come to the the fall, the fall long hair, long beard?
03:07He was open to try stuff and yeah, trying to go new places and and very generous in the sense that, you know, sometimes for actors, it's not that easy to to to to explore new layers on their way of working.
03:24And Bill was from the first second ready and excited about trying to create a special character for Andrew. Right.
03:35And and I'm so proud of what he did and and so grateful of that he had allowed me to, I don't know, guide him into this new adventure.
03:44And you saw Hamnet for the first time.
03:46I did. You've already seen that.
03:48So tell me what was that? What was watching yourself and I guess watching like an even younger version?
03:55Yes. Sort of yourself.
03:56I mean, honestly, it's been a one hell of an overwhelming weekend, to be honest.
04:01It's been it's been crazy, but I feel insanely lucky and, you know, to be here with this film, which I'm very passionate about.
04:11But then also go and support my brother and in Hamnet like is it's a pretty it's a pretty special moment.
04:17And these things don't come around often.
04:21So I feel very I feel very privileged.
04:23Did you cry?
04:24Yeah, I mean, like it's also my brother and there's some yeah, it's gets very dark and very intense.
04:34And he was like 10 minutes and I was already crying and then that just got worse from there.
04:42So I had to take a I remember after and you've got all the parties and stuff.
04:47And I was like going to them and I was like, I actually just need a second.
04:50Like I just went and I went and watched a film because I was like, I need to need to calm down from that.
04:57But my my go to film to calm down is about time.
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