Writer-directorAmanda Kramerdelivers this level of genre subversion in her new film,By Design.
After falling in love with a special chair, shebecomesthe chair herself.
PERRI NEMIROFF:This movie is something else!
Image via Sundance Institute
KRAMER: I love the originalFreaky Friday.Jodie Foster.
I don’t even know what to say about Jodie Foster.
In that movie, in particular, with the braces, she’s incredible.
Image Via Buena Vista Distribution
It’s like a bad animation.
In mydreams, I’m able to make something like that, like this derpy sort of color transfer.
Also, you’ve got the option to’t approximate that Technicolor, so why try?
Image Via Universal Pictures
You gotta live in your own era.
Even though you think backwards, you also have to think forwards.
There’s a body swap movie calledThe Change-Up.
Jason Bateman’s in it.
I love the looks on everyone’s faces!
You know, this went straight to the top in Hollywood, you guys.
Image by Photagonist
It was greenlit immediately.
I see the looks on your faces, but it’s real, and it’s out there.
They pee in a fountain together, and as the urine splashes into the fountain, they swap bodies.
Image by Photagonist
JULIETTE LEWIS: Must have been the ’80s.
KRAMER: I want you to know thatnothinghappens.
There aren’t cool lights.
Image by Photagonist
There’s no wind.
There’s no sound effects.
There’s no sound.
It’s just over.
What a missed opportunity.
They should pee in the fountain, and the fountain shouldexplodewith urine or something!
Image by Photagonist
Anyway, so I wouldn’t do that.
I wasn’t going to do that.
Now we know what I’m going to be Googling after this.
Image by Photagonist
I do vaguely remember it.
It feels fairly recent, too.
LEWIS: Is it the late ’80s?
Image by Photagonist
LEWIS: Oh, ’90s?!
It was definitely in the last 10 years.
MIRANDA BAILEY: We might want to piss in a fountain later.
You are a producer on this, as well.
I’ll lead that into the last question with that.
It’s too difficult for people who want just ‘easy.
Image by Photagonist
‘This will be Juliette Lewis’ Daniel Radcliffe moment, and I want that to happen."
That’s how I came on and said yes to it.
I have many follow-up questions.
Image via A24
I want to throw this one to the entire cast.
MAMOUDOU ATHIE: I trusted her, so I didn’t really care.
I was like, “I believe in the script.
I believe in you.”
I’ve seen her movies.
When we spoke about film and just life in general, I just liked her a lot.
That’s really enough for me.
A good script, good vibes, a good partI’m doing it, honestly.
Solid bullet point list.
SAMANTHA MATHIS: She was really forthcoming with me about tone.
That was super informative for me.
Hal Hartley was in there, too, who’s just such an iconic American independent filmmaker.
These are the movies I love.
I am a disciple of independent film.
It was such a good feeling.
This is what it’s supposed to feel like."
BAILEY: But he can buy this!
TUNNEY: But it’s available, Jeff.
KRAMER: [Laughs] We said no preach, but preach, Robin, preach!
Do it, Robin!
TUNNEY: No, I just feel like everything has become so transactional in Hollywood.
You make a movie like this to come to Sundance.
It’s not derivative.
Everybody in Hollywood wants to make the same thing.
I want to see her on the big screen.
This is what movies are about.
LEWIS: Thank you, Robin.
MADISON MCKINLEY: I feel likeit is a script that can resonate with absolutely everyone.
They might as well be an inanimate object.
BAILEY: Sorry, what was that?
MCKINLEY: [Laughs] Exactly.
They might as well be this chair.
It takes a whole group of artists, and you nailed it.
LEWIS: It’s interesting to echo some of the sentiments here.
For me, it was all heart.
I can’t watch them.
I feel the energy.
ATHIE: Humiliate you?
[Laughs]
KRAMER: It makes me empathetic.
You give them the script, and youaskthem to play the part.
Once they are cast, I can start to think about how to cast around them.
That was a total surprise to me.
I thought I was going to get that dry wit only, but they ride the whole thing.
When you build a fantasy, “Who fits into the fantasy?”
I’m a face person.
I want a memorable face and a memorable voice.
Will you cast a shadow over the film?"
That’s what I want.I actually wanteveryoneto chew the scenery.I want everyone to be a scene stealer!
I can see that.
Our supporting cast, who are not here, they’re all wonderful.
I was happy to seeRuby [Cruz]in the movie, too.
I’ve been a big fan of hers for a while.
I think she’s got boundless potential.
KRAMER: Oh, absolutely.
There are a lot ofBottomsactors here, and that makes me very happy because I love that movie.
BAILEY: I loveBottoms!
You were talking about doing a performance where part of the performance demands that you “do nothing.”
You’re doing something, but I know what you mean by doing nothing.
What would you say surprised you most about what is challenging about doing nothing?
LEWIS: So, this wasextra, extra doing nothing.
That’s to say, it became spiritual to me.
I’ll explain why.
You literally explained what I was hoping to achieve.
You guys found the moments.It’s a concentrated nothingness.We need a new word.
So, how is there a subtle reaction that she’s still there, but she’s also elsewhere?
It was the whole thing.
The editing is beautiful because that always helps the performance.
you might make or break a performance by editing.
TUNNEY: You absolutely can.
LEWIS: I’ve had both happen.
TUNNEY: The heartbreak was bad.
LEWIS: You’re like, “Why’d you use that snippet?”
BAILEY: We were lucky enough on a budget this tight to have Amanda’s editor there everyday.
KRAMER: His name’s Ben [Shearn].
He was on the set.
LEWIS: I was amazed.
LEWIS: All of that we talked [about].
It was like, “Eyes open or eyes closed?”
We didn’t want eyes closed because she’d be asleep-looking.
Would the eyes be straight out?
We’d have to find even stuff within that that played well for the scene.
So, everything was thought about in that way.
What was it like picking the perfect chair for your movie?
KRAMER: Our production designer’s name is Grace Surnow, and she looked at hundreds of chairs.
Oh, not him.
It’s like casting.
Camille is not too avant-garde.
That doesn’t quite make sense either, you know?
Its a process of elimination.
You’re also thinking about the strong and bold things that Juliette Lewis is.
You also want something that feels like, to me, frankly, curved and feminine.
You need the hardness and the feminine.
When we found the chair that we found, we saw it all.
It gave her a scene sense-memory to be like, I know what the chair looks like.
Mamoudou, this chair is your scene partner in a number of scenes here.
What is it like working with a scene partner that’s an object?
Where do you find that in yourself?
MAMOUDOU ATHIE: For some reason, it didn’t seem so bizarre to me.
Also, when I first saw the chair, I was like, This is the chair?
This is the one?
It’s as simple as that.
I swear, if it’s a good script, you really don’t have to worry about much.
You just have to commit to the bit.
Samantha and Robin, I’ll ask you a scene partner question, as well.
For much of the movie, you are opposite Juliette, again, “doing nothing.”
MATHIS: I think it speaks to how oblivious these two women are.
They’re so self-involved in their own experience that they’re oblivious to what’s happening with Camille.
It speaks to who they are.
TUNNEY: Everything about them is about projection.
They have no idea how to connect, and it doesn’t matter.
They just want to be heard.
They can’t listen.
MATHIS: They want to hear the sound of their own voices.
TUNNEY: But they still love her!
MATHIS: They do.
TUNNEY: As self-involved as they are, we really love her.
KRAMER: There’s a moment where they’re getting increasingly drunk.
They’re saying to her, We love you.
And you feel like they do mean it.
She is their third partner.
It’s just that they treat her the same when she does nothing as when she does something.
That does not mean that they don’t care for her.
TUNNEY: We show up in the end.
MATHIS: We do.
We show up in the end, and they love her.
BAILEY: The characters of the friends really evolve as a unit.
In the end, they’re so protective of her, but also, it’s so hard.
You feel their heartbreak for their friend.
For the first time, they are thinking outside of their own life.
I felt that beauty on the big screen when I saw it here instead of a computer.
It really makes you happy when each character can have a beginning and a middle and an end.
That was so beautifully directed.
It’s not easy to do that.
The annual event returns to Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah on January 23.
LEWIS: I love this game, actually.
BAILEY: I will go first!
There’s something really sensual and sexy about lipstick, and the right one.
It can always be with you.
TUNNEY: I want to be my daughter’s Lovey.
She has a Lovey, like a comfort thing.
I’d be her Lovey.
MATHIS: I was going to say blanket, too.
ATHIE: That’s a good one.
MCKINLEY: A really fast, old car.
The kind they drove off the mountain inThelma and Louise.
ATHIE: A good book.
A good book goes a long way.
Even if it gets beat up a little bit, it can change someone’s life.
Many books changed mine and educated me and changed my viewpoint.
BAILEY: That thesaurus really helped you.
KRAMER: That’s powerful.
When I first fell in love with an object, it was a royal blue lawn chair.
It gets a lot of sun and looks good by the pool.
A royal blue lawn chair.
I’m going with this one.
KRAMER: I think I have the vainest answer, unfortunately.
I would love to be a beautiful piece of art.
TUNNEY: And everybody says you’re beautiful.
I’m crooked, and it doesn’t matter.
I’m a mess, and I’m still beautiful to everyone.
I would really like to be a Picasso.
TUNNEY: That’s such a good answer.
I love those answers.
I want to be my hummingbird feeder.
If I was just the feeder, they would come to me all the time!
KRAMER: Wow, that was beautiful.
TUNNEY: It’s so nice to be in a movie that sparks conversation like this.
I hope people see the movie and go out together afterwards and have this conversation!
Mamoudou, Ive got one unrelated question for you.
It’s aboutThe Drama, the upcoming movie from Kristoffer [Borgli].
What can you tease?
ATHIE: I can’t tell you anything.
You think I’m gonna blow it up right now?
You’re buggin’!
[Laughs] They’re gonna cut me out of the movie.
It’s incredibly interesting and a beautiful cast.
I’mverycurious how it’s received.
Your Rating
Your comment has not been saved
