Ben Stiller & director David Gordon Green talk about filming a farming family in their home for the movie 'Nutcrackers' at the Variety Studio at TIFF 2024.
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00:00So when you sent me the email and you said the Jansen brothers, I thought you meant the Hansen brothers.
00:07I was like, oh, we're going to do that movie with the oom-bop guys.
00:10That's the sequel.
00:22So Ben, Nutcrackers is your first lead role in seven years.
00:26What was it like to return to acting?
00:28And what was it about this project that made you want to do it?
00:31Well, it was fun.
00:33I never really imagined that I would spend that much time not acting.
00:38It wasn't a planned thing.
00:40But I was kind of just waiting around for something that I really connected with
00:44and been doing work behind the camera a lot.
00:47And so when I got this email from David, it was kind of this wonderful gift out of the blue.
00:53And we'd been talking over the years about trying to do something together.
00:56And he just sent me this project.
00:59And he had it all thought out in his head in terms of just the idea of what he wanted the movie to be
01:05in terms of working with the kids, shooting on their farm.
01:09It sounded like such a unique experience.
01:11And it felt so organic to me.
01:13It felt like you just really were passionate about this idea.
01:17And I wanted to work with you anyway.
01:21But this was a specific thing that you really wanted, it felt like, to get out and to make
01:26because there was an urgency about it, I think, that you had because of these kids being kids,
01:31and they're not going to be kids forever, and wanting to capture them.
01:34And that inspiration for me was so exciting and was really one of the reasons why I wanted to just jump in.
01:40And, David, this is also you've been doing a lot of big studio films, horror films.
01:45What was it about Nutcrackers that, you know,
01:48why was this the kind of project that you wanted to make at this point?
01:52For so many reasons.
01:53Most of my career, I find a comfort zone, then I shatter that and jump into something new.
01:58I find a new comfort zone, I shatter that.
02:00And always looking for what's new, what's educational, and what's personal.
02:04And I try to make everything I do check a lot of boxes.
02:09As Ben was saying, when I just started brewing the idea, meeting the Jansen brothers,
02:13these cool kids, and they have this moment in their life that we can either think,
02:18that should be a movie, or we can think that should be a movie and then go make that movie.
02:23So I'm pretty impulsive in that way, where I wake up pretty stubborn and determined to get things done,
02:28however logical or illogical they are.
02:30They always come from some lightning bolt of inspiration.
02:33And so this was a moment for me, looking at an industry that's,
02:37if I look at the films playing in the theaters, I think there's a fear of comedy,
02:41or there's some sort of disconnect between audiences and the material.
02:45And I look back to my own childhood when I was a movie-obsessed kid growing up in the 80s
02:50and thinking, could there be the joy and the warmth of those flavors of movies
02:56that I enjoyed so much in a movie today, in a very cynical, very different world,
03:00full of headaches and dark headlines.
03:03And for me, professionally, a lot of dark films, I was just looking for a breath of fresh air
03:08and a little palate cleanser and any excuse to work with my buddy Ben here.
03:12And what about the brothers themselves? Who are they? How did you find them?
03:16So Homer, Ulysses, Arlo, and Atlas are the Jansen brothers.
03:20They're the sons of one of my closest friends from college, Carrie,
03:23and she actually worked on the first few films of mine
03:26and then left the movie industry to take over the family farm and raise these four boys.
03:31And so it's someone that's very connected to me in a creative, cosmic kind of way.
03:36And so when I go to the farm and meet them at this age and see their inspiring, very active life.
03:43They're not plugged into video games and iPads like a lot of kids.
03:46They're not zoned out on phones and zombies.
03:48They're riding four-wheelers and they're running a farm and they're dancing ballet
03:52and they're doing such a different type of activity than even my own children, certainly at my age.
03:58But I think that's something for us all to look at and be inspired by
04:02as people that take a deep breath and love the beauty around them
04:06and find ways to connect to their family and the world.
04:10I think also when you sent me the email and you said the Jansen brothers,
04:13I thought you meant the Hansen brothers.
04:17I was like, oh, we're going to do that movie with the Umbop guys.
04:20That's the sequel.
04:21Yeah.
04:23But, you know, when you go to the house and hang out with them to the farm,
04:27it is like a wonderland where they're just having so much fun
04:30and doing these slightly dangerous things like riding crazy dirt bikes
04:35and running up on the roof and jumping around.
04:37But it's their home and they're so comfortable there.
04:40But there's like an edginess to it because it's kind of like kids, you know,
04:44doing what kids used to do, like getting into trouble and, you know, kind of exploring.
04:48And it's just like it was kind of like going back in time or something,
04:52or my imagination of what it would have been like.
04:55And to capture youth in that way, in that spirit, in that way,
04:57there's just a lot of manicure, there's a lot of polish,
05:00there's a lot of do's and don'ts of youthful performances in movies today.
05:04And I just always have gravitated towards the raw and the real.
05:08So what is it like to kind of act in that atmosphere, Ben?
05:11When you come into something like that, how does that work?
05:15Well, I talked to a friend of David's who's acted in a bunch of movies with him.
05:20And she gave me some great advice, which was just, she said,
05:24you've got to give in to David's world and just go with it,
05:27because it's unlike anything else.
05:29And that was the best thing I could hear,
05:31because it really is just sort of like letting go of the ideas
05:34of what you think filmmaking should be or the rules.
05:37And even like just when you said, I'm going to do it with these four kids,
05:40my first thought was like a normal movie,
05:42they'd have like auditions and chemistry readings,
05:45you know, to see which kids work well, whatever.
05:47And he's like, no, we've got these four kids.
05:49And I was like, well, maybe should I meet the kids?
05:51And he's like, yeah, you're going to meet them when you come down there,
05:53and it's going to be great.
05:54But it was very chaotic in the best way, and I think intentionally so,
05:58where he just wanted to keep it alive and keep it loose,
06:03so that, first of all, I think that the boys could just feel comfortable
06:07and he could get the best out of them and who they were.
06:11And we're also shooting in their home, and there's animals all around.
06:15It wasn't sort of created.
06:17I mean, this is the way that their house is.
06:20There's, I don't know, like eight or ten cats, and there's guinea pigs,
06:23and there's goats and dogs and hogs.
06:27I mean, not all in the house, but sometimes coming in and out of the house.
06:31And he was trying to capture that, which is hard to do in a movie,
06:36when all of a sudden you bring a full film crew into this small space
06:40because that affects it.
06:42Because all of a sudden, by having those people there,
06:44all of a sudden it's not the same place
06:46because it's filled up with all these people and self-awareness.
06:49And he really did everything he could, I think, to get rid of that
06:52and to allow this life to happen on screen.
06:56And so, you know, every day was an adventure.
07:01What was it like to shoot this scene with the chicken?
07:03And has it changed your relationship to rotisserie?
07:06Unfortunately not.
07:10And I have an awful double standard when it comes to chickens
07:13because I love chickens, but I also will eat rotisserie chicken
07:18and other kinds of chickens.
07:20And that's something I struggle with probably since the movie a little bit more.
07:24But I think it affected more my hamstrings and my joints, my knees,
07:30what I thought I could do.
07:32By the end of a take, it would be like,
07:34all right, you know what, can I get a makeup touch-up
07:38just so that I could breathe?
07:41But there's a reason why Rocky trained that way with the chicken,
07:46to catch the greased chicken.
07:49No, but that was real.
07:51It was just sort of like, okay, you're going to go there
07:52and actually try to catch the chicken.
07:54There was no choreography there.
07:56But I think that's part of it.
07:57When people say don't work with animals, kids, or water,
07:59that's because those are uncertain
08:01and you have to surrender to the lack of control about that.
08:04And just filming Ben with the lack of control is a pretty beautiful thing.
08:08Yeah, and that was fun.
08:09And that was important to me to just kind of go with it.
08:12Even falling in the little pond, you know,
08:15it was like the day that we were shooting that.
08:17It was cold when we were shooting the movie.
08:19I mean, I remember the first day, even the trailer lost energy.
08:24The little mini trailer we had on the set lost power,
08:27so there was no heat.
08:29And it was like 5.30 in the morning.
08:30I was like, okay, I'm getting makeup and hair with a blanket around me.
08:34And I'm like, this is going to be a different experience.
08:36And then the day we were supposed to fall into the pond,
08:38I was supposed to fall in the pond.
08:40It was like frozen.
08:44In the morning, it was frozen.
08:45I'm like, all right.
08:46And I think I said to you, like, okay,
08:47so we're not actually going to do that today, right?
08:49We should push it back in the shoot.
08:51By the way, this was like December 1st,
08:53so let's push it back to January 12th when it will be a lot warmer.
08:57But I said, today is not the day, I don't think.
09:00And you're like, fine, we'll get the stuntman to do whatever.
09:02And then as the day wore on, I was like, well,
09:04actually it's gone up to like 39 degrees.
09:06And then by like 5 o'clock in the afternoon, it was like 42 degrees.
09:10And I was like, all right, I guess I got to do this
09:12because he's going to let the stuntman do it,
09:14but then I'm going to feel like my ego is going to really be like,
09:18I got to go for it.
09:19And so it was that type of thing where it was just like, all right,
09:21let's just do it, let's see what happens.
09:23We're not even, you know, like we're on a farm that's like 40 miles out of Cincinnati.
09:28It didn't even feel like we were making a movie.
09:30It was just like we were kind of like just filming stuff.
09:33So that looseness was great, and I think that was throughout the whole shoot.
09:40For David, when you're working with somebody like Ben,
09:42who is also a very accomplished director, does it change things at all?
09:46Or do you find that people who have experience doing what you do
09:51approach acting in a different way?
09:53Are you able to have conversations differently?
09:55With a project like this, you know, we can always speak to the chaos
09:58because that's kind of what makes the movie feel special and unique.
10:01But I don't think you can approach chaos in its most chaotic
10:07and capture it unless you have a sophisticated navigator of the sequences.
10:12So rather than having to rehearse the movie to death,
10:15by putting a pro like Ben that gets the comedy, gets the emotion,
10:19gets the drama of what we're trying to achieve,
10:21and most importantly can keep the scene on track
10:25because it would be very easy to derail if we let all hell break loose,
10:28as it often did.
10:30But that's what's so great is to be able to take that skill,
10:33and not only his skill as an actor, but he's a masterful director.
10:36So having those kind of conversations of technically what we need to achieve
10:40to be able to give this film a sense of architecture
10:44that for my hopes was to take what we love about
10:49the bubblegum blockbuster comedies of the 80s and 70s
10:52and then add our own eccentric signatures of artsy-fartsy films that inspire us.
10:57You were also talking a little bit about the fact that Hollywood
11:00doesn't make these kinds of movies that much anymore.
11:03Why do you think that's happened?
11:05Do you feel like there could be a change and these types of films,
11:08these types of comedies could come back in vogue?
11:11I don't know why.
11:14I think the movie business has evolved in a very unpredictable way
11:18that none of us would have imagined 20 years ago
11:21due to streaming and everything else.
11:24At the end of the day, I think what people like to watch,
11:27what they like to feel when they go to the movies hasn't changed.
11:30It's the same reason people have gone to plays for thousands of years.
11:35It's the same reason why we need to experience storytelling and art in our lives.
11:40It's essential.
11:42I think it's just about making a commitment to going back to that.
11:47I think all creative people feed on inspiration and experience
11:53and to a certain extent nostalgia of things that you watched
11:57when you were younger that inspired you.
12:00For me, I feel that.
12:02I think that it's really important that filmmakers of our generation
12:08are committed to really sticking with that
12:12because technology is changing.
12:14The way people process and watch entertainment has changed so much
12:19that if you really believe in something and you want to keep it alive,
12:23you have to commit to it.
12:25The marketplace will go up and down and change,
12:27but I think people are always hungry for this kind of movie
12:31and a theatrical experience of this kind of movie
12:33because you don't get this kind of movie in the theaters that often.
12:35That's where I'm hoping it'll go.
12:38Yeah, I agree with that.
12:40I feel like there's a cynicism over the last decade of comedies.
12:46It's been a few years since we really had that film drive audiences en masse
12:51to go and just laugh out loud that had the simplicity
12:54because I think a lot of what I learned from my friend Jason Blum
12:58in the horror genre is you don't need big explosions
13:01and huge special effects to scare the crap out of people.
13:04So taking some of the lessons that I learned with him in the horror genre
13:07and trying to apply it to comedy, which I think could follow the same rules
13:10of people that make you glow on the inside when you watch them,
13:13they make you laugh, that doesn't need to cost a tremendous amount of money.
13:17That needs to come from a place of intentions and humor and warmth
13:22that I feel like we can deliver economically.
13:25When the pressure's not on us so much to make something feel
13:28like it has to appeal to everyone, we can start curating things
13:32that we respond to from a personal level, from a self-indulgent level,
13:36and then slowly integrate that audience that we know could be significant
13:39for these films.
13:41You mentioned pressure, and Ben, you're returning with Severance,
13:44the second season, which ended on a cliffhanger.
13:47What is it like to come back with a show that was so well-received?
13:50What can audiences expect for the second season?
13:54It's an interesting experience.
13:56I've never been through it before, a second season of anything.
13:59Everything I've done has gotten canceled back in the day.
14:05I feel like there's an expectation that the audience has
14:09that they should have if they love something.
14:12For us, it's just been the process of trying to, for us,
14:16live up to our expectation of what we think the show should be
14:20and commit to that.
14:23It's been an interesting trying time over the last few years
14:26to make things on all levels for people,
14:29first with the pandemic, and then for us, the second season,
14:34getting interrupted by the strike and the crunch that's put on
14:39so many people.
14:41To keep that focus on trying to make the best possible season,
14:47being aware that it's taken a long time.
14:51I, like other people, get frustrated when things take a long time.
14:55I want to have the next season sooner.
14:58I understand that feeling of the expectation.
15:01It's taken a long time. I hope it's good.
15:05People are just wanting something to live up to what they've experienced
15:11and have it hopefully not let them down.
15:16All you can do is try to do what you think is good.
15:19I'm excited for it. I think we've put everything into it.
15:23It's been fun to explore the story and work with these actors and with Dan.
15:33I've never had that experience of being with something so long
15:37where the characters really start to have a life
15:41and the actors understand the characters so well.
15:44It grows into something more.
15:47It's been really enjoyable working on that.
15:50I'm really excited for the second season for people to finally see it.
15:55Thank you both so much and congratulations on the film.
15:58Thanks, man.