“The Trial of the Chicago 7” actors Eddie Redmayne and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II discuss the Netflix film (from writer/director Aaron Sorkin) in this interview with CinemaBlend Managing Director Sean O’Connell.
Find out what they think makes Sorkin’s scripts stand out, how he was able to make the serious subject matter funny and more.
Find out what they think makes Sorkin’s scripts stand out, how he was able to make the serious subject matter funny and more.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 on your winning the prize for best background so far.
00:02 I'm loving your, I'm loving your office.
00:05 - Fantastic.
00:05 There are a lot of movies of yours behind me.
00:07 - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:09 You say that to everyone.
00:10 (laughing)
00:12 (dramatic music)
00:15 - Martin's dead.
00:16 (dramatic music)
00:20 - Bobby's dead.
00:20 (dramatic music)
00:23 - Jesus is dead.
00:24 (dramatic music)
00:26 - I was shocked to find out how funny this movie was.
00:29 I think I went into it expecting it to be really serious,
00:32 really dramatic.
00:33 And there were a lot of moments of just subtle levity.
00:37 And I want to know what type of conversations
00:38 you guys had on set with Mr. Sorkin,
00:40 where he said, like, let the humor be accessible
00:43 to get people into the trial.
00:44 'Cause it could have played very angry and very futile.
00:47 - It was on the page, honestly.
00:49 He, Aaron is the master of that.
00:51 He takes on such sort of rigorous subject matter.
00:56 And yet, and he invests in his audience's speed of thought,
01:01 but he also laces it with humor in a way that's wonderful.
01:05 In fact, we talked about it in relation to Tom even,
01:09 because Tom, in Aaron's take on the trial,
01:12 was very much the policy, within the system man.
01:17 But I was said to Aaron,
01:19 in order for an audience to stay with him,
01:21 he's got to have charisma, which Tom did, by the way,
01:25 in real life, he was swimming in charisma.
01:29 But he's got to have some of that himself.
01:32 So actually, Aaron went in and laced a bit of humor
01:35 into Tom's earlier work.
01:37 You're not quite Abby, as far as,
01:38 and certainly I'm not Sasha.
01:40 But it was important.
01:43 What I'm saying is it was very important
01:45 that the humor is a way into these characters in some ways.
01:49 - Get him on the street!
01:50 Get him on the street!
01:52 - These are very, very, very witty and smart,
01:57 very, very intelligent characters.
01:59 And the characters who come from various backgrounds.
02:03 And so when you have ego and experience
02:07 and a certain degrees of trauma and intelligence,
02:11 then that's also, that's right for drama,
02:15 but it's also right for a lot of comedy
02:18 and for great quips and comebacks and challenges
02:22 and things like that as well.
02:23 So Aaron definitely took advantage of the personalities
02:25 that he was given with this cast.
02:28 - Yeah, not a spoiler at all,
02:30 but when it's pointed out that the members
02:32 were not present at a certain location,
02:35 and then you say, "I wasn't there either."
02:38 I love that so hard.
02:40 - Yeah, for informational purposes, right?
02:43 Just in case we wonder, "I wasn't there either."
02:47 - You all right?
02:49 - I was until I saw that.
02:50 - These rebels without a job.
02:53 - They're a threat to national security.
02:56 - This revolution,
02:57 we may have to hurt somebody's feelings.
02:59 - I consider Mr. Sorkin literally
03:01 our greatest screenwriter working today.
03:03 You've been lucky enough to read a number of scripts
03:05 over the course of your career.
03:07 I'm curious, what's different about his?
03:09 - Yeah, I opened up this script in my email
03:13 and I scrolled all the way through the bottom.
03:16 Said, "It's gotta be a mistake, it's 140 pages."
03:21 It's definitely 130, there could have even been 150 pages.
03:23 How do you do a movie in 150 pages?
03:26 Then I started to read, and before you know it,
03:29 I'm on page 40, I've only been reading for
03:31 what feels like 10 minutes.
03:33 So the script sings, the script is musical,
03:37 the dialogue compliments one another.
03:39 There's not a lot that is gratuitous.
03:41 There's not anything gratuitous about the script,
03:44 and yet it still finds the place to go fast
03:49 and to rest and to allow for jokes
03:54 and the things that you would see
03:56 when a script has the time to really take its breath,
03:59 although it's packed full of words and dialogue.
04:01 So he works with a very, very smart hand
04:05 over his language.
04:07 - I would love to get your insight
04:08 about the production pause
04:10 that we're currently going through in the industry,
04:12 because you happen to be part of a massive franchise
04:14 in "Fantastic Beasts." - Yes.
04:15 - And a lot of times these movies are racing
04:17 to hit pre-announced release dates,
04:19 and I'm just curious if there's been an added bonus
04:21 to a sequel to press pause and take a breath
04:24 and solve some issues
04:25 and maybe make the strongest movie possible.
04:27 - I mean, I hope so.
04:29 I did definitely, so we were meant to start,
04:31 we'd done a pre-shoot day
04:34 just before we went into lockdown here.
04:37 So we'd shot on a Friday, and then on the Sunday night,
04:39 we were meant to start shooting proper on the Monday,
04:42 and we got a call on a Sunday night saying,
04:43 "We're not doing it."
04:45 And then we had this six-month period,
04:48 and absolutely the creatives,
04:51 or certainly David Yates and I were talking about
04:54 using that time,
04:56 and whether it was in the visual effects
04:58 or working on things as far as,
05:00 I think it's really important.
05:01 You're always trying to make the best work possible.
05:04 And so I feel like it has been helpful in some ways.
05:12 But it's interesting 'cause we've started shooting now,
05:14 we're two weeks in,
05:15 and it's, again, whole new processes,
05:19 whole new normal testing frequently, masks.
05:23 And I wondered actually whether the masks
05:25 would affect creativity in some ways.
05:27 Maybe it was a bit ignorant,
05:28 but I just thought, do people,
05:31 as humans, do we need interaction to spark from each other?
05:34 And what was really reassuring is it has,
05:38 it is a different process,
05:39 but it still feels like it's fizzing
05:42 and that everyone is working at the top of their game.
05:47 - So I think I've been fortunate enough with "The Matrix"
05:49 that we haven't had,
05:52 that the pause that we experienced was not as large as,
05:56 or was not as long a pause
05:57 as a lot of the other productions.
05:59 So I find myself being fortunate enough
06:01 to stay in the creative spirit
06:05 and to continually be processing and making work.
06:08 But I think that this is an industry that will,
06:11 that does survive by finding the silver lining.
06:13 So I think that it will be the case
06:15 that this is a time for artists,
06:17 for creatives to rejuvenate,
06:20 to go back to look at footage,
06:21 to look at what they've already have in the can
06:23 and then say, okay, well,
06:24 this is what we're gonna do better when we get back,
06:26 and this is how we're gonna streamline
06:27 and become more efficient.
06:29 And so I think that that was,
06:31 hopefully, that the response will be a lot of quality work
06:35 coming out in the next year.
06:38 - Were you hoping to draw the police into a confrontation?
06:41 - The whole world is watching!
06:44 - I'm concerned you have to think about it.
06:49 - Give me a moment, would you, friend?
06:51 I've never been on trial for my thoughts before.
06:54 - The whole world is watching!
06:57 (dramatic music)
07:01 (upbeat music)
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07:17 (animal howling)