Despite having become a hugely successful filmmaker over the last decade and being a regular face on the awards circuit, Yorgos Lanthimos admits he still has very mixed feelings about the promotional aspect that comes with the job.
Speaking on Saturday at a special BFI London Film Festival talk with “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong, the director was asked how he felt about commercial success.
“I want it to happen, but I don’t it to happen the way it happens,” he said with a smile. “I want people to make their money back. I want people to watch the film. But I don’t want to be going around like a freak, parading around the world, having to explain the film.”
Lanthimos noted that after spending six months shooting a film and six months editing, there was then another six months to spend on the promotional tour.
“And it’s not my passion to go around being a photographed and telling people stuff,” he said. “So I’m just going like, isn’t there another way? You sit down with your people and they’re telling you about this interview and that interview and I’m like, can’t you just take out some of them. In all of them I’ll be saying the same thing 1000 times. And I don’t remember the things that I’ve said and I get confused. But it’s a big part of it.”
The director also pointed out that, thanks to technology, whatever he does say is amplified everywhere anyway. “So why do I have to do it a million times? I don’t understand, but apparently it’s a still a system.”
But technology, he joked, could come to his rescue, and with AI he could “make an avatar” to send out to interviews in his place.
Lanthimos also discussed his filmmaking process with actors and giving them the freedom to try different things. While he acknowledged he did offer considerable leeway in terms of the performances, he said that he was particular in terms of “knowing what doesn’t work” and pointing out when something “doesn’t feel right.” With this in mind, he noted there was something he did on set that annoyed Emma Stone.
“I only mimic her bad takes,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m like, you said it like this…and she’s like ok, you don’t have to do the impression! But that annoys her very much.”
The night earlier, “Bugonia” had its U.K. premiere at London Royal Festival Hall, with the director on stage alongside stars Stone, Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis, plus several execs and behind the camera talent, including producers Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe from Element Pictures, cinematographer Robbie Ryan and writer Will Tracy.
“Bugonia” — Lanthimos’ fourth collaboration with Stone — world premiered in Venice in August. The film, a typically absurdist comedy from the filmmaker, sees Stone play the high-powered CEO of a major corporation who is kidnapped by Plemons’ conspiracy theorist and his inept cousin who are convinced she’s an alien looking to destroy humankind. An English-language remake of the 2003 South Korean film “Save the Green Planet,” the film is due for release by Focus Features on Oct. 24.
Leave a Reply