During a conversation at London Film Festival on Sunday, Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao got candid about Hollywood, the difficulty of financing films, how neurodivergence has impacted her storytelling and more.
Zhao’s devastating historical drama “Hamnet” — about the personal tragedy that led to the creation of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley — held its European premiere at the festival on Saturday night, where it was welcomed with plenty of emotion (and a surprise appearance from producer Steven Spielberg). Speaking about making the film, Zhao said that the experience made her “very passionate about rediscovering and remembering some older ways of storytelling that have been forgotten in our society.”
“Before we made everything factual and reasonable, there was a time where we’d see stories in different ways — from our dreams, our vision quests, from going into nature and listening to the birds,” she said. “So the language of ambiguity is, to me, vital for the health of a society. And I think even in Hollywood, in the film industry, we are not very good at preserving the language of ambiguity. If logos and mystery are in harmony, we would be living in a much better world.”
However, Zhao acknowledged that it’s oftentimes difficult to get stories like these financed for the big screen. Though profiting from a film is not her end goal, the filmmaker acknowledged that “money is really important.”
“Maybe it’s because I’m Chinese, I don’t know what is it, but I’m so afraid of owing people money. I don’t like it. I don’t like being in debt. I want the people who put the money into my films to get the money back,” Zhao said. “I don’t believe that my vision and whatever importance of my film should make people lose money. It’s just not for me. I try really hard to get financiers or studios to say, how much are you comfortable giving me so that you can survive as a company, please. And then I’ll do it within that. So I think it’s really helpful because limitations, I promise, are your best friend.”
Asked by an audience member at the end of the talk how being neurodivergent has impacted the creativity of her storytelling, Zhao said proudly: “I think it’s a superpower, I really do.”
“I think we’re all on the spectrum of something. Everyone’s brain is so different, so unique — nature and nurture combined. And I find that I question sometimes, is it that I am the not typical one or has our world become a little too inhabitable? Is it too loud, is it too bright, is it too fast?” she continued. “So I try to not think of it as less or different, but think about if I tune into how I function, then I’m going to create a world, not just on camera, but also off camera that is going to be healthy for me. And those who gravitate towards me like that about me, so that’s probably what they enjoy as well.”
She concluded: “It’s really important and actually a good service to society for you to honor what you need first because that might be exactly what your environment might need as well.”
“Hamnet” world premiered at the Telluride Film Festival last month, where it made a huge splash and sparked Oscar buzz, and went on to win the People’s Choice Award at TIFF. In Variety‘s review, chief film critic Peter Debruge wrote that the film is “so emotionally raw as to be almost excruciating at times.”
Zhao broke through with her 2020 drama “Nomadland,” starring Frances McDormand, which won the Oscars for best picture and director. With her directing win, Zhao became the first woman of color to win in the category. “Hamnet” is her latest film after directing the Marvel movie “Eternals’ in 2021.
“Hamnet” will receive a limited theatrical release in the U.S. and Canada from Focus Features beginning Nov. 27 before expanding wide on Dec. 12. It will release in the U.K. on Jan. 9 via Universal Pictures.
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