ANIMAL KINGDOM -- Interview with writer/director David Michod
From: Andrea Chase
Series: Behind the Scenes
Length: 18:15
Writer/director David Michod edited "Inside Film" magazine and made short films in preparation for his feature film debut, ANIMAL KINGDOM. The short films wowed Sundance a few years back, and this year, so did ANIMAL KINGDOM, a gritty film about a family of criminals in Melbourne, Australia, and the estranged, traumatized grandson and nephew, J, who finds himself in their midst when his mother overdoses on heroin.
During my talk with Michod, he discussed the pleasures and perils of working with a cast of alpha males, using a newcomer in the pivotal lead role, and why Guy Pearce is the actor who can do anything, as far as Michod is concerned. He also offered insight into the impact that Blue Tongue Films, a loose collective of new Austrialian filmmakers, is having on that country's film industry in general, and his career in particular. He finished by comparing Joseph Gordon-Levitt, star of his next film, HESHER, with the late Heath Ledger.
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Piece Description
Writer/director David Michod edited "Inside Film" magazine and made short films in preparation for his feature film debut, ANIMAL KINGDOM. The short films wowed Sundance a few years back, and this year, so did ANIMAL KINGDOM, a gritty film about a family of criminals in Melbourne, Australia, and the estranged, traumatized grandson and nephew, J, who finds himself in their midst when his mother overdoses on heroin.
During my talk with Michod, he discussed the pleasures and perils of working with a cast of alpha males, using a newcomer in the pivotal lead role, and why Guy Pearce is the actor who can do anything, as far as Michod is concerned. He also offered insight into the impact that Blue Tongue Films, a loose collective of new Austrialian filmmakers, is having on that country's film industry in general, and his career in particular. He finished by comparing Joseph Gordon-Levitt, star of his next film, HESHER, with the late Heath Ledger.
Timing and Cues
00:00 - 01:03 Intro and first question about leaving print journalism to make films.
01:03 - 01:25 I always saw myself as a filmmaker even when I was an editor at Inside Film Magazine
01:41 - 02:17 Learning about the business side of filmmaking while working at magazine no deterrent. Going from film school to being entrusted with millions of dollars to make a film can be an invisible road. The magazine helped elucidate how to do that.
02:36 - 04:00 What he wanted to do with the character of Smurf in the film, played by Jacki Weaver, for whom he wrote the part. He offered it to her when he was young and foolish enough, as he says, to think that the film would be made. Weaver is a giant of the Australian film industry, around since the 1970s, appeared in PICNIC IN HANGING ROCK. She could handle the complexity of an evil character with a bubbly personality, plus she has a faux naiveté and the visually interesting coupling of a 4’10” woman surrounded by hulking 6’ sons and a grandson.
04:20 - 06:03 What is unique about the crime scene in Melbourne, Australia that made him want to set the story there. His own take on the city when he moved there from Sydney. How criminals there become celebrities in ways that they don’t elsewhere.
06:10 - 07:08 Casting a newcomer, James Frecheville, in such a pivotal role, why he prefers that and what Frecheville’s instincts brought that another actor couldn’t have.
07:18 - 08:20 How emotionally shut down J and what it means when that character is finally allowed to have an emotional outburst He discusses the silence of adolescent boys.
08:31 - 09:31 The pleasures and perils of working with a cast of alpha males and the tension that can add to the filmmaking process.
09:48 - 11:16 Casting Guy Pearce for his ability to play a buttoned-up character that still be compelling. Also, his ability to play different classes of people.
11:40 - 12:50 Why Joel Edgerton’s character wants to trade bank robbing for playing the stock market and the social commentary of how the rich make money in murky ways.
13:01 - 13:18 Why Edgerton’s character is Jewish to establish his alienation from other gang members.
13:37 - 13:56 The serendipity of the dancing little girl as a background figure when shooting on location at a working grocery store.
14:03 - 15:00 Portraying a fictional crime family in Melbourne and whether or not people identify them with an actual crime family.
15:13 - 16:55 The Blue Tongue film group, of which Michod is a part along with other up-and-coming Australian filmmakers, and the sense of camaraderie and the way it has helped the members produce projects for the group and for other producers. The visit to Sundance with his short film several years ago that got things going.
17:00 - 18:08 Michod talks about Joseph Gordon Levitt, the star of his upcoming film, HESHER, and how he evokes for him the spirit of Heath Ledger.
18:09 - 18:12 Thank yous and outro.
Intro and Outro
INTRO:Andrea Chase goes BEHIND THE SCENES with writer/director David Michod to talk about ANIMAL KINGDOM, a gritty and uncompromising look at the family dynamics of a Melbourne, Australia, clan of career criminals and the grandson and nephew, J, who finds himself in their midst after the death of his mother. Welcomed with open arms by his bubbly extrovert of a grandmother Smurf, Jay is quickly embroiled in the psychological and criminal turmoil that is the norm for this family. He also embarks on a romance with Nicky, whose normal family appeals to him, but also leaves him feeling even more alienated. A series of violent acts puts J in the way of the police, particularly a detective, played by Guy Pearce, who both wants to solve the crimes and also save J. ANIMAL KINGDOM won this year’s Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema at the Sundance Film Festival. Michod is a member of Blue Tongue Film, which also produced THE SQUARE, released in this country earlier this year. ANIMAL KINGDOM co-stars James Frecheville, Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Sullivan Stapleton, Luke Ford, Laura Wheelwright, Jacki Weaver And Michod himself as a reporter.
It’s a profession with which he’s familiar. Michod served as an editor of "Inside Film" magazine from 2003 to 2006 before he decided to make films himself instead of just writing about them.
OUTRO:Andrea Chase has taken you BEHIND THE SCENES of the film ANIMAL KINGDOM with its writer/director David Michod.
