- 13 hours ago
'The Testaments' director Jet Wilkinson sat down with THR's Senior Writer Chris Gardner to chat all about the Hulu series in a Directors in Focus conversation.
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00:02welcome thank you so much for doing this this is so exciting how do you what do you think of
00:06the
00:06DGA you know this is my first time here because every time I've been invited to do some fun things
00:12here I'm always on the road I'm never in town so when I walked in I was humbled and honored
00:19and the
00:20first picture I saw was of Barbara Streisand directing Yentl and it kind of really you know
00:26it shook me because I watched that as a kid thinking she was amazing and realizing really
00:31truly that Barbara Streisand was the woman that really broke the glass ceiling for us as female
00:36directors so it was apt that was the first picture I saw yeah yeah I'm well I'm also impressed that
00:43we got you here on a Saturday considering how much you've been working recently my joke about that is
00:49praise be you're in the room praise be we got Jet Wilkinson in the room I don't know how you
00:54direct
00:55the show and not like walk around the house being like something goes right like the mail comes you're
00:59like praise be you know I mean I think we do like we say it a lot so yeah it's
01:04a common saying when
01:06was the last time you said it in your personal life well well maybe not recently also I just want
01:13to
01:13give you a shout out too because I'm not just trying to be funny it is really impressive all of
01:17the work
01:18that you have been doing um and also I mentioned lucky which is coming up with Anya Taylor-Joy for
01:23Apple TV um you have the third season of Percy Jackson and then you have this other show off
01:29week starring Ben Stiller and Jessica Chastain followed by Daredevil born again you're on a run
01:35yeah I'm I'm I feel really thank you I feel really lucky yeah yeah that wasn't a question um but
01:45I
01:45guess uh but how are you managing I guess and what are you looking for in your career at this
01:50moment
01:50I mean I'm always looking for something that moves me in terms of the story and sort of what we're
01:56saying I think certainly with Testaments it was very important to me that story and being a part of
02:02um you know culture in a way um and I think that was very important to everybody on the show
02:08I think
02:08we all knew we were part of something very special and it meant something to all of us so if
02:12I can try
02:13and do projects like that great I mean we're lucky if we do um but I always try and find
02:19that somehow
02:19in the projects I do anyway and sort of try and find something that resonates try and find something
02:23that I believe in because honestly you know when you spend so much time away from your family like
02:29I've got two kids and a wife and I leave them for months at a time and I've got to
02:33feel like if
02:34I'm going to not be with them I've got to be doing something I believe in I've got to be
02:38with people I
02:39love people I believe in people who are passionate about the work as well literally not to name drop
02:44but I said that exact thing to Ben on set the other night I went up to Ben and I
02:48said I watched
02:49your beautiful documentary about your parents it was so moving and you know I really related to it
02:55because he talked about being part of a showbiz family and you know I said to him what's it all
03:00worth if we don't love what we do when we're away from our families and um yeah he really that
03:06resonated with him that it resonated with me and I think you've just got to find like-minded people
03:10to sort of get in the trenches with and make it all worthwhile not being there with your family
03:15you know really beautiful um what is it like directing somebody like Ben Siller who is also a great
03:20director himself yeah I mean it's you really once you start working with different types of people
03:26who have all got different types of experiences first of all you've got to put away the fandom
03:30you've got to put away the being nervous around you know I just sort of had a Ben Siller weekend
03:34I was
03:35watching Tropic Thunder and like you know along came Polly and um what was the other one I watched
03:41Reality Bites of course and I was like then I see him on set and I was like okay gotta
03:44be cool
03:44um but it's like but it's also cool just to tell them that you love their work um but also
03:50ultimately you just got to be sort of prepared you've got to have a vision you've got to you know
03:56have a specific point of view that you're bringing to it so they feel like they can trust you um
04:02that
04:02that's they're working with someone who has ideas and that they can work with you know I think you've
04:08got to be open to also collaborating with them because yeah he'd say to me how are you shooting this
04:12and if I didn't have an answer I'd lose his trust so I had the plan um and I explained
04:18what the plan
04:19was and he said yeah but why would I come from here and I'm going from there and I said
04:22yeah you
04:22came from there and I'd like I saw that episode you came from there because of this but you're coming
04:26from there because of that and he goes okay so you just have to have the answers the whys to
04:31all
04:31the questions and I think that puts them at ease and I think then they want to work with you
04:36because you clearly are passionate about what you do and they want to be a part of the energy you're
04:40bringing to the set let's talk about the testament um how did you get this job so um they actually
04:49asked me to do handmaid's tale I think I'm not sure which season it was it was around covid time
04:55and it was like come to toronto quarantine for two weeks do like literally four days of prep
05:01and go back home for christmas go home for christmas quarantine come back and quarantine it was really
05:06really tough and a really really tough time so we ended up not doing that episode um and then
05:12I think I met I kind of heard about the testaments when I was doing the old man working with
05:17Warren
05:17Littlefield and they told me oh you'd be really great for this spin-off we've got in development
05:20and I was like my gosh yes call me that sounds amazing and they did and um yeah I met
05:27with Bruce
05:27Miller the day Trump got in I remember Trump got in and I was doing this meeting and so we
05:34had a really
05:35great conversation Bruce and I thought he was amazing really smart wonderful man and um yeah
05:41I got the job it was it was really fun and then I met Lizzie Moss doing Imperfect Women and
05:46she was
05:46like I you know you know when you get through to the round of meeting the actors that you're getting
05:51close to the job and so when I was talking to Lizzie I was like pitching myself doing the whole
05:56talk
05:56and she was stop pitching yourself I want to work with you I'm so excited um and everyone's been
06:03really happy with your testaments so it's we're gonna have fun so it's a nice little full circle
06:07yeah um when you have a conversation with Bruce what what what is that like uh because obviously
06:16the testaments is a is an evolution of the Handmaid's Tale story it has its own visual style
06:20so what were the conversations like about how he wanted it to look you're you're also coming in
06:25later in the season to direct um your episode just premiered 106 Stadium which we're going to take a
06:30look at um and and what are those conversations like when you when you are one of a couple of
06:35directors who are directing for this season yeah I mean at that time I also thought maybe I was
06:40pitching on the pilot so I was kind of asking him about the visual style I know Mike Barker did
06:44an
06:45amazing job he was phenomenal he'd also done so much of Handmaid's but so that was the question I
06:49asked of like what DNA do you want to bring from Handmaid's you know and sort of how is it
06:54going to
06:54look different you know and sort of when I prepare for these interviews I watch everything I could
06:59possibly watch and have all the questions ready and some of them were like I'd read some of the
07:03book and he actually in that meeting I think told me to stop reading the book um because I asked
07:07about
07:08Nicole and how the Daisy character how does that become her and asked about the book asked about
07:13Handmaid's and we had a really fluid great conversation about how he sees it and you know I
07:20think most importantly they wanted to make sure that the testaments was a little bit younger
07:23and it was more about you know um sort of the younger point of view and and how these women
07:30will rise up against you know coming from within the world so I thought that was that was an
07:35interesting sort of take and sort of um very different obviously to to Handmaid's yeah we're
07:41going to go to the clip but I want to ask you one more question before we do that um
07:45because one of
07:46the things that I think is so great about you joining the show is that it really you bring a
07:53lot of your previous work here it's you know the story is part coming of age but it has also
07:59violent
08:00elements there's some family elements all of these themes that you have explored in your previous career
08:06but also um it's elevated in a way I'm thinking specifically of the scene that we're going to see
08:11stadium so when you joined this what parts of of your work did you lean on and in which ways
08:16did
08:16you challenge yourself yeah I mean I always love that sort of composed sort of locked off sort of
08:22you know look of of Handmaid's and what we also did on The Old Man but then I love that
08:28they
08:28integrated all the handheld as well for the flashbacks and a lot of that has to do with
08:32the wonderful collaborators that you get to work with on these shows I work with a wonderful wonderful
08:36DP called Greta Zuzula and she did all the handheld and it was all about sort of talking to her
08:43about what the emotion of the scene is and she just immersed herself um into each scene and sort
08:50of was a part of the scene so we worked together a lot of like what the feeling should be
08:53so I loved
08:54bringing that to it in terms of how we sort of integrated the camera and I do that a lot
08:59with a
09:00lot of handheld stuff we've done but I also loved how we were able to sort of combine the two
09:05looks
09:05again coming in like I think you asked before about the look of it coming in as an episode
09:10director as opposed to a pilot director you have to really sort of listen and look around
09:16and sort of look at what they've established because you have the privilege to come in it's
09:20done like it's being a pilot director is really hard because you set everything up but being an
09:24episode director I think the important thing is to look at what has been set up and lean into it
09:29so a lot of the stuff they had done was circles the production designer designed a lot of the sets
09:36circular as a representative of women and I liked it because it was kind of like this evolution that
09:42went around in circles and it went what went around come what goes around comes around so
09:46any opportunity we had I would shoot overheads and find those circles so you know the table in the
09:54bloodlines library was circle the um the way we moved the drone was in a circular matter so it's
10:01like all these little subtextual ideas that we sort of weaved in that I wanted to sort of um carry
10:08on
10:08from what the production design had already um started doing and then sort of really sort of make
10:12it a part of the you know the metaphor of this episode is there anything that you could add
10:17on your own creatively to to that to to make it your own yeah I mean I feel like when
10:22you lean into
10:23that stuff you can ask for more of that stuff I mean later on she's smoking and I remember we're
10:29coming home from a big night shoot out of the stadium and I'd fallen asleep in the car with with
10:34my DP and then I woke up I was like we need to get a circular ashtray and she was
10:39like what I was
10:41like because like we can when she stubs out the cigarette then we can like transition to when she's
10:46wiping down the toilet seat and she was like it's 2 13 I was like I know I'm gonna text
10:51I'm gonna text
10:51Peter and luckily Peter was amazing and went out and got all these like seven different circle
10:57ashtrays on Saturday and that's a small thing but it's like yes I think they want you to lean into
11:03what they'd set up in terms of the world and kind of almost push it to be even more like
11:06because
11:07people saying we didn't expect the circles to be this much but you've shot them nearly in every scene
11:11and I think if you that's the thing it's all part of a team or part of a collaborative process
11:16it's
11:16all part of you know listening to all the other amazing filmmakers that are there and sort of take
11:22advantage of being part of such a big beautiful team it's so great the note I'm going to take
11:27away from that is exhaustion brings great ideas something Lorne Michaels preaches at Saturday Night
11:33Life um uh we're gonna get progressively more intense as we go along with these clips um but I
11:39also just want to mention too I thought it was so great we talked about the overhead shots because
11:43what I so appreciate about this show is you know exactly where you are there's so many establishing
11:49shots there's so many overhead shots you get a real feel for the rooms and the spaces that these girls
11:55are traveling through and I feel like in this era that we're living in with budget cuts and things
11:59that they're going you don't often get that and I I know that that was really important to you too
12:03I like that the whoever selected these clips did a great job of showing the diversity of your work on
12:08this episode too because you know this is such an intimate scene that starts with these girls
12:12recapping what happened at the dance and and and then goes into this really tense you know shocking
12:18incident can you talk about directing that and how you work with the actors um to to create that
12:23tension and just also you know what it was like to direct each of them because you're working with
12:28the great and out on down to chase infinity and really remarkable actresses yeah I mean I think again
12:34it's it's doing a lot of research and watching all the episodes and reading reading on the scripts and I
12:39again it's it's about talking to the showrunners and the writers what what is it that we want
12:43tonally from this scene what is the point of view of this scene and then talking about it with the
12:48actors and I have to say those actresses were amazing they brought so much already um and they
12:53had a very specific point of view of how they wanted to you know create their characters so a lot
12:59of the DNA was already there I think what I enjoyed doing what I enjoyed about that scene was
13:05the juxtaposition of these girls they're sort of sewing and talking about being married off but
13:10they're like 15 years old and then the brutality of what's just about to happen and this this the
13:16sense of that there should this be this sort of female camaraderie but really it's the woman holding
13:21down the other woman's hands while the other woman whips her in this sort of in this sort of
13:26beautiful world that's sort of this ironic sort of visual world of like brutality with beauty and
13:34you know I I enjoy sort of finding those layers and and then but you kind of with brutal scenes
13:40like
13:41this and in the scene we'll watch later is that you don't talk about that you just you just play
13:45the
13:45scene with as much truth as possible and and that that each character has their own truth and what
13:52they believe in and then when you sit back and all all the layers are in there then you realize
13:58how
13:58actually quite disturbing um and emotionally raw it is I mean even just to have Aunt Lydia walk past
14:05and look into the room like she she knows that these women can't survive really with each other that
14:12they can't be friends because that's kind of where she's come from and the world she's built
14:16so yeah it's it's I tend to not over sort of workshop or analyze it with the girls in terms
14:23of the broader meaning and more just talk about each objective and where they've come from and what
14:29they want from each other and then you end up with these beautiful performances because they've already
14:33they're already so invested and they already believe in their characters so much they all protect their
14:38characters so beautifully as does Anne it's the first thing Anne kind of always says to you is like I
14:43don't judge Aunt Lydia Aunt Lydia has hopes and dreams and flaws she's a human being like all
14:48of us and makes choices um they just might be a little different to how you know you would make
14:54decisions it's just not necessarily right or wrong we're gonna see some of the decisions she makes in
14:59the next clip but I wanted to ask you too um a scene like that that we just watched how
15:04long does it
15:05take you to to get what you need that was brutal because like you know you're coming into these episodes
15:10mid-season where a lot of money has been spent and they kind of say so you're supposed to have
15:15x
15:15amount of days but you're gonna have a lot less days and it's like okay how do how do we
15:20do this
15:20that's eight people sitting in a circle and as we all know here people sitting in a circle is terrible
15:25because like so many eyelines also like so stressed I keep calling it the scene with the people sitting
15:30in a circle and that's like the best thing I could do with that one is like the ones I
15:34knew I had to do coverage on
15:35had them opposite each other on an axis so we could do minimal coverage in the circle um so the
15:41approach
15:42to that was just um making sure we had enough time um and just again I can't talk so highly
15:50enough of
15:50her that my dp she was just so amazing of like okay overhead shot oh this shot that shot and
15:57which
15:58is we just sat there and we're like this is all the angles these are the shots let's go and
16:03because
16:03the girls were so dialed in it wasn't even going again for um performance we were just going around
16:08shooting all those that coverage around the circle and we actually shot that earlier than we had
16:13planned because we'd planned it so well and the girls were so amazing and it was actually quite a joy
16:18and I think we all knew oh my gosh that seems going to be amazing so it's it's fun when
16:23you plan and
16:23it's fun when you have such amazing actresses who can bring it and you know that you're not spending a
16:28lot of time also now you know trying to get the performances to a place in a certain amount of
16:32time
16:33and then how many days overall to shoot this entire episode 106 I mean I can't even remember it was
16:39a
16:40it was actually last year it was I think we I had 13 or 14 days but then I they
16:47actually shot part of
16:48episode 7 when I wasn't there because of a location availability and I'd gone on to my next show but
16:53like it was shot over a few months I I won't hold you to it if you could be like
16:59how many hours to
17:00exactly because you're falling asleep in vans uh late at night you you shouldn't have to focus on
17:06the number of days and hours but what did it cost no I'm just kidding um uh just give me
17:11the budget
17:11give me the line sheet and we'll publish that later what were the biggest challenges for you
17:17here with this scene because I assume again you may not have to tell the actors or have a lot
17:21of
17:21conversations about what their motivations are it's very clear what everybody's doing here but what
17:25were the biggest challenges for you I mean I think the content um for us to start with just sort
17:31of
17:31getting over sort of what was happening here execution of women um at point blank range um it that was
17:38hard you know doing those days we began with addressing all of the background artists of like
17:43this is going to be hard and it's going to be confronting but just know that you're seen and you're
17:48valued and we thank you for being here and being part of something so important so we wanted to make
17:53sure that we acknowledge that this is hard for everyone um and then honestly logistically it was
18:01so hot that tennis court was literally 98 degrees it was and people were getting heat stroke and I also
18:08wanted to take care of um everyone on the court the crew but also you know Anne and and Mabel
18:14who
18:14were out there all day and Mabel who played Aunt Vidala who's also a fellow Aussie she was doing that
18:21crying from like literally 7 a.m to 4 p.m not one take I kept saying it Mabel like
18:27save yourself it's
18:28okay but she just kept she said I just need to do it I just need to be in it
18:31every single time
18:32and so that meant that I could use any piece of coverage because she was there at 1000% every
18:37time
18:38she was amazing so it was hard logistically you know it took all day to shoot that um and yeah
18:45so
18:45I think just emotionally it was hard and logistically it was hard and you know and then but it was
18:51worth
18:51it because I think it was the most important part of Aunt Lydia's story um you know I think she's
18:57had
18:57flashbacks before and I think but we have never seen this and you know I kind of all also kind
19:04of
19:04joked and said this is like the moment when Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader you know I mean this is
19:09the moment um the crew loved that I'm not sure if I said that to Anne um but you know
19:14it's it was a
19:15seminal part of the story and it was again just sort of when you really strip it down and analyze
19:22what you know sort of metaphorically how women are asked to sort of sacrifice other women for
19:28survival it's not that far from kind of what we do like what we're asked to do and how many
19:33of us
19:33do that and not do that when we're given the choice and um so it was a really confronting
19:39conversation to have for all of us you know have you been having a lot of I would imagine you've
19:44been having a lot of those conversations because so many people who've either worked on this show
19:47have worked on Handmaid's Tale have been talking about asked about you know um you know really
19:55revisiting how the shows are sometimes a shockingly accurate reflection of some of the things that are
20:02happening in our culture right now how did you feel about that and and stepping into that and was it
20:07part of the reason you wanted to do it absolutely I absolutely wanted to be a part of this story
20:12and
20:12I that as why I wanted to be a part of Handmaid's because I think it's important for us as
20:16artists
20:17to sort of create stories or be part of stories that us us as a culture to take a step
20:24back and look at
20:24ourselves and analyze what we want to be a part of in culture and how we treat each other and
20:30I think
20:30it's important to put these stories out there so we can talk about it how can we improve as people
20:34how can we improve in terms of how we treat people um and I think that's important to me and
20:40that was important to everyone who worked on the show I think when when I finished I just said thank
20:44you for being a part of something that is important and putting something out to all of us to question
20:51and sort of try and be better. What is a Jet Wilkinson show set like I mean especially like on
21:00this show because you're directing a lot of women um you're a woman it's your point of view what is
21:06your set like? I mean I love what I do so I always bring a great excited energy and like
21:12when it's a
21:13cut print it's not just a cut print it's screamed at the top of my lungs with much enjoyment I'm
21:19the
21:19I'm everyone's biggest fan um and I think if you don't enjoy it then people around you aren't going
21:25to enjoy because especially if you come on as a either a pilot director people are nervous or an
21:29episode six director where people are tired you've got to bring a positivity and a passion that's
21:35infectious so that everyone feels like they're a part of it like everyone from a PA through to the
21:41focus puller through the dolly grip through to the number one on the call sheet everyone has to know
21:46that they feel that they're important part of this process and that none of us are here without each
21:51other and no print take is there without every single one person bringing their best and I think
21:57when we print a take everyone goes cool that was good like we feel proud of that and I just
22:02want
22:02everyone at the end of every day to go home feeling like they had contributed to something fun today
22:06because I remember when I was a career member and I'd go home say to my partner today the director
22:11yelled at me I feel like a piece of shit you know I don't want anyone to go home at
22:15the end of the day
22:16to feel like they weren't seen or they weren't appreciated I genuinely that sounds kind of flowery
22:20but it's I generally want people to go home feeling like they've done a good day's work again
22:24coming back to the thing of I spent 14 hours away from you today I missed out on so-and
22:29-so's birthday
22:30I missed out on dinner I missed out on anything that was part of your life to be on set
22:34with me
22:34I hope it's worth it you know I want it to be worth being away from your other life for
22:40you know
22:41otherwise why do we do it well said round of applause for that sounds like a great set to I
22:47want to work
22:48there uh can I ask one final parting question um you also directed the next episode which airs next
22:55weekend episode 107 what can you tell us about that that was really fun because I got to work
23:01with Lucy and Lucy so obviously when we came in it was Chase's show and Lucy's show and I loved
23:07working
23:07with Chase she was such a beautiful actress such a wonderful um young woman but I didn't have as much
23:13with Chase as I had with Lucy and this is her episode and she was dynamite she was a lot
23:17of fun
23:18she's Scottish I was Australian we're both really sort of like raw on set we're just like swearing and
23:24like being sort of candid and like she just let me just like she was let me just direct her
23:30in
23:31everything from the emotional performance but also you know you got to be careful with how much you
23:36you direct people with stage performance stage directions but she was like okay so you want me to
23:41walk in look down look up look to the left then say my line or then sit down and it
23:45was like we'd laugh
23:46about it and we'd do it and when then we just it would we'd nail it and we just high
23:50five each other
23:51and it's like that's kind of like I'm actually really excited about Seven because like I think
23:56she's such a great electric interesting actress and she brought something really fresh and I'm just
24:02really excited for people to see her backstory so I had I honestly felt like I was so lucky with
24:06the
24:06two episodes I had and I'm so I'm really excited for everyone to see her in episode seven I'm so
24:12excited too I'm also so excited that we had you here today thank you so much this was such a
24:16wonderful
24:17conversation I feel like you gained a lot of new fans and friends today
24:23d
24:23d
24:23d
24:23d
24:23You
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