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00:00So I wrote it back in 2018, the first draft, and then I did Top Boy, I did Candyman, I did The Marvels, and Sean, we were working together at the time, so I was like, hey Sean, do you want to read the script that I'm thinking about, please?
00:14So, basically, I hoodwinked these guys into making a much smaller movie with me.
00:19It's another Amazon MGM title, Hedda, from writer-director Nia DaCosta.
00:31Thank you, Hedda.
01:01Hedda is a dangerous and unknowable woman yearning for a past love.
01:08What ensues is a ruthless game of manipulation, where lust, jealousy, and betrayal collide.
01:14Hedda is a daring exploration of power, desire, and a woman's refusal to be confined.
01:21The film reunites its writer-director Nia with Tessa Thompson.
01:25The two worked on DaCosta's, you might remember, debut feature film Littlewoods.
01:29Tessa stars as Hedda, while Nina Haas plays Eileen Loveberg.
01:34It also stars Tom Bateman, Imogen Poots, and Nicholas Pinnock.
01:39Please welcome to the stage, writer, director, producer, Nia DaCosta.
01:43Cinematographer, Sean Bobbitt.
01:56Composer, songwriter, Hildur Guthnador.
02:12Costume designer, Lindsay Pugh.
02:14And, last but not least, casting director, Des Hamilton.
02:29Welcome, everybody.
02:30Great to see you all.
02:31How are we today?
02:32Good?
02:33Yeah, excited.
02:34Us too.
02:34Talking about stuff.
02:35Okay, but first, before we chat, we've got a clip from Hedda.
02:40So, let's take a look at that.
02:44It's nice and quiet
02:47But soon again
02:53Georgie!
02:55Starts another big riot
02:58You blow a fuse
03:01Ding, boom
03:03The devil cuts loose
03:05Ding, boom
03:06I'm ruined
03:08Ding, boom
03:08Ding, boom
03:09Ding, boom
03:10Ding, boom
03:11Ding, boom
03:12Ding, boom
03:13Ding, boom
03:14Ding, boom
03:15Ding, boom
03:16Ding, boom
03:17Ding, boom
03:18Ding, boom
03:19Ding, boom
03:20Ding, boom
03:21Ding, boom
03:22Ding, boom
03:23Ding, boom
03:24Ding, boom
03:25Ding, boom
03:26Ding, boom
03:27Ding, boom
03:28Ding, boom
03:29Ding, boom
03:30Ding, boom
03:31Ding, boom
03:32Ding, boom
03:33Ding, boom
03:34Ding, boom
03:35Ding, boom
03:36Ding, boom
04:07Dr. Loveborg, it has been a long, long time.
04:11Thank you for coming.
04:12Thank you for having me, Tesman.
04:14Mrs. Tesman.
04:15Please come in, have a drink.
04:18I've brought a couple of friends, if that's all right.
04:20In you come.
04:27Aren't you gorgeous?
04:29Charming.
04:30Down boy.
04:30This is her husband.
04:32Dr. George Tesman.
04:33Where's the bar, George?
04:35Just there.
04:37Come on.
04:42I'll show you.
04:44Nia, okay.
04:46You wanted to make this for a while.
04:49I saw you at Story House in Dublin last year, or earlier this year.
04:53You were so fantastic.
04:54And you had mentioned that this for you, after having a studio experience,
04:59you wanted to do something that was the antidote of that.
05:01But you had written Hedda a few years before.
05:04Tell me why your love for this play, and why do you feel like now has been the right time
05:11to adapt this and make it contemporary for a contemporary audience?
05:15Yeah, so I wrote it back in 2018, that was the first draft.
05:21And I did another draft of it, and then I kind of put it in a drawer.
05:24And then I did Top Boy, I did Candyman, I did the Marvels.
05:28And during the Marvels, I was like, I'm really ready to get back to my own voice.
05:33And this story was the thing that I kept thinking about.
05:38And eventually I called my agents, and I was like, we have to set this up.
05:41I have to do it next.
05:43And then Sean, we were working together at the time, so I was like,
05:46hey, Sean, do you want to read the script that I'm thinking about, please?
05:50And Lindsay as well, and Des.
05:52So basically I hoodwinked these guys into making a much smaller movie with me.
05:57But I just, it was less about what was happening on the outside
06:02and more about what was happening on the inside for me,
06:04why I wanted to tell the story now.
06:05When I wrote it, I thought about making it feel more contemporary,
06:08but I didn't want it to be present day.
06:10And that's why I updated it to the 50s,
06:12because I thought that's a decade we're really all still connected to,
06:15I think, thematically.
06:18So, yeah.
06:19Has it sort of satiated what you needed as a filmmaker,
06:23and now you're on the other side of it?
06:24Oh, for sure, yeah.
06:25And it was great, because then I went into another film
06:28that was another franchise sort of studio movie,
06:30but I brought every principle that I brought to Hedda to that,
06:33which is staying true to myself and my voice,
06:35and I worked with people who let me do that.
06:36So it was exactly what I needed at the time, yeah.
06:41Sean, tell me a little bit about,
06:43I'd love to know what the early discussions were with you two
06:46when it came to approaching this.
06:48What inspirations were you using?
06:51What kind of resources were you calling across?
06:53How did you want the look and feel of this film to be?
06:57Well, I think the most important thing to begin with
07:00was that it was not the Marvels.
07:03And we sort of worked from there.
07:05I mean, the look of the film came organically
07:07out of the discussions that we had about the film
07:11and how Nia saw the film.
07:12And I think it all kind of coalesced
07:16as we saw the location and the cast.
07:21And, you know, there were some technical things
07:25that were very specific that pointed us in a direction
07:29in terms of camera.
07:30And then so many emotional things
07:33that pointed us in another direction for the lenses.
07:36And then the lighting was really very old school.
07:44I mean, if any of you out there are gaffers or cinematographers,
07:47almost the whole film is lit by China balls.
07:51Really simple.
07:53But, you know, almost contemporary to the era.
07:57And because of the limitations of location,
08:00we had, you know, they were kind of the only way to go.
08:04Where did you guys shoot this?
08:06It's a fantastic location.
08:07But where was it shot?
08:09In the Midlands in a house called Flintum Hall.
08:12Yep.
08:13Which is sort of near Newark, which is near Nottingham.
08:16Okay.
08:16Okay.
08:18Hilder, hello.
08:19Hi.
08:20Thanks for being here.
08:21Thank you for having me.
08:22Um, the music plays such a big role in this film.
08:27You've got it throughout.
08:28I mean, the tension it builds is, you know,
08:31what it does that the, you know, actors aren't,
08:34you know, how it carries kind of scenes and actors.
08:36How did you, like, what was your approach to this
08:39and discussions with Nia?
08:40Like, how did you want the kind of composite,
08:44the elements of song and music to contribute to
08:47what the audience are hearing?
08:49Um, well, there's many layers to the music.
08:54Um, I'll try to give this short answer
08:56because my answers tend to be kind of long
08:57and there's lots to say about the music.
09:00But, um, I mean, first of all, we wanted to have,
09:03we knew we wanted to have, like, energy
09:05and a drive with the music, you know,
09:07so the percussion was kind of perfect.
09:09We knew that there was going to be a band
09:11playing in the, um, you know, playing in the parties.
09:14So we knew that we were going to have these songs.
09:16And so I thought it was perfect to have, um,
09:20a kind of a love song that was connected to the, to the theme,
09:24you know, so the love theme is the song
09:26and it plays into the score.
09:28And then I always think it's really interesting to,
09:31when you, when you do period pieces,
09:33to understand what's happening in music of that time,
09:38you know, and, and, um, so one of the composers
09:43that I've found is more, most interesting, um,
09:46from this time in England was a composer
09:48called Cornelius Cartu.
09:50And he would have been starting out writing at this time.
09:53And he did really amazing work
09:56where he would mix together professional musicians
09:58and amateurs and have them all kind of perform
10:02and sing together and, and, um, because in the party,
10:05we have this mix of artists
10:06and kind of more stuck up aristocrats.
10:10I was imagining that he was in the party
10:12and he was kind of starting to conduct
10:15these, um, impromptu performances
10:18with, with all the people in the party
10:19who might've been professional musicians
10:21and also just, you know, lay, lay folks.
10:24So I came on set and I, I recorded the cast
10:28and the crew singing as if they were,
10:31you know, the singers in, in that, um, in that party.
10:34So all the voices and, and all the singing
10:36and all the breathing you hear is the cast
10:39and the crew of the, of the film.
10:41And, um, yeah, I thought it was just such a great way
10:45to bring everyone into the music
10:47and have this kind of celebration
10:48of the collective, you know, collective spirit
10:52of, of shooting and making a film.
10:53That includes so many people.
10:55And you, I believe there's an original song
10:58you also wrote for this.
11:00Exactly.
11:00The one that we just heard in that clip.
11:02How did that kind of come, you know, about,
11:05what were the discussions you two had?
11:08Um, well, Nia wrote the lyrics to the song.
11:13So, and, and I, and I wrote the, the song
11:16that I just, I thought really fit to, to this,
11:20um, you know, to the, to the vibe
11:22and the period of the film.
11:23But it also lends itself well to, to being
11:27like a, you know, proper theme.
11:29And, you know, it lends itself to being kind of upbeat
11:31like in the beginning of the film.
11:33It's the same, it's the same theme.
11:35So it seemed to kind of tick all the boxes we needed.
11:37And it was great to collaborate with Nia, of course,
11:41on the, on the song, you know, cause it's,
11:44I really love when, when music can kind of seep into all the
11:48different threads of collaboration and filmmaking.
11:52That's, you know, the part that I find most exciting,
11:54like not just highlighting people's facial expressions,
11:58but to kind of really be a part of the, you know,
12:01the, the DNA of the film from the, from the start.
12:04And I think that, you know, collaborating with Nia on these
12:07things were really, you know, great.
12:10Great.
12:10Lindsay, hi.
12:14Costumes for this.
12:15What an amazing era to kind of be exploring on the costume
12:20side of things, but I'd love to know kind of what your approach
12:24was and how, how you kind of decided to, what kind of inspired
12:27you.
12:28And, and interestingly, this also takes place across only one
12:32evening.
12:32So I would imagine, you know, what are the challenges that come
12:35with that when you've got one evening, one time period?
12:37Um, cause you have to be quite assured with what they're going
12:42to wear throughout the whole night.
12:43Maybe speak to that.
12:45The decision you've made is the right decision.
12:47Yes.
12:48They're more pressure than you can make it.
12:50Yeah.
12:50But it's lovely because then you can concentrate on a few
12:54garments and just make those as beautiful as you can.
12:58And the challenges that they have a lot of work to do, you
13:01know, those dresses did a lot of work over a lot of time and a
13:04cocktail dress, especially a fifties corseted cocktail
13:07dresses are not the easiest thing for these poor women to wear.
13:10So it was trying to get, strike that balance for them to be able
13:13to act in it and for it to look period.
13:16Um, and to make it look a sort of luscious and everything.
13:19In the script, there was a reference to rotting fruit.
13:23Um, so that was where the color came from.
13:26So just to keep everything sort of really visceral and there was no
13:29sort of strong colors.
13:31So it was just like this sort of 1950s fruit bowl.
13:33So trying to keep it, keep that color story going all the way through there.
13:39It's what a lovely reference.
13:41I mean, it really kind of comes through on the screen when you say that.
13:45Um, Des, hi.
13:47Casting this project, what a great cast, some wonderful performances.
13:53These three ladies that are leading this are very strong in very different ways.
13:57What's, what were you looking for when you were kind of going through this whole process?
14:03What did each character kind of have to have for you?
14:05And how did sort of Tessa feed into that?
14:08It's, we, my colleagues and I, we'd spoke from there about it.
14:12And we had, uh, we'd worked together a lot previously.
14:17So I think we're looking for people that could really come in and contribute, elevate it.
14:26You know, and, um, and the word that came back was we're looking for people to really have an impact.
14:35You know, and interesting casting was the underlying theme, you know, uh, looking for immersive type talent.
14:48And I think through the process, connections were formed and things happened very naturally.
14:59I reflect upon it as a, it was a really enjoyable process.
15:04It was a good time.
15:06Was there anyone who kind of surprised you with what they brought to the role and specifically?
15:12Um, that would be unfair.
15:16Or maybe to phrase it better, took it in a direction you thought you didn't anticipate it going in, shall I say?
15:22I think quite a few of them did, having, they come in, they read, and they, uh, redirected them and they took on those notes and they played with it.
15:34Uh, and, uh, everybody was very open to that and, yeah, there were some, some of the improvisations lasted quite a while.
15:45Yeah, well, this is, just to say, the reason why I keep working with Des is because in the room when we're, um, auditioning people, he really pushes the actors and to really see what they can bring and what they can do.
15:56And that's why I love you so much because I think you're brilliant.
15:58And, and the people he brings in are, are interesting, but they have, like, that extra thing.
16:03And so in this film where it's an ensemble and everyone's on set all the time and everyone has to, you know, I could say, can you say something sort of like this, you know?
16:10And they can just do it.
16:12And, you know, our, our, like, secondary cast, you have, like, BAFTA, BAFTA nominee, Saffron Hawking, Olivier nominee, Jamal Westman, you know?
16:18And they, they, they're not the leads, but they could be.
16:21And, and I think Des brings those people in and, and, and so, you know, the reason why I think it was so enjoyable is because we had amazing people.
16:28And also then you, you push them to, like, see how far they can go with improvisation.
16:32Sometimes they really go on and on, but, uh, but yeah, it's, it's, it's a great, it's a great process.
16:38I'm so sorry.
16:39We are out of time.
16:40I could talk to you guys about this so much more, but, um, thank you so much.
16:44Congratulations on the beautiful film.
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