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Hereditary (2018) Cursed The True Nature Of Hereditary Featurette
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00:00You
00:09Come on Peter, there's your suit
00:13It's heartening to see so many strange new faces here today. I know my mom would be very touched and
00:20probably a little suspicious
00:25She wasn't all together there
00:29At the end
00:33Mom? I don't like this. Dad, I don't like this
00:36What's happening? Peter!
00:38Don't you ever raise your voices! I am your mother!
00:43Mom, what's happening?
00:44Make it stop! Make it stop!
00:49I just don't want to put any more stress on my family
01:01I feel like I'm always writing from a pretty personal place, but I also love genre
01:06And so by being able to take that idea of a family being cursed and literalizing that
01:10I was sort of able to take these more personal feelings and put them through a horror movie filter
01:17Well as a kid I really loved horror films and there are a few in particular that really
01:25Traumatized me. Carrie was one that really bothered me
01:28I couldn't really walk around in the dark without projecting like images from Carrie on the wall
01:34And then there's a film by Peter Greenaway called The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
01:39Which is not designated a horror film
01:41Although it's so deeply upsetting
01:43And there's like this certain level of artifice to his aesthetic that always bothered me
01:48And it's a film that I end up showing people a lot before we make something
01:52Especially on this one because we were dealing so much with artifice
01:56Those two movies stayed with me for many, many years
01:59And they really affected my life
02:01So I wonder what it is that makes me want to do that as well
02:13Hereditary is about a lot of things
02:15I think ultimately it's about inheriting family trauma
02:19It's about what you take from your family or what's thrust upon you
02:23And how you deal with it
02:26The narrative ultimately is about a family dealing with a lot of grief
02:30And the extremes to which they go
02:32It's incredibly written
02:34And I think Ari is so well prepared
02:37And so meticulous about all of his choices and what he wants
02:41I mean he had this film edited in his mind possibly two years ago
02:44So it's been challenging in the best possible way
02:49For me this was always a film that was a family drama first
02:54So I wanted to make a film that was very firmly rooted in this very complicated family dynamic
03:01And they go through these very horrible things
03:05And over the course of the film
03:06Everything just sort of unravels into a nightmare
03:10I just want to die
03:16Horror films are much more upsetting and frightening
03:19If you are invested in the characters
03:23It was always just very important to me that these were people that you cared about
03:27So that when things happen to them
03:30It's not just spectacle but it feels like a betrayal
03:34You know I had said to my agent
03:36I don't want to do anything intense or heavy
03:39I had done quite a bit of that
03:42And I just wanted to do comedies and have fun
03:44And then he sent this to me and I was like screw you
03:50Because I love it
03:51I love the story so much
03:52I couldn't put it down
03:53It is an incredibly textural, layered, complex family drama
04:01Which then will surprise you with where it goes
04:03I thought it was one of the coolest
04:06Most interesting and disturbing
04:09Twisted scripts I'd ever read in my life
04:12Definitely
04:13And one of the best young characters I've ever seen
04:19They had Tony on board
04:21And it ended up with this really crazy thing
04:26Where the school that I went to
04:28The girl playing Charlie, Millie Shapiro
04:30Actually went to that school so I knew her really well
04:33Well I got the audition from my manager
04:36And I've always wanted to be in a horror movie
04:39Because I love watching horror movies
04:41And so I got a call back and I was really excited
04:44And then after that I got a director's meeting
04:48So I got to meet Ari and that was really cool
04:50And then a couple weeks later I heard I got the part
04:53She's just an amazing actress
04:55She's such a good actress that it doesn't feel
04:58That Charlie is being played by anybody
04:59It feels like we found Charlie
05:01She actually won an honorary Tony
05:04For playing Matilda on Broadway when she was 10 years old
05:07And we would do these very, very intense scenes
05:10And then whenever I'd say cut
05:12She would just sort of jump up and do one of these
05:16It was, yeah, great
05:17My mother was a very secretive and private woman
05:22She had private rituals, private friends, private anxieties
05:27It honestly feels like a betrayal just to be standing here talking about her
05:32The beginning of the story, we start at her mum's funeral
05:37And you can tell by the way she's delivering the eulogy
05:40That there was kind of an interesting relationship that she might have had with her mother
05:46Her birth family is kind of played with psychological issues
05:51So she met her husband Steve, played by Gabriel
05:54When he was her psychiatrist
05:57When they stopped working together he continued to care for her
06:00And continued a deeper relationship
06:04Hey, how's it going?
06:07Just working
06:08It's one of the most intense parts I've ever played
06:11Steve, Steve please, I really, really need you to be open to this
06:15Please, please, I promise, both of you
06:18But I've never been challenged in this way
06:20Tony Collette is very capable of going extremely deep
06:25And then very impressively snapping right out of it between takes
06:29She plays Annie as a very tortured woman with a very complicated past
06:34And she's somebody who's really wrestling with that
06:37And is wrestling with her role as a mother and a wife
06:39But also certainly as a daughter
06:41And that's really, like, the heart of the film
06:44Charlie!
06:47I mean, what are you doing?
06:50Leaving the house barefoot
06:51You're some kind of an idiot
06:53You can't roam around with no shoes and no coat
06:55Charlie is a very interesting character
06:59She's very distant from everyone
07:01She doesn't connect with anyone
07:03She likes to be alone and that's when she feels most calm
07:06And everyone thinks that she has something wrong with her
07:10And so they're very cautious around her
07:14They don't really know how to treat her
07:16Well, the idea would be that Charlie is an artist
07:19And that she draws from her mother in that way
07:21But also that Charlie and Annie are compulsive artists
07:25It's something that they both need to do
07:27It's clearly therapeutic for Annie
07:29The figurines that Charlie makes are made of found objects
07:34So she's reappropriating these things
07:37Which comes to take on greater significance as the film goes on
07:43She gets along with Peter the most
07:45Because he kind of just, like, knows that she likes to be left alone
07:48So he doesn't try as hard
07:50Everything's a little bit like the characters
07:52I think we all sort of molded into what the characters' relationships were
07:57Or at least I did
07:58I don't know, I think it's a little easier if you keep it to some degree
08:02Like the relationship in the movie
08:04Because then you don't have to completely jump back and forth
08:07Alex is amazing
08:09And he's a method actor
08:11And so he just gives himself over completely to the part
08:21I didn't talk to him as Alex from the first day of shooting to the last
08:26And you'll be asleep from the set
08:30Thank you Peter
08:31Roll it up
08:31And on the last day of shooting
08:34He introduced himself to the whole crew as Alex for the first time
08:38It was like a dangerous level of commitment
08:41I read the script so I knew that it was requiring a lot
08:44I just didn't understand what it would do to your psyche or whatever
08:50It makes it easier to have Ari
08:52The reason I can do it is because of Ari
08:54And because of just having these people who are encouraging you
08:58And are saying it's okay to go there
08:59No, stop it, stop it now
09:02Please stop
09:03Stop making it stop
09:05Peter, I'm scared
09:06To have a place where you can go
09:08And be as crazy and broken and upset as you want
09:13Because it's the highest circumstance of grief
09:19Peter's relationship with Steve is much more civil and sweet
09:27I think they have an understanding with each other
09:30So I think he looks to Steve as his best person
09:34But really I think Peter feels a little alone in the wilderness
09:38The base or the structure of the story isn't horror
09:41The structure is based on a reality
09:45And it's extremely cleverly written
09:47And then filmmaking is a collaborative medium as you know
09:51And actors and director bring their particular perspectives to the script
09:59And it alters and builds
10:03But without a strong script there's nothing
10:06You came to care about this family through the build up of their relationship
10:12So that by the time the film begins to turn
10:15You're already invested emotionally in this family
10:19I'm Joan
10:21Hi
10:23Are you doing better?
10:26Ann Dowd plays Joan
10:27Who steps into the film as this sort of much needed source of compassion
10:33Ann Dowd is naturally just one of the warmest people
10:38And she was able to find in Joan that maternal warmth
10:43But then she was also excessive about it
10:46And obviously where the film goes
10:48It's you know there's something deeply Machiavellian about her character
10:53Ann was just very exciting to watch
10:55Even just as a physical actress
10:57Just the way that she invades Annie's space
11:00And just sort of is constantly touching her
11:02In a way that's both sorely needed by Annie
11:06And also laced with red flags
11:13I think sometimes when you work on something so kind of heavy and intense
11:16You have to balance it out with a little bit of levity on set
11:21So it's fun and sometimes it has to be so hyper focused
11:26Because the story demands it
11:28And that's great to be able to work in that kind of environment
11:32Where everyone's so respectful of what's going on
11:34Rolling
11:38Action
11:40Who's gonna take care of me?
11:44Um, excuse me? You don't think I'm gonna take care of you?
11:49Today we're shooting a scene
11:51I'm shooting a scene with Millie Shapiro
11:53Who plays my young daughter who's not a great communicator
11:56Or doesn't communicate in the way I would like her to
11:57And so I'm kind of trying too hard
11:59Trying to comfort her after her grandmother's funeral
12:02To whom she was very close
12:05It's really fun working with Ari and the rest of the cast
12:08Because Ari really helped me figure out the character
12:11So that when we started filming
12:13It'd be really easy for me
12:14And it wouldn't be me just searching around in the dark
12:17Trying to figure things out on my own
12:19And the other actors are very experienced in film
12:22So it's very nice for me
12:25Because they're welcoming me into this world
12:27That I've never been in before
12:28Very kindly
12:29And helping me figure things out
12:31Which I find really cool
12:32There's a scene where my character has a nightmare
12:35At first it feels even more nightmarish
12:38Because at first you can't tell if it's a nightmare or not
12:40It feels quite realistic
12:40But then it definitely becomes a nightmare
12:42And the moment you really realize it's a nightmare
12:44Is when both Peter and Annie are completely drenched in paint thinner
12:49So in between takes
12:50You know people are coming in and literally just pouring water all over
12:54And the first while we're fully dressed
12:55And it's a moment which is like very emotionally charged
13:00And so it was a funny combination
13:02And it's just I'm doing things in this movie that I've never done before
13:05So that in itself is always exciting when you go to work, right?
13:08My scene today was me just sleeping in the beginning of the movie
13:12And I'm just sleeping and Gabriel's coming to wake me up
13:14And I got to just hang out in bed and sleep
13:17And it was so lovely
13:19It was amazing
13:20So I got to do that today
13:21And we joked
13:23Ari said
13:23Hey you have a light day today
13:24You just have to look at your sister's head roll off towards you
13:28And turn into a Nerf ball
13:30And then a demon grabs your head and tries to pull it off your neck
13:34But that's a light day for you
13:38And it is, it is
13:39And honestly that was a light day
13:45So far the most memorable experience for me was when I did my stunt
13:49Because I had to hang out of a car
13:51And it was really cool because I had like a tether attaching me to the car
13:54And I was hanging out of the car while I was going like 30 miles an hour
13:58And so that was really fun for me because I had never done a stunt before
14:02And it kind of felt like a roller coaster
14:03And I love roller coasters and I love acting
14:06So they're combined together in that moment
14:08And that was really fun for me
14:10Ari honestly is such an original filmmaker
14:13He has such a clear vision
14:15The story is so unique and so unusual
14:17Even the camera work, it's like the camera Olympics
14:21It's just so beautifully shot, unusually shot
14:25But not in a divisive way that will take you out of the movie
14:28It all serves the story
14:31Pavel Pokerjewski is the director of photography
14:34And he and I went to AFI together
14:37We have this great shorthand where we just absolutely understand each other's taste
14:42And sense of aesthetics
14:44And the way we worked on this was that I developed the shot list
14:47Which includes, you know, the blocking of the actors in relation to the camera
14:51And then we worked with Grace Yuen, the production designer
14:54Basically mapping out every scene to see, okay, what do we need from these spaces
14:59Before we end up building them
15:00We immediately started doing sketches
15:02And talking about the bigger points like the tree house scene towards the end
15:09And how that can be, you know, the starting point of developing motif
15:14Or a concept that is a through line throughout the film
15:18We were scouting for a long time in Utah
15:22We were scouting actually in Salt Lake City
15:25And we found a few houses that, you know, met some requirements
15:29But we had realized that to use any of those locations would have been more expensive than to build everything
15:36Because we needed to remodel the house essentially
15:40And so we decided that we were going to build the entire house
15:43So every interior you see at that house was built from scratch on a stage
15:49But the challenge was that we needed to replicate everything in miniature form
15:53One of the main hero pieces is a miniature version of the Graham house
15:58I was simultaneously designing the build of the Graham house
16:02And then also designing the miniature of the Graham house
16:04Which needs to function a certain way, the way, you know, it's shot listed
16:09It was just information gathering, communicating with the miniatures
16:12So that he has enough time and everything that he needs
16:15So we had this guy, Steve Newbern, this really great artist in Toronto
16:20Creating miniature replicas of everything that we were building
16:24So there were really two builds that needed to be overseen
16:27You still toiling away at the hospice?
16:31Yeah, between this and the preschool
16:35The miniatures were preschool miniature
16:38There is a hospice miniature
16:42Then we have downstairs, in the downstairs hallway, or the foyer
16:45We have older miniatures from Annie's last show
16:50Ari is very invested in the visual aspects of the film, the design of the film
16:56There's a lot of custom pieces, a lot of prop fabrication
17:00And also, I did a bunch of research on Payman, one of the main demon for the cult that's in
17:09this film
17:09Did research on pagan rituals and just developing what the cult side of things, what that would look like
17:17And drew from Utah, in a way
17:21Originally, the script was written to be like a snowy landscape in the mountains
17:25But due to the time period, everything is happening in spring and summer
17:29So it was this idea of embracing the green, embracing this lush landscape
17:36And how green and spring is kind of the awakening of this cult that's happening
17:44The score was composed by Colin Stetson, who's a brilliant avant-garde saxophonist
17:51But he'd also produced all of these incredible solo albums
17:55I was listening to a lot of Colin Stetson while I was writing the script
18:00To the point that his albums felt inextricable from what I was writing
18:19I sent him the coronation theme, Zadok the priest
18:22Which is this very ecstatic, exultant music
18:27And so that was used as temp
18:29Once we found that tone, Colin sent that in
18:33And it was like, okay, yeah, that's exciting
18:36I haven't really heard anything like that in a horror film before
18:38I think that Ari is the real deal
18:44I think he is using the horror convention to make points about family, about connection, about love, about fear
18:53I think it's an exciting film because a lot of it is so unexpected
18:58People ultimately want something new
19:02They want to be surprised, they want to be moved
19:04And it is incredibly moving and incredibly surprising
19:12This is just very pure and very just unusually honest
19:18I wanted to make a film that stays with people
19:22And that haunts people
19:26I'm hoping that, you know, a lot of the feelings that are wrought in the film
19:32That they hang in the air for a while after people leave
19:35And it's not something that they can just immediately
20:05So it's just a moment that they do
20:06They're not a bit different
20:07Or they might be surprised
20:07Or they might be surprised
20:07Or they might be surprised
20:07I think that they've been surprised
20:07That he's been there
20:08That he's largely the one
20:08I feel like
20:08Oh
20:08It's a being
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