Filmmaker Amanda Kramer and stars Juliette Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Samantha Mathis, Robin Tunney discuss their new film 'By Design' while stopping by THR's studio at Park City.
00:00Carpet to me is a little sad. Wall-to-wall carpet is a...
00:05It brings me down a little bit.
00:10I'm obsessed with the log line.
00:12Did you write it?
00:13I did.
00:14Okay, incredible.
00:16I'll read it as the embodied voice.
00:18A woman swaps bodies at the chair and everyone likes her better as a chair.
00:22Incredible.
00:22Is that how you pitched it to all these, this movie, to all these folks?
00:26Or did you give them a little bit more?
00:27No, no. These are intimate relationships.
00:29I'm, of course, trying to lull them and I'm trying to, like, create real bonds.
00:33I can't be glib with them.
00:35But with the American public and beyond, yeah, I'm pretty cheeky and glit.
00:39Because you need to be.
00:41Selling a movie or speaking of a movie in one sentence...
00:45You gotta capture them.
00:46You do, you do.
00:47You can't talk about nuance.
00:49You have to, like, get to it and be plain.
00:51I always like plot under wraps.
00:54I'm a big fan of the log line, plot under wraps.
00:59To create that mystery.
01:01But I went anti-mystery and was obvious.
01:04True. Yeah.
01:04So what nuance did you guys get that lured you in on this one?
01:09We had a general meeting, which is very unique to have a general
01:14and then immediately have a project that, well, that resonated for me.
01:19I thought it was a poetic piece and, for me, it was a little bit about disappearing
01:27and so completely, passionately wanting to disappear and become othered.
01:34It was so much so to be useful and coveted.
01:38And so all these themes spoke to me and I was doing other jobs that were, like,
01:43really into plot and plot and plot and not so much character.
01:47And then I found this one or she found me and then we entered this wild, magical world.
01:55It's this oasis with not plot and there was zero exposition.
02:01It was such a joy and, like, such a happy place to work.
02:05It made me fall in love with acting again.
02:08It was like every single person on the crew was an artist and you were there to play
02:13and you felt so free and it's everything that Sundance is supposed to be about.
02:17Like, this movie would not get made within the studio system.
02:21This is a movie that everybody is doing for love and not to cater to the lowest common denominator.
02:26It's just a piece of art.
02:28It's, like, video.
02:29It's beautiful.
02:31I remember my first phone call with Sam.
02:35I was so nervous and my voice was breaking and I even said to my manager,
02:40can't it just be an email?
02:41Because I was so nervous.
02:43Could you tell?
02:44Oh, my God.
02:45No.
02:45Not at all.
02:46But I was so in awe of her.
02:49I had read the script and just fell in love with it and then I went to your website
02:53and I started watching your shorts and I was like, oh, my God, this woman is an auteur.
02:59She has such vision.
03:01She's so unique and unto herself, so bold.
03:05And I just said, yes, I have to jump into this woman's world.
03:10I was blown away.
03:11Did you know, were you told about the physicality of your role when you signed on?
03:20Was that part of it from the beginning?
03:22I think everything was really in the script.
03:25You know, it just felt very abundantly clear.
03:29You can't say that for everything.
03:30But with this, you know, there's an economy and there's a precision and a focus to everything.
03:36So you kind of, I mean, you'd have to ask Amanda if we got there.
03:40But, like, it just was like, okay, well, this is what it is.
03:43I'm not going to question this.
03:45This feels right.
03:46So let's do it.
03:46And if she has an adjustment for me, then she'll tell me.
03:50Compare and contrast your own design aesthetic with your character's apartment.
03:55Oh, sadly, it's kind of similar.
03:58Yeah.
03:58Oh, God damn.
04:00It's...
04:01You're a minimalist?
04:02It's just because I'm kind of, I've just been so used to being transient.
04:06Like, I remember when I graduated or was about to graduate school, had a teacher.
04:10She was like, you know, it's important for the first five years to live lightly so you
04:13can go to a new job and, you know, just be free to be an actor.
04:18And I just continued that into my 30s.
04:20And so, you know, I need to stop.
04:23You need to get some, like...
04:24Yeah, let's buy some stuff.
04:25Do you want to go shopping?
04:26Yeah, let's go shopping.
04:27Let's do it.
04:27I mean, I can't wait to see it.
04:29Oh, listen, my God, I need some help.
04:32But no, I mean, the thing that I love about Olivier especially was his taste.
04:38And I don't know if it had a lot to do with Marta, but his clothes.
04:41Yeah.
04:43The set design in your apartment was, like, just delicious.
04:47Yeah.
04:48But...
04:49I felt the second I...
04:51That is so special to...
04:54And I have not had a...
04:56I've not experienced this before where this space was...
05:01And the way it's designed was as much a character and gave you so much information about what
05:08you're playing.
05:09But it was, like, cotton candy clouds, a little...
05:12Just the color scheme.
05:13And I've seen those...
05:14That palette before somewhere in the recesses of women.
05:19It is based off of Thierry Muglet's Paris apartment.
05:25That is what his apartment basically looks like.
05:28But kind of generally, I had said to the production designer, Grace, who is incredible, I said,
05:37we need a lot of carpet.
05:40I'm going to need a lot of carpet.
05:41I feel carpet is very important here.
05:43And she was like, carpet, we're going to be, you know, vacuuming nonstop.
05:47And I was like, yeah, I don't care.
05:48I don't care if it takes forever.
05:49I'm going to need the carpet.
05:51She's like, carpet's expensive.
05:52I said, bring it in.
05:53Because carpet, to me, is a little sad.
05:55Wall-to-wall carpet is a...
05:57It brings me down a little bit.
05:59No, I didn't even need a carpet.
06:02I was like, guys, we got to get rid of this carpet.
06:05You can't ever clean it.
06:06So it's like, it is sad.
06:08And it's nice to start in these homes, even though they're beautifully designed with a low sadness of carpet.
06:15I'm sorry to everybody who...
06:17Carpet.
06:19Aesthetically, I wanted in my mood these.
06:21But at home, I would not be able to keep up with it.
06:24That's fair.
06:25Fair.
06:25Has anyone thought about what type of chair most connects with them?
06:29Like what type of piece of furniture?
06:31You know, guys, a nice Lazy Boy.
06:36Yeah, that's nice to keep your feet out.
06:39With a cup holder or...
06:41Yeah, throw in a cup holder.
06:43You're in a refrigerator?
06:44Yeah, I'll be back.
06:45This is great.
06:46I can't, I can't, see, I can't shop for myself.
06:49Yeah, don't...
06:49No, we're not getting you with those.
06:51That's terrible.
06:53It's fair, fair...
06:55You know what I love?
06:57I love like those like 90s high-back dining room chairs that have like a little bad upholstery,
07:05to the tiny strip that almost looks like a Vegas...
07:08They're a little zanier, a little zanier.
07:11They're a little Beetlejuice, a little bit Beetlejuice.
07:14That makes sense.
07:15I love a Churner chair.
07:16Do you know what the Churner chair is?
07:18And our chair really reminds me of a Churner with those beautiful rounded arms.
07:24I mean, I don't know that I'm like a Churner, but I aspire to be a Churner, to be that elegant.
07:30And I want just a big, fat, cuddly, stuffed chair that I feel small in.
07:36Whatever that says around.
07:38That you can use a peer in.
07:39Yes!
07:40I don't, you know, I'm not in charge of chairs at my house.
07:44I mean...
07:45Interior designer has been.
07:48So...
07:49Right.
07:49You are given the...
07:51Yeah, I'm given the needs that I don't decide about most.
07:55Fair.
07:55Okay, so our...
07:56Let's see, my recurring question I want to ask you guys.
07:58Does anyone have a movie that they watch over and over, whether for comfort or inspiration?
08:05Yeah, Your Name.
08:07Your Name is a Japanese anime by Makoto Shinkai, and it's one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen in my life.
08:12I highly recommend everyone to check it out.
08:14Oh, I can't change the channel if Terms of Endearment is...
08:20That's such a good...
08:21I can't.
08:21I saw it with my mother and my grandmother, and they're both deceased, and so that's just, like, so much sense memory for me, watching that movie.
08:31Which is why I geeked out when I saw John Lithgow out in the...
08:34Yes!
08:34Yes!
08:35So beautiful in that movie, I just got chills.
08:38Yeah.
08:38I'm going to go with First Instincts.
08:43I just thought of What About Bob.
08:45There's a feeling behind this.
08:48I went through a very dark period of my life, or I was escaping a dark period, at 22, and I couldn't actually watch dark things.
08:58Almost Ren and Stimpy was too dark.
09:00So I watched What About Bob all the time, and Baby Steps, and take a mantra to live my life by.
09:10Yeah.
09:11Whenever I'm sad, I watch Planes, Trains, and Austin.
09:14It makes me feel happy.
09:17There's moments that are really poignant, too.
09:19John Candy was so good.
09:20To me.
09:21But it feels comforting, like you're in the arms of an old friend.
09:26I feel very stuck in an era.
09:30I feel very stuck in, like, the 20th century.
09:32So, like, it's all just everything.
09:35Mostly 70s and 90s films, but, like, I always will watch all that jazz.
09:40I always will watch The Player, and I truly will always watch Reality Bites.
09:45Because it just reminds me of an era in my life when being cool was, I just, I just couldn't get enough of, of which these three women are all in movies where, like, the coolness is so overwhelming.
10:00When you're a young teen, you cannot believe that there are people that cool in this world.
10:06And you want to dress like them, and talk like them, and look like them.
10:09I always return.
10:10And I'm not going to play them out, but they are each in one that I can call to memory right now, where it's, like, if I could look like that character, if I could be that character.
10:19All right, I want to hear.
10:21Okay.
10:22You guys want to get embarrassed?
10:24Obviously.
10:26I think Robin in Empire Records, The Shaved Head.
10:29I did not have a friend who wasn't, like, do we shave the head?
10:34And I was, like, read you not.
10:35And we didn't take that.
10:36My eyes pump up the volumes, a deeply personal and gorgeous film.
10:43And for me, I'm terrified of Cape Fear, so I can't call that one out because I watched that movie like this, I think, as most people do.
10:51But Natural Barton Killers.
10:53It is just, you know, it's iconic forever.
10:57Forever.
10:58So those movies I definitely watch over and over again.
11:06And so.
11:12So let's think of that.
11:13So let's think of it.
11:15And if you think about it.
11:18It's like an amazing thing.
11:18So this is what Truelaner is.
11:20So this one and so Dolan on the side and I'm doing.
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