The Hollywood Reporter has been releasing their award season roundtable features again this year and I just finished watching this hour long sit down with six of this season’s high profile directors and have to say, it is absolutely fascinating.
Included in the interview are Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained), Ang Lee (Life of Pi), Tom Hooper (Les Miserables), Ben Affleck (Argo), Gus Van Sant (Promised Land) and David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) and each brings something different to the table, all of which creates a fascinating dynamic to the room.
To give you some idea of what to expect, Tarantino obviously captures everyone’s attention in the room and you can see Russell looking on with fascination and Affleck absorbing almost every word as he goes on to echoe his hatred of digital, calling it “TV in public” and says if he were to do another epic feature he would probably do it as a six-episode mini-series for HBO.
Tarantino then comments on what he wants when he looks back on his filmography and says, “Death Proof has got to be the worst movie I ever make. And for a left-handed movie, that wasn’t so bad, all right? So if that’s the worst I ever get, I’m good. But I do think one of those out-of-touch, old, limp, flaccid-dick movies costs you three good movies as far as your rating is concerned.”
Russell says he had his “head up his ass” while making I Heart Huckabees and says that not finishing Nailed was unconscionable, but with The Fighter he found his groove and Silver Linings Playbook continued that.
Affleck talks about having to fire an actor while making Argo, directing his brother (Casey Affleck) in Gone Baby Gone, learning from other directors and the transition from acting to directing. And Ang Lee says a script “is not like a play, it is not an art form by itself. It’s just a blueprint — a step toward filmmaking.”
Now just sit back and hit play and soak it all in for an hour. You won’t regret it.
