Today’s most notable creatives join Variety at Sundance for exclusive in-depth conversations across various entertainment mediums, presented by Audible.
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00:00When you're a kid you believe in all these amazing stories and mythical creatures and
00:05fairies and everybody else has to grow up and be sensible and we just carry on believing.
00:22Hi, so we have in this film this exquisitely rendered creature
00:28from a performance perspective and interacting with the Ochi. How did you all pull it off,
00:36first the actresses and actors and as a director in sort of doing, directing your actors and
00:43actresses in performance with something that's not real? Well I didn't have that much to do
00:51with the creatures but I was around it and I think at the, I mean it's a beautiful collaboration
00:57between the very extraordinary imagination which is on the end of this row here
01:02and John Nolan who is, who created the creatures and it was fascinating to watch and it felt
01:12very real when we were working with them. Yeah absolutely, no it also makes, I mean it makes
01:18our jobs I feel like a lot easier because you really feel like you're interacting with something
01:22and especially when you're working with practical effects I mean it's always just better and
01:27obviously there's great you know visual effects and things where you have to interact with like
01:34you know a tennis ball or whatever and it ends up being amazing still but there's just something to
01:38be said about like amazing craftsmanship and being able to really feel that in the scene I feel like
01:45really helps but yeah. It was funny when I read the script I thought that I wasn't sure if I was
01:51going to actually work with like a creature or if it's going to be like I don't know maybe just a
01:55man speaking to me or whatever and so when I saw it was funny because I started to actually like
02:00have a bond with it you know and like people will have to pull me off of the creature because I felt
02:05like it was so real and it wasn't like supposed to go into like water for example and we were
02:10having the water scenes I really wanted to go and like die with it or something so I was like
02:14really I had a bond with it you know it was like it was like a friend. I was just so impressed with
02:23everyone and how they interacted with all the ochi you know we had the adult ochi were actually
02:29little people in suits with animatronic heads and then the baby ochi is operated by
02:37you know five puppeteers hovering around it and then two puppeteers with remote controls
02:43off camera and with all of that going on it was just like still a very direct connection that
02:50each actor had with with the with the creatures and yeah you know I feel like there was a bit of
02:58like you know can the creature match their performances like you know my job was really
03:07for them it was like writing and casting and then letting them rip and they all deliver such
03:13incredible performances but with the ochi it's really like 50 takes it's like let's really get
03:20that let's make sure the ochi is delivering what they're delivering and I wish Willem could have
03:26joined us today but he's shooting right now but like in particular there was a moment where Willem
03:32has to face off with baby ochi and share a scene directly in a long unbroken two shot and
03:40you know I think the whole shoot he was kind of he didn't know what to think of the puppets and
03:45until he sat in and had to do the scene with them and it felt like at the end of it like
03:52something had something had changed in his mind about like the nature of acting that that seven
04:00people could create this performance that he felt he was present with was it was like a really
04:06beautiful moment. Since this film deals with mythical creatures I'm curious if any of you
04:14believe in all of these mythical creatures spottings that people see from Bigfoot and
04:19then we see the videos and they kind of look real but it's pretty they're fun they're definitely
04:24fun to think about I don't I don't know if I necessarily believe them but I do I do root for
04:30the people that that do that are trying to that are out there trying to find them. I think it's
04:35what acting is is yeah yeah yeah when you're a kid you believe in all these amazing stories and
04:41mythical creatures and fairies and and and everybody else has to grow up and be sensible
04:46and we just carry on believing you know that's what acting is you just. And we've and we've got
04:52this great book that Isaiah showed us last night we've got this like small book that speaks all
04:58about the Ochi and like I don't know the footsteps on in there and like how you talk to them and
05:02stuff so I think if you showed someone that they're probably believe they're real. Yeah
05:05totally you know totally yeah I come from the Redwood Forest in Santa Cruz Northern California
05:12and you know right in my town is a place called like the Bigfoot Discovery Museum so and there's
05:19a map with like pins everywhere of locals that have called in sightings to the museum and
05:27and I grew up kind of in a bit of a hippie commune compound in the forest and one of the
05:33older guys there who was a friend of my parents he had a little shack and he was deep deep into
05:41what he would only call Sasquatch or North American great apes and I'd been hearing about
05:47it since I was a kid and of course like everyone you just go ha ha ha ha and then in my 20s I started
05:54getting a little bit deeper into it and and I've actually given some talks you know I've been
06:00invited to like animation festivals and they said you can talk about whatever you want and I've just
06:04given like a a talk about like hard hard evidence for Sasquatch that's awesome I myself am an agnostic
06:12I just find I find it a really joyful subject so yeah yeah every time I see video I'm like unless
06:20Isaiah is behind this video yeah exactly this is really effective it's convincing me this might be
06:25bigfoot yeah um Finn you have some years on Helena um what kind of career advice have you given her
06:35oh she's doing great she doesn't she does not need my um my advice but we got to we got to hang out a
06:42lot and it was great I mean you know there it was um you know obviously I grew up as like a young
06:50actor and uh I hope I'd hoped that you know me being a little older that you know it was a
06:56comfortable good experience on set and in there a lot of you know there are a lot of the other
07:02kids in the Romanian the Romanian kids that we cast for the um for the sort of militia um
07:09it was great to be around you know all these guys because they were they're all so incredible I mean
07:14Helena is so unbelievably sensitive and smart and like you know one of the best actors I've ever
07:20worked with so it really it's true but it's really so it was really she you know I I had nothing to
07:25say really because I just was like yeah I I uh I felt like she really had a handle on everything
07:32and I had a real confidence about her especially in the role that I thought was that really
07:36impressed me so thank you yeah not not crazy not a crazy amount yeah what would be the most
07:43surprising thing to learn about Emily or Willem who's not here from both all three of you
07:50surprising well I don't know I mean I'm trying to well I think like with Emily with with you I think
08:02like I had seen you in so many films and stuff and like I'd seen you in obviously like a lot of like
08:07more art films and stuff and I think I felt like such a comfort when I met you because it like I
08:16felt so like uh that you were just like a really well adjusted great person and I'm not trying to
08:25you know I'm not trying to what's up but it was like to me it was like you know you meet a lot of
08:29actors that are in like really these like really amazing movies and and you sometimes you know if
08:34they're older like it can be intimidating because you don't know like you know they've had so much
08:39history in the industry and stuff and you don't know and like you know like spending time with
08:44Emily was like the it was the best so I mean just that yeah she's just like and I think I mean I
08:51don't think that's surprising because no nobody like you look very nice but like when I so it's
08:56not surprising to say that you were like lovely but it's um when I came on set and I knew she was
09:02going to play my mom I always feel like it's very important to like really get a bond and get a
09:07feeling and I always feel like the first time you see a person it's like the biggest image you'll
09:12always keep in your head and I still remember I was like you know looking to your eyes and they
09:16were so kind I was like you know she's gonna play my mom and she's gonna be like a real mom
09:21and she is mumming me sometimes a little bit so that was like that's not surprising but it was
09:27just really you know lovely to work with her and also just here going everywhere around she's
09:32always with me and parenting me a little bit there is a maternal yeah it's one of the great
09:39joys for me of doing a you know a film that's sort of you know a lot of young people and people
09:45starting out in their careers and we were up this wild mountain in Romania where no human being
09:51should really go I mean it was insanely vertiginous kind of craziness I think the road was even
09:57and but just what an adventure to go on with all these you know people in just starting out their
10:06lives and they you know they're going to remember always remember this and yeah it was it was
10:12thrilling and I feel with with Willem you know we have I didn't know him before this but we have like
10:18a we've worked with a lot of a similar kind of people along the way and I just felt like you
10:25know we could have a conversation like that about how we felt about things and and the industry and
10:31what we felt about film and you know it was uh that was a very easy just slotting in yeah they
10:40can't get you out of the woods Finn of what between Stranger Things and this uh and this film
10:45totally yeah well I'm I'm here for it I'm still here can you tell us anything about just what
10:52now now that it's done the final day saying goodbye on Stranger oh yeah sure yeah I know
10:58it was incredibly like uh emotional obviously because it's like the last 10 years of my life
11:04and especially also for the creators who the Duffer Brothers started when they were 30 and
11:09they're 40 now and so everyone sort of had their like like a long journey and all shared it together
11:15yeah yeah as a you know my whole childhood was there and so it was sort of the Toy Story 3
11:20moment of kind of leaving your toys behind a little bit so um it was uh it was really special
11:27and we sort of had a long last year we shot for sort of a Lord of the Rings style year-long
11:35thing um shoot and so it was like a very you know it was a great way to go out and like very intense
11:42but like I feel like couldn't couldn't end it better and I feel I mean this is the first movie
11:48that I've you know that I'm promoting since like it's almost feels like post-graduation or something
11:54um and so uh to be to be here also talking about something that you know I've been as a movie that
12:00I've been passionate about for a long time so happy for it to be out now and um yeah I'm excited for
12:07just everything to to come out I guess so among our two questions that I ask everyone um we've
12:15seen the expansion of storytelling through new and diverse mediums over the recent years what
12:22formats and distribution channels with sorry with formats and distribution channels ever evolving
12:28what do you see for the future of audio storytelling oh audio storytelling yes because
12:35not in the audible loud uh okay I mean I think there's a real like deep history with audio
12:42dramas obviously I think like there's there have always been like I think uh like an appetite for
12:48them like I think about you know the like original like war of the worlds and stuff and I think
12:53there's a lot of stuff that you a lot of stories you can tell that aren't you know that aren't
12:59obviously like a visual medium but um yeah no I think it's I think it's definitely it seems like
13:06it's a a medium that I think is like evolving and growing and um I think can probably tell a lot of
13:14like interesting cool stories as a parent of two teenagers I think it's a very very healthy
13:21antidote to the sort of you know endless uh dopamine hit that just scrolling is training
13:30brains to just be led and listening to a story just allows your imagination to take its own path
13:39yes but it's very different also thing I think from like watching movies because you can have
13:43your own like um visions and you have your own images and anyone who hears um like an audio
13:50will think of something else and will have a different kind of movie playing in their head
13:54so it's I think like what voice actors do is great I've been to like a lot of studios and
13:58I always think it's great that they do all of these sounds and like you know just walking
14:03casually that's like looking at them doing that is so funny because it looks so weird kind of right
14:09but it's great then later you hear it and it sounds so real so I think that's like a like a
14:13totally different and amazing job for people to do like voice acting in the studio literally not
14:19seeing anything but just your text I think that's great yeah I mean I think um books on tape which
14:26have been around for a while are a force for good in this world especially as uh reading a book
14:33becomes a rarer and rarer activity um but it's really important that fiction have uh a way to
14:43reach younger people especially and people who just don't have time to read and uh people who
14:48need to be doing dishes and laundry but also want to be reading a book at the same time um that's
14:54how it fits into my life is just um you know it allows me to absorb more fiction than I otherwise
15:02would and that's a net positive yeah