- 12 minutes ago
"We wanted to make a piece of pulp, a piece of entertainment," the directors say about the thriller.
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00:00Benny and Josh Softy and Rob Hudson, thank you very much for coming in and congratulations.
00:05Good Time, which people should go out and see. It was a big hit out of Cannes.
00:10And many other festivals. I saw Carlo Vivari and people love it all around the world.
00:15So I want to just begin by asking the Softy brothers, people should know you guys are brothers if they...
00:20Can't see the resemblance?
00:21If he shaved, it would be much more apparent.
00:23If I shaved, you'd be like, oh my god, he doesn't...
00:25He doesn't have a chin.
00:27Well, let me ask you guys. You called this your first...
00:30movie, movie.
00:31Yes.
00:32What do you mean by that?
00:33Yeah, you know, we've been incubating and making...
00:35these movies for a decade now and almost stubbornly so and, you know, refusing...
00:40to kind of engage with, you know, the movie industry in a weird way just because we wanted...
00:45to just make sure we had our language down and, you know, this is...
00:50we set out to make this movie.
00:51We wanted to make a piece of pulp, a piece of entertainment, a movie that...
00:55kind of is greater than a superhero movie, greater than CG.
00:58It's showing you what money can't buy.
01:00You know, and it's like a thrilling movie that actually thrills that all of a sudden you're
01:03like, oh my god, wait a second.
01:04Or someone...
01:05like, is someone actually going to come in and arrest Rob or Connie at one point?
01:09Like, actually...
01:10or violence actually feels like someone's actually getting hurt.
01:13So...
01:14In that regard...
01:15At the same time, we always thought every one of our movies is a blockbuster show.
01:18Sure.
01:19But this actually...
01:20could be a blockbuster.
01:21Well, you should note, like, Evan knows what he did with real people.
01:24Yeah.
01:25Daddy Longleg...
01:25Yeah.
01:26So this is your first movie star that you have teamed up with.
01:29How did...
01:30What made...
01:30What made you first think of Mr. Pattinson?
01:32And then I'm going to ask him what...
01:34What drew him to...
01:35No one ever thinks of me.
01:36Yes.
01:37Well, no.
01:38He actually...
01:39And to that point...
01:40Exactly.
01:41He made us think about him.
01:42Okay.
01:43Okay.
01:44He reached out to us.
01:45Take it away.
01:46Please.
01:47Tell us what...
01:45So what...
01:46How did this begin?
01:47What was the beginning of the relationship, Ralph?
01:48Uh...
01:49I...
01:50Yeah.
01:51I...
01:52Uh...
01:53Yeah.
01:54I mean, it's like...
01:55I've told a story too many times.
01:56I was like...
01:57Oh, what happened?
01:58It's like...
01:59I mean, I did a...
02:00This...
02:00I saw this...
02:01This...
02:02This...
02:03Still from the...
02:04Previous movie on.
02:05The banner of a website.
02:06And then kind of...
02:07Sent this sort of...
02:08Crazy...
02:09Obsessive...
02:10Uh...
02:11Email saying, I know.
02:12I know.
02:13This is supposed to happen.
02:14It's meant to be.
02:15And...
02:15Very much like the character in the movie.
02:16Yeah.
02:17Yeah.
02:18And then, uh...
02:19Yeah, I mean, we met.
02:20I mean, I hadn't seen anything.
02:20It's in the trailer or anything.
02:21And...
02:22We sort of agreed to do a movie which didn't exist.
02:24With...
02:25Based on...
02:25Based on my obsession.
02:26Yeah.
02:27Yeah.
02:28Well, so once you...
02:30You guys were...
02:31Were all on board here.
02:32The...
02:33Sort of character development that you did...
02:35Is...
02:36Is unusually in depth from what I understand.
02:38Um...
02:39From...
02:40From...
02:40Emails in character.
02:41It sounds like.
02:42To charting out emotions.
02:43And all this.
02:44So I wonder if you can each just talk...
02:45A little bit about what you...
02:46What you...
02:47Did in advance.
02:48Before you were ever...
02:49Before any cameras were rolling.
02:50Something that...
02:51That...
02:52Led to this feeling like such an electric movie.
02:53Yeah.
02:54Just to touch on the emails.
02:55It was...
02:56We...
02:57They were...
02:58Ideally letters.
02:59You know.
03:00That Connie was writing.
03:00From...
03:01Jail.
03:02To Nick.
03:03Right.
03:04Connie Rob's character.
03:05Yeah.
03:06Um...
03:07And then...
03:08Yeah.
03:09I...
03:05I play...
03:06I play Nick.
03:07And...
03:08Josh said to Rob.
03:09He said...
03:10He said...
03:10I want you to write a letter to Nick.
03:12And it was gonna come out of...
03:13Out of the blue.
03:14Yes.
03:15Told me that...
03:15That was gonna be coming.
03:16I wasn't gonna know when.
03:17But...
03:18And then to BCC him in response.
03:19And so...
03:20He was...
03:20This...
03:21Privy.
03:22And then so was Ronnie Bronstein.
03:23Who Josh wrote it with.
03:24To this...
03:25Kind of like two month long...
03:25Conversation.
03:26Where...
03:27He was trying to skirt the grandmother.
03:28And then he was trying to...
03:29Kind of sub...
03:30Convert Nick's ideas and feelings.
03:32And...
03:33He learned that if you say certain things to Nick...
03:34It's gonna...
03:35Tip him off the wrong way.
03:36And...
03:37It's gonna shut off the relationship.
03:38And the last thing he wanted was that...
03:40I like the one when I told...
03:41When I told you not to respond.
03:42Yeah.
03:43I just didn't respond.
03:44Yeah.
03:45Don't respond to this one.
03:46So he forced him to send another one.
03:47Yeah.
03:48Being like...
03:49Haven't heard from you Nick.
03:50But...
03:50When we...
03:51That...
03:52The character development is something...
03:53You know...
03:54It's just the necessary...
03:55Work that has to get done.
03:56Especially because...
03:57You know...
03:58We were coming from working with...
03:59You know...
04:00Our previous film...
04:00The lead actress is not only a first time professional.
04:02It's her story that she's reenacting.
04:04And...
04:05And...
04:06You know...
04:07With Rob...
04:08You know...
04:09He's not Connie.
04:10He doesn't come from that world.
04:11So...
04:10Like...
04:11It was kind of an effort to...
04:12To...
04:13Really for us...
04:14To know how he would...
04:15Move in this...
04:16And the narrative...
04:17Was to just really know this character.
04:18And for him to be able to pull...
04:20From a life of character development.
04:21And...
04:22We got...
04:23We started off like broadly.
04:24And then...
04:25And like...
04:26I just kind of...
04:25Got into it.
04:26And I was like...
04:27No...
04:28We can't really gloss over...
04:29You know...
04:30Age...
04:31One to four...
04:30We have to like...
04:31Show what's going on in that early...
04:32We were thinking like...
04:33Freud almost.
04:34So he...
04:35Went and ended up breaking...
04:35Coming down into like three month period...
04:36Started his whole life.
04:37And then...
04:38Ends up...
04:39You know...
04:40Minutes before...
04:40Actually enters the movie then there was the interesting thing as well when you when you do something so it's having such a deep
04:45detailed backstory you can kind of you can it's not just like oh he did this at this point now
04:50But if it's something so detailed you can really see the patterns in someone's behavior so it actually looks like you can actually
04:55See what a character is rather than just kind of have just a few events in their life
05:00It is worth noting that like when we did this stuff like now as we're entering like the promotion
05:05Part of the of the of this process I didn't even realize that that was like a thing
05:10Like the character I mentioned it when you know we were talking about it in can and then all of a sudden I'm like
05:15Kind of you know, I don't know. It's like it's I don't it's not like a thing that we're doing
05:20It's very organic is my point is that we were kind of doing it because we had to do it
05:25And you guys even I was seeing in one interview were charting the emotional
05:30Weird that was weird that was well. It was like for we we kind of went we went crazy
05:35At one point like okay, what's wrong? We were watching the movie like there's something wrong with this edit
05:40version of it and it's like what is it and we were charting the emotional path
05:45Of the of the film yeah, and that's kind of what it was for me. It was like okay the movie needs to
05:50Move at the speed of Connie and Connie's brain and you need yes back
05:55It also the moment it the moment it emotionally dips down is dead because you're
06:00More your as a viewer you're kind of rolling through this roller coaster of a movie, and it's a lot of action
06:05And you're and you and there's things that come up were morally. They're a little ambiguous, but the point is that
06:10You show in the moment sometimes people don't have time to think morally what this is you're just going along
06:15Oh my god, why did I just do that? It's like putting on to the next thing. It's like what happened well Rob you
06:20You've said that when you were starting on this business the ultimate thing was to be a character actor right and so
06:25Here is a guy who has you know there's nothing glamorous
06:30About this guy this is not a it's a guy who's scrambling in every sense
06:35And physically he's different accent why he's different is there talk about
06:40From just some of those aspects what it what it involved for you to get ready to play
06:45Um just with a physicality and accent I mean it's kind of
06:50A lot was from developing an
06:55Accent I mean I always really like trying to figure out what the voice of a character is and I think an accent
07:00It's not it's not it's not just from a place. It's like there's a reason why someone's
07:05Speaks at that and then and then you can you can almost tell what the area is like because of the accent
07:10And then from what the area is like you can kind of tell how they grew up and just kind of reverse engineering a character rather than
07:15I think that I think the accent should come almost first. It's like having a walk or something and then find one note
07:20Element and I think there was just something I just love the way the dialogue was written is
07:25Seem very kind of jarring and and you keep I mean I just
07:30So it lived in this basement apartment and Harlem and just literally did nothing at all
07:35Apart from have the what is it called on the the live feed of Times Square
07:40I just had that in black and white all night and I just said that just like keep filming myself on the phone to the point
07:45Like you're saying you did this throughout the shoot you were staying there go for two months before and I just like every
07:50Single day like do this thing when you just keep saying and also there's another thing is all about like costume and stuff
07:54I remember
07:55When when Josh brought a few like ideas for costume things and one of them was one of those huge 90s
08:00And normally if you're doing a costume fitting you'd put on a costume
08:05Be like this doesn't feel right if you're faking it right and then instead of saying okay, let's try on a bunch of different Jack
08:10I was just literally just like this is the jacket and then just like just make it work
08:14I mean so you just
08:15Had to sit in it and just keep figuring out how to move in it until it feels like your jacket rather than try and think
08:20Yeah
08:22I also I also just think in a weird way
08:24I also just think in a weird way
08:25There's there's something to the British accent that there are parts of the the the way
08:30that he says things that actually sound like a Queen's accent yeah the way he said walk
08:34that just now
08:35Sounded like yeah sounded like a Queen's accent and then Josh pointed out he's like it's called Queen's
08:40Well, so Benny I want to talk about how you wound up playing
08:45Nick the brother because that was a that I could have gone and not right
08:50Yeah, you know
08:52Nick is a mentally challenged guy
08:55who is subject put through the grinder by a brother who probably means well, but
09:00whatever so I just wonder for you had it
09:03Would it have you know, did you
09:05Contemplate other ways of casting that and then ultimately when when you did become
09:10the guy playing that how does that work when you're also co-directing yeah, it's it's what we did
09:15Contemplate actually casting somebody with the development disability and we thought about it and it just see
09:20Like in the interview process where we were meeting some really great people it just felt like
09:25You have to push people in certain ways and kind of manipulate them to fit our schedule shooting action
09:30sequences and it would just be too
09:32It felt this thing moral that just felt wrong there
09:35It's the sense of agency once someone has and have a sense of agency and like that's not to say you
09:40Developments a disabled person can act and we just saw a movie where it worked really well, but that was a movie where
09:45There's you know dialogue basically in a small this is action set pieces many saying it deserve in
09:50Intricate things you know where we're aggressive scheduling so I'm having to go no no no it's it and then just to kind of
09:55Touch on whether or not it was okay could it could go horribly wrong, but I really felt that
10:00I was this guy you know, and when I'm playing him. I'm not but I'm not gonna
10:05I know that he has certain limitations, but the character doesn't know he has those limitations, so if I'm
10:10If I make the character aware of the limitation then you can see the the faults and you kind
10:15Kind of can see the facade and it becomes maudlin so in between takes let's say you
10:20As a co-director want to give some commentary to Rob how does that work well there within
10:25In certain the I I didn't even realize I would it happen, but Rob pointed out the other day or was like we're in
10:30the alley and he just like kind of just gave
10:3215% more of yourself to the character
10:35Just be like get closer to me like it's gonna make me uncomfortable like something like that or job
10:40Josh would come up to me and say something in my ear like
10:43Do this to like kind of force Rob and
10:45Get into this position and and then it well I could hit them both I could go direct Benny through Rob and
10:50Rob could I can direct Rob through Benny and then and then for me it was also just like okay, I know that
10:55I could just kind of go all out because Josh is there, you know, it's like to kind of catch it
11:00All right, so it's there air there was this this physicality
11:05Also between the two of us that was whenever it whenever it happened it was it was it was a very
11:10Special moment in the in the elevator. I always just remember it. It's like he kind of like grabs me and pulls me
11:15Close and kisses me and says I love you and it's like that's like the last
11:20I did love it. I love it. I was like that one moment
11:22I walked away and then he actually said he's like I'm only gonna do this scene if
11:25I can get kissed by Rob but then he actually secretly recorded it, but no, but then it was like
11:30For what was so strange about that is that's the last thing Nick would want, you know, it is worth
11:35noting that this character that we wrote into the screen that me and Ronald Bronstein it was a character
11:40That was developed seven years prior that with Benny was played by and actually that opening scene was something
11:45That was shot for that project that fell apart. Yeah, and so it was like we wanted to cast somebody but
11:50Then we always had in the back of our minds like Benny can do it. Yeah, and it's like I do it. Well, and it's it's a weird
11:55thing to just be like okay. Yeah, I can just do that. You know like just take this characters in yeah, I do
12:00He's not playing him. He's being yeah, I do feel a connection to him and it's it's interesting to
12:05watch that rehearsal from like 2010 and then you you fast-forward to 2017
12:10seven years later like what happens to this guy after he physically got stronger and physically can
12:15Take whatever he wants nobody's gonna mess with him so he gets a little bit harder and he gets a little
12:20bit more kind of insulated and it's like it's that much more difficult to get him into the system because he's wanted
12:25Listen to anybody so this movie gets into the Cannes Film Festival where in 2014 Rob you had
12:30two movies maps of the stars and the rover so you've been there
12:35But the reception for this was so special. I think maybe you can describe
12:40just even compared to those years where it was very positive, but this is
12:45People what what what how would you describe what went down? I can
12:50I mean was it the first time we screened it?
12:55I can with anyone yes, it was a world over there. No one had seen yeah, there was no we didn't know any of their action
13:00for it. I mean
13:02It's weird because I was I
13:04Once I
13:05If I like something I've kind of had so many random reactions to things throughout the years
13:10But like I like it and I don't care what anyone says and so I was already prepared for it
13:15And so it's such you know, it's such an unbelievable pleasure when when other people like it
13:20But I think it's yeah, it's something about the energy of the movie and it's
13:25It's kind of it's just it's like four times the intensity
13:30Yeah, but things that are coming out and instead of everyone who sees it kind of has this real
13:35reaction gonna Jesus Christ right there's no middle
13:38I'm not sure
13:39Exactly
13:40I think it was it was it you guys who said there was a six-minute ovation it was like it was like it was an insane it
13:45It was an insane feeling or just sitting there like oh my god these people won't they won't stop
13:50I had this one afterwards they put the camera on you during the ovation and like you know
13:55At one point like with the vision was maybe kind of died down and then it just started up again and they put the camera on Benny
14:00Yeah, because I I just forget that he's also in the movie right like you know, it's just
14:05Benny yeah, I mean like it's what we've been doing there ever so he when the
14:10Put the camera on him the whole place went crazy and I'm like oh wait a second there was
14:15responding to his performance and just dawned upon me like I take it for granted I
14:20Been taking it for granted since I was a little kid that he can do stuff like that
14:23Yeah, they loved him and they loved
14:25I mean, I picked him up. I mean, I'm not I'm not throwing it
14:28Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no of course
14:30It was it was like a really I mean listen that's like you know can is it's been always a
14:35Holy Grail special place and it's such scrutiny and people can be tough there and
14:40It was really they can boo for that. Oh, yeah, that's what it was. I was like I want
14:45It to think it was fake news, but then it's like no, this is actually the opposite of it in a weird way usually
14:50It's like the hate is like kind of fake, you know what I mean, so I think again here because there was like enough even though it was up
14:55I was at the press screening right my god like and somebody even just posted a pic like just the root the black
15:00Room with applause sounds like this happened like it was crazy. It was crazy. Well, okay
15:05I do that wait just quickly there was somebody leaned over and then like 15 minutes into the movie Josh told me this story
15:10And they're like wait, I thought Rob Pattinson was in this movie
15:12Not to me
15:14But if somebody
15:15Was like a story we heard it's like yeah
15:17He is there. That's awesome. Well that if that's not enough
15:20Reason to go see the movie. I don't know what is. Thank you guys so much for doing this and congrats
15:25Thank you very much
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