- 29 minutes ago
"We wanted to make a piece of pulp, a piece of entertainment," the directors say about the thriller.
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00:00Benny and Josh Softy and Rob Patterson, thank you very much for coming in and
00:04congratulations on good time which people should go out and see. It was a
00:09big hit out of Cannes and many other festivals. I saw it at Karlo Vivari and
00:13people love it all around the world. So I want to just begin by asking the Softy
00:17brothers, people should know you guys are brothers if they can't see the
00:20resemblance. Yeah, he shaved it would be much more apparent. If I shaved you'd be like oh my
00:24god he doesn't have a chin. Well let me ask you guys, this is, you called this
00:29your first movie movie. What do you mean by that? We've been
00:34incubating and making these movies for a decade now and almost stubbornly so
00:38and you know refusing to kind of engage with with you know the movie industry in
00:43a weird way just because we wanted to just make sure we had our language down
00:47and you know this is when we set out to make this movie we wanted to make a
00:52piece of pulp, a piece of entertainment, a movie that that kind of is greater than
00:56a superhero movie, greater than CG. It's showing you what money can't buy you know
01:00and it's like a thrilling movie that actually thrills that all of a sudden
01:03you're like oh my god wait a second or someone is someone actually gonna come in
01:06and arrest Rob or Connie at one point like actually or violence actually feels
01:11like someone's actually getting hurt so it's in that regard. At the same time we
01:15always thought every one of our movies is a blockbuster, but this actually could be a
01:20blockbuster. Well you should note like heaven knows what you did with real people. Yeah.
01:24Daddy long legs with kids. So this is your first movie star that you have teamed up
01:28with. How did what made you first think of Mr. Pattinson and then I'm gonna ask him
01:33what what drew him to this material. No one ever thinks of me. Yes.
01:37He actually and to that point and he may know to that point exactly he made us think
01:41about it. Okay. Okay. He reached out to us. Take it away please. Tell us what so what how did
01:46this begin and what was the
01:47beginning of the relationship Rob? Me. Yeah I mean it's like I've told the story
01:55too many times and I'm like oh whatever. I mean I did a this I saw this this this
02:02still from the previous movie on the banner of a website and then kind of sent
02:07this sort of crazy obsessive email saying I know I know this is supposed to happen
02:13it's meant to be. Very much like the character in the movie. Yeah. And then yeah
02:18when we met I hadn't seen anything I hadn't seen the trailer or anything and we
02:21sort of agreed to do a movie which didn't exist based on nothing. Based on
02:27my obsessions. Yeah. Well so once you guys were we're all on board here the sort of
02:33character development that you did is is unusually in depth from what I
02:37understand from from emails in character it sounds like to charting out emotions
02:42and all this so I wonder if you can each just talk a little bit about what you
02:46what you did in advance before you were ever before any cameras were rolling that
02:50that led to this feeling like such an electric movie. Yeah just to touch on the
02:54emails it was we they were they were they were ideally letters you know that
02:59Connie was writing from jail to Nick. Connie Rob's character. Yeah and then yeah I play I
03:05play Nick and Josh said to Rob he said he said I want you to write a letter to
03:12Nick and it was gonna come out of out of the blue. Yes. Told me that it was gonna
03:15become me I wasn't gonna know when but and then to BCC him in response and so
03:19he was privy and then so was Ronnie Bronstein who Josh wrote it with to this
03:24kind of like two-month-long conversation where he was trying to skirt the
03:27grandmother and then he was trying to kind of sub subvert Nick's ideas and
03:31feelings and he learned that if you say certain things to Nick it's gonna tip
03:35him off the wrong way and it's like it's gonna shut off the relationship and the
03:39last thing he wanted was that to happen. I like the one when I told when I told you
03:42not to respond. Yeah I just didn't respond yeah it was a jar like don't respond to
03:45this one. He forced him to send another one being like haven't heard from you Nick you
03:49like you know but and we that that the character development is is something you
03:54know it's just the necessary work that has to get done especially because you
03:57know we were coming from working with you know our previous film the lead
04:00actress is not only a first-time professional it's her story that she's
04:03reenacting and and you know with Rob you know he's not Connie that's he doesn't
04:08come from that world so like it was kind of an effort to to for really for us to
04:14know how he would move in this in the narrative was just really know this
04:17character and for him to be able to pull from a life of character development
04:21and we got we started off like broadly and then I've been like I just kind of got
04:25into and I was like now we can't really gloss over you know age one to four we
04:30have to like show what's going on in that early we're thinking like Freud
04:33almost so he went and ended up breaking it down into like three month period
04:36started his whole life and then ends up you know minutes before his character
04:40actually enters the movie. Then there was the interesting thing as well when you
04:42when you do something so and having such a detailed backstory you can kind of you
04:47can it's not just like oh he did this at this point and that but if it's
04:50something so detailed you can really see the patterns in someone's behavior so it
04:53actually looks like you can actually see what a character is rather than just kind of
04:57have just a few events in the life. I mean it is worth noting that like when we did
05:02this stuff like now as we're entering like the promotional part of the of this
05:06process I didn't even realize that that was like a thing like the character I
05:11mentioned it when you know we were talking about it in Cannes and all of a sudden I'm
05:14like kind of you know I don't know it's like it's I don't it's not like a thing
05:19that we're doing it's very organic is my point is that we were kind of doing it
05:23because we had to do it. And you guys even I was seeing in one interview we're
05:28charting the emotional. That was weird. That was weird. Well it was like for we
05:33we kind of went we went crazy at one point like okay what's wrong we were
05:37watching the movie like there's something wrong with this edit this
05:40version of it and it's like what is it and we were charting the emotional path
05:44of the film yeah and that's kind of what it would for me it was like okay the
05:49movie needs to move at the speed of Connie and Connie's brain and you need
05:54yes fast and it also the moment it the moment it emotionally dips down it's dead
05:59because you're more you're as a viewer you're kind of rolling through this
06:02roller coaster of a movie and it's a lot of action and you're and you and
06:06there's things that come up where morally they're a little ambiguous but the
06:09point is that you show in the moment sometimes people don't have time to
06:13think more you're just going along oh my god why did I just do that it's like
06:16but on to the next thing you know it's like what happened. Well Rob you you've
06:20said that when you were starting on this business the ultimate thing was to be a
06:23character actor right and so here is a guy who has you know there there's
06:29nothing glamorous about this guy this is not a it's a guy who's scrambling in
06:34every sense and physically he's different accent wise he's different is there talk
06:39about from just some of those aspects what it what it involved for you to get
06:44ready to play it. Just with physicality and accent I mean it's kind of a lot was
06:52from developing an accent I mean I always really like trying to figure out what the
06:58voice of a character is and I think an accent it's not it's not just from a place
07:02it's like there's a reason why someone speaks like that and then you can you can
07:07almost tell what the area is like because of the accent and then from what
07:10the area is like you can kind of tell how they grew up and it's kind of reverse
07:13engineering a character rather than I think the accent should come almost first
07:17it's like having a walk or something you find one little element and I think there
07:22was just something I just love the way the dialogue was written it seemed very kind
07:25of jarring and and you keep I mean I just lived in this basement apartment in
07:32Harlem and just literally did nothing at all apart from have the what is it called on
07:37the live feed of Times Square like I literally just had that in black and
07:41white all night and I'm just sit there just like keep filming myself on a phone
07:44to the point where like you're saying you did this throughout the shoot you were
07:47staying there go for two months before and I just like every single day like do
07:51these things when you just keep saying and also there's another thing it's all
07:53about like costume and stuff I remember when when Josh brought a few like ideas for
07:57costume things and one was one of those huge 90s Ava Rex jackets and normally if
08:03you're doing a costume fitting you'd put on the costume and be like this doesn't feel right I feel faking
08:06it
08:07right and then instead of saying okay let's try on a bunch of different
08:09jackets I was literally just like this is the jacket and then just like just make
08:13it work and then just like you just have to sit in it and just keep figuring out
08:17how to move in it until it feels like your jacket rather than try and think with
08:20them yeah the other way around I also I also just think in a weird way there's
08:25there's something to the British accent that there are parts of the the the way
08:29that he says things that actually sound like a Queen's accent yeah the way he said walk
08:34just now it sounds like yeah it sounded like a Queen's accent and then Josh
08:38pointed out he's like it's called Queen well so Benny I want to talk about how
08:44you wound up playing Nick the brother because that was a that could have gone
08:49and not right yeah you know you've been Nick is a mentally challenged guy who is
08:56subject put through the grinder by a brother who probably means well but
09:00whatever so I just wonder for you how did what it have you know did you
09:05contemplate other ways of casting that and then ultimately when when you did
09:09become the guy playing that how does that work when you're also co-directing yeah
09:13it's it's well we did contemplate actually casting somebody with a
09:16development disability and we thought about it and it just seemed like in
09:20the interview process where we were meeting some really great people it
09:23just felt like we would have to push people in certain ways and kind of
09:27manipulate them to fit our schedule shooting action sequences and it would
09:31just be too it we felt this thing moral that just felt wrong there there's a sense
09:35of agency yeah once someone hasn't have a sense of agency and like that's not to
09:39say you that a developmentally disabled person can act and we just saw a movie
09:42where it worked really well but that was a movie where there's you know dialogue
09:46basically in a small this is action set piece as many saying yeah these are
09:49intricate things you know where we're aggressive scheduling so and then no no
09:53no it's it and then just to kind of touch on whether or not it was like yeah it
09:56could it could go horribly wrong but I really felt that I was this guy you
10:02know and I'm and when I'm playing him I'm not but I'm not gonna I know that he
10:06has certain limitations but the character doesn't know he has those
10:09limitations so if I'm if I make the character aware of the limitation then you
10:13can see the the faults and you kind of can see the facade and it becomes maudlin
10:17so in between takes let's say you as a co-director you want to give some
10:22commentary to Rob how does that work well there within certain the I I didn't
10:26even realize I would it happened but Rob pointed out the other day or it's like
10:29we're in the alley and he just like kind of just gave 15% more of yourself to the
10:34character just be like get closer to me like it's gonna make me uncomfortable like
10:38something like that or Josh would come up to me and say something in my ear like
10:42do this to like kind of force Rob into this position and and then I could hit
10:47them yeah I could go direct Benny through Rob and Rob could I can direct Rob
10:51through Benny and then and then for me it was also just like okay I know that I
10:55could just kind of go all out because Josh is there you know it's like to kind of
10:59catch it all and so it's there there was this this physicality also between the
11:05two of us that was whenever it whenever it happened it was it was it was a very
11:10special moment in the in the elevator I always just remember it's like he kind
11:13of like grabs me and pulls me close and kisses me and says I love you and it's
11:17like that's like the last I did love it I loved it that was like the one moment I
11:22walked away then he actually said he's like I'm only gonna do this scene if I can
11:25get kissed by Rob but then he actually secretly recorded it but no but then it was
11:29like but for what was so strange about that is that's the last thing Nick would want
11:34you know it is worth noting the less character that we wrote into the
11:37screen with me and Ronald Bronstein it was a character that was developed seven
11:41years prior that with Benny was played by and actually that opening scene was
11:44something that was shot for that project that fell apart yeah and so it was like
11:48we wanted to cast somebody but then we always had in the back of our minds like
11:51Benny can do it yeah and it's like I do it well and it's it's a weird thing to
11:55just be like okay yeah I can just do that you know I just take this characters in
11:59him yeah I do I can tell he's not playing him he's being yeah I do feel a
12:03connection to him and it's it's interesting to watch that rehearsal from
12:06like 2010 and then you you fast forward to 2017 seven years later like what
12:11happens to this guy after he physically got stronger and physically can take
12:15whatever he wants nobody's gonna know he's gonna mess with him so he gets a
12:18little bit harder and he gets a little bit more kind of insulated and it's like
12:21it's that much more difficult to get him into the system because he doesn't want to
12:25listen to anybody so this movie gets into the Cannes Film Festival where in
12:292014 Rob you had two movies map the stars and the rover so you've been there
12:34but the reception for this was so special I think maybe you can describe
12:40just even compared to those years where it was very positive but this is people
12:45what what what how would you describe what went down I can't I mean was it the
12:54first time we screened it again but then anyone's yes it was a world yeah no one
12:58had seen yeah there was no we didn't know any of the reaction for it I mean it's
13:02weird because I was I once I if I like something I I've kind of had so many
13:08random reactions to things throughout the years and I like it and I don't care
13:12what anyone says and so I was already prepared for anything and so it's such you
13:16know it's such an unbelievable pleasure when when other people like get up to it
13:20but I think it's yeah it's it's something about the energy of the movie
13:24and it's kind of it's just it's like four times the intensity of things that are
13:32coming out and it's sort of everyone who sees it kind of has this reaction gonna
13:36Jesus Christ right there's no middle I think it was it was it you guys who said
13:41there was a six-minute ovation it was like it was like it was an insane it was a
13:45an insane feeling or just sitting there like oh my god these people won't they
13:49won't stop clapping I had the thing afterwards they put the camera on yeah
13:52during the ovation and like you know one point like with the vision was maybe
13:56kind of died down and it just started up again and they put the camera on
13:59Benny yeah because I just forget that he's also in the movie right like you
14:04know it's just Benny yeah I mean like it's what we've been doing forever so he
14:09when they put the camera on him the whole place went crazy and I'm like oh wait a
14:14second they're responding to his performance and just dawned upon me like
14:18I take it for granted I've been taking it for granted since I was a little kid
14:21that he can do stuff like that they loved him and they loved oh yeah I mean I
14:25picked him up I mean I'm not I'm not throwing shade no no I mean it was it was
14:30like a really I mean listen that's like you know can is it's been always a holy
14:35grail it's a special place and it's such scrutiny and people can be tough there and
14:39and and it was really insane for that oh yeah that's always I was like I wanted
14:45to think it was fake news but then at the same time I was like no this is
14:47actually the opposite of it in a weird way usually it's like the hate is like
14:51kind of fake you know what I mean so I don't know
14:53and hearing just that there was like an even though it was an applause at the press
14:55screening right oh my god like and somebody even just posted a pic like just
14:59the room the black room with applause sounds like this happened like it was crazy it
15:03was crazy so well I do that wait just quickly there was somebody leaned over and then
15:08like 15 minutes into the movie Josh told me the story and they're like wait I
15:11thought Rob Pattinson was in this movie not to me no but no it's somebody was
15:15like a story we heard it's like right yeah he is that's awesome well that if
15:19that's not enough reason to go see the movie I don't know what is thank you guys
15:23so much for doing this and congratulations thank you very much
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