JANUARY 6, 2021 | OSCAR PREVIEW
HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD? DAVID FINCHER BRINGS THE BIG SCREEN TO US FOR HIS LATEST PICTURE. WITH A CAST LED BY GARY OLDMAN AND AMANDA SEYFRIED , IS MANK A LOVE LETTER TO CINEMA'S GOLDEN AGE OR AN INDICTMENT OF THE SHADIER SIDE OF THE MOVIE BUSINESS? SPIKE LEE DELIVERS HIS MAVERICK TWIST ON A VIETNAM WAR MOVIE STEVEN YEUN & LEE ISAAC CHUNG PAIR UP FOR MINARI PLUS:
JODIE FOSTER + MICHELLE PFEIFFER + ELISABETH MOSS + NICOLE BEHARIE + RACHEL BROSNAHAN
5-15
FIRST TAKE Spike Lee talks teaching, Trump, and the career that led to Da 5 Bloods Art of Craft: The skill of dressing a great pretender in Promising Young Woman Fresh Face: Sidney Flanigan wows as a brand new beginner in Never Rarely Sometimes Always Delayed effect: How 2020 awards show timing could affect SAG, Globes and Oscar nominations
18
COVER STORY David Fincher brings the movie theater to Netflix homes with Mank, starring Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried
30
THE DIALOGUE: ACTRESSES Jodie Foster Rachel Brosnahan Nicole Beharie Elisabeth Moss Michelle Pfeiffer
40
THE PARTNERSHIP Steven Yeun and Lee Isaac Chung recall the telling of an immigrant story very close to Chung’s heart in Minari ON THE COVER Gary Oldman photographed by Bertie Watson exclusively for Deadline ON THIS PAGE Nicole Beharie photographed by Sen Floyd
D EAD L I NE .CO M
Breaking News P R E S E N T S AWA R D S L I N E
Follow Deadline.com 24/7 for the latest breaking news in entertainment.
Sign up for Alerts & Newsletters G E NERAL MANAGER & C HIEF REVENUE OFFICER
CO- EDITORS- I N - CHIEF
Sign up for breaking news alerts and other Deadline newsletters at: deadline.com/newsletters
Stacey Farish
Nellie Andreeva (Television) Mike Fleming Jr. (Film)
E DI TOR
AWARDS COLU M N IST/CHIEF FILM CRITIC
C REATIVE DIRECTOR
EDI TOR-AT- L ARGE
DE PUTY EDITOR
EXECU TI VE EDITOR
VI D EO SE R I ES
AS SISTANT EDITOR
SEN IOR EDI TOR, L EGAL/TV CRITIC
The Actor’s Side with Pete Hammond
Joe Utichi Craig Edwards Antonia Blyth Matt Grobar
Pete Hammond
Dominic Patten
S O CIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR
EDI TORIAL DI RECTOR
S E NIOR EVENTS MANAGER
EXECU TI VE M AN AGING EDITOR
Scott Shilstone Sophie Hertz
V I DEO PRODUCERS
David Janove Andrew Merrill Shane Whitaker
E DI TORIAL & MARKETING DESI GN ER
Michael Luong
S E NIOR VICE PRESIDEN T, AS SOCIATE PUB LISHER
Anthony D’Alessandro Patrick Hipes
DEPU TY M AN AGIN G EDITOR
Tom Tapp
SEN IOR M AN AGIN G EDITOR
Denise Petski
SEN IOR F I L M EDITOR
Justin Kroll
TEL EVI SION EDITOR
Peter White
Kasey Champion
F I N AN CE EDITOR
S E NIOR VICE PRESIDEN T, G LOBAL B USINESS DEVELOPM EN T A ND STRATEGIC PARTNERSH I PS
BU SI N ESS EDI TOR
Céline Rotterman
V I C E PRESIDENT, ENTERTAI N M EN T
Caren Gibbens
DI R ECTORS, ENTERTAIN M EN T
Brianna Corrado London Sanders
DI G ITAL SALES PLANNERS
Jessica Cole Katya Libizova
A D SALES COORDINATOR
Malik Simmons
ACCOUNT MANAGER
Lauren Pollock
Dade Hayes
Jill Goldsmith L ABOR EDI TOR
David Robb
I N TERN ATI ON AL EDITOR
Andreas Wiseman
I N TERN ATI ON AL TE LEVISION EDITOR
Jake Kanter
I N TERN ATI ON AL BOX OFFICE EDITOR/ SEN IOR CON TRIBU TOR
Nancy Tartaglione
P RODUCTION DIRECTOR
Natalie Longman
DI STRIB UTION DIRECTOR
Michael Petre
P RODUCTION MANAGER
Andrea Wynnyk
F I L M REPORTER
Amanda N’Duka I N TERN ATI ON AL F I LM REPORTER
Thomas Grater
WASH IN GTON CORR ESPONDENT
Ted Johnson
PH OTO EDI TOR
Brandon Choe
FOLLOW DEADLINE Facebook.com/Deadline Instagram.com/Deadline Twitter.com/Deadline YouTube.com/Deadline EMAIL US NEWS: editors@deadline.com ADVERTISING: sfarish@pmc.
Meet some of the biggest and hardest working actors of today, who discuss life, upcoming projects, and their passion for film and television. deadline.com/vcategory/ the-actors-side/
Behind the Lens with Pete Hammond
Explore the art and craft of directors from firsttimers to veterans, and take a unique look into the world of filmmakers, from their own perspectives. deadline.com/vcategory/ behind-the-lens/
Production Value
Go behind the scenes with the talented craftsmen and women behind some of this year’s acclaimed films and television series. deadline.com/vcategory/ production-value/
CONTACT PMC LOS ANGELES 11175 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025 +1 323-617-9100 NEW YORK 475 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10017 +1 212-213-1900
George Grobar VICE CHAIRM AN
Gerry Byrne
CHIE F D IGITAL O FFICE R
Craig Perreault
CHIE F ACCO UNTING O FFICE R
Sarlina See
CHIE F ADVE RTISING AND PARTNE RSHIPS O FFICE R
Mark Howard
Todd Greene
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESID E NT, O PE RATIO NS & FINANCE
Tom Finn
M ANAGING D IRECTO R, INTE RNATIO NAL M ARKE TS
Debashish Ghosh
SE NIO R VICE PRESID E NT, PRO D UCT & TECHNO LO GY
Jenny Connelly
SE NIO R VICE PRESID E NT, D E PUTY GE NE RAL CO UNSE L
Judith R. Margolin
SE NIO R VICE PRESID E NT, FINANCE
Ken DelAlcazar
VICE PRESID E NT, CREATIVE
Nelson Anderson
VICE PRESID E NT, HUM AN RESO URCES
Anne Doyle
VICE PRESID E NT, REVE NUE O PE RATIO NS
Brian Levine
VICE PRESID E NT, TECHNICAL O PE RATIO NS
Christina Yeoh
VICE PRESID E NT, SEO
Constance Ejuma
VICE PRESID E NT, GLO BAL TAX
Frank McCallick
VICE PRESID E NT, TECHNO LO GY
Gabriel Koen
VICE PRESID E NT, PM C D IGITAL ACQ UISITIO N
Gerard Brancato
VICE PRESID E NT, PO RTFO LIO SALES
Jacie Brandes
VICE PRESID E NT, PRO D UCTIO N O PE RATIO NS
Joni Antonacci
VICE PRESID E NT, AUD IE NCE M ARKE TING & SUBSCRIPTIO NS
Julie Zhu
VICE PRESID E NT, HUM AN RESO URCES & CO RPO RATE CO M M UNICATIO NS
Lauren Utecht
M AN AGIN G EDITOR
Alexandra Del Rosario Greg Evans Bruce Haring Dino-Ray Ramos
CHIE F O PE RATING O FFICE R
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESID E NT, BUSINESS AFFAIRS & GE NE RAL CO UNSE L
Todd McCarthy
ASSOCIATE EDI TORS
Jay Penske
Paul Rainey
F I L M CRITIC & COLUMNIST
Erik Pedersen
CHAIRM AN & CEO
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESID E NT, O PE RATIO NS & FINANCE
Peter Bart
Michael Cieply
DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD IS OWNED AND PUBLISHED BY PENSKE MEDIA CORPORATION
P O D CASTS
Crew Call
Deadline’s editorial director Anthony D’Alessandro focuses on below-the-line nominees. deadline.com/tag/crewcall-podcast/
New Hollywood
A platform for people of color, LGBTQ members, women, and other underrepresented voices in entertainment. deadline.com/tag/newhollywood-podcast/
VICE PRESID E NT, HUM AN RESO URCES
Mara Ginsberg
VICE PRESID E NT, STRATEGIC PLANNING & ACQ UISITIO NS
Mike Ye
VICE PRESID E NT, PRO D UCT D E LIVE RY
Nici Catton
VICE PRESID E NT, CUSTO M E R EXPE RIE NCE AND M ARKE TING O PE RATIO NS
Noemi Lazo
VICE PRESID E NT, TALE NT RE LATIO NS
Rebecca Bienstock
VICE PRESID E NT, FINANCE
Young Ko
ASSO CIATE VICE PRESID E NT, CO NTE NT
Karl Walter
SE NIO R D IRECTO R, D EVE LO PM E NT
Amit Sannad
SE NIO R D IRECTO R, TALE NT ACQ UISTIO N
Andy Limpus
SE NIO R D IRECTO R, ADVE RTISING O PE RATIO NS
Eddie Ko
SE NIO R D IRECTO R, INTE RNATIO NAL M ARKE TS
Gurjeet Chima
SE NIO R PRO D UCT M ANAGE R
Derek Ramsay
E D ITO RIAL & BRAND D IRECTO R, INTE RNATIO NAL
Laura Ongaro
BEST LIMITED SERIES
“MCQUEEN PERFORMS A POWERFUL ACT OF RESTORATIVE JUSTICE: HIS IS A CINEMA NOT JUST OF INTOXICATING BEAUTY BUT OF PROFOUND HEALING” THE WASHINGTON POST
AMAZON ORIGINAL SERIE S
Dressing a murderer
p. 10
| Fresh Face: Sidney Flanigan p. 12 | The belated SAG/Globes landscape
p. 14
Maverick Mission Spike Lee heads to war with Da 5 Bloods, his racially charged Vietnam adventure
I NV I S I ON /AP
BY DAMON WISE
4
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
PHOTOGRAPH BY
Evan Agostini
VIETNAM VETS From L to R: Jonathan Majors, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Norm Lewis, Clarke Peters and Delroy Lindo in a scene from Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods.
For Lee, it began in the early ’80s at
for Lee, who, when asked how this
films that are in black and white or films
we just felt it was time to tell the story.
that were made before they were born. I
We also loved the whole Treasure of the
tell this to my students: ‘Look, there was
Sierra Madre thing, and it was, ‘Let’s go.’”
great shit made before you were born.
Unlike many filmmakers who make
Movies, novels, plays, music—shit just
Vietnam movies, Lee wasn’t afraid to
didn’t start when you were born.’ That’s
reference a film classic close to his heart
what I tell them.”
(“I wasn’t a filmmaker when the war was
Released in the summer, during
going on,” he dryly notes). In fact, he was
NYU’s film school, where his classmates
moment might have affected his future
included Ernest Dickerson and Ang Lee,
as a filmmaker, reacts as if the question
the first locked-down months of the
getting ready to be a film student, doing
and where Jim Jarmusch, two years
shouldn’t need to be asked. “I teach!” he
coronavirus pandemic, Lee’s Da 5
an internship at Columbia Pictures, when
his senior, gave him the confidence to
yells. “I’m a teacher—a film professor for
Bloods reflects this awareness: when
he first saw Apocalypse Now in 1979 dur-
believe that his goals were achievable.
going on 20 years!”
the director first came across the script,
ing its 70mm run at the Cinerama Dome
in which four Vietnam veterans return
in LA. “That film has made such a big
It was in 1985, however, that he had an
The teaching began in 1991 at Har-
epiphany, when NYU old boy Martin
vard, then Lee returned to NYU shortly
to the country they fought, to lay the
impact,” he says. “You can’t talk about
Scorsese returned to his alma mater
after, taking over as artistic director of its
ghosts of the past and retrieve a hidden
films made about the Vietnam War
with a print of his new film After Hours.
film school in 2002, where he has tenure
cache of gold, he was acutely aware
without mentioning or respecting it—
“After the screening,” Lee recalls, “he
now. One of the conditions of him taking
that he needed to bring something
which I did.” Indeed, there are two nods
didn’t run out of the theater. He stayed
that position was that it accommodated
new to the screen. “It was in very good
in Da 5 Bloods: Lee shot at a surprisingly
around. I went up to him and told him my
his busy production schedule. “Usually
shape,” he recalls. “My co-writer Kevin
real nightclub named Apocalypse Now
name and what I wanted to do. In that
I shoot in the summer,” he says, “so it
Willmott and I liked the script a lot, but
and, equally on the nose, used Richard
very moment, Marty took an interest in
works out”.
we wanted to put a different spin on it.
Wagner’s “The Ride of the Valkyries” on
This was going to be another Vietnam
the score.
me as a filmmaker, and we’ve been very
For Lee, teaching is a way to connect
good friends since then. He could have
the past with the present and to find
film, and we wanted to tell it through the
easily blown me off. I was, like, the last
a path to the future. “It is the job of
eyes—specifically—of African American
regulars, whether it’s some of the main
person in line. He could have said, ‘Look,
filmmakers and professors to make
soldiers, who, during the high point of
players (Clarke Peters and Delroy Lindo),
man, I showed you my film, I’ve got to go.’
[film history] interesting to young film
the Vietnam War, were one-third of the
its composer (Terence Blanchard) or
But he stayed to speak to me. Engaged.”
students and young audiences,” he says.
fighting force, yet at the same time only
production designer Wynn Thomas, who
“They should not turn their noses up at
10% of the population back home. So,
Lee still hasn’t forgiven for spending the
It was clearly an important moment
6
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
Da 5 Bloods also reflects Lee’s use of
COU RT ESY OF N E T FL I X
SPIKE LEE LOVES CINEMA AND HE LOVES MAKING MOVIES, but, perhaps more than either, he loves filmmakers who are willing to share that kind of love for the art and its craft.
laughs). “So independent cinema is alive. Streaming has opened up a whole different avenue for young filmmakers. I’m not going to deny that getting the money, especially, for first-time filmmakers, is hard. That’s always going to be hard. But I think there are many more opportunities for young filmmakers than when I was in film school.” Lee is also somewhat optimistic about America’s political future, after GROUP EFFORT The men bond on a night out; (below) Lee with the cast on location.
the recent election result—a direct reaction, he feels, to the years of “holy hell with Agent Orange” that began with President Trump’s anti-Obama birther campaign. How did he feel about the outcome? “Oh, I’m on Instagram popping a bottle of prosecco,” he laughs. “OK, it wasn’t champagne, it was handed to me. But it was a glorious day. It’s very sad that this guy is still saying
A TEAM IS COMFORT. A TEAM GIVES YOU THE LICENSE TO BE HONEST WITH ONE ANOTHER. THE REASON WHY YOU’RE BEING HONEST WITH EACH OTHER IS BECAUSE IT’S BASED UPON LOVE. ” —SPIKE LEE, DA 5 BLOODS
that he won and trying to dismantle democracy and his gangsters, coconspirators, won’t acknowledge it, a lot of them. I’d say [his presidency] was
gloomy. His hopes for the future? “That
going to be very kind to Agent Orange.”
the world becomes humane,” he muses.
It’s still too soon to be complacent,
takes the vaccine, and that we learn
thing. No matter how bad we talk
from all the mistakes that were made
about Agent Orange, it’s even a more
during this pandemic.” He’s also excited to get started on
as a country that 70 million people
his next project, a musical about Viagra,
voted for this guy. That’s a comment
how it was invented and how it came
She’s Gotta Have It. “A team is family,”
Lee was robbed of a future collabora-
on an America that is OK with the
to the marketplace. “It’s a great story,”
Lee reasons. “A team is comfort. A
tor when Chadwick Boseman died in
president saying all Mexicans are rap-
he enthuses. “I’ve been wanting to do
team gives you the license to be honest
August, aged just 43 (“I truly believe he
ists, murderers and drug dealers. That’s
a musical for a long time, I just didn’t
with one another. The reason why
felt that this was gonna be his last film.
70 million people who believe it’s OK if
have the idea, with the exception of
you’re being honest with each other
And he was like, ‘Yo, it’s the last one—
you separate mothers from their newly
making my second film School Daze into
is because it’s based upon love. So, if I
I’m going out like a motherfucker…”).
born sons and daughters, many still
a Broadway musical. So, when the script
say, ‘Why are you doing that?’ it’s not
And he’s not holding his breath for
breastfeeding. That’s one of the highest
was brought to my attention, it was the
because I’m trying to jump on your
another chance with Jonathan Majors
immoral acts: separating mother from
right script at the right time. I mean, I
ass—it’s love. We’re all on the same
either, after his name was added to
infant child. Who does that? Nazis?
know I’ve had musical elements—there’s
page and we’re all trying to do the best
the new Ant-Man movie. “I’d hope so,
Slave owners? That’s fuckin’ shameful.
a great musicality—in my films. I’m
we can.”
but you know what? I might not be
That’s a fuckin’ disgrace and that is a
talking about a straight-up all-singing
able to afford him after he does these
terrible mark on American democracy.”
all-dancing musical. God willing, that’s
character’s bed for his 1986 debut
But, as Lee proved with BlacK-
Of the younger cast in Da 5 Bloods,
what this next film is going to be.”
kKlansman, and its star-making turn by
new Marvel movies.” He laughs. “He
Even darker are Lee’s satirical
John David Washington, there’s always
might be like, ‘I love you man, but I’m
but nevertheless troublingly relevant
a place for new blood. “With everything
getting $20 million playing this Marvel
thoughts on Trump’s exit strategy. “This
porary Spike Lee joint, not something
I’ve done,” he says, “I’ve always tried
character. I’ll be the first in line to see
guy is still in office and he still has the
knowing, in-jokey and retro, although,
to get new talent in. In a lot of ways,
the movie, but you can’t afford me.’”
nuclear codes, and it’s highly conceiv-
having enjoyed David Fincher’s Mank,
I approach my casting as a general
COU RT ESY OF N E T FL I X
that’s the formula of success.”
“That everybody, those who want to,
though, he feels. “Look, here’s the
condemning comment on Americans whole production budget on the main
In reality, though, Lee isn’t really so
a goddamn shame and history is not
Lee may well lose Majors to the
It will also, of course, be a contem-
able that he’s going to start another
he isn’t averse to the idea of filmmakers
manager would in sports. It’s been my
tentpoles, but, even after 30 years in
war. This guy is not going to go out with
making films about filmmaking. “I did a
observation that great teams in sports
the business, he doesn’t fear for the
a whimper, he’s going to go out with
film like that—it’s called Bamboozled,”
are the teams where you have the
indie world. “I would just like to say that
a bang. I’m a realist. I just hope that
he chides gently. “It dealt with the racist
seasoned veterans with the youngsters.
there is still independent cinema,” he
the generals gave him a fake code.”
narrative of film and television. That’s
The youngsters give their energy, and
says, adding that one of his ex-students
He laughs uproariously. “Gave him
one of my films that slipped through the
when you get that mix between youth
is Chloé Zhao, director of the feted
the bogus, fugazi numbers. Gave him
cracks. You haven’t seen it?” He laughs.
and vitality and spirit with experience,
Nomadland (“She doesn’t call me
numbers he can remember, like, one,
“We’re in a pandemic, what else you
that’s a winning combination. For me,
Spike, she calls me Professor Lee,” he
two, three, four!”
doing? What else you got to do?!” ★
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
7
CHARTED TERRITORY
At press time, here is how Gold Derby’s experts ranked the Oscar chances in the Lead and Supporting Actress races. Get up-todate rankings and make your own predictions at GoldDerby.com
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Vibes of Silence Sound of Metal’s sound designer Nicolas Becker keys into the inner world of the hearing-impaired
ON DARIUS MARDER’S SOUND OF METAL, supervising sound editor Nicolas Becker sought to capture the sonic experience of Ruben (Riz Ahmed), a heavy-metal drummer whose life unravels as he starts to lose his hearing. The brief, from the director, was to craft a soundtrack that would be felt on a physical level, tapping into the “body sound” that is experienced more acutely as one’s hearing of the outside world recedes. “[When] it’s totally silent, you start to hear your tendons,” Becker explains. “You start to hear your heartbeat.” To capture the minute, vibrational sounds created by the blink of an eye or the twitch of a facial muscle—which the brain of the hearing-impaired reconfigures as sound—the artist engaged in an experimental foley process. This involved rigging incredibly sensitive microphones to Ahmed, to collaborator Heikki Kossi, and to himself. “I have mics that are maybe 200 times more [sensitive] than the human ear. So, if you go in a very quiet place, you can really get ridiculous sounds,” Becker says. “I have mics you can put in your mouth, so you can record breathing from inside.” To further round out the distorted, muffled world experienced by Ruben, he introduced composer Abraham Marder to “crazy metal instruments” known as Bachet structures, which produce a kind of strange, acoustic drone. “It’s a bit like an acoustic synthesizer, a bit like ghost music,” Becker says. “It’s a bit like what Ruben had inside of his head, you know? It’s a big mess.” — Matt Grobar
LOST IN SPACE
which accentuated the character’s
Editor Yorgos Lamprinos captures a subjective experience of dementia in The Father
The film was structured as a puzzle—
ODDS
1
Viola Davis Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
19/5
2
Frances McDormand Nomadland
39/10
3
Vanessa Kirby Pieces of a Woman
11/2
4
Kate Winslet Ammonite
10/1
5
Sophia Loren The Life Ahead
10/1
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
ODDS
1
Amanda Seyfriend Mank
39/10
2
Olivia Colman The Father
4/1
3
Ellen Burstyn Pieces of a Woman
5/1
4
Yuh-jung Youn Minari
5/1
5
Glenn Close Hillbilly Elegy
9/1
confused sense of time and space. one that viewers could ultimately solve to understand the big picture of Anthony’s life, even though he himself
On The Father, editor Yorgos
movie in my head,” Lamprinos says,
never could. “There are [non-linear]
Lamprinos went deep into the mind
“which is not exactly the film. But
films that you can put together, and
of the film’s aging protagonist,
that was where we needed to put
they become linear, but this film never
working to represent an experience
the audience.” In channeling Anthony
does,” the editor explains. “Because
of dementia, and how it agonizingly
(Anthony Hopkins)’s experience for
Anthony’s head works that way. He
distorts one’s worldview. “When
the viewer, two key tools were time
can never reassemble things.”
I read the script, I had a horror
loops and shifts in the point of view,
—Matt Grobar
8
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
LOST SOUL Anthony Hopkins portrays a man grappling with dementia in The Father.
F OR YOU R CONSIDERATION IN AL L CATEG OR IES INC LU DI NG :
BE ST AC T RE SS - Nicole B eha rie BE ST D IREC T OR - C ha nning G o dfrey Pe ople s
The Art of Craft
Carey Mulligan is dressed to kill in Promising Young Woman BY MATT GROBAR “Emerald [Fennell] wanted Cassie to look much more cheerful than she actually was. A character like that, you might think they would not be as perky—pastels, and colors, and flowers. And I loved that Emerald wanted to twist it up that way.”
— N A N CY ST E I N E R
1
In Promising Young
2
The darkly comic
3
By night, she
Woman, costume
revenge thriller’s
goes to bars
designer Nancy Steiner
protagonist is a kind of
in character,
crafted looks for Cassie
chameleon, constantly
pretending to be
(Carey Mulligan), a
tailoring her appearance
blackout drunk to
woman leading a double
to appeal to different
entrap would-be
life as she seeks justice
types of men.
sexual predators.
for her dead best friend.
4
5
By day however,
she’s also in disguise, wearing cheerful,
wearing a costume
vibrant clothes
created from scratch for
that belie her
Mulligan: a vinyl nurse/
deeply-depressed,
stripper outfit meant to
heartbroken mindset.
6
The nurse theme
In the final act, Cassie
exacts her revenge,
seduce a bachelor party.
7
Aside from this look,
8
In addition, a
also reflected Cassie’s
Cassie’s clothes were
rose-patterned dress
old life as a medical
sourced from Warner
was taken from the
student, from back
Bros. and Universal rental
fashion line of the
before her friend’s
houses in LA, and retailers
director’s sister,
tragic death, when she
including Urban Outfitters
Coco Fennell.
was still a “promising
and Uniqlo.
young woman”.
10
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
ILLUSTRATION BY BRYAN VALENZUELA
B E S T D O C U M E N TA R Y NOMINEE
IFP GOTHAM AWARDS
++++
“A RIVETING DOCUMENTARY.
ASTONISHINGLY CANDID.”
ANN HORNADAY, THE WASHINGTON POST
“ONE OF THE GUTSIEST, BEST AND... MOST HOPEFUL [COVID19] DOCUMENTARIES.” ALISSA WILKINSON, VOX
“A BRACINGLY IMMEDIATE
VIEW FROM THE FRONTLINES OF HISTORY.” DAVID EHRLICH, INDIEWIRE
DIRECTED BY
HAO WU, WEIXI CHEN & ANONYMOUS 76daysfilm.com
Fresh Face BY A N TO N IA B LYTH
WHO Sidney Flanigan Age: 22 Hometown: Buffalo, New York
WHY
WHEN & WHERE
Flanigan credits her musicianship with giving her
thought of acting until she was cast in Eliza Hittman’s
the courage to perform on set for the first time.
Predictably, she’s been
Never Rarely Sometimes Always. But despite that lack
A stint as a backup dancer in an eighth-grade
snapped up on the back
of experience, Flanigan’s performance has an almost
production of Camp Rock “doesn’t count”, she says.
of this performance,
shocking depth and nuance, and has received much Oscar
“I’ve been a performing musician for a long time, so
signing on to star in
buzz—an experience Flanigan calls “extremely crazy and
I’ve already been used to making myself vulnerable
Matthew Kaundart’s
weird, but very exciting”. The film follows a teenager forced
in front of the crowd I guess.” In fact, Hittman was
psychological drama My
to travel out of state to get an abortion. Along the way,
an early fan of her music. “When I was 14,” Flanigan
Twin is Dead. And she’s
she and her cousin face disappointments, setbacks and
explains, “Eliza’s partner Scott was working on a
been sent a lot of scripts.
threats. It’s a story that resonated with Flanigan from the
film in Buffalo called Buffalo Juggalos. I was hanging
“I’m still figuring out what
first. “The issue of reproductive rights, how it’s taboo and
out at this house that they were shooting at
I like since this is still
there’s a stigma around it,” she says, “that’s something that
frequently, and I met Eliza there one day in passing.
very new to me. I think
I feel is looming over women all the time. It affects pretty
They followed me on Facebook over the years and
for the most part, the
much all women alike, so I was instantly drawn to it.”
watched videos that I posted in my bedroom of me
scripts that I really like
The raw expression of trauma didn’t intimidate Flanigan,
playing guitar.” Six years later, Hittman suggested
reading are mostly indies.
but she was a little nervous about nudity, she says. “There
she audition for this film, and friends encouraged
I guess I haven’t exactly
was one scene that didn’t even make it into the film, where
Flanigan to go for it. “It ended up being one of the
formulated the dream
I was in a bathtub. I felt nervous about shooting that day.”
greatest experiences in my life,” she says.
role in my head yet.”★
12
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
FOC US FE AT U R ES / ST E VE N B ERG M A N / M EGA
WHAT Sidney Flanigan is a true beginner, having never even
LOVECRAFT COUNTRY
SCHITT’S CREEK
Will the Globes and SAG Shape the Oscar Race and out-do the Emmys? BY PETE HAMMOND
IF YOU ARE AN AWARDS PUNDIT LOOKING TO PAST HABITS TO PREDICT THE TRAJECTORY OF THIS AWARDS SEASON, THINK AGAIN. All bets are off as we are clearly, and rather obviously, in uncharted territory when trying to assess how voters, particularly the early ones at SAG and the Golden Globes will be leaning. Although on the TV side of things, which both groups celebrate in addition to the current Oscar season for movies, the big question will be how influential September’s pandemicaffected Emmy telecast will actually be? As for the way the winds are blowing on the movie side, that is really where all bets are off this year.
THE PROM
and all the major guilds, so some late-breaking contenders may factor. That said, this year could finally be the one that sees Netflix take the crown (and not just that much-talked-about British TV Series). The premier streamer is aggressively on the hunt for gold, and appears to be throwing every one of their best bets against the wall to see what sticks with voters, like the lavishly campaigned-to Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which will be handing out their Golden Globes on February 28, and SAG voters, whose televised show is also nearly two months later this year on Sunday March 14. The Globes NBC airdate could be particularly significant, since Oscar nomination voting will not even start until almost a week later on March 5, with ballots due on March 10. SAG nominations will also be a factor, even if final winners there will come in just one night before Oscar nominations are announced on March 15. So, with so much on the line, who is out front at this point at SAG and the Golden Globes? Since the Globes split their Best Film and lead acting categories between Drama and Comedy/Musical there will again be a wider field to look at. For the marquee Best Motion Picture Drama, Netflix has Mank, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Globe favorite George Clooney’s
Let’s start with that because if anyone can tell you who is leading the
The Midnight Sky in the pole positions for one of those five Drama slots, with
Oscar race in this craziest of crazy years, they will first have to realize that all
longer shots at this point being Spike Lee’s earlier entry Da 5 Bloods, Ron
roads must probably go through SAG and the Golden Globes. Covid-19 has
Howard’s popular but critically-unacclaimed Hillbilly Elegy, and perhaps still-
ripped a hole through a season which has seen numerous projects sidelined
unseen late breaker Malcolm & Marie.
and moved to next year, leaving the field largely to streamers flooding the
Rival Amazon’s One Night In Miami from director Regina King is their big-
race with one hopeful after another, along with a few stragglers from the
gest bet and has been successful on the fest go-round. Sony Pictures Clas-
studios. How this affects the race is anyone’s guess, but it could mean the
sics will be pushing hard for the dementia drama The Father, while frequent
playing field is really levelled to a degree it never has been before.
awards champ Searchlight puts all their eggs in early fall fest critical favorite,
Both the Globes and SAG have proven in the past they often have the
Nomadland, which has been dominant on the circuit since winning Venice,
midas touch in predicting, maybe even influencing, the direction of Oscar
and seems certain for one of those slots. A24 has the minimalist First Cow,
voters. In terms of timing, both SAG and the Globes followed Oscar’s lead in
but its best shot at Globes is with the Korean/American Sundance winner,
extending their eligibility periods to the end of February, as did Critics’ Choice
Minari. Meanwhile, newbie Apple will be heavily pushing the Feb 26 release of
14
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
On the Comedy series front, Emmy love for the final season of Schitt’s Creek, plus nominees like Ramy (a past Globe winner for its star), What We Do in the Shadows, Insecure, Dead to Me, and the final season of Globe home network NBC’s The Good Place, seem like good bets at both SAG and the
TENET
Globes. The latter will likely make a big deal about Apple’s newbie, Ted Lasso and its star Jason Sudeikis, Kaley Cuoco in HBO Max’s watercooler hit The Flight Attendant, and maybe such fresh possibilities as The Great, Pen15, Never Have I Ever, and Darren Star’s Emily in Paris. Still, expect Schitt’s Creek to be the “schitt” at SAG for sure and likely with the HFPA too. In the Limited Series/Movie lineups, Emmy nominees like Unorthodox, Mrs. America, Little Fires Everywhere, I Know This Much is True (at least for Emmy-winning star Mark Ruffalo), and Normal
THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT
People will land at Globes, SAG, or both in various races, but I
the Russo Brothers’ ’70s -style epic
the Rocks, with a good chance for
maybe at SAG too if it can get seen
expect post-Emmy new entries in
drama Cherry. The studio pres-
its stars, Bill Murray and Rashida
widely in time.
the TV-verse to hugely dominate
ence is record-thin, but Warners’
Jones too, while Hulu/NEON will
Christopher Nolan thriller Tenet
be pushing their Sundance sensa-
lags behind the Emmys, while the
frontrunners out of The Undoing
from late summer hopefully will not
tion Palm Springs. Sony Classics
Globes tend to get in front of what
from HBO with Nicole Kidman
be ignored, while Universal, with
has the quirky French Exit with
could end up being Emmy candi-
and Hugh Grant, and the beloved
their Christmas Day release of Paul
Michelle Pfeiffer, and Searchlight
dates. With that in mind, expect
Netflixer, Queen’s Gambit and its
Greengrass’ sublime western, News
has The Personal History of David
HBO’s buzzy Lovecraft Country and
star Anya Taylor-Joy (also making
Of The World starring Tom Hanks
Copperfield with Dev Patel, first
its stars Jonathan Majors and Jurn-
waves on the movie side in Emma)
could be the one great hope for
seen at Toronto 2019. HBO Max
ee Smollett to score at the Globes,
eating up most of the attention.
the majors. Paramount’s afore-
could score a first ever nomination
along with Sarah Paulson as the
Showtime’s The Comey Rule, with
mentioned Billie Holiday picture
for Let Them All Talk, which might
title character in Netflix’s Ratched.
sterling work from Jeff Daniels and
and STX’s Mauritanian are question
have its best shot in supporting for
Other newbies for Drama Series
Brendan Gleeson (as Trump), as
marks right now until they are more
Candice Bergen, since star Meryl
are HBO’s Perry Mason and its star
well as their new buzzy hit, Your
widely seen. NEON’s Ammonite
Streep is more likely for The Prom.
Matthew Rhys, along with that
Honor with Bryan Cranston, could
may have a tougher time breaking
Bleecker Street’s Irish charmer
same cable giant’s We Are Who We
be potential players, as well as
through, but could have its stron-
Wild Mountain Thyme could have
Are, and Industry making possible
Jude Law in HBO’s creepy thriller
gest appeal with the HFPA.
appeal for the foreign press, even
inroads into awards glory through
The Third Day, along with Hugh
On the Comedy/Musical front,
On the TV side, SAG usually
these Limited Series races, making
if some critics (certainly not me)
the Globes’ desire to be hip to the
Jackman in their Emmy-winning
Netflix’s Ryan Murphy adaptation
were underwhelmed. Focus has a
new. Of course, at both SAG and
Bad Education. FX could factor
of Broadway’s dazzling musical The
possibility with their period comedy
Globes, faves like The Crown, Ozark,
with the return of Fargo and new
Prom with its all-star cast led by
Emma, and certainly with critical
and The Mandalorian are likely to
star Chris Rock. Don’t discount
Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman
darling Promising Young Woman if
find love, with an outsider’s chance
Ethan Hawke’s The Good Lord
just screams Globes, and that
it is accepted here rather than as a
for The Outsider, and even ABC’s
Bird, Steve McQueen’s five-part
could include several nods for its
drama. Wherever it eventually lands,
midseason ratings hit Big Sky. SAG
Amazon group of films Small Axe,
cast members too. The strongest
star Carey Mulligan is a contender.
is likely to also look to older titles
or Michaela Coel’s critically ac-
competitor is Borat Subsequent
Netflix has yet another late breaker
like NBC’s venerable This Is Us, and
claimed I May Destroy You—all in
Moviefilm, with the incomparable
in its Virtual TIFF pickup, the dark
the Emmy-snubbed cast members
the mix in a category of talked-
Sacha Baron Cohen, who took a
comedy thriller I Care a Lot, that
of Better Call Saul, since the guild
about entries that may be the
Globe for Borat in 2007. Apple/A24
likely will land attention in this
likes to repeat its nominees once
year’s strongest at SAG and the
has Sofia Coppola’s delightful On
category for Rosamund Pike, and
they join the club.
Globes for TV or movies. ★
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
15
18
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
ix homes l f t e N s n r u t t opus, s e t a l s i h h ouses wit h e i v o m s rations of t s u r f d n into 1940 a es the life r o l p x e h c i wh iewicz... k n a M . J r Herman e t i r w n e e r c e’s s
R E H C N I F D I DAV , K N A M Citizen Kan
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
19
screenwriting—wrote the first drafts of Mank in the early ’90s, the idea of fake newsreels interfering
will become t a h w f o t f ra hrough the d t y a w s is h s ebut. With it d l ...as he work a ri o t c e ir seminal d ary Oldman, G y b it w ry ea icz’s world-w w ie k n a M h by Fincher’s bued wit o g im a le rs o r a e le y it 0 t more than 2 d e t f ra d t s ir script f ignites the re m il f e and from a h t 3, away in 200 d e s s a p o h w father Jack, Welles took m il f a f o ip the authorsh t u o b a e t a b de that besides; n a h t re o m t u But it is abo s, r. o f it d re c ovie busines sole m e h t f o s n tio the machina o t r e t t le e t a truth in the f o e d a a love and h ç a f e f th amination o x e ly e im t souls beaten d re a remarkably u t r o t f o timate study in n a d n a , insecurities. n news media w o ir e h t d an around them , ld r o w n e h a t m d l , O down by r e h meets Finc image of e h t s e t a it il b —who reha d e i r Seyf loser look!!! c a r o f & Amanda ies— v a D n o i r a socialite M actress and
’ s e l l e W n o s Or
I H C I T U JOE
with election results might have seemed like distant history. Now, says Fincher, “This is oddly prescient… if you ignore the fact that the more things change, the more they stay the same.” But in fact, none of these grand themes—even the ones that first drew Jack to the story, with a journalistic eye towards uncovering the truth behind Citizen Kane’s creation—were what moved the needle for David Fincher. “I’m still not interested in a posthumous credit arbitration,” he says. “I’m still not interested in the idea of the villainous position of Welles.” Instead, what drew him was the aspect of the story that was about change. “Mank could sign a contract,” Fincher says. “He was a grown man; he knew what he was doing. But he’d happily written and disappeared into the wings many, many times before, and on this one, he didn’t. That was interesting to me. I was fascinated by the notion of a guy who is on record so many times decrying the shallowness and hopelessness of cinema finally saying, ‘Wait a minute. I want this one on my headstone.’” Indeed, Mank did sign a contract that would give Welles sole credit for writing Citizen Kane. Yet, as he wrote, his relationship to the project clearly became
The DIRECTOR David Fincher’s Hollywood
more intimate. Mankiewicz had first original series House of Cards in 2013, to bring
been invited to the lavish dinners at San Simeon
the theater to us?
with William Randolph Hearst, which inspired
It is not just that Mank is in black-and-white,
Xanadu and Charles Foster Kane. He had come
or that despite shooting on 8K digital cinema
to know Marion Davies, whose position at
IN A YEAR OF UNPRECEDENTED disruption,
cameras, Fincher employed the moviemaking
Hearst’s side seemed to inform the character of
when the very survival of the theatrical experience
techniques of the 1940s on set, had his actors
Susan Alexander Kane, to the real Davies’ eternal
is just one of a myriad of anxieties plaguing the
deliver lines with the cadence of the time, added
detriment. He was a part of that world, though
film industry, perhaps it should have come as no
flecks of dust and reel-change marks in post,
never perhaps of that world, and Mank imagines
surprise that David Fincher would be the person
and mixed the sound to echo like it would in
what that closeness to his subject might have
to deliver an at-home experience that so cannily
a cavernous movie palace. Nor that all of this
done to deliver not just the brilliance and critical
replicated the trip to a cinema that few of us have
rigor would have made the film impossible to
insight of Citizen Kane’s writing, but also the need
been able to actually make. Irony, contradiction
finance anywhere other than Netflix (Fincher
to acknowledge an authorship of it.
and prescience, after all, are all in Fincher’s
calls these “barriers to entry” for the studios he
wheelhouse. This is the director that once
discussed Mank with in years past). It is also that
Others still have decried this description for
slipped Fight Club’s anti-corporate ideals past
Mank is a movie about movies. About a period
the way the film depicts the brutality and
Rupert Murdoch and woke the world up to the
of transition in Hollywood, and the frustrations
ruthlessness of the business side of Hollywood,
lawlessness of Silicon Valley’s club of billionaires
of the intersection between business and art,
through figures like Louis B. Mayer, who quips,
with The Social Network. Why shouldn’t he
both topics top of mind today. And when Jack
“This is a business where the buyer gets nothing
use Netflix, an outlet he’s become increasingly
Fincher—the director’s father, who had been
for his money but a memory. What he bought still
comfortable with since delivering the streamer’s
a journalist for Life magazine before turning to
belongs to the man who sold it. That’s the real
20
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
Mank has been called a love letter to cinema.
Gary Oldman photographed by Bertie Watson exclusively for deadline
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
21
magic of the movies.” Of these diverging reads on his film, Fincher says, “Perfect. Those two things can co-exist. I have very conflicted feelings about Hollywood. I love the [Paramount] lot on Melrose. I love the [Sony] lot in Culver City. It costs hundreds of millions of dollars to keep those places open, and I got no problem with that. When you have a system that’s set up to support this incredibly complicated endeavor that a handful of people are entrusted to hold in their heads as they lead the troops, if that wasn’t complicated, I don’t think we’d have as interesting an art form.” Indeed, the coexistence of two seemingly contradictory notions has come to define much of Fincher’s work and approach. As actors line up to tell of 100-take scenes in pursuit of perfection, his characters, too, seem to project the image of a man fascinated—even obsessed—with the drive for control. But he is also a filmmaker, perhaps the most perilous of all the art forms in which to maintain control. And he insists that the very unpredictability of the moviemaking process is precisely why cinema is the medium for him. “Predictability can be frustrating for those of us in the business of hopefully under-promising and overdelivering... And sometimes the opposite.” Movies reveal themselves, in fact; there is little scope for unadulterated control. “And the reality is there’s not a bad review written of a movie I’ve been involved with that I haven’t, to some extent, agreed with, depending on where I am in the process,” he says. “There are times when you look at something and go, ‘God, I felt we were working towards something that would be so much more profound and it’s not happening.’ Maybe I held the reins too tight, or maybe I didn’t hold them tight enough. But it doesn’t matter. It shakes out in the wash. A movie evolves, sometimes long after that first weekend.” It is Fincher who first turns the subject of our discussion toward—for want of a better expression— his reputation. The exacting standards he is known for are about something far more responsible, he insists. “I always get fed up with the idea of being controlling, because it’s not controlling. It’s being diligent when you’re taking responsibility for tens of millions of dollars in expenditure.” His sets move fast, so he can afford to go again if he needs to. He says he struggles, sometimes, to communicate his direction, so when he gives six notes and an actor hits four, that’s progress in the right direction. Let’s go again. It is not a process designed to wear his collaborators down. “I have total compassion for what it takes to make oneself entirely vulnerable to 50 or 60 people in a crowded, stinking soundstage,” he insists. “I’m not standing around with a taser going, ‘We’ve got a schedule to make.’ But at the same time, I expect you to show up, ready to throw down. And I’m lucky enough to work with people who all check their lives at the door. I don’t feel I’m deserving of that, but I’m incredibly appreciative of the people who will give me as much
22
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
“I was fascin at is on record s ed by the notion of a guy o w and hopeless many times decrying the ho n ‘Wait a minu ess of cinema finally say shallowness in te. I want thi s one on my h g, eadstone.’”
of their attention. I want to maximize what can
who says, ‘Oh God, we must do something
be done in a 10- or 12-hour day; I’ve never been a
together,’ and then they try to manufacture
14-hour day guy.”
something, even if you’re not right for it.”
On the contrary, he says, it’s this approach
David Fincher is neither of those types of
that leads to the most fertile discoveries for a
director. “I’ve known David for over 20 years,”
finished film that shoots far beyond the one in
Oldman recalls. In fact, they first met when
his head at the start of a project. “I think the
Fincher was directing his debut feature, Alien3, for
greatest detriment ever foisted on cinematic
a part Oldman would eventually decline. But it
storytelling was this idea that you could build an
began a friendship that has endured to this day.
assembly line for it, beyond the purely mechanical
And over the years, Oldman had made peace with
functions of the unit; all of these minute decisions
the idea that the pair would probably never work
and risks that are taken on a minute-by-minute
together. “He might have cast me had something
basis. Those are all valid and necessary. But
come up that he felt I was right for, and so I pretty
the incredibly intimate and personal ways that
much left it at that, but I thought, maybe, that
different storytellers prioritize different aspects
Fincher would not be a box I would tick. Perhaps it
of any given moment is completely outside of
wasn’t meant to be.”
the Army Corps of Engineers aspect of making
When he finally did get an approach with
cinema, and it’s those two things, working in
Fincher’s name attached, through his longtime
conjunction and hopefully harmony, that is the
creative partner and manager Douglas Urbanski,
battle of art and commerce.”
Oldman says he couldn’t believe his luck. “And I’ve
So, he gets why Mank’s relationship with the
had more than my fair share of luck with roles,” he
screenplay he was writing changed as he was
laughs. “When I say a role like this doesn’t come
writing it. And he gets why Orson Welles was right
by very often, I have to think… Winston Churchill
to think Mankiewicz would want to honor his
[in Darkest Hour] was pretty good. And George
original contract. “I have as much loving contempt
Smiley [in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy] wasn’t bad.”
for all of my heroes in my movies as I do for the
But what he found in the pages of Jack
villains,” he laughs. “And I don’t like the idea of
Fincher’s screenplay for Mank sparked an
villains… I think if there’s anything we can glean
undeniable level of excitement in him. “A script
from Citizen Kane it’s that number one, Orson
this good, a terrific role, with a director you know is
Welles was a fucking genius. And number two, he
going to shoot it in glorious black-and-white and
had a good blueprint to start with.”
transport you to the ’40s. And a sort of honorarium to Hollywood, both in its glamor as well as its
The WRITER
cynicism and ugliness… I mean, it’s David Fincher,
THE WAY THEY WERE
(Above) Oldman as Mank; (left, from top to bottom) with Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies; a sick Mank is watched over by Tom Burke as Orson Welles; with Lily Collins as Mank's personal secretary Rita Alexander; on set with Oldman and director David Fincher.
we’re not just going to be waving the flag.” Oldman reveled in the idea of exploring these
Gary Oldman is Herman J. Mankiewicz
two conflicting images of the industry he operates
“THERE ARE TWO TYPES of directors that you
through as an actor himself in films like Sid and
meet along the way,” says Gary Oldman. “There
Nancy. It captured everything he had witnessed
are the ones that say, ‘I’m such a fan, we have
on his own path. “I’ve met really wonderful,
to work together,’ and then you never hear from
talented, creative people,” he says, “and I don’t
them again. And there’s the other kind of director
think it’s blasphemy to say I’ve also met some
within, albeit set 40 years before he would break
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
23
The crafts behind Mank’s recreation of Hollywood’s Golden Age
Cinematography
GOLDEN AGE
From left to right: Oldman is shot digitally with aged effects added later; Seyfried's platinum wig for the role of Marion Davies; a boom mike captures sound in a scene with Oldman with Tuppence Middleton as Mank's wife Sara; a driving scene, with Oldman and Sean Persaud as Tommy, is captured on a stage using LED screens, projecting a period-authentic backdrop.
To place viewers in the era of Mank, set during the creation of Citizen Kane, DP Erik Messerschmidt shot digitally, in native black and white. His greatest creative influence was Gregg Toland, the pioneering cinematographer behind the Orson
Sound Design
Welles masterpiece, who popularized deep focus photography. Messerschmidt also adopted a period technique for transitional scenes, setting up lighting cues on a computerized board, so that he could achieve theatrical fade-outs in-camera. Shooting in super high resolution, on the RED Helium Monochrome, allowed Fincher to degrade the image in post with complete control, adding grain and softness to each frame, befitting the era.
Makeup & Hair
Paralleling the visual degradation of the film, there was also a sonic degradation undertaken by Ren Klyce. The sound designer’s mission was to tailor the monaural soundtrack of a bygone era, tapping into its set of technical limitations. Characterized by hiss, noise, distortion and a limited set of mid-range frequencies, “mono” sound meant dialogue, music and effects all sat on one track. To recreate this vintage palette, Klyce engaged in an experimental process, compressing, and distressing, the sonic elements in every single frame. The second stage of the process involved playing the film back on a stage at Skywalker Sound, with 12 mics set up to capture reverb in the room. In this way, Klyce and Fincher accessed a secondary layer of “patina”—making Mank echo, as
As the hair and makeup artists behind Mank, Gigi Williams and Kimberley Spiteri had to completely retrain their eyes, in their CAP HEDpursuit HERE
of Old Hollywood glamor looks which would pop inFrom blacktop: and white.
Libusciet quia aspient In pre-production, the pair engaged in weeks of camera tests with optatius aut oditi consequiatur sequunt Messerschmidt, testing every actor’s look at different angles, and in otatisitatur maio. various lighting scenarios. Spiteri scrutinized every shade of hair for Velisquassi omnihil depth, texture and transparency, to see what wouldignimporror read properly on maximag nistiunt, ipsam, quident camera. Meanwhile, Williams tested 300 kinds of lipstick, narrowing dunt vitatur, sa paritis aut them down, in the end, to a set of eight. In designing looks Endanis for an millorit aut eseque. hil materials ipsum rectest, ensemble of historical characters, period-correct werecus aut quaest aut aborio con rero sourced, including Brylcreem and Clubman styling gel. The men were oditatquunt.Idi beatatioriti
given barber cuts, pronounced eyebrows, and mascara to create dark shadows around the eyes, while women’s eyebrows were made thinner, and old-school techniques like wet-setting employed.
24
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
if it were a cinematic artifact, playing for an audience in an old-school revival house.
Visual Effects
The VFX in Mank pairs state-of-the-art technology with classical filmmaking techniques, like matte painting and rear projection, both of which date back to the early 1900s. Minimizing the budget necessary to assemble an authentic period piece, these VFX tools allowed Fincher to manipulate L.A. exteriors—or to avoid them completely—so that he could extend environments or create them from scratch. Driving scenes, like one on Wilshire Blvd., were accomplished by setting up a camera car on stage, surrounded by LED screens. The exteriors passing by outside Mank’s windows would be comprised of animated footage, modeled off of archival clips from his era. In contrast, with locations like the Glendale Train Station, Fincher started with real exteriors, seamlessly filling in the background with digitally composited mattes. —MATT GROBAR
very cynical and ugly people who work in the film
me out there, but it plays to those insecurities
different setups. 10 takes here, 15 takes there.
industry. Mank is a film made by a practitioner
even though I’ve been doing this for 40 years. I
You’re there even doing the performance off-
who is experienced in all aspects of the business,
still think I’m going to be the one that gets to set
camera because there are all those eye-lines. So,
but he still loves movies. He still loves cinema.”
and fucks it all up. That everyone else is going to
we shot it over five days and I don’t know, but I
be terrific and now I’ve arrived and it’s all going to
think it probably was 100-plus. And David doesn’t
Mankiewicz’s life and words, reading biographies
start going downhill. I do like to hide. So, I resisted.”
like to do pickups, so you do the scene from the
and collecting the many documented examples
No, he corrects himself. “Not resisted, but I was
Oldman set about digging deeper into Herman
top all the way through, every time.” Some of those shots, he concedes, go a take or
of his wit. It’s in the film, a telegram he would
anxious about it.” In the end, though, he was two
send to writers to persuade them to move West:
days into playing the role when he approached
two further than most directors. “He does like to
“Millions are to be grabbed out here, and your
Fincher again. “I said to him, ‘You know, you were
double-down,” Oldman says. “But he knows what
only competition is idiots.” But there were many
right. I don’t need all that. I don’t need the putty
he wants. It’s better to go into work and walk away
more bon mots Oldman delighted in and tried to
nose and the wig and all of that.’ It was liberating.”
at the end of the day knowing you’ve got it, than
persuade Fincher to include. “I managed it a little
Just as Fincher himself resists the image of
bit,” he chuckles. “But the thing David wanted to
him as a tough taskmaster, keeping his actors and
you’ve exhausted it, and you know he won’t walk
avoid was it becoming like his greatest hits. So, I’d
crew pushing through an enormous number of
away unless he’s satisfied.”
underline them, and take them to David during
takes on every scene, what Oldman found instead
rehearsal, and say, ‘Oh God, this is a killer line,’ and
in the director’s approach was a chance to let the
reputation” that comes with this fastidiousness
he’d go, ‘Yeah, no.’ But occasionally I’d get, ‘Oh, I
process breathe. There was a rehearsal period in
(for the record, the director insists that he does
like that one.’ I think I got at least two in.”
which the cast and Fincher worked through the
not), but for an actor attuned to it, it’s quite a gift.
to work for someone who settles. With David,
Fincher, he suspects, “quite enjoys the
In truth, though, what he found was that it was
material, itself a luxury on a film production, but
“You get a bigger bite at the apple,” Oldman says.
all there to begin with. “I was amazed at how Jack
made more luxurious by its length; more than a
“So, it’s a luxury to be able to come and really
Fincher had captured the real spirit and essence
month, ahead of a two-month shoot. “You do
work a scene. If he wants to do 60 takes, let him
of Mank, because what I was reading around
luxuriate in a Fincher,” says Oldman.
do 60 takes. If he wants to do 230 takes, he can
the script matched very much. What you usually
He laughs at Charles Dance’s description in
do 230 fucking takes. Life could be a lot bloody
find with real characters is they’re a lot more
an interview with Total Film magazine, of Oldman
worse than coming in and doing 100 takes on the
fascinating than they are on the page, but Jack
telling Fincher at one point, “David, I’ve done this
set of Mank.”
had done his homework, and I felt he really caught
scene a hundred fucking times,” and Fincher
the character.”
batting back, “Yeah, I know, but this is 101. Reset!”
deeper dive than usual into the mind of a man
Says Oldman: “Charles is a wonderful actor and a
whose own anxieties led him to alcohol and
meant slotting into Fincher’s ideas about
wonderful man, but there’s a bit of the raconteur
bitterness as he was writing one of the seminal
approach, which initially conflicted with
theatre luvvie about those anecdotes. It was far
works of the art form. Oldman wrote down a
Oldman’s own. It wasn’t so long ago that
from a moment of tension.”
quote from Mankiewicz, that he has kept with
Finding the confidence to play Mankiewicz
Ultimately, it all allowed him to take an even
him, which he found telling. “My critical faculty
Oldman won his first Oscar, for transforming
In fact, it was a complex sequence—a big
himself into Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour
dinner party scene at San Simeon with a lot of
has prospered at the expense of my talent.” Says
after persuading make-up artist Kazu Hiro to
moving parts and angles to capture. “It isn’t 100
Oldman: “That, to me, feels like alcoholism. The
return to moviemaking to provide the necessary
takes to get the performance. He’s shooting
fear of failure because when you try to write that
prosthetics. This was Oldman’s path to building a character taken to its absolute zenith, disappearing into another man’s skin, almost literally. In Sid and Nancy, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, True Romance, The Fifth Element, Harry Potter, and countless other movies, the external appearance of his characters had been the Rosetta Stone he needed to play them. He hoped—perhaps assumed—he’d be able to follow the same process on Mank. “After all, I don’t look anything like Mankiewicz,” he says. “That didn’t matter to David. And I think it initially mattered to me.” Fincher told him, “I want you to be naked. I want you to be as naked as you’ve ever been. No veil between you and the audience.” “I’m thinking… what can I do?” Oldman recalls. “I’m playing a whiskey drinker; someone who’s very unhealthy. So, I said, ‘Can I go off and eat all the cannoli and do that?’ He said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And then I started to think about those actorly things I
tive a e r c , d e t n e l a erful, t d n o w y l l a e r hemy p s a l b ’s t i “I’ve met k n i n’t th o d nd I a d l n a a c i , n e l y p c y r peo e some v t e m o s l stry. a u e d ’v n i m l i f e to say I h rk in t o w o is o h h w w r e e l n p o o i e t i p t c y l a ug y a pr b e d a m m , but l s i s f e a n i s s i u ’ b k e n h a t ‘M cts of e p s a l l a a.” n i m e d n e i c c n s e i e r v e o p l x l e e stil H . s e i v o m s e v he still lo
could do. ‘Could I shave or pluck my hairline?’ ‘No, I don’t want any of that.’” He describes his approach as “hiding” behind the roles he plays. “Of course, it’s still going to be D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
25
great novel or that great play, maybe you’ll find out that you can’t.” Oldman himself is 24 years sober. “But I still have that emotional muscle memory. I can still remember it. So, it struck a chord. You’ve got to get to the real cause of it, because the alcohol is something else. It’s the manifestation of what’s really going on. And once you’re in the grip of it, it’s hard trying to get off.” In Mank’s time, the image of an alcoholic was less broad than it is today. Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935, but Oldman suspects that a man capable of dragging himself through the writing of something as brilliant as Citizen Kane may not have recognized how it was destroying him. “A friend of his at lunch once said, ‘Why don’t you go home sober for a change?’ And he said, ‘What, and have Sara [Mankiewicz’s wife] throw me out as an imposter?’ He knew he had a problem, but then you look at the work…” Oldman takes a beat to reflect on all he learned as went through the process of playing Herman J. Mankiewicz. When he set out, he knew of Mank as the writer of Citizen Kane, and little more than that. But just as he’d done with Winston Churchill on Darkest Hour, diving into the research had given him new insight. It is what keeps him hungry to do his job still, even 40 years into his career as an actor. “You go off and you make this movie, and you find this new appreciation,” he says. “It’s an extraordinary opportunity.”
The STAR Amanda Seyfried is Marion Davies AMANDA SEYFRIED IS NOT one for expectations. “The only thing I expect is death,” she says, before apologizing for kicking off the conversation with such a morbid thought. But it was why she was pleasantly surprised to hear that David Fincher was interested in her for a role in Mank. “The idea that he even knew who I was, was something I was really shocked by, and I had to wrap my head around that. He doesn’t make mistakes; he’s very deliberate. So that made me feel great.” To any who have followed Seyfried’s career from the outside, though, it might have come as less of a shock. From her deft screen debut in Mean Girls, through the all-singing all-dancing expertise with which she delivered roles in musicals as diverse as Mamma Mia! and Les Misérables, to the stirringly subtle performance she gave in Paul Schrader’s First Reformed, Seyfried has demonstrated a remarkable range and adaptability that has fast turned her into a star. She has also turned her hand to producing and was on set for her upcoming feature A Mouthful of Air when her agent called with the offer for Mank, and gave her a day to read its hefty screenplay. “I
26
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
THE ACTOR’S SIDE Intriguing one-on-one conversations between Deadline’s awards editor and leading actors of film & television NEW VIDEOS EVERY WEDNESDAY WATC H N OW AT DE A DL I N E .C OM
arion M w e n k y l l a obody re n t a h t e l pt for b i e s c s x e , n o s r “It’s po e p nsional e m i And d . h e t i e r w h t d e k r as a o w and w erson e p n s i k h e t h e s v i e l g p o o t the pe rtunity o p p o n a er.” t h a h f o w s , t e i h t i g x u e o l h p It he com t w o h s o t d n new life a
had just been getting into the meat of this movie
health failed.
For as hard and mind-bending as it felt when I
“She had so much more depth than a lot of
was trying to remember seven notes at a time,
“It is about post-partum depression and post-
these people who were talking on the surface,”
and steam would be coming out of my head, it
birth psychosis, and it was intense. I had to read
Seyfried says. “They had agendas that she
was also just so fun, because it was like a puzzle to
this script in between shots, wondering how I was
didn’t have. It might have seemed to them like
work out all the pieces and have him come back
going to give it all the attention it deserves. And
they were smarter than her, but she was more
and be like, ‘Great. That was good.’”
then I wanted to read certain parts again, because
complex than that.”
that had been a passion project for me,” she says.
it was a lot to grasp.”
As for Susan Alexander? “That’s not Marion.
As the production neared its end, the schedule called for a reshoot of the scene
I believe Herman Mankiewicz when he says that.
in which Marion is introduced, tied to a pyre
Davies, who had been a chorus girl and was
But of course, it’s inspired by the perception of
on a movie set constructed on San Simeon’s
beginning a career as a star of the silent era
that relationship, and he was building on the
expansive grounds. “I was so upset, and
when she met William Randolph Hearst and
perception, not what he really knew of the person.
we were all kind of confused by the fact we
became his mistress, was a complexity that was
That was way more interesting for the movie, but
had to reshoot,” Seyfried recalls. “I never
instantly intriguing to Seyfried. It went beyond
unfortunately it backfired for her.”
completely understood why until David said
What she found in the character of Marion
the headline knowledge of her: that she may
Like Oldman, Seyfried dove into research,
in a Q&A the other day that things weren’t
have inspired the character of Susan Alexander
reading Davies’ autobiography and watching her
Kane in Citizen Kane, a portrayal that did Davies
movies. She took hints from the films about how
no favors and attached itself to her reputation
to approach the part, and it offered a point of
movie, before production wrapped in the nick of
for the rest of her life. She died in 1961 with
connection. “She was right in front of me for hours
time for the Coronavirus lockdowns that came in
only a posthumously released autobiography—
and hours,” Seyfried says. But she was cautious
March. Watching the scene now, Fincher’s words
and Orson Welles’ eventual admission in its
not to bring over too much of Davies’ acting
ring true. “It was like I was a different person by
introduction that she and the character were
style, which would not have reflected the real her.
then. I had played Marion for three months and I
not associated—to set the record straight.
And the interview material she found of Davies
was just so comfortable. That scene felt like it was
came from much later in her life, after her voice
alive like it would if you were doing it on stage for
as a three-dimensional person, except for the
had been battered by cigarettes and alcohol. “If I
the 30th time. I had all the space in the world to
people she knew and worked with,” says Seyfried.
didn’t have any of it, I think I would have been fine,
find this Marion, and it’s rare to have that.”
“And I thought, what an opportunity to give this
because the Marion in the script was the Marion
person new life and to show the complexities of
I wanted to play, but it would have been trickier
she says, to work even harder on the next role.
her. I saw her as someone who was unabashedly
without that connection.”
She had fallen in love with the Marion Davies she
“It’s possible that nobody really knew Marion
honest and always looking for the truth.”
Also like Oldman, Seyfried found Fincher’s
feeling right with it.” The reshoot was the last thing filmed on the
It was important for Seyfried, and it taught her,
found in the pages of Jack Fincher’s script, and
approach to continuing to shoot, and the
in the archival material she uncovered, and felt a
Davies as a person much more in control of
dedicated rehearsal time he set aside, “luxurious”,
responsibility to rehabilitate the image of her. In
her own mind than people might have cared
though it took some getting used to. “It can be
the end, she thinks the film succeeds in that, even
to believe, and that the social attitudes of her
frustrating at times, because you feel you’re
if she’s too modest to take any personal credit
day would have allowed of a woman in her
finding your moments a little sooner than he’s
for it. “This film will go down in history for sure,”
position. She and Hearst never married—Hearst’s
finding what he wants,” she says. “But I think it’s
she says. “I knew that before I was even cast. But
estranged wife refused to grant him a divorce—
also amazing that there’s no pressure to do a
what surprises me is the feedback from people
but Davies stayed by his side until his last days,
flawless take start to finish. You know he’s going
has been insane. It’s the best thing that’s ever
cutting her career short to care for him as his
to find his moments, taking pieces here and there.
happened to me in my career, hands down.” ★
What comes across in Mank is a vision of
28
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
VIDEO SERIES
P R ES E N T E D BY
Go behind the scenes with the talented people who work on the most critically acclaimed television shows and films
WATC H N OW AT
DEADLINE.COM/VIDEO
The B est O f 2020 | Act resses
Elisabeth Moss The star of Shirley ventures into new creative territory B Y M AT T G R O B A R
★
★
★
★
★
A busy 2020 for Elisabeth Moss kicked off at Sundance with Josephine Decker’s Shirley, in which she stars as seminal horror writer Shirley Jackson. Next, the actress saw blockbuster success with The Invisible Man, a modern adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic. Launching her own production company in July, she then returned to the set of her Hulu smash The Handmaid’s Tale, where she directed for the first time. For the Emmy winner, each of these moves reflects a singular desire—to take charge of her own voice and career, while bringing searingly authentic work to the screen.
Why was Shirley Jackson a
how honest she was sometimes, and
people being professional, and being
first historical figure you’ve
character you had to take on?
I loved how she didn’t take anybody’s
good at their job—being able to walk
ever played, and I know you got
I think it was just a super rare,
shit. She expected the people around
in and follow the material, and being
to meet her son, Laurence, at
female character. We all have
her to be smart, and expected
able to deliver.
Sundance. That must have been
antiheroes in mind, or characters
people around her to be able to keep
who are these mad geniuses, who
up with her.
pretty surreal. While Jackson was a real person,
Yeah, absolutely. It was really cool.
your portrayal of her was rooted
He came up to me and tapped me
to people, or speak their mind in a
a little kinder and less abrasive
in fiction. Do you think it’s the
on the shoulder, and he goes, “Hey,
way that is considered abrupt, or
[laughs]. I don’t think anyone would
responsibility of the filmmaker to
mom.” And I was like, “Excuse me?”
offensive. But they’re rarely written
want to work with me if I was too
present historical fiction as such,
I was at this really loud party. You
for women, even though these
much like that. But I do think there
with a kind of disclaimer?
know fucking Sundance parties, they
women do exist. So, it was just really
are honorable qualities about who
I mean, yes and no, I guess. Our
make you want to kill yourself. Or any
cool, and unusual, and exciting to
she is, and I think those are in her
story is based on a fictional book.
party makes me want to kill myself.
see that kind of character, that I
honesty, and her intelligence.
We never said we were making a
It was really crowded and hot, and I
maybe sometimes aren’t very nice
I think that in my life, I’m probably
actually love watching so much be
biopic about Shirley Jackson, and
turned around and was like, “Hello?”
What did your preparation for
any assumption about that was
There’s this older gentleman calling
Shirley look like? How did you
completely on the part of the person
me mom. But then, he introduced
You’ve said you identify with
work with Josephine Decker to
who made the assumption. You
himself, and I got to talk to him for
Shirley, in some respects.
find your way through the story?
know, we’ve always called it “the
45 minutes, which was awesome. I
Over the past few years, as I have
It was a little slapdash, in the sense
anti-biopic”, and knew that it was
grabbed Michael and brought him
fully ascended into adulthood, and
that none of us had met. I had met
highly fictionalized because it was
over, and we talked, and since then,
also been producing a lot more, and
Michael [Stuhlbarg] before, just at
based on a previous work. I’m also
we’ve had an email communication,
taking more of an ownership and
an award show or whatever, but
very much on the side of, “I don’t
here and there.
a leadership role in my work, and
we never really had spent any time
know, it’s a movie. Everybody relax a
reached a place where I have more of
together. None of us had worked
bit.” I think art is art, and I think it’s
about the fact that we completely
a voice, I suppose, that is listened to,
together, and some of us hadn’t even
dangerous to put any kind of rules or
changed his mother’s life, and cut
I definitely felt like there were parts
met until a week before we started.
limitations on an art form.
him and his brothers and sisters out
of her personality that I loved. I loved
So, at that time, you really rely on
Interestingly, Shirley is the
of the story completely. He was very
done by a woman.
30 WA 6 D DE EAADDLLI INNEE. .CCOOMM // AA W A RR DDSSLLI INNEE
He’s been extremely generous
generous about that, and very kind
Over the summer, you launched
different. I think that’s the only thing
about it.
your production company, Love
that we try to do, is make sure we’re
& Squalor, and you already have
not making two of the same thing.
You’ve said recently you’ve seen films getting smarter, to keep up with the era of prestige TV. I think anytime something is elevated, whether it’s film or television, everyone else has to catch up, right? For me, there’s nothing like the experience of going and seeing a movie in a theater. That’s something that’s completely different, and I’m not even saying big movies. I’m not talking about Wonder Woman or Christopher Nolan films; I’m talking about independent films. I think there’s something to seeing Shirley in the theater. It’s visually really beautiful, and there’s sound design that’s beautiful, and all of that. I think COU RT ESY OF N EO N
there’s nothing like it, seeing a movie in a theater. But at the same time, people can see stuff at home, and they don’t have to go out now. I think
It’s a movie. Everybody relax a bit. I think art is art, and I think it’s dangerous to put any kind of rules or limitations on an art form.
a ton of projects in development. I think ultimately, my producing
Is there one particular project
partner, Lindsay [McManus] and
you’re really excited about?
I just want to continue to be able
It’s really hard for me to pick
to tell good stories that we’d love
favorites, because we really try
to watch, whether it’s a film or a
not to take anything on where we
television show. We also like to do
don’t believe we can carry that ball
different things. We don’t have a
all the way. We’re very hands-on
set agenda of, “We are going to tell
producers, so we have to love
these kinds of stories.” We want to
everything we do. We have to feel
tell all kinds of stories, involving all
like, “No one else can make this,
kinds of people, from all walks of life,
we have to make it, and we’ll die
and all genders and races. That’s
trying.” I would say Shining Girls
really important to us, and one of
is something for Apple that we’re
the things that we want to do is
getting into next, and that I’m
have things that aren’t just about
really excited about. We’re getting
me being in it. There are several
into the casting and crewing up of
things, of course, that I’m in, but
that. That’s going to be really cool.
we’re also developing things that
We’re doing something called Mrs.
I’m not in, and shouldn’t be in, or
March—which we’ve partnered with
have no place in.
Blumhouse on—that I really, really
We’re pretty much 50-50, film
love, and it’s completely different
anytime good work is put out there, it
and television right now. We’re very
from Shining Girls, which is cool. It’s
does make you try harder in whatever
non-discriminatory in that way, and
a feature, and very dark and twisty,
field, whatever medium it is.
every single one of our projects is
and hopefully scary. ★
NE E .. C CO E E 31 DDEEAADDLLII N OM M//AAW WAARRDDS SL LI NI N 6
T h e B est O f 2 02 0 | Act re ss es
Jodie Foster Righting the injustice of Guantanamo Bay through the story of a detainee held without charge, and the woman who helped free him B Y J O E U T I C H I
★
★
★
★
★
At this point in your career, you
he would be the right director for
me in my life, and obviously it was a
Did you meet Mohamedou?
are incredibly selective with the
this particular movie, in terms of
particular moment for anybody who
Yes, he came to set during the
projects you take on. How did
the almost documentary feeling he
lived through it. I think this film deals
shoot. We didn’t actually think
The Mauritanian enter your life?
brings; his non-judgmental sense,
with, obliquely, the residual effect of
he was going to be able to come
As an actor, sometimes it’s as sim-
but also the way that he navigates
what 9/11 meant to Americans and
to South Africa, where we shot,
ple as somebody sends you a script
as a filmmaker. And then Benedict
what it made us become. It’s a way
because after he was released by
and it’s amazing and it opens up a
Cumberbatch, of course, was the
to process this weird transformation
the U.S. government, they retained
world to you that you didn’t know
first person aboard and he was
our country went through at this
his passport. He wasn’t able to leave
anything about, and that’s really
already aboard, so that made it
particular moment in time, when
Mauritania, even to go to Germany
what happened in this case with
pretty easy.
we went from being very innocent
to visit his newborn son. Even the
But also, I’m an American and I
about our effect abroad to this
child wasn’t able to get a passport,
First of all, there’s the prov-
was around, obviously, during 9/11.
tragic moment that would lead to
so he wasn’t able to meet his son
enance, of course, of Kevin Mac-
I remember I was pregnant at the
the War on Terror, and this idea of a
for two years almost. That’s only
donald, who was already signed
time. I was on bed rest, and I was due
political war that we waged against
recently changed.
on, and somebody that I’ve always
to have the baby maybe 10 days later.
whoever we determined was going
wanted to work with. I really thought
It was a very particular moment for
to threaten us.
The Mauritanian.
32
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
So, we had many Skype calls and Zoom calls, and he would check
COU RT ESY OF STX E NT E RTA I N M EN T
Though she has starred in some of the most indelible movies in cinema history—Taxi Driver, The Silence of the Lambs, The Accused—and won two Oscars for doing so, Jodie Foster’s output has slowed in recent years. And it is not due to a paucity of roles, she says, but rather a decision to become more selective about what she takes on. For Kevin Macdonald’s The Mauritanian, based on the true story of Mohamedou Ould Salahi, a terror suspect held for 15 years in Guantanamo Bay without charge, that choice was undeniable. Foster plays Nancy Hollander, the lawyer determined to give him a full defense.
You play Nancy Hollander,
bit alike, the real Nancy is a lot nicer
Mohamedou’s lawyer. In 2010
than my Nancy. No, way nicer [laughs].
she wrote a piece for the New York Times in which she spelled out why she saw it as her duty to defend individuals accused of terrorism. She talked about the right to a defense for all accused, and she had faced tremendous criticism for helping inmates like Mohamedou preserve that right. She came up as a person interested in civil rights. A defense is guaranteed in the Constitution, and the right to challenge the government is built into our foundation. In order for the justice system to work, it needs to be challenged. She would often say, “Look, if you have the evidence to prove my client’s guilt, great. We’ll all have a trial, and they will get whatever sentence they deserve.” But in Mohamedou’s case, she had a client who was held for 15 years without a single charge ever being laid against him. Guantanamo Bay is not a prison; it’s a detention center. And honestly, the real terrorists— the toughest terrorists—weren’t even in Guantanamo, they were
Nancy will tell you that what she
I've been [acting] for a very long time, and I'm very picky about what I choose to spend my time on. As powerful as the art form is, I only want to do it when it feels meaningful.
does is all in service of Mohamedou. She wanted it to be clear that this movie was his story; that what she did was only about giving him a vehicle to be liberated. Was that part of the attraction to the film? The idea of sharing a story with real meaning with a wider audience. To me, it’s the only point for acting now. I’ve been doing it for a very long time, and I’m very picky about what I choose to spend my time on because I’m older and there are many other things in life that I want to be spending time on. As powerful as the art form is, I only want to do it when it feels meaningful. You separated the real Nancy from your Nancy. Is that a necessary step when playing a character based on someone real? This is only the second time I’ve ever played a real character. I tend not to want to, honestly, because
being held in black sites, many of
I feel like there are things I want to
them we have no idea about. Guan-
change and you can feel stymied by
tanamo detainees—maybe 85% of
real characters because you can’t
them—were just people who had
make them do things they wouldn’t
been turned in by people in their
normally do. The only other real
communities who had responded to
person that I played [Anna in Andy
an ad from the U.S. government that
Tennant's Anna and the King] had
said, “Hey if you suspect anyone of
been dead for 250 years and she
in with us. Kevin had been able to
terrorism, call this number.” That’s it,
was a total liar, so it was really easy
travel to Mauritania, which is really
that’s all they had.
to fabricate who she was [laughs].
hard to get into, to meet him. Then,
I’m not sure if this is true of the
In Nancy’s case, there was a real
by some miracle, the South African
real Nancy, but my Nancy in the
responsibility, and at the same time
government was like, “OK, we’ll get
movie, she’s wary, and she’s like, “A
I said to her, “Look, I could do an
you a visa.” He just showed up, and
lot of my clients are guilty and I’m
imitation of you, but I don’t think
we didn’t know until maybe a couple
still going to defend them, but I’m
that’s interesting.” I think it’s more
of days before he got there.
going to dig for whatever’s under the
interesting to present the facts
woodwork.” She’s guarded in terms
about her that were important to
Africa, and Nancy, who I play in the
of her personal connections with
the story, but I think Nancy’s role
film, was able to be there with him,
her clients, because she knows she’s
is really to support Mohamedou’s
so she came and the two of them
there for a very specific mission. But
story. There are things that aren’t
were like an old married couple.
this case is a special case for her, the
included about Nancy that are
They played tourist around Cape
case she’ll never forget. And listen, I
absolutely fascinating about who
Town, and we got to have dinners
always say, even though I dress like
she is, and they could be great for
with them. It was really lovely.
her in the movie, and we look a little
another movie, but not this one. ★
He had an amazing time in South
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
33
T h e B est O f 2 02 0 | Act re ss es
Rachel Brosnahan The comedic TV star takes a turn into new territory with dark ’70s crime drama I’m Your Woman B Y A N T H O N Y D 'A L E S S A N D R O
★
★
★
★
★
After playing a housewife-turned-comedienne breaking 1960s ceilings in Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Rachel Brosnahan takes on the role of a young wife forced to go on the lam in Julia Hart’s feature I’m Your Woman. Holding tight to the baby her missing gangster husband had mysteriously given her, the previously clueless Jean becomes a resourceful, gutsy self-starter—a trajectory reminiscent of the much-loved Mrs. Maisel in fact. With hues of John Cassavetes’ Gloria and Michael Mann’s Thief, Brosnahan continues to shine playing complex characters who refuse to be damsels in distress in testosterone-laden worlds.
I’m Your Woman takes place at
silence, and who don’t feel like there’s
many people, and it’s not something
getting those moments where they
an interesting time, that of the
anyone that they can talk to, and
that we talk about very much, and
were scripted, but we still ended
Women’s Movement of the 1970s.
don’t know, even, that other women
it’s so key to who Jean is. There are
up with some of these magical
One of the things I appreciate so
have gone through the same thing.
layers and layers of trauma that are
moments that we never could’ve
much about this story is that it is
And it feels important, and radical in
being explored throughout this film,
imagined. It was immensely chal-
a story about an ordinary woman
a way that, arguably, it shouldn’t any-
and we watched the film Thief from
lenging, having a baby in every close-
who’s thrust into extraordinary cir-
more, to center a woman like that in a
Michael Mann. It was an inspiration
up alongside me, one of the hardest
cumstances that she never wanted.
story like this, particularly in this crime
for them in making this film, inspired
things I’ve ever done, but also forced
She has no desire, necessarily, for
drama, [a genre] that is so often cen-
the title, and there’s a brilliant scene
us to remain improvisational, and to
this kind of confidence and libera-
tered around men.
in a diner between Tuesday Weld
keep flexible.
tion. Jean is a true woman of the
So much of the preparation for
’70s. She had a dream for herself
Jean was about remaining in con-
and James Caan that was really
at the time, which she says in the
versation with Julia. Julia and Jordan
opening monologue. She wanted to
[Horowitz] spent a number of years
hours of conversation with Julia,
ible moment when Jean and Harry
get married, she wanted to have a
creating this world and this charac-
figuring out what makes Jean, and
are hiding in the closet, and he fell
house, she wanted to have a baby,
ter. We talked a lot about who Jean
what’s happening inside her mind
asleep in my arms. And we got into
and she got a handful of those
was before we met her, and made
while she’s saying very little.
the closet together, and I’m hold-
things, and then the dream stalled.
some decisions about what her life
There are so few women who
informative. It was just hours and hours and
You know, we all just kind of bent our knees and rode the wave together. I mean, there’s an incred-
ing my breath, because I know if
with her husband Eddie would have
How was working with the twin
the baby wakes up, we’ll never get
come out of the womb wanting to
been like, and what she wanted, and
babies who played Harry? How
another take, and it added this
change the world, and their stories
where and how the trauma occurred,
did you capture those moments?
layer of urgency. And actually, in the
are equally as important and equally
and how that changes her by the
They were six months when we
scene, he wakes up for a split sec-
as valuable. We talked a lot in the
time we meet her. Many people
started. There were a lot of beauti-
ond. I held my breath, and then he
preparation of this film about quiet
don’t know that having a miscar-
ful moments that Julia and Jordan
fell back asleep on camera. It was
women, and how many women there
riage, or especially having multiple
scripted between Jean and Harry,
unbelievable. And there was another
are, particularly women who have
miscarriages, finding out that you’re
but you know, babies haven’t read
moment like that later on in the film,
had experiences like Jean’s, with mis-
unable to have children, can lead
the script. They don’t know they’re
where Jean put Baby Harry on Paul’s
carriages and infertility, who suffer in
to PTSD. It’s highly traumatic for so
in a movie. We so rarely ended up
lap in the car. And you know, we’d
34
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
done a couple takes, and they had
because we were actually, at that
Is the upcoming fourth season of
had enough, and he started to cry,
point, shooting the third season of
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in pro-
and then sweet De’Mauri Parks, who
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. So, Julia
duction yet?
plays Paul, loved the babies so much,
and Jordan were in Pittsburgh with
Not yet. I’m actually speaking to you
our local casting directors, who
from a car on the way home from a
brought a number of babies our
wig and hat and shoe fitting. We are
way. Initially, we all looked through
in pre-production, and hoping to go
pictures of the babies. They nar-
back in January.
and was so good with them, and sort of looked over at him and smiled, and the baby stopped crying, and turned around and looked at him, and wasn’t crying anymore. I mean, it
rowed down, based on the pictures alone, who Julia felt had the most
Since you started your career in
interesting faces. And then met with
2009, do you feel there are more
a handful of babies. It’s so important
good parts for women?
to meet the baby’s parents, because
We still have a lot of work to do.
obviously they play a huge role in
It’s definitely better than it was out
the production as well. And also, it
there for women in the industry.
feels important to see how babies’
I think the television industry has
temperaments change under differ-
provided a lot of opportunities for
ent circumstances. I would think it’s
women, in front of and behind the
really important for the parents to
camera, and it feels like that’s where
leave the room, to see how babies
the meatiest roles for women are
react to that, because they react
right now. There has definitely been
very differently. We’ve cast a number
a movement in film. Awareness is
of sets of twins on Maisel and the
key. We’re having these discussions
only disappointing part about this
on a large scale about the need for
was that I didn’t get a chance to
more women in all of the positions
meet the babies for our rehearsals.
of leadership, and we are seeing the
baby casting before, I definitely had
It's important if we’re going to be in
fruits of those conversations come
a hand in baby casting from afar,
every scene together, that we test.
to life, finally. ★
was amazing. Babies are amazing. And there's a really magical moment when the baby turns his head toward you on the bed, did that just happen organically? That just happened. He nearly rolled off the bed in the take before that, I want to say. Thankfully, his mother Kaitlin, who was a godsend on this COU RT ESY OF A M AZO N ST U D I OS
It was just hours and hours of conversations with Julia, figuring out what makes Jean, and what's happening inside her mind.
entire project, we couldn’t have done it without their mother, she was hiding on the other side of the bed to make sure he didn’t roll off. That moment just stuck out. It was so incredibly beautiful. Having had some experience with
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
35
T h e B est O f 2 02 0 | Act re ss es
Love and vulnerability proved vital to a tough single mom role in Miss Juneteenth B Y A M A N D A N ’ D U K A
★
★
★
★
★
What drew you to this project? We read scripts, we see material, and there are types or stereotypes or certain archetypes we see for women all the time. But with this one, I felt like there was a lot of heart. The relationships made sense to me, and they were multidimensional. I
In Miss Juneteenth, from first-time director Channing Godfrey Peoples, Nicole Beharie plays Turquoise Jones, a young, hard-working single mother and ex-beauty queen who enters her teenage daughter in the Miss Juneteenth pageant in hopes of preventing her from making the same mistakes she herself once made. The pageant is part of a larger celebration of the Juneteenth holiday on June 19th, which commemorates the official end of slavery in 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Here, Beharie reflects upon how she connected to her character and on the timeliness of the film’s release in the wake of the nationwide protest against racial injustice. 36
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
got a script and auditioned and sent a self-tape in. There was no offer. In fact, Channing wasn’t really sold I think on my first tape. She thought I was too young. So I took some notes and made a change to my read, which is something to all the actors out there: don’t get offended when
COU RT ESY OF V ERT I CA L E NT E RTA I N M EN T
Nicole Beharie
somebody has notes. It’s an oppor-
of the best teachers in Georgia. She
this movie came out when we’re
tunity to try something new. And
is fantastic and is teaching other
having these heightened conver-
it ended up working out. And then
teachers how to teach. Her jour-
sations about representation,
once we had a conversation about
ney really influenced my desire to
diversity and the marginalization
her vision, and who these people
work on Turquoise. Because people
were, I was like, “Oh, yeah. I’m totally
underestimate you, or they say, “Oh,
on board for that.”
you had that one window of opportunity in your life, and if you don’t
What were your initial thoughts
walk through the door at that point,
about who Turquoise is?
then you’re nothing.” Especially
My first thought was “tough”. This
for underrepresented people. This
is a confession: oftentimes, it’s easy
story presses up against all of those
for me to be like other people write
norms—social class, gender, race
things, and they make it a certain
norms—and asks the questions in a
kind of way. They see Black women
really subtle way.
in a certain way. But I read it and I took it off the page and thought, Oh,
Were you already familiar with
she’s been in the hood, she’s done
Juneteenth when you came to
this, she did that. I lived in Atlanta,
the film?
and South Carolina, and parts of
I had heard about it, maybe in col-
Georgia and in the rural South. So,
lege and school, working on a play or
I imagined some of the women in
something, but it just wasn’t in the
those spaces and went with my esti-
collective American consciousness in
mation of that. And then I realized
the way that I think it’s growing now.
that there was an opportunity to still
The reason why a director and
have that grip, but to also do some-
writer like Channing would want to
thing more tender with it.
tell the story about this woman, it’s
So, the development of the char-
not about this woman, it’s about
We were all in our homes witnessing what had been going on for hundreds of years. Collectively, everyone saw that. Everyone, even internationally, had their responses to it.
of Black people? I mean, it would be nice if the conversations were unnecessary. But sometimes we hit an alignment. Unfortunately, we were all in our homes witnessing what had been going on for hundreds of years. Collectively, everyone saw that. Everyone, even internationally, had their responses to it and could no longer ignore it. I felt like, just having even the smallest tipping of the hat to the ancestors, and to Juneteenth, to the freedom that came late. It was definitely a huge moment in American history—that was the official ending of slavery. It’s definitely something we need to commemorate. We saw a lot of studios and networks get on board with Black Lives Matter, and recognizing Juneteenth as a paid holiday. Do you have faith that we are actually going to see meaningful
acter is a really interesting thing. It
the community. Like so many of the
can start one way in read and then
actors I’m working with, the people
you realize, wouldn’t it be more inter-
that you see on the screen are locals.
esting if she was vulnerable? She
To pay homage to communities that
on two projects since [the corona-
doesn’t have to be crying all over
support us, and that rear us, and
virus pandemic] came to our door-
the place, but if you could feel her
that teach us all of these values,
step, and I’ve noticed a shift in the
tenderness, and how much she loves
good or bad, antiquated or not. But
way that they are hiring behind the
her daughter. So, if someone is rep-
they are the thing that you really
camera and in front. I hope that it
rimanding you, it’s not the same as
have. One of the things that I took
lasts and that it benefits all people.
a naggy mom reprimanding you. It’s
from this piece was seeing my direc-
It’s nice to see Asian Americans and
her heart, if you could feel her fuck-
tor being supported by the com-
to see trans people, a little bit of
ing heart because she really loves
munity in creating this. And as the
everything. This feels like a represen-
Kai. Then, it just hits different. It just
character, realizing that there was
tation of the planet that I live on.
feels different. That was something
such a strong root system and foun-
that Channing was very supportive
dation, whether it was the Jenkins
with the innovation in technology, for
of, and even started to encourage
committee or HBCU, those strong
example, we got a film, which wasn’t
once we were working. I just knew
foundations of history and the shoul-
necessarily going to be in a ton of
that it went from me seeing her as
ders that you’re standing on.
theaters, but probably got more eyes
just tough and unstoppable and just
changes in the industry? I’m cautiously optimistic. I’ve worked
What’s exciting, as well, is that
on it because of streaming. People
pushing through, to, “Ah, there’s an
This film came out, not only com-
opportunity for a lot of tenderness
memorating the 155th anniver-
I’m seeing all this material come
and humanity here other than that.”
sary of Juneteenth, but also at
out that’s bold and interesting. And
My sister was a young, single mom
a time following the murder of
they’re taking the opportunities,
and there were people that were
George Floyd, and the mobiliza-
taking the bull by the horns, running
like, she could have done this and
tion of the Black Lives Matter
with it, and also speaking about the
that. And she still went ahead and
moment once again. What does
ways they’re not being adequately
became a teacher, and is now one
it mean for you personally, that
paid. So, I am optimistic.★
from all kinds of walks of life.
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
37
T h e B est O f 2 02 0 | Act re ss es
In French Exit, the actress leaned into her character’s fragility and contradictions B Y S T E V I E W O N G
★
★
★
★
★
ing about watching your character take on the world. Was it as fun for you to play? You know, it’s interesting because I think it’s what I was most attracted to, her take-no-prisoners attitude. I think there’s something really admi-
Michelle Pfeiffer has played an array of iconic characters—from a heartbroken Madame de Tourvel in Dangerous Liaisons to the beehived, conniving antics of Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray—but none of her previous work forewarned us of the wonderfully aloof eccentricity she displays as newly-impoverished socialite widow Frances Price in Azazel Jacobs' French Exit. Pfeiffer admits to not fully understanding her character in the film, but she more than happily accepted the challenge of infusing Price with a memorable soul, much as she’s done with all the performances in her four-decade-long career. 38
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
rable about how honest and frank she is. And it’s fun and very liberating to play. I know she comes off as rude and curt at times, but I spend so much of my real time trying to be nice and polite and not offending people, and it’s exhausting. Of
COU RT ESY OF SO N Y P I CT UR ES CL ASS I CS
Michelle Pfeiffer
There’s something very satisfy-
course, underneath all of that there’s
subtle color than red, but no. A lot of
You’ve had so many memorable
a fragility there. I don’t think she has
it is trying to hold on to youth.
roles, but there’s a huge group of Grease 2 fans that would love to
the coping skills with where she finds herself at the beginning of the film.
It’s interesting that you brought
I think for her entire life, money and
up youth, because when I see
all its accessories has been how she
Frances, I don’t see her scared of
has defined herself and when all of
her age at all.
that falls away, she’s just lost.
I think, more importantly, it’s how you grow old. I get the sense from
The film is so quirky and loose.
her that she has to work very hard at
Did that extend to how Frances
staying grounded, and there’s a fine
was written on the page and did
line between a rich, eccentric, older
it take you a bit to fully under-
woman and a poor nut job. I think
stand her?
that with money and wealth, you’re
My first question was, “What’s the
able to camouflage a lot of flaws and
deal with this talking cat?” I was
I think that people are much more
very curious about the tone of this
forgiving. I think she’s very smart and
film, but it’s also what I loved so
she realizes this. Plus, money is her
much about it. It walks this very fine
coping skill, and I think she’s smart
line of comedy and zaniness and
enough to know that without it, it’s
melancholy and drama. There were
not a future that she will ever be
also things that I honestly didn’t
happy in.
understand of Frances at the time, and then as I delved deeper into it, I
And yet she sheds what’s left of
began to understand her more. But
her money with too much ease.
there are things where I don’t know if
You can say the writing is on the
I’ll ever understand. It’s like there are
wall. She realizes her attachment to
things that people do, that just seem
money, and until it’s gone, she’s not
completely nuts to everyone else,
able to get on with her plan. But the
and it’s just so outside our wheel-
truth is, I don’t know that we could
house of logic; I even think there is an
really understand why she behaves
element of mental illness there.
that way.
I had to just build a story around
Fabulous Baker Boys is one of the performances that doesn't make me cringe... Actually Jeff and I have been torturing Steve about doing a sequel. It could be fun.
see you don your Pink Lady jacket and redo “Cool Rider”. Oh my God, that would be so pathetic if I tried to do that. I will not get on top of the ladder and try to sing “Cool Rider”. That is the very last time I will humiliate myself [laughs]. So I’m assuming you showcasing your Catwoman whip skills again would be a “no” too? That is so funny that you asked, I did this interview recently, and the journalist out of nowhere said, “Do you have the whip?” And I’m like, “Yeah, I have it here somewhere.” I realized it was in the closet right behind me. So I go and open the closet and it is hanging in the closet on a rod and it just looks so staged. Plus it’s just so phallic and looks so wrong. And before you ask, I will also not get on top of a piano and try to sing like Susie Diamond either. That being said, can you look back to the Fabulous Baker Boys days and admire that Michelle Pfeiffer performance? It is one of the performances that
all of that and hope that some of it
What about the gaze that Fran-
doesn’t make me cringe. I was ter-
comes through. But you know what?
ces gives to people that wrong
rified to do that singing and it was
If it doesn’t totally come through,
her? It’s a look I’d never want to
a lot of hard work, and I have such
that’s OK too, because that’s really
be in the crosshairs of.
fond memories working with those
how we experience people; we don’t
You know what? It’s just a scary part
Bridges boys [Jeff and Beau] and
really understand them completely.
of me that I tap into. I don’t even
with [director] Steve Kloves. I had
know where it comes from. My dad
read that script five years prior, but
Did the physical look of Fran-
used to give me that look every now
nobody wanted to make it with me,
ces help you with the character
and then, and it is pretty terrifying.
and somehow it came back to me.
development too?
And so it meant a lot to me for so
For sure. I typically start from the
I’ve heard about how you never
many reasons. Actually Jeff and I
outside in, though I know a lot of
watch your films because you’re
have been torturing Steve about
actors work the other way around.
too critical, is that still true after
doing a sequel. It could be fun.
I usually have a visual on this per-
all these years?
son and can hear their voice and
It’s so hard on my directors because
Would you ever want to go back
rhythms, and then I’m always work-
they so want me to be happy. And
to TV?
ing toward understanding how that
it’s very challenging for me. I have
I’d love that. In fact, there are a few
came to be. For the hair color, I
moments where I go, “Oh, that was
things at the moment that I’m look-
thought, this is a woman who likes to
a nice moment,” when I’m not cring-
ing at. Doing a limited series gives
bring attention to herself, and thus
ing. It’s just very hard for me to really
you an opportunity to really go much
she has this very vibrant, fiery red.
watch myself and I probably will
deeper into story and character,
She could have done a much more
never see this movie again.
which would be very interesting. ★
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
39
No. 6
STEVEN YEUN & LEE ISAAC CHUNG
The
Partnership CREATIVE TEAM Steven Yeun and Lee Issac Chung on the set of Minari.
In Minari, writer/director Lee Isaac Chung and Steven Yeun tell the story of a Korean immigrant family risking everything in pursuit of the American dream. Jacob (Yeun) uproots his family from 1980s Los Angeles, determined to start a farm in Arkansas, while his wife Monica (Yeri Han) grows weary of his optimism in the face of isolation and dwindling funds. Meanwhile, their young son David (Alan S. Kim) bonds with Monica’s feisty mother (Yuh-jung Youn), as she distracts him from the family’s hardships and his parents’ fraying marriage. Premiering at Sundance, the film, based on Chung’s own childhood, won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award. In conversation with Dino-Ray Ramos, Chung and Yeun discuss Minari’s knifesharp portrayal of an immigrant experience beset by fear, regret and devastating setbacks, but tempered by the rewards of resilience, and what rises up when we plant the seeds of hope.
How long was the story for Minari in your head
anything larger in regards to Isaac’s personal story. I
difficult time making a film,” or something like that.
before you realized you needed to tell it?
think he really left a lot of space for us to imbue our
But I think Isaac has a very honest eye. I think he
Lee Isaac Chung: Well, for this one, I just knew that
own things. Also, I think Isaac is wise enough—I’m
can read people, see people for who they are, and
I would probably get to it at some point, even when I
putting words in your mouth, so I apologize—to know
he’s gracious that way. I think the people that he
was starting to get into filmmaking. Many filmmakers
that something like this has other pressures involved
brought together were perfect, so when we did come
start off with an autobiographical film from child-
beyond the truth of his specific story. At least those
together it didn’t feel like this overwrought, “We have
hood, and that’s kind of what I was thinking I would
are the pressures that I reacted to.
to immerse ourselves. Let’s pretend to be a family,” or
do, but other projects would just present themselves
I appreciated that Isaac didn’t really express to me his worry about it. If anything, he really always
to become a father myself and to live some life and
supported me through my fears about approaching a
the bat. With Yeri and I, we traded stories about our
to go through ups and downs, some failures and
character [when] I think a lot of Asian Americans and
perspectives about who Jacob and Monica were,
various things, so that I could get to a point where I
specifically Korean Americans have an idea of what
supplemented with also how we have lived through
could write about what it was like for my parents to
is on their minds. So yeah, I wasn’t too worried about
our own relationships. And I think the way that we left
come to this country and the things that my dad was
Isaac’s script. I was more worried about servicing
space for each other to explain and educate each
wrestling with, especially when I was the age that my
Jacob correctly.
other about ourselves really lent a truthful perspec-
daughter is now. In other words, for me to understand
p
something like that.
naturally in the beginning. I think I needed that time
The dynamic really worked pretty much right off
tive, too, to just the way that Monica and Jacob miss
what it’s like to be a dad of a child that age as I’m try-
Isaac, what was it about Steven that embodied
each other, as well. And I think in that way, it allowed a
ing to pursue my own career.
the story you wanted to tell?
nice duality for both those characters, because you’re
Chung: I felt like Jacob is someone who is charting
not looking at one person being objectively bad or
When did you start to put the story on paper?
his own course, and someone who’s leaving behind all
good. It’s just they’re trying and it’s very difficult.
Chung: It wasn’t until 2018 that it felt like the time
these different structures, ideas and categories that
And then when you think about Youn Yuh-jung
was right. I had taken a break from working on proj-
he’s been placed into—whether that’s in Korea as a
and her playing Soonja, that was so perfect, because
ects and I was really inspired by this book I read by
Korean man, or in California as this new immigrant.
YJ, she comes with a lot of power already. I remember
Willa Cather, called My Ántonia. She talked about how
He’s had all this pressure on him and now he’s trying
the first time I met her, I went outside with her and
her work really began when she stopped admiring
for the first time to do something that’s completely
just chatted with her for a little bit. And I was just like,
and she started remembering. She stopped trying to
different and completely himself. I felt like Steven
“It’s really wonderful to have you here. It’s an honor to
emulate other writers and to do what is considered
could understand this to the core, just based on how
be able to work with you,” and she expressed really
to be good work as a writer and she started to just
he’s grown up, who he is as a person and the sorts of
nice things to me about prior work that she’s seen me
simply remember and write from her experiences.
things that he thinks about. Even noticing the types of
do. I think Soonja represents the eyes of Korea, and
And I thought, I haven’t done that and I need to do
work that he’s drawn to as an actor, as a performer. I
maybe the seeming sense of validation that maybe
that with this. Otherwise, maybe I won’t even have
just felt like there’s something about that in which he
Jacob also wants to hold, which is, some weird,
a chance to make another film. So, this is the one
understands this person very intuitively.
prodigal son sense of, “I went and did this and I made
where I need to just get it out, get it done and hope for the best with it.
And there was also another side to it where I just
myself, can you see me now?” And that energy also
knew that what Jacob is doing is almost… laughable.
felt real for me as an actor to YJ. You want validation
It can be something that you really judge harshly
from one of the greats. And then the kids, they’re just
Did you feel apprehensive or vulnerable telling
for what he’s doing to his family. With the way that
so pure and so present and so talented.
such a personal story?
Steven was doing it, I felt confidence that the audi-
Chung: I’ve got to say, Steven did quite a lot in bridg-
Chung: Strangely, I felt a lot of apprehension about
ence would be there with him and understand him.
ing a lot of gaps on the set because I felt there was
whether I was doing some kind of injustice to my par-
They would still trust him and know that there’s some
a lot demanded of him. We have actors coming in
ents, because I know the feeling of somebody telling
deeper reason for why he’s doing these things. And
from Korea and there is a certain type of style and
a story with you as a character in it. It’s like I’m trying
again, I think that’s just something that’s within him,
training there, and then we also have very seasoned
to tell their story in a way, but they’re not really telling
where we just want to be with him and be along-
American actors, like Will Patton. Then we have these
it with their own voice. It’s me. It’s my perspective, so
side him for that ride and cheer for him in a way. I
kids who’ve never acted before. I was just amazed
that made me really nervous. Other than that, I tried
just thought, “Okay, he’s perfect for this,” and also
because Steven’s worked in all of those settings in
to keep some distance from reality and what actually
I thought it was great because he’s in between the
one way or another, and he’s really great with improvi-
happened so that I don’t have to try to make it so
idea of being Korean and being American in the way
sation. So, he had to be a glue in some ways and keep
exact to what actually happened, but just to make a
that I am—in the way that I feel I am between David
this really held together in such a deep way. So, yeah,
story and to make it entertaining. It was important for
and Jacob as well. I felt like it added this layer in which
I’m very grateful for that.
me to try to figure out a way to let the audience have
I can really trust him to carry this film and that I can
a good time while watching the film. I actually enjoyed
continue to, as much as I can as a filmmaker, express
Telling this story from a father’s perspective and
writing those parts, knowing that they are from my
myself through this film. That I would be able to do
a child’s perspective seems quite demanding.
real life, but that they’re not exactly from my real life.
that very collaboratively with Steven.
Did you feel like you were being pulled in differ-
Steven, because it was based on Isaac’s real life
Steven, what was the process in forming this
Chung: it was pretty odd to make this film. I was on
and his experience, did that responsibility and
bond to create this sense of family, especially an
set one time and I was trying to correct my produc-
pressure weigh on you?
immigrant family?
tion designer, Yong Ok Lee with something she had
Steven Yeun: I think Isaac, especially in the way that
Yeun: I think it’s really kind of a testament to Isaac,
done. I said, “Well, you know, in my family, in my real
he wrote it, created so much space. When I first read
first and foremost. I think he really, really brought
life, it didn’t look like this.” I felt like that’s the trump
it, it didn’t feel sparse and it didn’t feel overwritten.
together the right people. I think that’s the mark of
card. I can play that card and she has to listen to me,
It felt very true. It felt very honest. And because of
how great of a director he is. What is that adage?
but she just turned to me and said, “You know this is
that, I think it didn’t feel like I was having to service
“Directing is 95% casting, and then 5% is the crazy
not your family. This is the Yi family. This is completely
COU RT ESY OF A 24
ent directions?
PHOTOGRAPH BY
Melissa Lukenbaugh
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
41
different.” And something about that really shook me
This is a film led by an Asian cast and the com-
Do you think the American dream and an immi-
and woke me up. From then on, I had that voice in my
munity has been behind it. And it’s another nar-
grant story are one and the same?
head: “This is not your family anymore. This is the Yi
rative to further the fact that the Asian culture
Yeun: I heard this really cool quote from another
family and you have to service that vision.” So that
is not a monolith. Steven, how did you find the
interview where someone said that all immigrants are
distance was good throughout the whole film to have.
synergy with Jacob, given your particular iden-
artists, and that was very profound to me because
tity and experience?
I realize how true that is—to make something from
Steven, are you familiar with rural life, like the
Yeun: I think it felt refreshing. When I wake up I don’t
nothing. America is the land of immigrants. It is an
one the Yi family experiences, or are you more of
juxtapose myself to whiteness ever really, until I’m
immigrant nation. The initial outset was to leave a sys-
a city boy?
outside and I’m reminded at times. It felt nice to be
tem behind to create something brand new. We find
Yeun: Both my parents are from farming families in
able to express myself in a way that I feel naturally on
ourselves a couple hundred years into this and trying
Korea. So, farming felt natural genetically, but I was
the daily. So, for Jacob, the realization that, in some
to shake ourselves awake from the way that perhaps
raised in the suburbs of Michigan, so it’s not like I got
ways, I am him or I am my father, or I can relate to
the larger section of the country has rooted itself—in
to touch too much. I got to touch a lot of nature, but I
that on a human level was deeply fulfilling because
its comfort in generations, in some way—and then you
didn’t get to touch too much farming per se. But yeah,
oftentimes Asian American actors don’t get to ac-
have these beautiful images and examples of people
I think farming was really cool, because my parents
cess things like that. Usually they’re there to fulfill the
that are doing it now.
are really obsessed with farming now. They’ve turned
narrative and sometimes, even worse, they’re there to
their backyard into this giant garden where they’re
fulfill a quota.
growing fresh produce and sending it over to us. Their
To be able to tell a story about the inner life of
I feel like that’s ultimately what makes America beautiful. I don’t know if there’s an intrinsic difference. There are a lot of nuances between those. I don’t
grandkids get to eat fresh cucumbers and zucchinis
who we are is, to me, amazing. That’s the dream of an
know if I can make a statement like that. I think on a
and things like that. I think there was a generational
actor, to fill their body with intention and purposeful-
larger note, it feels like the story of Minari, the story of
connection there that was really fulfilling, to want
ness and reality and truth, instead of doing the men-
Jacob—that desire to make a life for themselves dic-
and have the same desires that my father once did.
tal and physical gymnastics, like a circus mimicry of
tated by our own terms—that’s the beauty of America.
Subsequently, the metaphor of doing physical labor
how we perceive the world and literally talk about the
It’s what a lot of us, if not all of us, are hoping for: to
to the earth, and just the submission to the chaotic
world. With Jacob, I got to access him on why he does
just make your own life. Whether you have those op-
nature of whether you’ll succeed or not is profound.
this thing. What he’s after and who he’s wrestling
portunities or not is a different story.
I think that this movie was special that way. There’s
with. I got to access him through those touch points,
Chung: I definitely echo all of that. It’s interesting. I
something really wonderful about that.
as opposed to, what is an Asian man in America.
think we just have to be mindful of what that defini-
How did you navigate a story about an Asian im-
From The Walking Dead to Okja to Sorry to Bother
a lot of definitions of that that are, frankly, unhealthy. I
migrant family living in a traditionally conserva-
You, you’ve been in a diverse array of films and
feel we see them crumbling right now in this country,
tive town without it falling into racially-charged
TV, Steven. But how do you think the character
letting people down in a way. I like the way Steven
tropes and traps?
of Jacob fits into where you are at right now
says it. In a way, we’re all immigrants here, and we’re all
Chung: I definitely knew if I didn’t address the topic,
with your career?
trying to create a new reality, and there’s a good way
that somehow that would seem irresponsible or that
Yeun: I think he’s a part of a personal journey that
to do that. There are ways that are only going to disap-
would seem strange or neglectful in some way. So, in
I’m on. In some ways I have to recognize the massive
point us, and hopefully that’s something that Minari is
my mind, this was really a film about a family trying to
privilege that I have, that I get to find myself through
talking about.
make it on the frontier, and that’s a more classic story,
this medium this way. Who gets to do that? Not
Yeun: I’ve been thinking a lot about how Asian Ameri-
in that way. It was intentional on my part that it’s not
many people.
cans in the past have been required to define them-
tion of an American dream is. I think we are faced with
new immigrants, but that this is a family that’s actu-
I almost cried when Isaac told you about why
selves. It’s always the best version of how we define
ally been in the U.S. for a few years, so that already
he cast me, because I hadn’t heard that before and
ourselves happens to be that we’re caught between
creates a certain separation from it being strictly an
it’s so deeply in line with how I feel. It just makes me
two places. While that is in some ways true, it feels this
immigrant story. And I wanted to make sure that by
respect your eye so much more, Isaac. I think all of
generation and on is really more about the space that
doing this story, we’re not just telling a story that is
us want to be seen—not just be seen by others, but
we occupy ourselves, and less about being trapped
meant to explain who we are to white people basi-
also see ourselves a little bit clearer. For me, the work
by anything. Really, we’re just in our own thing. We’re
cally; that it shouldn’t just be a film that is meant to
has really just been finding and mining deeper and
in our own unique culture. There are things about the
communicate to a “white audience” and to say, “This
deeper who I am. How I do that is I get to work in
motherland that we can’t touch in the same ways and
is the struggle we went through,” or, “These are the
these films that really access an individual character.
they’ll remind you of that, whenever you go back there.
ways in which we’ve been hurt and wronged.”
It’s not always in service of this larger dynamic. It’s
If you spend more than two weeks there, they’ll be like,
I’m not discounting any of those things or any
always in service to the story, which is great, but I’m
“Hey, you’re an American.” Then you come here, and
of those realities, but I just felt like this story is more
really attracted to characters that are isolated, that
you’re made to perform your culture so that you can
about this family and what they are going through,
are their own thing. It’s fulfilling to me as an actor to
justify why you’re here. I think there’s something about
their perspective, and we need to be in that perspec-
find those things.
this generation that there’s a lot of power in that, and
tive. For them, they’re not thinking about racism all
Jacob feels different. I think for me, I’m really at-
I’m glad to have been part of this film. I’m so glad that
the time. Do they encounter it? Yes, they do. And
tracted to something that I might be thinking about
Isaac wrote this so honestly and truthfully, because
when they encounter it, it’s brief and there’s a certain
or working through. And then I magically, wonderfully
we’re not trying to ignore our culture, or where we
way that it happens in their lives. But I wanted the film
get a script out of thin air where it’s like, “Here’s one,”
came from, or who we are now, but rather just to plant
to shift away from those ideas and to be more about
and I’m like, “Oh, that’s the one. I’ve got to do that
a flag in some way, at least for me, about where we’re
themselves and the barriers that they have within
one.” That’s where I feel so lucky. So, moving forward,
at now and what we are now. There’s something really
their own families, the assimilation that they need to
I think it’s that. The goal is to really see myself a little
beautiful about that. So, I’ve been really happy to see
do within their own family. It’s not assimilation to the
bit clearer, just so that I can play my part a little bit
Asian American cinema and art, in general, really start
culture, but to each other, in a way.
better in this life.
to flourish. That’s been really wonderful.
42
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
ON THE FARM Chung gives direction to Yeun and co-star Will Patton; (below, L to R) Alan S. Kim, Yeun, Noel Cho and Yeri Han as the Yi Family; (below left) Patton and Yeun in action.
How has the meaning of this movie changed for both of you from when you were filming it, to
tality that was starting to cook under the surface. As we cascade into now, into all of 2020, to me,
[Tsiakals] who I got to meet a week before I started. She owns a vintage shop in LA called Please and
when it premiered at Sundance, to now, when
Minari is more profound than ever. It feels more
Thank You and she’s helped us source so much for
the world is going through major changes?
real than ever. Because in some ways, everybody’s
Minari in [terms of] its authenticity and its cloth-
Yeun: I’d love to hear Isaac’s perspective about this
barn has burned down and all that’s really left is the
ing. When I think about all those things, this movie
too, but when we were in the middle of shooting it, it
people that are around you—the ones that helped
really just brought the best of us all together. I get
just felt beautiful. It felt really wonderful. It felt like we
you make all of this together.
to speak about it during the press tour, but then I
were all coming together for something, and there was
The way it continues to cascade for me is that I
look back and I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I’m standing on
no way of knowing how it was going to go, but it just
came to at least this understanding of the lessons
a bunch of people, an entire set of people helped
kept going. If we could compile all the stories of the
that Jacob needs to learn in the midst of his story.
realize this thing.”
beautiful nature by which films realize themselves, the
But even as we talk about this movie on a press tour,
Chung: Yeah. I mean on that note, I hope that it
people that get involved, the people in the periphery
it’s focused on a certain select few individuals, name-
offers some kind of hope or something to have after
that sometimes don’t get seen ultimately in the end,
ly myself. There’s something about getting out of the
everything that’s happened this year. It’s so easy
but they’re so integral to the process. So many things
way too, and stepping aside, and really talking about
to be trite about everything that’s happened, but I
like that happened. So many magical moments that
all the people that got to make this—not just the cast
think this film is born of a true pain, in a way, that I
were kismet, but also created because everybody was
and the crew and Isaac’s wonderful direction, but all
feel I’ve wrestled with in my own life, but then also
focused on making something great.
the people in Oklahoma that came to make this and
a lot of joy, and a lot of hope that I feel I’ve been
did it respectfully, in a way that infused them into the
blessed with on the other side of that. I watched
crazy. The first night of our premiere was the same
project, as opposed to othering themselves, because
the film again, for our HD master check-through in
day that Kobe [Bryant] died. Isaac and I talked about
they didn’t feel part of the culture. They were just
the middle of this entire virus thing, and there’s a
it and he put it the best way. He was like, “There’s a
connecting to it on a human level.
shot towards the end of the movie with the family
There was that, but when it premiered, that was
mortality to it.” The stakes felt heightened because
And then we had this woman named Stephanie
sleeping on the floor together. It felt so poetic and
someone as large as that in life had perished in such a
who just appeared out of thin air in some ways with
almost a prayer when I saw it. That’s what I want for
crazy way. And then, further, to have the rumblings of
YJ, and helped us navigate so many cultural language
all of us. That we’re all there and we’ve all survived.
coronavirus… there just was this deep sense of mor-
things. And then we had this woman named Jenny
We’re together. ★ D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
43
THE
PODCAST
WWW.DEADLINE.COM