For those of us who like these Oscar contender roundtables from The Hollywood Reporter, this is the one we have have eagerly anticipating. The directors. The head creative honcho of a film. I feel like these are the people who have not only the most to say, but the most interesting way of saying it. They have to have their eye on so many different moving parts that they can shed light on many different areas of the film.
This roundtable includes Christopher Nolan (Interstellar), Richard Linklater (Boyhood), Angelina Jolie (Unbroken), Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher), Mike Leigh (Mr. Turner), and Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game). Even though this is an Oscar contender roundtable, I think only one of these people (Linklater) will be getting nominated. That does make their discussion any less valid or interesting.
They discuss their most difficult days on set, when they decided they wanted to make films, watching assembly cuts, director inspirations, and their creative processes. I found Nolan’s toughest day on set to be the most interesting:
Probably the toughest for everybody [on Interstellar] were the location shoots we did in Iceland. We did three days out on the water standing in 2-foot-deep water in the freezing cold. And I’ve never had a crew complain quite so much. They really, really didn’t like it. Then we went up on the glacier — they were a lot happier. I really enjoy things like that: It’s difficult, but you have fun with it because you see what you’re getting. But we had 100-mile-an-hour winds, which I’ve never seen before. It actually lifted the asphalt off the road and threw it to one side. We were out there trying to shoot with the actors bracing themselves in the wind. I thought it was really fun.
It is a terrific 50 minutes, and I highly suggest you give it a watch.
Previous Roundtables:
