Gonzo Girl | Deadline Studio at TIFF - video Dailymotion

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Transcript

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]

Gonzo Girl | Deadline Studio at TIFF

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