Actors on Christopher Nolan (Anne Hathaway, Denzel Washington, Joseph Gordon-Levitt & more)

worked with some amazing directors in your career steven spielberg stephen soderbergh robert zemeckis what is the first thing that when you think of working with christopher that sort of differentiates him from that um i've never worked with a better leader i cannot say i've ever worked with a better problem solver and have the problems he just saw was by pure will that everything must keep moving forward keep moving forward he never goes backwards he never goes backwards whether he won't go reshoot anything even if he found out something was wrong i don't think he would reshoot it um he uh uh conceptually he's able to realize things on screen to actually put them up there in a larger and more awe-inspiring scope than any other director that i know or i've seen um yet when we were shooting the personal stuff which is film's full of it felt like a small independent film a few takes don't be he's not a perfectionist i thought he was going to be a perfectionist he's not a perfectionist he actually wants the imperfections and you take as much time as you need but um he also has a great sense of humor which not many people know he's got a killer sense of humor um which is really funny because the other night i heard at the american cinematique thing he said that you actually people think you just are sort of funny and careful all the time and you think he was very serious find me funny at all yeah well we were both very serious and in our seriousness came some of the things in hindsight that i found i found his humor to be really witty and dry um so you know it's a very personal story for him his brother wrote it his wife's producing it he's got a daughter himself you know and i think i think it shows i think it showed when i first read the script i felt like he was going for something more personal that he'd even gone for before watching the q a last night after the screening and did you say correct me if i'm wrong that you took the project without reading the script and that you did that you didn't meet christopher until on set is that true no i mean sort of i took i knew i was going to take the project before i read the script yes of course they sent me the script because you never know like i wanted to work on a christopher dolan film and so when i got the call i was like of course i'll do it um had i read it and it didn't make sense for the character there was no arc or something of course i would have had second thoughts i loved the character so i was there it is true we didn't meet until the first time we met was a costume fitting so it was weird like saying hello mr nolan well like there's other people around so you know you don't really have the intimacy of a one-on-one conversation which i think was really good for my character because she's very isolated from all the other characters in the film i don't know if he did it on purpose i know i i but if he did he's really is a genius well he well you've worked with so many genius directors and i'm just curious what i asked the same question of matthew like you've worked with terrence malik you've worked with such great you know filmmakers and you know katherine bigelow like what what does he like compared to them like what's the thing that you first thing you think about when working with christopher compared to them uh gosh working with christopher you're there to work there is no complaining there is not like you're in extreme situations and you just go through it like ann was in ice water you know up to her shoulders whatever she went through it matthew's on the glacier not being able to look down because he's in the space suit i was getting dust chucked in my face every day and you just you that's your job you're doing it the x-men movie the first x-men movie really heralded the birth of this golden age of comic book movies do you now whenever you see you know chris nolan at parties go you know what you're just riffing on my act we started this do you ever do that i don't talk to chris he's always he's always trying to bother me and suck up to me and that guy that guy is a little annoying so i'm like oh no i'm going to be stuck with chris and he's going to be offering me movies and it's embarrassing to say no i mean does anyone wear suits what was that inception movie ridiculous he offered me that and i was like that script i'm like are you kidding me this is the sound of these guys just ripping up their careers you hear it in the background interesting story about chris when we were doing the prestige this is a true story he was telling me how one day he always had batman in mind and when he saw x-men one he uh of course he couldn't get it made back there when he saw x-men one he was like that's my idea this idea of making comic book ideas a comic book movie is real and human and dramatic and uh and relatable in a way not just based on the super hum human uh elements and so he really gave it to brian uh kudos to brian he's like that's what i wanted to do a project you've got coming up soon is interstellar yes nolan as well so you're re-knight what's it like reuniting with him well i was so flattered to be asked back you know i had such a wonderful experience working with him on the dark knight rises um he's he's one of my favorite directors to work with and um and i have a really good part which he wrote so um i just couldn't have been more flattered and you know just to it's great to work with your friends and and it's so wonderful to get to work on great movies and so that i'm blushing thinking about it excuse me so that one was just um just yes joy wonderful pleasure all around has it been different kind of uh going from like an established superhero franchise onto something that's quite unique and original working with him has that changed the way you've worked at all not not really i think you know he i got to see a little bit more of his process on interstellar just because in the batman franchise i was walking into the third film and into a world that had already been established and you know i mean something as simple as the visuals the visual tone of the film had already been worked out you know uh previously so i got to see him kind of uh create more at the inception level and yes i did just say inception while talking about chris nolan correct me if i'm wrong this is your fifth time working with christopher nolan so it seems yeah it seems yeah what is it like working with him uh how different is it working with him than it is to working with any other filmmaker well you know chris has very sort of specific approaches to the work um i mean every director is is different you know but i suppose i've had the pleasure of working with chris a few times now so you get a sort of a an insight into how he and how he goes about it and it's very very rigorous it's very sort of demanding on himself and on his crew and on his cast and incredibly focused um and you know his vision is so clear and so strong you feel very confident you know in sort of being part of that and when he pushes it you know it feels like a good place to be definitely and it really feels like watching this film is that without him around or in the industry working today there wouldn't be films like this being made on this scale at least um does it feel like that when you're on set with with the actors when you're filming the scenes well i think you know people talk about chris's films like you know like they're on a big scale and that they're epic in nature which is certainly true but always in my experience it's always the things that i remember is the sort of intimacy of the work together you know that particularly in this film we're on a little boat out in the ocean and it's just three or four actors and chris and the cameraman and the sound guy and that's it you know so it feels really intimate and i know that around it there's this huge story unfolding but that's been my experience in all of his films really you know just about the performances and about the work would you ever work with nolan and did you see uh tennant what'd you think of it chris call me call me chris what i'd love to work with i'd love to work with christopher nolan you kidding me he's doing what's he doing uh uh oppenheimer right oppenheimer yeah did you what did you think of tenant it's out of curiosity it was it well you know it was too weird first of all i we went to chris's house screened it in his theater no so i'm sitting here now now i'm watching my son starring in a christopher nolan movie in christopher nolan's house so there was a lot going on you know i'm looking at my son and i'm like he sounds like me i'm like of course he sounds like you stupid he is you know there were so many things that i was experiencing that you know as a father because you seem to be a favorite well we met the first time we met and talked about dreams for like an hour and it was so interesting and this man is so uh smart and uh and uh and it was also um [Music] i mean this he was offering me something that i had never done before and uh and the two movies i've done with him uh were two very different experiences and i mean i i love working with him i love being on his set with all the people he works with [Music] he's uh he's a true artist um directing huge movies which is which is very unique uh in a way that he writes the script i mean he's uh he's involved um at every level of movie and he's very inspiring too because he's so smart there's two directors i've worked with that don't allow cell phones on set darren aronofsky and denis villeneuve and both of them had exactly the same reason which is exactly what you were saying it's about intentionality and both of them talk about the space being sacred and he said i don't care if you're 50 yards over there i need yes you've done your job you've set up the scene you're not needed right now if you're on the cell phone it dissipates that energy that intentionality of everyone is making this story but you've actually worked with three directors that don't allow cell phones was tom one as well no christopher nolan oh no that's right yes yes chris also doesn't allow chairs doesn't he but so i wrote to them twice doesn't allow chairs and his reasoning is if you have chairs people will sit and if they're sitting there not working and he's right and he's right and he winds up i mean he's he has these incredible movies in terms of scope and ambition and technical prowess and emotion and always arrives at the end uh under schedule and under budget so i think he's on something with the chair thing chris rang my lawyer and he said here's the thing i understand people need a trailer if they're gonna hang out in their trailer he goes but christian bale and hugh will share a trailer i promise he will never sit in his trailer for more than one hour and i promise we are done at 7 p.m every night and we'll be home and i was like i'm in and he was true to his word try this my father accepts that i want to create for myself not follow in his footsteps that might work right we need to do a little better than might thank you for your contribution arthur forgive me for wanting a little specificity specificity christopher nolan was the sundance director who is making huge movies that's the balance that i wanted to strike as an artist and as an audience member just the movies that i wanted to watch i remember when uh when the dark knight came out in 2008 and of course there was it was steeped in tragedy because um because of heath there's such a brilliant movie and it was brilliant in the same way that these movies that i grew up loving were brilliant the ones i was talking about soderberg and tarantino you know all these movies that were so rooted in character and and and heart and soul and not in glitz and gloss but nolan was managing to bring that artistry to the grandest of you know to a batman movie is the craziest magic trick that he was able to do that when the opportunity arose to go meet chris i hadn't read the script for inception at all because it was chris i was like oh absolutely i don't know anything about this i know that leonardo dicaprio's in it that's it i know it's chris and leo i didn't know leo at the time so i wasn't allowed to call him leo now i am now i can i wasn't auditioning i was just going to like meet him and usually though when i go to audition for something or even meet on a film i sort of present myself in some kind of light such that the director could see me as that character if i'm gonna play you know a uh homicidal maniac from texas i'll go in you know with some stubble and like maybe a little drunk i'll dress and sort of hold myself in such a way that it makes sense that i could play that character this i didn't know what i was going into and so i just put on a suit i was like i'll just be as pro as i can be and uh and in hollywood you don't go into meetings and suits no one wears a suit in hollywood but i wore like a full-on suit tie nice shoes and went into the meeting with chris being like whatever you want anything tell me we talked about movies talked about kubrick talked about violence in movies i remember telling him about sort of just myself and my family and then he offered me the movie i couldn't believe it it's it's sort of the the big surprise of of my career in a way i remember the first time i read the script i came away with a lot of questions but also this the script for inception did not allude to how involved in particular like i'm in this big dream fight sequence that sort of weaves through the whole second act of the movie or something [Music] in the script it's it's like one line of stage direction it's like arthur gets in a fight or something like that and i remember as they started to present me with this fight sequence that i was gonna learn and i was introduced to these stunt coordinators and like talking about my schedule for training and things like that i was like and then it but it ended up being this fun house of like and and the main thing i was doing with my life for months was like working out and like training you know kickboxing and and then training on wires and balance and like all this all this stuff that was so so fun i had no idea even when i read the script i didn't know that that's what i was in for

Channel: CINEVERSE

Views: 167,729

Keywords: Christopher Nolan, Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Matthew MCConaughey, Jessica chastain, Denzel washington, John David washington, Cillian Murphy, Marion cotillard, Interstellar, Dunkirk, GQ, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Batman Begins, The Prestige, Inception, Oppenheimer

Id: _cJ1xouzbQU

Length: 15min 16sec (916 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 02 2022