00:04Hi, my name is Theo Rees. I'm the director of Stuffed. We're with the cast of Stuffed, Jodie Comer and
00:09Harry Melling, and Joss, the co-writer and composer of Stuffed, and this is The Hollywood Reporter, and we're at
00:15TIFF.
00:24Hi, I'm Saya Rankin, and I'm here with the cast of Stuffed, and I guess my first question is, I
00:30want to know, what was the pitch to you when you first heard about this movie, and what you were
00:35going to be doing in it?
00:36Ooh, I think the pitch, well it arrived, the script arrived in an email with the logline, the premise of
00:45a taxidermist who wants to stuff a human being, and she finds a man on the dark web who kind
00:54of volunteers himself, so I immediately was like, wait, what?
00:57And then Harry was already attached, so that was really exciting for me, because I feel like Harry is, one,
01:04brilliant, but makes really interesting choices, and then there was a video from Theo and the script and Joss' music,
01:11so I read the logline, I immediately sat down on my kitchen table and started reading the script, and it
01:18was amazing to be able to listen to the music simultaneously, so that was my experience, and from that I
01:24was like, I'm definitely in.
01:26Yeah, have you ever gotten a similar pitch before on a movie, this was the furthest out you've definitely, yeah,
01:33yeah, yeah, I would say so, yeah, I would say so, have you, have you ever got, I've never had
01:38something where I can read the script, and listen to the music simultaneously, yeah, it was so amazing, it was
01:45amazing, it was, it was such a unique way of being introduced to a world, um, I just fell in
01:51love with it, just like Joni did, I just fell in love with the story, and, and who these people
01:55were, and the vision of what,
01:56these two were coming out with, um, Theo, if you don't mind, tell us about, this is based on a
02:01real life, I don't want to call them a couple, two real life people, who, the stuffer, and the stuffy,
02:09well, no, so it's actually, it's based on, um, loosely, originally, the genesis of this came from the story of,
02:18uh, a German cannibal, and the man he met online, that he wanted to, that wanted to be eaten,
02:23and within that, yeah, somehow darker, it's a lot darker, yeah, it makes Taxi Dami look like, yeah, it does,
02:29Child's Blood, it's a twin comparison, um, but no, it was, it was an amazing story, and I, I heard
02:36it from my mum when I was 13, which was quite young to hear a story like that,
02:39I was just quite, I was so shocked, and there was so much within it that was sort of really
02:45interesting to grapple with, you know, the idea of dying to, to do what you love,
02:49the idea of, um, of these two people that found each other, and that wanted to do this, the same
02:56bizarre thing,
02:57and that somehow, you know, amidst the kind of horrificness of the, the morbidness of the story,
03:03there was this connection between these two people that found each other, and there was somewhere in there something romantic
03:09in a love story,
03:10and so that was the genesis of it, um, yeah.
03:14What kind of, did you have either of these two in mind, like, what kind of people were you envisioning
03:18that needed to do this,
03:19because it's a very specific sort of tone, mix of funny and quirky and dark.
03:24It was a really open casting process when we first started thinking about it, because we, we realized that actually,
03:31what we wanted to do is try and find somebody who was right for the character, rather than looking at
03:36age, or, you know,
03:38so it was, it was really wide open to who, to who it was. Um, when we first found Harry,
03:45it just, everything clicked into place,
03:46and it was just like, this is, Harry just, it just has so much, brings so much levity, it was
03:51just the, the, the perfect casting,
03:54it just felt like, you know, it was, it was amazing. And then for Jodie, you know, for Araminta,
03:59we were looking for, for this, um, for this mischievousness, and this darkness, that, that wasn't ever sort of, uh,
04:09outwardly glaring at her, but allowed us into her in some way, um, to sort of, you know, understand the
04:15histories of,
04:16of how she got there. And Jodie just has this amazing power, and, and vulnerability at the same time,
04:22and so it was just, yeah, it was perfect. And they can both sing.
04:25Okay, that was my next question, is did you, like, how were you finding the singing? Did you know that
04:31they could sing? Had you seen them sing? So we've, like, you sang, um, the acapella scene from Pileon,
04:36and, um, have we, like, have you sang publicly in things? I, I did this one clip, and, um, I
04:45did a film
04:45called Free Guy, and there was, like, a kind of little Easter egg where I, uh, sung a, um, a
04:51verse from
04:51Fantasy by Mariah Carey. I went in big. One of the classics. I'm like, you want to sing a Mariah
04:57Carey song?
04:58One of the classics. There's an interview, there's an interview of you as well, where you sing. I did,
05:02yes, because I googled, if you've Googled Jodie Comer singing. Yeah, but those are, oh, come on now.
05:06Those are those ones where they, like, give you a song after a photo shoot, and they're, like,
05:09you can sing this, or you can read it, and I'm, like, well, I'm not going to take myself that
05:13seriously
05:13that I'm going to read it, but you can't judge the singing on those things.
05:17It was good, but it was, it was, it was one of those, you know, there was so, there wasn't
05:21a huge amount out there in the world. I mean, for you to have more Jodie, and I think it
05:25was, um, and so it was. It was driver's license. I did write that down. Oh, God, man. It's
05:31one of those things afterwards you're, like, well, hi, then you're, like, let's not take
05:34it so seriously. No, it's fine. But, I mean, you know, meeting, meeting with them both, I
05:40mean, firstly, I hadn't realized that Jodie wanted to do a musical for years and put that
05:45out into the world in various different interviews, and, um, and also Harry and you had just done
05:50Pillion, which I hadn't seen at the time, but I knew that there was singing in that,
05:53and you, you were really excited to explore that, and I think both, you know, both of you
05:58guys were so excited to explore singing, and I knew that jumping into a project like this,
06:03you know, was a lot, and it was going to be a vulnerable place to go, and so actually
06:07no, no one was going to do that unless they, they, they had some sense that they, they could
06:11really go for it. I think also they, like, um, these guys are in the, sort of, perfect
06:17pocket where, like, I think for a lot of musicals, if someone's, like, a really professional
06:21trained singer, there's something slightly distancing about that, something less relatable
06:25about that when you hear, like, an opera, a really, like, well-trained operatic voice.
06:29Obviously, when these guys first showed up and we first had a rehearsal together, it
06:33was, like, the relief of my life that they had great voices, but there's something, like,
06:38like, they, they just sit right on that precipice of feeling, like, very relatable and very
06:42human, but also incredible, you know, very well-pitched, very characterful performances.
06:48Um, so I think it's, like, the question of whether they can sing is actually, like,
06:52it's quite exciting, because we also get them in this honeymoon period of discovering their
06:56voices, as the characters are discovering their voices, too, which is often, like, a really
07:00nice journey to go on with them. Yeah.
07:02Yeah. And they put in so much work with our, with our vocal coach and vocal director, Owen
07:08Mallon. It was, it was an amazing process to see that kind of growth. It was amazing.
07:12If you were, I'm, I'm, this is going to sound like I'm putting you on the spot to sing.
07:16I am not. But if you were to, like, redo that, what song would you pick? Like, if you were
07:21going to, if you were, could pick a song to be, if I Googled you, you were singing a song,
07:27and it's probably not a driver's license, or maybe it's not Mariah Carey.
07:30Oh, God.
07:30Like, what would?
07:31What would?
07:33I mean, from the, someone else's eyes has such a, like, such a soft spot in my heart for
07:39that song.
07:40Me too.
07:41And it's a song that really grew on me. The more we did that together, the more we realized
07:45actually the film, where it happens in the movie is such an important moment of them really
07:51meeting.
07:52Yeah.
07:52Um, so, we'd sing it together. Me and Jodie would sing someone else's eyes together, post
08:00it on YouTube.
08:02Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:03See the hits rolling. Um, yeah.
08:07Did you ever think about, in the making of this movie, if you were forced to choose, would
08:12you rather be the taxidermist or the person getting taxidermied?
08:18I mean, I was very happy being the taxidermist.
08:21I had so much fun. What was amazing was I did a tiny, tiny weenie course in Portsmouth
08:26in the UK, um, where I got to kind of try it.
08:32Oh, what did you catch them?
08:34Um, it was a rabbit. And what was fascinating about it, because obviously I was trying to
08:38wrap my mind around, obviously there was Araminta's history, which I understood, but
08:43I'm like, stuffing, you know, doing this to a human, it feels quite extreme. However, when
08:48you're kind of working with an animal in that way and you're literally peeling back the
08:52layers and like looking at ligaments and you're like, we're so not dissimilar. Do you know what
08:58I mean? And she's so of the kind of animal kingdom that I like, I don't think she sees
09:04herself as other. So the idea is not as outlandish to her as it is to other people. And that
09:10was a real, like, um, it was a real click for me having that opportunity to do that before
09:16we started. Yeah. Would you, oh, go ahead.
09:19No, I just think, I remember when I first read the script, I thought to myself, I don't
09:24think I ever told you this, but I thought to myself, I think Bernie's going to become an
09:29assistant taxi driver.
09:32They're going to go in on it together.
09:34I think so. This was what I got to the end. I was like, Bernie's going to help her out
09:37in
09:37some way, you know, but then I thought, Oh no, no, no. I know where this is going because
09:41you know, when the love story starts to sort of blossom, I thought, I don't know if he's
09:45going to get stuffed. I'm not sure if this is the way, you know, but, um, to give anything
09:50away.
09:51We don't know, but I thought that might be an interesting sort of duo.
09:59I think the real tragedy is for, oh, sorry, no, yeah.
10:04I'll, I'll redirect you and ask you lastly, would you ever, um, taxidermy one of your
10:10pets after this, like, or that's still a, that's too weird.
10:14I don't think so.
10:15I think I could.
10:16No.
10:17I don't think so.
10:18This is assuming they have died naturally, not, I'm not.
10:20Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:21You're going out your way.
10:23The reality is, is understanding what the taxidermy process is.
10:26It's a beautiful, it's a fascinating, beautiful process.
10:29It's not the real animal.
10:30I had an amazing meeting with a taxidermist who, years ago, stopped doing pets because
10:35he, he'd do pets for people and he'd give the pets back and they'd be, like, burst into
10:40tears.
10:41Oh.
10:41That's not Rocky.
10:42There's such a high expectation.
10:43Of course it's not Rocky.
10:45Rocky's skin stretched over a plastic mould, you know.
10:47Yeah.
10:48And so I think that there's a, yeah, you don't have that emotional attachment to something.
10:52And that's kind of the question of the film, right, as well, which is that, like, it's,
10:56you know, a person is more than the sum of its parts, you know what I mean?
10:59And the same for an animal.
11:00It's, like, you can reconstruct everything to, like, a hundred percent accuracy, but,
11:05potentially, if you know the person really well, if you're, like, in love with them,
11:08it's, it's not going to be there.
11:09There's going to always be a little, a little gap.
11:11Hmm.
11:12I do hear you.
11:13I, I still think I might want to taxidermy my dog.
11:16Oh, do you want to do that?
11:17Let us know.
11:18I will circle back on whether I regret that.
11:20Ah!
11:21Ah!
11:21Ah!
11:21Ah!
11:22Ah!
11:22Ah!
11:23Ah!
11:24Ah!
11:24Ah!
11:24You
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