00:00The love we made, the love we shared, all we leave behind is love in the end.
00:09I feel like this movie offers me a proper opportunity to lead off an interview with this question, which is,
00:14how would you sum up the meaning of life?
00:20It's interesting, we've actually kind of run face first into this today.
00:25And I think we kind of agree, the meaning of life is to love, and especially the people, the people,
00:34our family, our chosen family, and our actual family that come right to mind.
00:39Oh god, I don't know, what is the meaning of life? I mean, I have theories on what's going on.
00:44My theory so far is that, and it's not an original theory, many people have this theory, that we are
00:51the universe.
00:51And we're little pieces of the universe expressing itself for periods of time.
00:56But what's interesting, I will add to that, is that we are now starting to question what the meaning of
01:02life is.
01:03And so therefore, if we are the universe, the universe is starting to examine itself.
01:08That's pretty mind-blowing.
01:09It's kind of an Ouroboros kind of thing.
01:11There's no accomplishment in the world that's going to satisfy you.
01:14There's no amount of money that's going to, you know, that's going to all of a sudden find you peaceful
01:20and happy.
01:21I mean, the things that bring you joy are the things that are found in sharing time with other people
01:26and in fellowship and in sort of, you know, your chosen family, but your family and the ones you love.
01:32So for me, it's the journey is about the people you love.
01:35If I had to sum up the meaning of life, I would ask Mike Flanagan to write it down for
01:39me before I said it.
01:40But I think the meaning of life is that we are here to feel everything.
01:45Go out and feel things.
01:47Feel sorrow, feel joy, feel grief, feel boredom.
01:50Just feel.
01:51Don't flinch away from feelings.
01:53I'm not going to give away what happens in the first part of the movie, but you really see it
01:59doesn't go down in a reign of all, you know, hectic events happening all at once.
02:04You know, it ends with the people that you love and I think if I wanted to, how I wanted
02:09to spend my final moments was with the people that I love.
02:12And I think if I had to sum up the meaning of life, it's just about, you know, making memories
02:18and finding the people that you really feel connected to.
02:23That's all we leave behind.
02:24All we leave behind is love in the end.
02:26The love, the love we made, the love we shared, you hope to pass that on.
02:31What did we say?
02:33A very wise, somebody else, I didn't come up with this, said to me once, the only meaning in life
02:38is to reside as a good object in the minds of others.
02:43That's beautiful.
02:43And that would be something to leave behind, that if, as you left, you were, in the minds of others,
02:51you were a good object.
02:52But that also just comes back to love, doesn't it?
02:56You might see a lot more than you wanted.
03:01But if you have heart, you have hope.
03:06And you have heart in you.
03:13When I read it, I was expecting, between Flanagan and King, the epic horror movie of all time, so I
03:21was stunned at the material.
03:23I ordered the book, it came overnight, and I read the book, I read the script, and I told Mike
03:29and the producers, I'm going to be hopeless on the promotional trail, because I don't know how the hell to
03:35talk about this thing.
03:37It's, you know, how do you describe the indescribable?
03:40It was really fun to make, and it was filled with joy, like, it wasn't a heavy experience shooting the
03:45film, I would say.
03:46And then watching it, it is also filled with joy and not a heavy experience, but it really packed an
03:51emotional punch that I didn't necessarily feel as much while making it.
03:54But watching the whole thing all together, I was, I mean, I think I was sobbing for literal days afterwards.
04:01Like, it really had an effect on me.
04:03Yeah, I feel like I just felt that it was, I was just so engaged with a story that you
04:08felt like you could just carry on drinking in.
04:10You know, I felt that way when I was reading it, to be honest, as well.
04:14Just, I just, just the layers, just uncovering the layers was just so addictive to me.
04:19It was like, but I feel like as a film experience, you know, there's sometimes when that doesn't necessarily correlate
04:25to that experience, you know, from reading it.
04:27But on this one, absolutely, you sort of, in some ways, more so, you just wanted to kind of carry
04:32on understanding the layers to all of these characters and the circumstances that they're in.
04:37I should say I've never danced like I dance in this, and it, because I haven't had, I never had
04:42the training that Chuck had.
04:44And that was a real pleasure to, to actually be humbled by what I didn't know.
04:50And I was like, I, you know, to really go, to put through my paces and learn the steps and
04:54the techniques.
04:55But I love music, and dancing is really an instinctive response to music, and it makes me feel enormous joy.
05:02But I'm not thinking.
05:03That's the whole point.
05:04I think when you're dancing and not thinking, you're just free.
05:07I knew, and Mike told me, that this monologue is the meaning of the movie.
05:13And so I felt that pressure very acutely.
05:17But I also know that Mike does this to me over and over again, where he gives me a monologue
05:22that's like, about the thing.
05:24With an ensemble this large, it's about knowing where to put your different players.
05:28And I was extremely grateful for this particular one, and this responsibility.
05:31It seems so timely when we're such a divided nation, and there's such stress in the news.
05:40This movie's almost therapeutic, in the sense that it's reassuring that, no, it's okay.
05:47It's life-affirming.
05:49It celebrates the seemingly trivial moments in one man's life that have great import and impact on the overall story.
06:01Now, that said, I'm at a loss.
06:04I mean, all I can say is, please go see this movie.
06:07Please, please, you'll like it.
06:09But I don't want to talk about it, but you'll love it.
06:11So trust me, and you can thank me later.
06:14There you go.
06:17The universe is large.
06:24And it contains multitudes.
06:26But it also contains me.
06:32Obviously, you have kind of an investment in the future of Stephen King adaptations, just a little bit.
06:38A little bit.
06:38I'm curious, though.
06:39I mean, kind of how tapped in are you to, like, all of the King that's going on now?
06:43And are you seeing it as kind of a passage?
06:44Oh, I mean, I'm completely tapped in as a fan.
06:47I'm in breathless anticipation of all of them.
06:50But I've been that way since I was a kid.
06:54I'm particularly interested in seeing how the hell they pull off the long walk, because how the hell are you
06:59going to do that?
06:59But, I mean, our pal Mark Hamill's in it, so I'm very excited.
07:03I would have been regardless.
07:04But, yeah, I think every couple of years I hear about the Stephen King renaissance that we're in,
07:10which I think just speaks to the incredible volume of his work
07:14and to the constant appetite to translate it from the page to the screen.
07:20And as a constant reader, I'm thrilled.
07:22Thrilled to live in Stephen King's world.
07:24This actually isn't your first Stephen King movie, because you were previously in Sleepwalkers,
07:29which is Stephen King's first original screenplay.
07:31It's an uncredited part, and I'm curious if there is a story behind why.
07:35I almost forgot about that, because I knew Nick Garris.
07:40And he said, do you want to do a little cameo in this movie I'm doing?
07:44And I was wanting to support him.
07:46He's a wonderful writer and director, and so I did it on a whim.
07:51I don't know if I even got billing.
07:54In other words, I'm not one of the main actors.
07:56No, you're uncredited, yeah.
07:57I was only reminded of this recently, and then I got to meet him.
08:02I sat right next to him at TIFF, and I know I'm a good actor, because I acted like a
08:09normal human being.
08:11Inside, I was like, whoa!
08:15But I didn't do that.
08:16And I wanted to ask him a bunch of questions.
08:18Why didn't you like Stanley Kubrick's The Shining?
08:20I don't know him that well enough.
08:22We follow each other now on social media.
08:24At one point, he said, I was trying to post the trailer.
08:28He said really nice things about this movie.
08:31And he said, I was trying to post the trailer with some difficulty,
08:37but thanks to my pal Mark Hammack, he fixed it for me.
08:41Well, I didn't want to, again, fanboy online,
08:45but I'm having that tweet printed out, framed, put on my wall.
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