00:00What's great about directing is you get to hire people you like.
00:04Pat's got great taste in people.
00:06We were very simpatico in our taste about what is a good moment,
00:10what's cinema, what isn't, what the rules of engagement are.
00:13And so we found all these like-minded people that were up for the same adventure.
00:20Did the three of you coordinate your outfits before this, or is this just happenstance?
00:25This is the way we roll. It's why we get along so well.
00:28They copy me.
00:29Yeah, we got you.
00:30Yeah, yeah. Who's the starter?
00:31I mean, you look great too, but it's just not quite the specificity.
00:34She's got the jeans on too.
00:35I do have the jeans, and we're in the same world.
00:36We're denim-filled.
00:37That's true.
00:39Ethan, I believe, and apologies to people who've come two days previous if I missed this,
00:44but I think you are the first person to come through that is one of this year's Oscar nominees.
00:49So you've, yeah, yeah.
00:52What were you doing on Thursday at 5 o'clock a.m. Pacific time?
00:58Yeah.
00:59Good.
00:59I said, I don't want to be woken up with bad news.
01:01You wake me up with good news, but I'll be asleep.
01:04Yeah, that's good.
01:06So, okay, can you tell me about the origin story of this movie?
01:10How did it start?
01:10Ethan and I had worked on The Good Lord Bird together, and we'd had what I believe was a really
01:19close creative collaboration,
01:20and just tastes were so, so, so aligned that we wanted to keep it going, you know, try another one
01:28together.
01:29And we got a script from the field who produced it, and it was a script that the world we
01:34liked, and we liked the gold, and we liked the sort of depression era,
01:37but we wanted to sort of fundamentally change the story.
01:40So I said to Ethan, if you're going to be in the movie, you know, they'll give you any writer
01:46you want to rewrite.
01:46He said, you know, I got 10 friends who were Academy Award winning writers.
01:50He said, I got this guy for me.
01:51This guy works for me, works with me.
01:54Did some work on The Good Lord Bird with us.
01:55He's a composer.
01:55He's a sound designer.
01:57He's, you know, he vents things.
01:59Snowboard champion.
02:00Snowboard champion.
02:01He would kill this script.
02:02I was like, this guy sounds amazing, you know?
02:04So we got together, and we started sort of daydreaming the story up, you know, from.
02:09Ethan had a lot of thoughts, you know, about, you know, it should be, see the kid, you know, get
02:15a little closer with his daughter and things like this.
02:17And we really got inspired by these 70s films, these adventure sort of, you know, character-led drama adventures.
02:25And so we went away, and we re-outlined, and Shelby came on and just made an amazing, amazing script.
02:31And then I spoke to probably Julia, maybe the, well, I sent it to Russell, and Russell loved it.
02:38He was excited to come do it.
02:41He had notes.
02:43He was the guy that had notes.
02:44Were they good notes?
02:45They were always good.
02:47They were good the first day.
02:48On the fifth day, they were getting a little crazy, but, you know, they weren't in his scenes or anything,
02:53either.
02:54But then I spoke to Julia, and then while we were casting, you know, this took a few years to
02:59make it, to get it going.
03:00During casting, we got the word that Austin might be interested in playing, and for me, that was like, you
03:06know, dream casting.
03:09Nice.
03:09When you guys were working together on The Good Lord Bird, who made, because someone has to kind of make
03:14the first move of like, we like each other, but we're taking this to the next level of work together
03:19again.
03:20Can I jump in on that?
03:20Please.
03:21I just remember when you locked the picture, and it was finished, because it was, you know, when you're doing
03:27a seven-hour, it was a lot of work, right?
03:31And I just was like, look, all right, if we're done, I remember being the one to say, I really
03:38want it.
03:38If you ever want to direct a movie, I want to be in it.
03:41And you said, cool.
03:43And then like a month later, he said, hey, check this out.
03:46Are you serious?
03:47And then it just snowballed until we were in the Bavarian forest underwater with logs pummeling me, and I thought,
03:56why did I ever like that guy?
03:58No, no, things go well when you know you like working with people, and then you can, what's great about
04:05directing is you get to hire people you like.
04:08Like, Pat's got great taste in people, and we were very simpatico in our taste about what is a good
04:14moment, what's cinema, what isn't, what the rules of engagement are.
04:18And so we found all these like-minded people that were up for the same adventure.
04:22Yeah, how strenuous, that was going to be my next question.
04:24You kind of just teased on it, like how strenuous a shoot was it in terms of the physical stuff
04:29you guys were all doing, and where were you staying while you were shooting out in this wilderness?
04:35You don't want to know.
04:36I do want to know.
04:36You really don't want to know.
04:38It was dark.
04:38It got dark out there.
04:39It was dark.
04:39It was dark.
04:40Like, scale of one to ten, physical, strenuous, what was our movie in your-
04:45In my experience, there's only two that, this was the hardest for me, and I have, as you know, like
04:59I have these things in my brain, like if you're going to try to be the lead of this kind
05:06of thing that you have a responsibility to,
05:08I have a responsibility to do that, meaning to be the first one in the water, and stay in the
05:15water, like, because I started as a kid and you see a lot of bad news.
05:19It started pissing us off a little bit.
05:20Yeah, you didn't say no ever.
05:22You didn't have been in the water for 72 hours.
05:24Stop going in the water.
05:25I'm done with the water.
05:27There was one that was really, when I was a kid, I did this movie in Alaska that truthfully was
05:31life-changing.
05:31My memories of it are so positive.
05:33But it was six months.
05:35It was ice, and it was awful.
05:38It was wolves, and I thought for sure I was going to die a couple times, but I hadn't had
05:43anything that hard.
05:45And secretly, I wanted it.
05:47When I read this, I wanted to make an adventure story, you know?
05:51But I know that when you do that, you've got to have good people.
05:54I love ensemble acting.
05:56I love the way Pat shoots.
05:58There's a lot of shots where all of us are in it.
06:00So everybody has to be good all the time, and we're relying on each other.
06:05And that builds a camaraderie.
06:07The terrible places we were living and sleeping, you either wake up with a smile and a laugh about how
06:14bad your night was, or you go home.
06:17I liked them.
06:18I mean, you liked them?
06:19You had better wellness hotel.
06:21That was the last week.
06:22That was nice.
06:24We also stayed in an old Western town.
06:27It was absolutely surreal.
06:29We were in Germany, and their idea of what the Wild West is, so it was actually an amusement park.
06:36But they had a lot of cool buildings that did look period correct.
06:40But you remember, Dolly Parton would start playing over the loudspeaker.
06:44My room was...
06:44Eight in the morning.
06:45Yeah, eight in the morning.
06:46You hear a mariachi guy.
06:47My room was terrible.
06:48I didn't stay there.
06:49You didn't stay there.
06:50It was smart.
06:51What's the first creature comfort you long for in a situation like that?
06:56Good food.
06:56Like, what do you...
06:57Food?
06:58Not schnitzel.
06:59Yeah.
07:00There was a lot of schnitzel.
07:01A lot of schnitzel.
07:02Schnitzel's okay for breakfast.
07:04But honestly, stick to the schnitzel.
07:06Yeah.
07:07Don't deviate.
07:08Don't deviate.
07:09They make a good schnitzel, so just eat the schnitzel.
07:12Yeah, don't get sick of it.
07:13If you don't mind spoiling one of your cinematic secrets, what was the bars of gold and all
07:19the other heavy stuff you were carrying, the picks and stuff, what was that really made
07:22of?
07:22Or were you actually carrying backpacks that were that heavy?
07:26That's funny.
07:26At times.
07:27At times.
07:28When we started, let me tell you, when we started, we all wanted to really carry the
07:31weight.
07:31Get in.
07:32Do it.
07:33No.
07:33And I'm telling you, by lunch, everybody's going to the prom.
07:39Take them.
07:40Take those out.
07:41I heard them on the microphones.
07:44You could hear it?
07:44It was bullshit.
07:45Give me some 80 pounds.
07:46Give me 100 pounds.
07:4720.
07:48George is there.
07:49I'll drink all of it.
07:49Yeah.
07:50First take.
07:51I'm going to take some of this out.
07:52Can I second take?
07:53Because you start getting, you know, this starts ripping.
07:56But they were made of three different weights.
07:58We had one that was basically styrofoam to throw.
08:01One that was kind of a hybrid wood and styrofoam.
08:04And then one that was like about seven pounds that Ethan had to catch some of the heavy
08:09stuff on them, on the bridge sequence to give it sort of a slap, the physicality.
08:13So I think some, definitely some jam fingers.
08:17Yeah.
08:18Yeah.
08:18So when they, when they hit you in the ribs, it hurts.
08:21Yeah.
08:22Where, where was that bridge?
08:23Did you build a rickety bridge over?
08:25Yeah.
08:26We built it over the ground.
08:27Just about maybe 10 feet off the ground, maybe eight feet off the ground.
08:30Still kind of high.
08:31Well, the, the, the sides were higher, but it was only one direction.
08:35So we found a cliff face, built half a bridge, and then we shot, you know, reverses, everything
08:41facing the same way.
08:42So it was, it was a bit of a tricky one, but it was, I mean, these guys made it
08:45pretty
08:46fun.
08:47Is, is anyone here a car person?
08:50I love cars.
08:52I love them.
08:53And it was, we had, it's the kind of thing nobody actually really wants to hear about,
08:57but Gustav was our mechanic and we couldn't have made the movie.
09:01Without him.
09:02I mean, you always hear people, these festivals talk about, it takes a crew and all that.
09:06It really, Gustav's passion for the movie, his passion for excellence, for being the
09:11right carburetor, for the right bolt and to use the right thing.
09:14And to, in, we were shooting in Germany.
09:16So to have old American cars.
09:19Did you ship those over or what?
09:20We, he sourced them from, from around Europe.
09:23But then, then we had to build them because, you know, like Murphy's car, you know, we,
09:27I described it to, to Gustav.
09:28I want it to be like the grandfather of a hot rod, you know, the, the hot, the predecessor
09:31to the, the hot rods of the, you know, now built with thirties, thirties bodies, but
09:35he couldn't be too much.
09:36Cause he, he would source the car, he'd build it, we'd buy it, wreck it, switch, switch the
09:41look of drive, drive it off a cliff.
09:43Poor guy.
09:43One of them, we had to drive off a cliff and for him, it was, it was like shooting his
09:47dog.
09:48Well, the other thing is, is he wanted to save some of the parts and then when the car
09:52went down, they just took it and smashed it.
09:54And he was like, Oh my God, I couldn't use.
09:56He couldn't, yeah, I couldn't save that axe down.
09:59Is there a note on set you either never want to hear again or never want to give again?
10:07And it's so funny because half the people say, I never want to hear, speed it up.
10:11And then half people say, I never want to hear, slow it down.
10:14Wow.
10:15That was going to be mine.
10:16Speed it up.
10:17Yeah.
10:17Speed it up or slow it down.
10:19She was like, well, that felt like the right rhythm.
10:24But I don't know.
10:25Sometimes it does need to happen.
10:27So, but it just gets you a little heavy, I think.
10:30For me, I did a movie with a dog once named Jumpy and the trainer would, we'd be in the
10:35middle of the scene and for some reason the trainer was like, Jumpy, slow, Jumpy, slow.
10:40And I guess that meant to be still or something like that.
10:44But I'm like, I'm acting here, dude.
10:45Like, stop directing Jumpy.
10:47And he would say it in the middle of every take.
10:49He'd just say, Jumpy, slow.
10:50I never want to hear that again.
10:53Yeah.
10:54Dog co-stars.
10:55Not always.
10:56I don't know.
10:57Sometimes I get the, like, be stronger, which I think sometimes the idea of what is strong
11:05is a little complex.
11:06And so that one is an interesting one.
11:11Mine is definitely is that you want to get more.
11:14I don't want to get more often and, you know, more angles or more coverage and things like
11:19that.
11:19And it's, you know, especially when we're on a schedule that we're on, you know, we
11:23get what we plan to get and then we move on.
11:26Yeah.
11:26Yeah.
11:27Very nice.
11:28Well, thank you for coming in and answering my questions.
11:30And you can now do the rope toss, ring toss game.
11:33Okay.
11:33I had a director once say to me, you know, Steve McQueen.
11:39We're like that.
11:41Oh, good.
Comments