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FunTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - So her book was inspired by Hunter S. Thompson
00:10 and her time working for him, but she changed things.
00:15 And then again, we changed things for the movie
00:18 so we could explore this territory.
00:20 But part of it was addiction and codependence,
00:23 the subconsciousness of that, unhealed people,
00:27 a coming of age story, this kind of 90s element
00:30 mixed with when you meet him, his 60s world,
00:34 writer, their art, how you can get trapped in your own art
00:39 and then forced into a box.
00:42 And how frustrating that is because you do get love
00:46 like that and you do get money like that
00:47 and you get attention like that.
00:49 And yet it's also cut off your artistic freedom
00:53 and you resent it too, being stuck in that thing.
00:56 So there was just a lot of elements,
00:58 beauty and beauty as commodity.
01:01 And also the exploration of drugs
01:06 and like, wow, this is all fun.
01:07 Oh my God, this is a nightmare.
01:09 It's all fun and games till it really gets ugly.
01:14 - I've got a defect in my brain
01:16 where every time I start something,
01:18 I think it's, I kind of forget about everything else
01:22 and it feels like the first time.
01:24 So I don't worry about that so much.
01:26 And as far as where you are in the sense of a career
01:29 or where you are in the arc of making work,
01:31 I can't gauge that at all
01:35 because it depends who you talk to
01:37 and it depends what you're interested in.
01:40 So I don't have a sense of that.
01:43 I guess I try not to think about it.
01:46 I make a conscious effort not to think about
01:48 where I am in the arc of my life
01:51 or I'm even a little allergic to the word career.
01:55 You know, one thing at a time, one project at a time.
01:59 So I get it.
02:01 To me, it translates more about,
02:04 there's a theme here about an older man,
02:09 at the end of his creative life
02:13 without judgment of whether it's gone down or not
02:16 and a young woman who's just starting
02:18 and what the attraction of one is to the other.
02:24 That interests me
02:26 'cause I know a little something about that
02:30 and I have an imagination for that.
02:32 So that's not why you do it,
02:36 but that was one of the themes I could relate to.
02:41 There was a shotgun shell in the pocket,
02:44 which is, you know,
02:45 wasn't surprising but was surprising.
02:50 I still have the robe.
02:53 It was by accident.
02:55 We didn't know that we started shooting on Hunter's birthday
02:58 and at the end of the first day, we opened the door
03:01 and it was like a rainbow, a giant rainbow
03:03 right outside the door.
03:05 So it felt like a good omen.
03:07 But I also wanted to say the question you asked earlier,
03:10 to be in a box.
03:12 You know, we're talking about being inspired
03:14 by this archetype, well, not an archetype,
03:17 this artist who really came out
03:19 with a totally original voice and changed the world
03:23 and was very celebrated for that.
03:27 And that's an incredible thing,
03:29 but then also, really people do like to say,
03:32 "No, no, you gotta do that thing."
03:33 And he was, I mean, this is loosely based on him,
03:38 but he was political and he loved sports
03:40 and many different things
03:42 and you shouldn't have to diminish yourself.
03:46 - I actually didn't meet Cheryl until we were already,
03:49 I think about halfway through filming and she came by.
03:52 And then we connected and we got to chat
03:56 and she gave me her blessing, which was, I think,
03:59 it was really, it just gave me a reassurance
04:02 that it was the right thing for me to be doing.
04:05 But I think with Patricia, what we talked a lot about
04:09 was the evolution of coming in kind of bright-eyed,
04:14 bushy-tailed, and then having kind of that journey
04:19 in the middle where there's a bit of a deterioration
04:22 physically and the drugs and the impact of that
04:27 and the rhythm of keeping up with Walker
04:30 and then kind of this awakening at the end of the story.
04:33 And ultimately, Ali chooses to leave her book behind,
04:37 her journal behind, and leave with herself.
04:40 And I think that she chooses herself ultimately when,
04:45 before, I think it's very interesting
04:47 when you're a young person,
04:47 it's very hard, it's very easy to blur the lines
04:51 between what your boundaries are and unspoken boundaries.
04:56 And I find that as a young person myself,
04:59 I could really connect to that aspect of her,
05:01 especially when you're trying to please someone
05:05 and to do your job and you've been hired to do something
05:08 and you really wanna make someone proud.
05:10 I could just totally relate to that.
05:13 It's something that I've explored and struggled with.
05:17 But yeah, there was a lot of things about this character
05:20 that I found similarities with myself
05:23 and Patricia helped guide me
05:25 and we created a nice little arc, I think, for Ali.
05:30 And the place that she gets to at the end,
05:32 I think, is a very empowering place for a young woman.
05:35 - Most of life is unconscious.
05:37 We're just moving through life and feelings come up
05:40 and we ride with that feeling or a desire comes up
05:43 and we go with that desire and we don't even realize
05:46 that we're kind of blurring lines
05:47 and stepping over our own boundaries
05:49 and changing in different ways
05:51 until we have these pivotal moments.
05:53 And then you have to make a decision.
05:55 She arrives there as a young person,
05:57 but she leaves as a woman.
06:01 And how do we arrive there?
06:04 It's not always the easiest journey.
06:07 There's this quote,
06:08 "You find the teeth to match your wounds."
06:12 You find teachers all over the place
06:14 that help you grow as people.
06:16 And sometimes there are younger people.
06:18 Who knows what it is, but there is pushback.
06:22 It's not like, yeah, whatever.
06:23 That's not the person that teaches you anything
06:26 except how to take.
06:28 The people that teach you
06:30 or stir up your unprocessed wounds
06:34 are the people that are pushing back
06:36 on different little ways.
06:37 She also steps over boundaries
06:41 that in her own self and towards him
06:44 that are also not cool.
06:45 So they end up injuring each other
06:48 in different ways.
06:52 - There was often a show to put on.
06:53 I felt physically that pressure
06:57 and I had to drive.
06:58 There's a group there.
07:01 And they're there for me a little bit.
07:05 I mean, in the context of it,
07:07 they're there for Walker
07:10 and he's a performer.
07:14 And I think you see that.
07:17 Yeah, so physically,
07:20 I didn't dwell too much on his physical state.
07:23 Just that he had to keep it up all the time.
07:28 He had to, he was amped up.
07:32 And then you see in his more private moments,
07:35 his more vulnerable moments,
07:37 that all drops away.
07:41 And then you do feel some kind of fatigue.
07:45 And that's when his age haunts him.
07:48 And that's when, yeah,
07:52 the toll of the drugs haunts him.
07:55 (upbeat music)
07:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]