00:00Well, it's dedicated to my parents because I lost both my mom and my dad this year and they're very
00:05important to me and I really wanted to show this movie to them and I didn't get to.
00:13I think they would have liked it and, you know, I'm surprised to hear you say that you were waiting
00:20for me for 10 years but I'm very touched and, you know, this honestly is really my favorite place to
00:29share movies.
00:29I love it.
00:30I think it, every time you come here you can't be cynical.
00:34People love movies.
00:35They love talking about them.
00:36They take them seriously.
00:37They're not forgotten.
00:38There's no sense that they're going to be forgotten or that the world is moving on from movies and I
00:45just find that really moving and empowering and important.
00:49And in the last 10 years, you know, it's, let's see, I'm 51, so I was 41 and my kids
00:58grew up and,
00:59I went through COVID and divorce and a million, a million things and I took all of that stuff.
01:08You know, the good thing about being an artist, the best thing maybe, is that you can take all of
01:13the hardest experiences in your life and put it into your work and it just makes you better.
01:17If you're willing to face it all, be honest about it all and show up vulnerably with those feelings and
01:27allow for the fact that you might not be able to really fully understand them but you're willing to put
01:33them into what you're making, it's a blessing.
01:37And for me, it's the only way that I can understand what's happening in my own life.
01:43It's because sometimes I'll see movies from five years ago and I think, oh, wow, that's what that was about.
01:48I had no idea.
01:49I didn't know that is what I was going through at that time.
01:53That is what was on my mind.
01:54And because we go through our lives thinking about picking the kids up or making lunch or buying the groceries,
02:01but there's this other stuff that's churning deep, deep, deep down and that's the stuff that comes out when you're
02:09making something.
02:09And then there you see it on the screen.
02:11You think, oh, I guess that's me.
02:15And so I think someday I'll look back on this movie and I'll say, that's me and I'll have a
02:20better understanding of what the last 10 years have been like.
02:22But for now, I'm just, you know, here with a vampire movie and happy to be here.
02:28She also asked, Casey, if you want to address why Ben Mendelsohn was announced as not.
02:33Yes, so Ben was here and was planning to stay.
02:37He just had to leave this morning because his dad is very ill and he wanted to go and be
02:40with him.
02:40So he was sorry to leave.
02:42Your sons have been dragged into the family business.
02:45Was it kicking and screaming?
02:48I'd like to hear from them.
02:49Can we hear from them?
02:50I see they're in the front row.
02:51No, you're not allowed, Helen.
02:52You're not allowed to.
02:56I'm the director, but I'm still a father.
02:59And so I've forbidden it.
03:01But I dragged them kicking and screaming.
03:04It's not inaccurate.
03:06Neither one of them really wanted to, you know, be a part of this production.
03:12I think that they grew up around it and had some interest in it and a sort of innate understanding
03:16of what it was.
03:19Like I did, my dad worked in the theater for many years.
03:22And so it's passed down, I suppose, which is a really nice thing.
03:27And they were willing to be a part of this.
03:30The casting process was pretty conventional.
03:32We just hired a great casting director, A.B. Kaufman, who I've worked with before.
03:37And I couldn't find people.
03:39But, you know, I was sitting around the house doing read-throughs of this script over and over.
03:45And I would have my two kids read the younger and older teens.
03:50And they were fantastic.
03:55But I definitely didn't want to put them in the movie.
03:57And they had no interest at the time of being in it.
03:59And I got to the point where I was there in pre-production and I hadn't cast the film.
04:04And, you know, they were willing to show up and do it.
04:08And, you know, Atticus, the younger one, had a spring break from high school of a week or so.
04:13And that was kind of all we needed them for.
04:17And Indiana, the older one, was, you know, he showed up and he played his part.
04:22And he stayed every single day and worked in the other departments and shoveled snow and carried, you know, light
04:27stands around and never complained or rarely complained.
04:31And they were amazing.
04:33And it made it the best professional experience of my life by far because I got to go to work
04:39every day with my kids and hang around.
04:40And it was, I would do it over and over again if I could.
04:45I don't think that they will let me.
04:47But I'm going to try.
