Writer/Director Ivan Sen and Actor Simon Baker talk to Fest Track about structure, environment, metaphor and grounding the performances in regards to their new noir film: "Limbo" playing the Centrepiece section of the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Ontario [Canada].
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Short filmTranscript
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00:50 - The first thing I'd like to talk about
00:52 is obviously environment.
00:54 Obviously the environment psychologically, socially,
00:57 visually in Cooper Petty was obviously key,
01:01 probably an inspiration.
01:03 Could you talk about that and writing that,
01:06 but then obviously all the sociology
01:09 that has to go into it with obviously the indigenous people?
01:13 - Well, I always start with the location.
01:18 I always talk about the power of places
01:20 as being the number one kind of rule
01:23 when I start to write a story
01:25 because the stage is so important.
01:28 It really allows me to define who the characters are
01:33 and the decisions they make in that space
01:37 and that place is what informs the story.
01:41 And Cooper Petty is such an extraordinary location.
01:48 So it kind of just found its own way out really
01:53 once that location,
01:55 'cause I had the location
01:56 and then the story kind of just came out of that.
01:58 And it's such an extraordinary place
02:02 where people live underground
02:03 or half the population lives underground
02:05 and the stuff above ground is pretty wild.
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02:46 - I mean, it's this interesting sort of dance
02:58 between all these people,
02:59 obviously with Hurley at the center,
03:01 but can you talk about crafting the characters
03:04 between Hurley and with his own thing,
03:07 but with Charlie and Emma and eventually Joseph.
03:12 Could you sort of talk about how you needed them
03:15 to sort of circle around
03:16 and then I will get into that with Simon
03:19 as far as embodying that character.
03:22 - Yeah, the ensemble of characters,
03:24 well, I kind of include the car as one of those as well.
03:28 - Oh yeah, that's a good point.
03:30 - The old Dodge Phoenix
03:32 was always going to be an element as well.
03:35 The characters are very much apart from,
03:41 well, apart from Travis, the detective,
03:43 the characters are very much based on people I know
03:46 growing up in my small town and my extended family.
03:51 And so I started with these four characters
03:57 and had this amazing setting
04:01 and I just went through the process
04:04 of weaving them together.
04:05 I mean, when I'm writing,
04:07 it's not like an analytical thing.
04:09 I just sit and I write and it's all about feeling.
04:12 And sometimes you feel that something's not right
04:16 and you kind of shave it off during the writing
04:19 or actually in the editing process,
04:21 which I did do a little bit of,
04:23 but yeah, and it's actually something
04:28 you don't really, I don't really remember too much about.
04:30 It's just an organic creative process.
04:34 I mean, if you ask a painter about,
04:36 did he remember when he started to put
04:38 that turquoise over the green?
04:40 I don't know how many people remember that.
04:43 So yeah, it's just a thing where you have the stage
04:48 and you have the setting, you've got the characters
04:51 and you just kind of go for it.
04:54 - Charlie, Charlie Rose?
05:02 - Who are you?
05:05 (car engine rumbling)
05:08 - Copper.
05:16 Travis Hurley.
05:23 What kind of name is that?
05:26 - Can't know, it's given.
05:27 - How'd you find me?
05:32 - I just asked the cops.
05:34 - Seems I know a lot about you.
05:36 - You hear about my warrants?
05:39 - Not here for you.
05:41 - Figured out your sister.
05:44 - Yeah, which one?
05:45 - Charlotte.
05:45 - I mean, Simon, did you have to feel out the character?
06:01 Where did he begin?
06:02 Obviously it's a complete physical,
06:04 but between the car, that hotel, everything,
06:07 so much has to be said just with feeling
06:10 and not necessarily dialogue all the time.
06:13 - Yeah, for me it starts kind of more
06:19 from an internal place.
06:21 And then it doesn't, I sort of feel a little bit like if,
06:28 doesn't matter what you do on the externally
06:32 with any character, if it's not grounded
06:35 from somewhere internally,
06:37 what's going on within this person
06:40 or the problems that are existing within this person,
06:44 then it doesn't matter what you do on the outside.
06:46 And particularly with a film like this,
06:52 if it's not happening on the inside,
06:54 you're gonna get shown up because there's enough space
06:58 and there's enough air for the silences
07:01 to be a lot of what the story of the character is.
07:06 Exposes a lot of the story of the character
07:11 in silent moments.
07:12 So I kind of work like that.
07:15 And I think when you work,
07:19 for me, when I worked like that with a character like this,
07:22 where there is this sort of incredible vulnerability
07:25 that exists within this character,
07:26 that's being masked in different forms,
07:30 whether that's with drug use
07:36 or the exploration of religious ideas,
07:41 some sort of salvation or through destructive,
07:47 self-destructive behavior.
07:49 (helicopter whirring)
07:52 - Spot back there.
08:07 - What spot?
08:08 - Where she was taken.
08:09 (helicopter whirring)
08:18 (tires screeching)
08:21 - Most people, their behavior is masking
08:36 some sort of insecurity that they have
08:38 or their own personal vulnerabilities.
08:42 But with a character like this,
08:46 as soon as you are gonna be susceptible
08:51 to the environment in so many ways,
08:53 so just arriving into the intercooperated,
08:56 that place itself, it starts to inform you straight away.
09:01 And it's great 'cause if you're open to it,
09:04 it's an unconscious evolution
09:07 of the character within the space.
09:11 And then I think a lot of it,
09:16 for me, depended on the, I guess,
09:20 the sort of the culture of the film set.
09:24 For each individual film is always very different.
09:28 And with this, it was a very small, intimate crew.
09:33 So we were able to communicate very clearly
09:40 and very simply.
09:41 I don't know, it just feels sort of
09:45 a safe place to explore stuff.
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