The overnight success is a familiar enough narrative in the movie business.
Actors are plucked from obscurity and set on the road to stardom.
Directors offered major movie deals after one of their shorts goes viral on YouTube.
His work on TV commercials led to directing episodes ofGleeand the hitAmerican Horror Story.
But itsMe And Earlthat is likely to introduce the director to a wide audience.
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Congratulations on the film.
I was really taken by Gregs character.
Is he part of the reason why you were keen to direct this?
Yes, I saw myself in him.
Thats never happened to me before.
I mean, you see yourself in different films.
I saw myself as a 12-year-old, when I sawThe Breakfast Club.
InMean Streets,it was the same.
Its interesting, how you find these connections.
Hes smart, Im not smart.
I was making a bigger movie about the same thing.
I wasnt there yet, you know?
Im talking about it.
But it was definitely Greg, and that was why it was so hard on [Thomas Mann].
With Thomas, I found that wonderful connection.
As a result of that, me and Thomas became quite close.
We became good friends.
One of the things I saw in the film as well is that its actually about becoming a filmmaker.
Greg starts by imitating the things he loves, and then he makes something personal.
That was exactly my reason for wanting to make the movie.
It really allowed me to be expressive in my filmmaking.
So the bigger journey for me is starting to make personal films.
I didnt think that would be enough.
What if it doesnt work?
What if it isnt funny?
What if weve seen so many of them at this point that the joke is stale?
Its funny on the page, but Im very nervous about that.
But then I pitched to my producers: What if the final film was an experimental film?
He gives these abstractions a shape, so the films story is about Rachel becoming energy.
Its up to him to finish this movie on his own.
The journeys going more personal.
And I hope I was finding mine as well.
I understand this was quite a hectic shoot.
Twenty-four days, was it?
It was a little less.
Twenty-three and a half, I like to say.
[Laughs]
Do you think your grounding in TV helped you to get through that?
Those schedules are absolutely insane in television.
Sometimes, you get the script the day before.
But it is a rush [of adrenaline] when it works!
But the pace of TV certainly prepared me for this.
Its a great exercise, having to solve problems on-set.
Youve done a lot of work as a second unit director and as an assistant.
Do you think theres some advantage to climbing the ranks in the film industry?
And I say television and then film because being a film director has always been a dream of mine.
But now, television is so cinematic that I want to continue pursuing that as well.
[A lady brings in a plate of fresh fruit on a tray.
Theres an ornamental pot plant on the tray too for some reason.]
Im fine, thank you.
What about this little plant?
Ill eat the plant.
[Laughs]
So yeah, I totally get it.
I mean, it worked for Spielberg, right?
He went fromSugarland ExpresstoJawsor something like that?
Yeah, yeah, he did doColumbo.
I guess there is a little something there.
I mean, not years of it!
If someone self-destructs after a big experience, I think it has something more to do with your DNA.
Maybe ultimately it didnt work, Im not sure.
But that all taught me how to begin to make this one.
So many directors and actors start with horror, dont they?
Its a great proving ground.
Especially if you like the camera.
I love the camera, you know?
I love being expressive with it.
Horror allows me that freedom, because you’re free to be expressive.
The camera can be a character.
I did notice this.
The more the film goes on, the more the camerawork calms down.
The takes get longer, the shots are locked off, that kind of thing.
So I was having fun with the composition, the close-ups.
You know, I love negative space.
Theres so much information, even in the first shot in Rachels bedroom.
The big wides in the bedroom with 10mm lenses.
Greg just doesnt stop talking.
Then you bring in the longer takes, which give you the chance to look at whoever you want.
Those work because of the performances, which are so strong.
Sometimes youre forcing the audience to be still and go at your pace.
Youre changing the pace and the rhythm of the film because Gregs learning how to be still.
You start to feel uncomfortable.
I think you get to feel what Gregs feeling, and the movie is very much Greg.
So whats your approach to composing your shots?
Are you a storyboard-heavy director, do you find them on the set, or a bit of both?
I used to storyboard myself, all through college to make some extra money.
The first episode ofGleeI got [Laryngitis], I showed up and I had storyboarded every shot.
And it was so specific, they thought I was an alien.
It was Roses Turn fromGypsy, the first sequence I did.
Because I liked musicals.
I like the way Scorsese approached them, Michael Powell approached them,Tales Of Hoffman.
So I liked that approach.
But withAmerican Horror Story,we were talking about the speed of it.
Even inGlee, sometimes you move so fast that you dont have time to do that.
So then you have to improvise a little bit.
Then you start being looser with it, which is fun.
This movie was a combination of both.
You know, you dont want every scene to be just them sitting on chairs.
What if now youre watching TV, but youre laying down on the floor.
Then some of the shots are the product of failure because something else didnt quite work.
You get more comfortable finding it on set.
Some, like the hospital sequence, where he plays the film.
That was designed carefully in pre-production.
Carefully storyboarded, very specific.
And then when I got to the set, none of it worked.
Just the power of seeing them the power of the faces, right?
Realising that my approach had been too stylised.
It almost belonged to who I was at the beginning of the movie.
Now I had evolved as well, and realised that it was just about documenting this moment.
[I used] Steadicam, which I dont particularly like.
Just trying to be still with the Steadicam starts to give you an underwater, dreamlike quality.
The way he would remember that moment.
Just the way he remembered high school as a kind of prison.
It was documenting this thing, how do I get out of this jam?
Because none of my ideas work and Im running out of time.
And I dont want to rush this.
The Steadicam had those imperfections, because as youre moving, the lens flare dances as well.
It was out of your control, almost.
That was another approach.
So sometimes youre figuring things out, sometimes youre prepared and it doesnt work.
Sometimes you have everything prepared and it goes as planned.
But thats the mystery of it you never know when its going to knock you down.
You talked about wanting to make personal films.
Do you think theres the support for that kind of filmmaking that there was when Scorsese was younger?
I dont know, I dont know.
Scorsese just madeSilence, the Shusaku Endo adaptation, which is a very personal film.
Time will tell, ifMe And Earls a success, I dont know.
But it can be personal by dealing with a universal emotion.
This ones about finding a voice.
you might still do personal stories like that.
Maybe my tastes arent so inaccessible.
Scorsese makes personal films, but hes been able to do it for many, many years.
Sometimes, theres that saying that someone attributed to him I dont know if its true.
One for them, one for yourself.
That it’s possible for you to continue playing in the industry if youre responsible.
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, thank you very much.
