Juliette Lewis & Cast on First Being Pitched New Film 'By Design' | THR Studio at Park City - video Dailymotion

The Hollywood Reporter

Filmmaker Amanda Kramer and stars Juliette Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Samantha Mathis, Robin Tunney discuss their new film 'By Design' while stopping by THR's studio at Park City.

Transcript

00:00Carpet to me is a little sad.

00:02Wall-to-wall carpet is a...

00:05It brings me down a little bit.

00:10I'm obsessed with the log line.

00:12Did you write it?

00:14I did.

00:14Okay, incredible.

00:16I'll just, I'll read it as the embodied voice.

00:18A woman swaps bodies at the chair

00:20and everyone likes her better as a chair.

00:22Incredible.

00:22Is that how you pitched it to all the,

00:24this movie to all these folks?

00:26Or did you give them a little bit more?

00:27No, no.

00:28These are intimate relationships.

00:29I'm, of course, trying to lull them

00:31and I'm trying to create real bonds.

00:33I can't be glib with them.

00:35But with the American public and beyond,

00:37yeah, I'm pretty cheeky and glib.

00:39Because you need to be.

00:41Selling a movie or speaking of a movie in one sentence.

00:45Yeah, you gotta capture them.

00:46You do, you do.

00:47You can't talk about nuance.

00:49You have to get to it and reclaim.

00:52I always like plot under wraps.

00:54I'm a big fan of the log line plot under wraps.

00:58Oh.

01:00To create that mystery.

01:01But I went anti-mystery and was obvious.

01:04True, yeah.

01:05So what nuance did you guys get

01:07that lured you in on this one?

01:10We had a general meeting,

01:12which is very unique to have a general

01:15and then immediately have a project

01:17that resonated for me.

01:20I thought it was a poetic piece.

01:23And for me, it was a little bit about disappearing

01:28and so completely, passionately wanting to disappear

01:32and become othered.

01:34So much so to be useful and coveted.

01:39So all these themes spoke to me.

01:41And I was doing other jobs

01:43that were really into plot and plot and plot

01:46and not so much character.

01:47And then I found this one or she found me

01:51and then we entered this wild, magical world.

01:55This oasis with not plot.

01:59And there was zero exposition.

02:01It was such a joy and such a happy place to work.

02:05It made me fall in love with acting again.

02:08It was like every single person on the crew was an artist

02:12and you were there to play and you felt so free.

02:15And it's everything that Sundance is supposed to be about.

02:18This movie would not get made within the studio system.

02:21This is a movie that everybody is doing for love

02:23and not to cater to the lowest common denominator.

02:26It's just a piece of art.

02:28It's like video, it's beautiful.

02:32I remember my first phone call with Sam.

02:35I was so nervous and my voice was breaking

02:38and I even said to my manager,

02:40can't it just be an email?

02:41Cause I was so nervous.

02:43Could you tell?

02:44Oh my God, no, not at all.

02:47I was so in awe of her.

02:49I had read the script and just fell in love with it.

02:51And then I went to your website

02:53and I started watching your shorts and I was like,

02:55oh my God, this woman is an auteur.

02:59She has such vision.

03:01She's so unique and unto herself, so bold.

03:05And I just said, yes,

03:07I have to jump into this woman's world.

03:11I was blown away.

03:13That's me.

03:13Did you know,

03:14were you told about the physicality of your role

03:18when you signed on?

03:20Was that part of it from the beginning?

03:22I think everything was really in the script.

03:25You know, it just felt very abundantly clear.

03:29That's, you can't say that for everything,

03:30but with this, you know,

03:32there's an economy and there's a precision

03:35and a focus to everything.

03:36So do you kind of, I mean,

03:38you'd have to ask Amanda if we got there,

03:40but like, it just was like,

03:42okay, well, this is what it is.

03:43I'm not gonna question this.

03:45This feels right, so let's do it.

03:46And if she has an adjustment for me,

03:48then she'll tell me.

03:50Compare and contrast your own design aesthetic

03:53with your character's apartment.

03:55Oh, sadly, it's kind of similar.

03:57Yeah, oh God damn.

03:59Yeah, it's-

04:01You're a minimalist?

04:02It's just because I'm kind of,

04:03I've just been so used to being transient.

04:06Like I remember when I graduated

04:07or was about to graduate school,

04:09had a teacher, she was like, you know,

04:11it's important for the first five years to live lightly

04:13so you can go to a new job and, you know,

04:15just be free to be an actor.

04:18And I just continued that until my thirties.

04:20And so, you know, I need to stop.

04:23You need to get some, like-

04:24You know, buy some stuff.

04:25Do you want to go shopping?

04:26Let's go shopping.

04:27Let's do it.

04:28I can't wait to see it.

04:29Oh, listen, my God, I need some help.

04:32But no, I mean, the thing that I loved about Olivier

04:35especially was his taste.

04:38And I don't know if it had a lot to do with Marta,

04:40but his clothes.

04:41Yeah.

04:43The set design in your apartment was like just delicious.

04:47Yeah.

04:48But was that-

04:50I felt the second I, that is so special to,

04:54and I have not had a lot,

04:56I've not experienced this before

04:58where this space was,

05:01and the way it's designed was as much a character

05:05and gave you so much information about what you're playing.

05:09But it was like cotton candy clouds,

05:11a little, just the color scheme.

05:13And I've seen those, that palette before

05:16somewhere in the recesses of my mind.

05:20It is based off of Thierry Muglet's Paris apartment.

05:25That is what his apartment basically looks like.

05:28But kind of generally,

05:31I had said to the production designer, Grace,

05:35who is incredible,

05:36I said, we need a lot of carpet.

05:40I'm going to need a lot of carpet.

05:41I feel carpet is very important here.

05:43And she was like, carpet, we're going to be,

05:45you know, vacuuming nonstop.

05:47And I was like, yeah, I don't care.

05:48Don't care if it takes forever.

05:49I'm going to need the carpet.

05:51She's like, carpet's expensive.

05:52I said, bring it in.

05:53Because carpet to me is a little sad.

05:55Wall to wall carpet is a,

05:58it brings me down a little bit.

05:59No, I didn't mean to be an idiot.

06:01I was like, guys, we got to get rid of these carpets.

06:05You can't ever clean it.

06:07So it's like, it is sad.

06:08And it's nice to start in these homes,

06:10even though they're beautifully designed

06:12with a low sadness of carpet.

06:15I'm sorry to everybody who might.

06:17Carpet.

06:19Aesthetically, I want it in my movies,

06:21but at home, I would not be able to keep up with it.

06:24That's fair.

06:25Has anyone thought about what type of chair

06:28most connects with them?

06:29Like what type of piece of furniture?

06:32You know, guys, a nice lazy boy.

06:36Nice to take your feet out.

06:39With a cup holder or?

06:41Yeah, throw in a cup holder.

06:43Or a massager.

06:44It'll be fine.

06:45This is great.

06:46Yeah, it'll be fine.

06:48I can't, see, I can't shop for myself.

06:49Yeah, they'll help me.

06:50No, we're not getting you with those.

06:51That's terrible.

06:53A chair that, you know what I love?

06:57I love like those like 90s high back dining room chairs

07:02that have like a little bad upholstery,

07:05the tiny strip that almost looks like a Vegas carpet.

07:08They're a little zany, a little zany.

07:11They're a little Beetlejuice, a little bit Beetlejuice.

07:14That makes sense.

07:15I love a churner chair.

07:16Do you know what the churner chair is?

07:18And our chair really reminds me of a churner

07:21with those beautiful rounded arms.

07:24I mean, I don't know that I'm like a churner,

07:26but I aspire to be a churner, to be that elegant.

07:30And I want just a big, fat, cuddly, stuffed chair

07:34that I feel small in, whatever that says around me.

07:38That you can disappear in.

07:39Yes.

07:40Disappear in.

07:42You know, I'm not in charge of chairs at my house.

07:46The interior designer has been, so.

07:49Rights.

07:50You are given the, yeah, I'm given the need to.

07:53I don't decide about that stuff.

07:55Fair.

07:55OK, so our, let's see, my recurring question

07:57I want to ask you guys, does anyone

07:59have a movie that they watch over and over,

08:02whether for comfort or inspiration?

08:05Yeah, Your Name.

08:07Your Name is a Japanese anime by Makoto Shinkai,

08:10and it's one of the most beautiful films

08:11I've ever seen in my life.

08:12I highly recommend everyone to check it out.

08:15That's one of my favorites.

08:16He's so hot.

08:17I can't change the channel of Terms of Endearment, as I'm.

08:20That's such a good one.

08:21I can't.

08:21I saw it with my mother and my grandmother,

08:23and they're both deceased.

08:25So that's just so much sense memory for me,

08:29watching that movie, which is why I geeked out

08:32when I saw John Lithgow.

08:33I loved it.

08:35So beautiful, and that movie, I just got chills.

08:38Yeah.

08:42I'm going to go first, since I just saw it.

08:44What about Bob?

08:45There's a feeling behind this.

08:48I went through a very dark period of my life,

08:50or I was escaping a dark period, at 22.

08:54And I couldn't actually watch dark things.

08:58Almost Ren and Stimpy was too dark.

09:00So I watched What About Bob all the time,

09:05and Baby Steps became a mantra to live my life by.

09:10Yeah.

09:11Whenever I'm sad, I watch Planes, Trains, and the Lost

09:14Planet.

09:14It's a good one.

09:15It makes me feel happy.

09:17So there's moments that are really poignant, too.

09:19John Candy was so good.

09:21But it feels comforting, like you're

09:23in the arms of an old friend.

09:26I feel very stuck in an era.

09:29I feel very stuck in the 20th century.

09:32So it's all just everything, mostly 70s and 90s films.

09:38But I always will watch all that jazz.

09:40I always will watch The Player.

09:42And I truly will always watch Reality Bites,

09:46because it just reminds me of an era in my life

09:49when being cool was, I just couldn't

09:54get enough of, of which these three women are all

09:58in movies where the coolness is so overwhelming.

10:01When you're a young teen, you cannot

10:03believe that there are people that cool in the world.

10:06And you want to dress like them, and talk like them,

10:08and look like them.

10:09I always return.

10:11I'm not going to play them out, but they are each in one

10:14that I can call to memory right now,

10:16where it's like, if I could look like that character,

10:18I could be that character.

10:19All right, I want to hear it.

10:21OK.

10:22You guys want to get me embarrassed?

10:24Obviously, Robin in Empire Records, The Shaved Head.

10:29I did not have a friend who wasn't like,

10:32do we shave the head?

10:34And I was like, would you not?

10:37I mean, Pump Up the Volume is a deeply

10:40personal and gorgeous film.

10:43And for me, I'm terrified of Cape Fear,

10:45so I can't call that one out, because I

10:47have watched that movie like this, I think,

10:49as most people do.

10:51But Natural Born Killers.

10:53It is just, you know, it's iconic forever.

10:57Forever.

10:58So those movies I definitely watch over and over again.

Juliette Lewis & Cast on First Being Pitched New Film 'By Design' | THR Studio at Park City

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