Pedro Pascal & Jay Ellis on the "Fun, Wild, Freaky Ride" That Is 'Freaky Tales'| Sundance 2024

Hollywood Journal

'Freaky Tales' stars Pedro Pascal and Jay Ellis, as well as filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, stopped by The Hollywood Reporter's studio during the Sundance film festival to chat all about their new film, which defies traditional genre definitions and is set in 1987 in Oakland. Boden and Fleck spoke about the "lookbook" they sent along with the script to actors, like Pascal. Plus, the stars and filmmakers opened up about the "collage of styles" and numerous references present in the film.

Transcript

00:00When we talked the first time, I said, this is a movie that I want to see really badly.

00:05And with not skipping a beat, it was like, is it a movie you want to be in?

00:10And I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to be in it.

00:13Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:16We wrote the script, right?

00:18So we had the script first, and then we created like a deck, like a lookbook with all kinds

00:21of images and a description that was fun and had all the references that we had in the

00:27movie, and when you sent that with the script, did you get it with that thing?

00:30Was that helpful?

00:31Yeah, it's super helpful.

00:32It's just beautiful kind of like, you know, visual storybook in chapters referencing all

00:40of the amazing movies that I saw on repeat and through my childhood, way too early on

00:46cable, and just the idea of what you were after in terms of genre, in terms of what was

00:54personal to you guys, nostalgia and this collage of styles.

01:03For us, it was just, we really wanted it to be a fun, wild, freaky ride.

01:12And above all, you know, as we were kind of like exploring these themes of like underdogs

01:18who, you know, this like wish fulfillment fantasy of underdogs who were like having their

01:22day, we wanted it to be like a, you know, blast to watch.

01:30And I think that, you know, in our pitch deck, and as we were kind of, you know, talking to

01:34people about it, we wanted to express that like enthusiasm and that kind of, you know,

01:39liveliness that we wanted to bring to the movie so that, you know, the audience and the people

01:44involved, like everybody should just be having fun, like making and watching this movie.

01:49And whether you looked at the deck first or whether you read the spirit first, either

01:52way, you knew, like if you read it, it immediately like put everything in the context because it

01:59is in the different chapters.

02:00So like there was just this thing of like, oh, that's what they're going to do with this.

02:04Oh, that's what they're going to do with that.

02:05I just remember having that feeling.

02:06And then also like this, like graphic novel, comic book thing that was like really just

02:13jumping off the page.

02:15I remember feeling that I was, my, my thing was slightly different with Babe than Pedro's.

02:20I had worked with Ryan and Anna before, so I didn't even read the script and I was like,

02:24yeah, I'm in.

02:25I was really lucky to start my character storyline in the first week of shooting.

02:31And that felt like, um, every being a part of everybody, introducing themselves to the

02:39physical shooting of the experience.

02:40And it did feel a lot different than these, like, as you say, big overblown projects where

02:48you're kind of just getting into a much more intimate experience and you're fast tracking

02:56a connection to one another because there are just, you know, the elements are us.

03:01It's sort of the thing that I've dreamt about as a, as a kid, seeing a lot of the movies

03:06that are being referenced in this, um, being like, uh, uh, you know, seeing sex lesson videotape

03:12in the movie theater, half Nelson at what I thought was a little screening, but apparently

03:16was the premiere in New York.

03:19I'm like, I was, I was at that tiny, tiny little screening of half Nelson.

03:22You're like, oh, the New York premiere.

03:23I'm like, yeah, that one.

03:24Uh, basically as an artist, as an actor, it's what, it's the experience that you're, you're

03:31always after.

03:32And weirdly as great as, as, as fortunate as I've been, it's strangely been a very elusive

03:41one to me as far as getting to be in that experience.

03:45I know it got hard, but not the first week when I was there.

03:47Everybody was like working really hard to like pull something off that was nearly impossible.

03:56But with these guys, at last, we had like an A camera downstairs setting up for Pedro

04:00to come out of the house at the very end of the movie, one of his last shots.

04:03And so we're set up for that.

04:04The B camera's upstairs with Jay, who's like destroying people and spoiler alert, he's

04:08killing a bunch of people upstairs.

04:09So bodies are flying around and they were saying action downstairs.

04:12And Pedro's like, what if there's bodies flying around, I'm supposed to fuck.

04:16And, uh, like bodies falling down the stairs.

04:19It was crazy.

04:19So Anna and I were jumping from camera to camera and, uh, and sorry for, uh, Oh, geez,

04:24you would never know.

04:25And you see it and you can't believe that this very, very, um, immaculate sequence of

04:32action starring Jay Ellis is, you know, you'd think that they would have, it was all kind

04:38of happening simultaneously while the movie was getting finished.

04:42And I sympathize deeply in terms of how challenging that must have been.

04:47But the result is it's unbelievable.

04:50It kind of unnerves you to, to, to realize what you can get away with.

04:54I remember you calling me after you saw it for the first time.

04:57Do you remember that?

04:58Yeah.

04:58And you were like, dude, I am so sorry.

05:00I had no idea that you were up there doing that while I was downstairs doing it.

05:03He had no idea because we were truly same, same house, but we were fully separated and

05:07we were both locked into our flight of stairs, but we're also both very much locked into

05:11our own thing.

05:11We're going through both very big moments in this story.

05:16And so we are fully separated and fully focused in our own thing.

05:19And I actually didn't know that that's what you read downstairs.

05:21Yeah.

05:21Do we?

05:22And I didn't know what you guys were doing.

05:23I was like, they're really loud up there.

05:26Do they know we're rolling?

05:27And they're like,

05:28As directors, we really do try to like protect the environment.

05:34Like really give them the space to like, you know, get into their characters and feel like

05:42they're just in their own world.

05:44We knew what we were doing.

05:45Like there was never, we weren't like unsure.

05:48It wasn't just like executing a thing.

05:50It was, let's all come in.

05:52Let's create.

05:53Let's all get in this together.

05:54And like, do you have thoughts?

05:55Like, I will say you guys for as little time as we had, as much as you opened it up and

06:00we're like, tell me, what are you thinking?

06:02What do you want to try?

06:03Like with the, with the days that we had, like the space that you created for that, I

06:08think was just really amazing.

06:10And I think it makes you want to lean in for me.

06:13It makes you want to lean in even more and work harder and like, and get the moments.

06:17My vision born 20, 24.

06:20I'm about to get all embarrassing, but, um, as somebody did my tarot, there's,

06:25there's this one car is like the sun card.

06:27It's like this little baby on a horse and he's all like naked and he's like, here I am world.

06:33And that's my vision.

06:34I'm excited to get back to work.

06:36I think that we've been working on this for a long time.

06:38The movie has been done for a little while.

06:39So we're happy to get it out into the world and show people and, and start something new

06:44and, um, stay busy.

06:46I think for me, I think it's a work, like, you know, ready to get back to work, especially

06:50after last year.

06:51And then I think also too, like really excited to see this movie, like go out in the world

06:55and find an audience that people will be super excited to go see.

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