This article comes fromDen of Geek UK.
What NetflixsStranger Thingsis to 80s sci-fi horror, AmazonsRed Oaksis to 80s coming-of-age romantic comedy.
Never mawkish or raucous, its a wistful portrait of that brief window of adulthood before responsibility begins.
And, it goes without saying, the 80s soundtrack and clothes are also totally bitchin.
Yes, and Eric Rohmer… Rohmer, Truffaut, even Siskel and Ebert get a mention.
All that, and its also directed by Amy Heckerling…
…and Hal Hartley.
Its pretty great, its a pretty good world to be in.
And you know, Steven Soderberghs behind it as well.
Is Soderbergh the source of the cinephilia inRed Oaksthen?
Or is that David Gordon Green?
Its the writers, its pretty much the writers.
Joe and Greg [Gangemi and Jacobs] and have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to films.
There seem to be lots of little movie nods and references seeded in.
Theres a lot of nods in it.
And alsoDirty Dancing, but Ive not seen a huge amount.
Eric Rohmer Im fine, John Hughes not so much.
I need to do some research.
Can you see that?
There was a lot more innocence, absolutely.
Were quite cynical now as cinema-goers or TV-watchers.
And I think its also just cool.
Its a pretty cool place to revisit.
The clothing and the denim is pretty cool, and the soundtrack is really great.
I think that is a credit to the creators and directors based on the grammar that is being set.
Its not a Wes Anderson zoom, its actually a zoom.
The promo for season two was the only moment of real irony Ive seen.
TheGarth Marenghis Dark Placevideo?
Whose idea was that?
Somebody came in and did it, I think a British guy did it.
Theres the line in season two when David says Who wants to work in fucking TV?
I had trouble saying that line.
I was like do we want to say this line?
But we said it.
I dont know if you saw that?
I did see it.
About creative people like him being brought low by having to work on TV.
Even that first monologue sounded like him talking about him writing a TV show.
I liked watching that show.
It felt like I was watching Woody Allen writing a TV show.
There was something really nice about him discovering a TV show.
It was good, I liked it.
Hal Ashby would be pretty cool!
They all work so differently.
You dont like being coddled as an actor?
I dont need ten minutes to get into character.
Whereas Amy Heckerling is more into character and that works great too.
She has a lot of big things to do, huge set pieces that she controls really well.
David Gordon Green is just crazy.
What sort of thing?
Hes always doing things.
So thats the sort of thing you might put in your back pocket for your next feature?
Yeah, if I want to do a David Gordon Green film maybe.
Then we had Gregg Araki who directedMysterious Skin, hes awesome.
He was a bit of both, quite stylised and also a bit with the actors.
Talking about idiosyncrasy, tell me about season ones body swap episode.
That was fun to do.
I had a bad back after playing Richard Kind!
How did the two of you come up with those impressions?
Did you and Richard rehearse with each other?
I just watched loads of episodes with him in them.
We were lucky that it was episode seven so I think we had enough time to get into it.
I just felt bad for him because hes quite a character whereas I just dont do anything!
It was hard for Richard, but it was fun.
Can we expect anything similarly high-concept in season two?
We dont really have that kind of episode in season two.
Is there any chance of a musical episode?
I do not sing or dance or any of that but theyre all very good.
They dont stop talking about them.
They made me go and watchHamilton.
Do you know aboutHamilton?
Its on my gym playlist.
Its on everybodys bloody gym playlist.
What I enjoyed about the body swap was its creative whimsy.
It was also a nice thing to do to get away from all the seriousness.
When youre going into episodes six to ten, some shits going to hit the fan.
Did having that non-realistic element make the film harder for you to pitch or sell it?
The ambiguity over whether he was real or not?
I just didnt tell anybody.
A bit of stealth film-making!
Kind of stealth because I knew it would be…
I suppose there are movies likeFight Clubwhere… but theyre a lot more commercial than what I was making.
Its a Pied Piper coming-of-rage movie you could tell how that would go down in a pitch.
Is there a sense then, with financiers, that you cant show too much imagination?
Im not saying you cant show imagination because youcanshow imagination.
The people that do show it, like Jonathan Glazer and Richard Ayoade, can.
Is introducing elements of ambiguity in stories like that important to you?
Youve said before that you feel social realism in British filmmaking is too prevalent.
I will stick by that.
I think there is a lot of social realism.
People cry out for diversity, well, stop making period dramas.
It doesnt make any sense at all.
Its in our national DNA.
But I kind of want to make movies that are in between.
I think Jonathan Glazer does that very well.
I think Richard Ayoade does that very well.
I think Edgar Wright does that very well.
I love Paul Thomas Anderson and stuff like that.
Im shooting another movie in March and thats the kind of movie I want to make.
Once youd madeJust Jim, what was your experience of getting it out there and seen and reviewed?
To make any movie is a treat, it really is.
But putting it out there is a very strange experience.
Its like waking up on Christmas Day but you dont really have any presents.
Getting it reviewed, I dont really know what that means.
Ive learned to not pay attention to it I suppose.
Who taught you that?
Myself, reading some of them!
It is what it is, its part and parcel.
Like promotion and all that kind of stuff is part of doing it.
Theres no saying whats right and whats wrong.
Ive learned to avoid that I suppose.
What else have I learned from it?
Ive learned to be as ballsy as possible, having done it.
I probably will have no reviews for my next film, that would be great.
It just doesnt make any sense.
What can you tell us about your next feature?
I cant really say anything about it.
Apart from that critics are going to love it!
Its calledEternal Beauty, thats all I can really say.
Have you written it?
Ive written it and Im directing in and Im not in it.
I cant really say what its about.
I film it in March in Wales.
Its shot in Wales, its not set in Wales.
Wales is standing in for…Saturn?
Yeah, Saturn, thats it.
Would you direct an episode ofRed Oaks?
Weve talked about it but I dont know.
What led you to that decision?
Im sure the movie would have been seen slightly differently had I not been in it.
So for that reason and also because there are other actors that I prefer.
I couldnt think of anything worse!
I suppose bossing Paul Reiser and Jennifer Grey about might get awkward too?
No, Id love to do that.
Idloveto boss Paul Reiser around.
One of the nice things aboutRed Oaksfor me is its brevity.
Ten episodes a season, twenty-five minutes each.
Your first film was 84 minutes long.
So you dont feel that bloated run-times are a modern curse?
No, I dont know.
Im just Snapchattingallthe time.
All the bloody time.
I am on it actually but I dont really use it.
Again, its the fact that were getting so opinionated I think.
Were just like no, I cant do that.
Also, 84 minutes is a good runtime to have sometimes.
You dont want a three-hour comedy.
You said earlier that you dontdoanything on screen.
He said your deadpan persona was Buster Keaton-ish.
I think thats amazing.
I suppose thats just the way I feel more comfortable with acting.
I find introverted people more endearing sometimes.
So I suppose when I act like that I would hope that people would find that more endearing.
And its alsoThe Graduate.The Graduatechanged a lot.
Or somebody that needed to go through a transformation to bring them out of their shell?
So thats a big thing.
Did they tell you what quality it was they were looking for in the character?
I think it wasThe Graduatekind of thing.
That Dustin Hoffman kind of vibe.
I think again its just doing nothing, to be honest, just standing there looking scared.
Its the blank-faced, rabbit in the headlights look.
I probably got it because there are not many people doing it.
Other people like to actuallyact!
No, I dont know why they employed me.
You know that wasnt my question!
Youve worked as an actor from a really young age.
You were inTracy Beakerat what, nine?
I think I was about ten or eleven, yeah, pretty young.
And there wasBeing Human…
Oh yeah, I did like two episode of that.
Two episodes and the web series.
Oh yeah, I cant remember any of that.
It was all fun.
Its weird, Ive been acting for fourteen years.
Thats a long time.
I havent doneanythingfor fourteen years, and Ive easily got a decade on you.
I feel like I should retire soon.
I think thats why writing and directing feels a refreshing change.
Its kind of where my heads at at the moment.
I didnt really know what I was doing for the majority of it, to be honest.
I think they asked me to do it because they thought it would bring me out of my shell.
So I did that.
I didnt really know what I wanted to do until about eighteen, nineteen.
And I still dont know what Im doing.
Did that come withSubmarine?
Yeah, it was that.
It was working with Richard Ayoade and seeing how passionate he was for it all was definitely inspiring.
I just dont know.
I constantly want to keep changing.
In some form of storytelling, whether it be that or doing something else, I dont know.
You know youre starting to sound more and more like [hisRed Oakscharacter] David.
[Laughs] Yeah, I am actually.
Which feels like quite a natural place to have to wrap things up.
Craig Roberts, thank you very much!
Red Oaks season 2 is available now to stream Amazon Video.
