PAUL TAMASY: Right.
Now I’m killing dogs on screen.
I just did not expect this to come from the mind of one of the co-creators of Air Bud.
Image via Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
I just want to say well done.
TAMASY:Thank you.
When you think all the way back, it’s at least 20-something years.
Image via Paramount Pictures
What do you remember about making that?
Is it like, Never talk aboutAir Budagain?
TAMASY:No, I’m really proud ofAir Bud.
Actually, it’s the film that people always bring up to me the most even more thanThe Fighter.
The thing I remember the most was the fact that that dog could really play basketball.
You’re being dead serious.
Image via Lionsgate
TAMASY:I’m being dead serious.
I really thought you were being facetious.
A lot of people think there was CG in that film.
Image via Paramount Pictures
There was no CG.
The dog was shooting every basket you see in that film.
Christian Bales Method on the Set of The Fighter
I am fucking stunned now.
Image via Paramount Pictures
I do want to touch onThe Fighter, though.
For people who don’t realize, you were one of the writers ofThe Fighter.
When did you realize, Wait, this could be a really special film?
Image via Paramount Pictures
For people who don’t realize, Hoyte Van Hoytema shotThe Fighter.
He works with Christopher Nolan all the time, and he’sthe one who shotOppenheimer.
Thats one of the reasons it looks so good.
Image via Paramount Pictures
Do you have any strong memories of making that film?
TAMASY: Taking my son up to meet Christian Bale becauseBatman[Begins] had just been out.
He was talking to him like a crack addict to my eight-year-old kid.
Image via Paramount Pictures
The man is a craftsman.
He’s really die-hard.
Are you rewatching closely?
Every studio in town, literally every studio in town, tried to buy this script.
It eventually went to DreamWorks, and now Paramount owns it.
It is, to this day, my favorite script that I’ve ever been involved in.
Image via Paramount Pictures
It still hasnt been made, though, but we’re working on it.
Toad’s Wild Ride, so that kind of got in the way of it.
You’ve been working in Hollywood for over 20 years, since sometime in the 90s.
Image via Paramount Pictures
How has the town changed in your eyes from when you started to where you are now?
TAMASY: Good question.
I think right now is the worst I’ve ever seen this town.
Image via Paramount Pictures
It’s just not like that anymore.
TAMASY: It really is.
Depravity Is A Hitchcock Film for a New Generation
Jumping intoDepravity.
Image via Paramount
TAMASY: I’ve always been a fan of Hitchcock.
If you’ve ever seenRear Window, or Danny Boyle’sShallow Gravewas also a big inspiration for this.
I wanted to do a Hitchcock film for a new generation.
TAMASY: It used to have narration.
It used to have flashbacks and it wasnt all in one building.
I’m curious how that all worked behind the scenes.
TAMASY: The number kept dropping.
We also had 24 days, and then it got dropped down to 18.
That’s just the nature of independent filmmaking.
We just had to keep finding ways to cut corners to make it work.
Ridley Scott Almost Directed This Comedy War Epic
By the way, your story is not alone.
Everyone I know has 22 days or 23 days.
No one has 60, 70, 80 days anymore unless it’s a huge, huge movie.
TAMASY: I had another movie shooting at the same time,The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
That movie was shooting at exactly the same time, and I think they had three months to shoot.
What is it like for you, or are you like, The check cleared.
Let’s just make this movie?
I’m not happy with every film, but I’m happy with most of them.
[Laughs]
Was it always calledDepravity?
TAMASY: No, it’s had different titles.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get Paramount to embrace that title.
TAMASY: I just wanted something different, where people look and go, Sic?
The good thing is I like one-word titles, and they’re very hard to come by nowadays.
TAMASY: And depravity is never uttered anywhere in the film.
TAMASY: That was always part of it.
I never see anything where one of the leads is shot and killed in the head in the garage.
I usually see this shit coming, and I’m like, You’re killing Victoria in the garage?
I was very surprised.
I commend you on that.
Are you a football fan?
Because I enjoyed the little bit at the beginning.
TAMASY: I am both a football fan and an English football fan.
How did you end up including that?
I storyboarded some of the sections in this, so I knew exactly every frame I wanted to shoot.
But I learned a lot from guys like David O. Russell.
He’s a real collaborator.
And then he’ll shoot it again based on what people say to him.
I didn’t do that, but I found it really interesting that he could collaborate that way.
Filmmaking is really about just being collaborative and surrounded by really good people.
TAMASY: No, I didn’t.
I think the most takes I ever did was maybe four when we were working with the dog.
The dog was a nightmare.
The dog also bit Noi Pru on the nose and he’s afraid of dogs.
I have so many questions.
How did you end up in Thailand to make this?
Do they have a great tax incentive?
TAMASY: No, I don’t think it’s the tax incentive.
I gotta say, it was an amazing experience.
Was it a five-day shoot each week or were you doing six-day weeks?
TAMASY: We were doing six days most of the time.
Did you have a good enough experience there that if you made another movie, you would…?
TAMASY: I want to go back now.
The food, the people, everything is great there.
If you don’t mind, heres a real nerdy question.
What studios did you use?
What were the facilities like?
TAMASY: We shot at Baan Rig.
I love talking about editing because it’s where it all comes together.
TAMASY: We never had a friends and family screening.
So who were you listening to in the editing room?
Was it just you and the editor?
TAMASY: Just me and the editor.
That’s actually amazing, though, because no one ever gets that.
There are so many filmmakers who want that.
There are pros and cons to testing and not testing.
Depravitys Director Fought Scrapping This Opening Scene
What was the last thing you cut out?
She crosses to the sink, and there’s a cockroach circling the drain.
Were there any other deleted scenes that you were sad to see go?
Noi Pru, who played Manny, actually has a beautiful voice.
I had to cut it out.
So you see the shooting schedule, you have 18 days.
I’m like, We gotta shoot that scene on the very first day?
You’re just meeting.
So, maybe it’ll be best for us to shoot this on the very first day.
It turned out to be great.
So what was the reasoning?
Is it just that set was ready?
TAMASY: It all had to do with scheduling and when Dermot was coming in.
Things had to shift early because of when his schedule accommodated.
It wasn’t originally on the first day, then it got shifted to the first day.
TAMASY: One word.
He says one word.
He says the word SIC.
TAMASY: I tell this story to his testament; I don’t mind mentioning some other actors.
I had Sir Ben Kingsley in this part, I had Brendan Fraser for a while.
I had Mark Hamill.
This is all throughout the years.
Each time I kept saying, I need an actor who can really command presence without saying a word.
Then Paramount gave me this new list and said, You should look at these.
I looked down the list, and I saw Dermot.
I always loved him as an actor, and I thought, I think he could do it.
And he said, How short?
He said, Alright, I’ll do that.
And that’s how he got the part.
The minute he agreed to do it, he got the part.
He’s very intimidating by saying nothing.
Did you always know he could pull it off?
It was the thing we talked about the most.
I said, Look, I need you to be able to command the screen without saying a word.
Just looking at you has got to be scary.
I didn’t expect him to be killed the way he was.
I didn’t expect Victoria to get killed the way she does.
There are choices that happened in the film that I didn’t see coming.
Why dont more movies take these big swings like you did in this?
TAMASY: I don’t know.
I think people nowadays just venture to play it safe.
If you haven’t seenStrange Darling, you should go see that.
TAMASY: I’ve heard that.
Mollners sensual serial killer film plays with genre and expectations in the most delicious ways.
What do you think it is about Hollywood?
How come it doesn’t happen?
TAMASY: I think risk, period, is being taken out of Hollywood.
That’s why everything is branded now, and they’re regurgitating everything.
It’s hard to even get an original movie made anymore.
It’s, it’s very, very, very disappointing.
Who Was the Biggest Diva on the Set of Depravity?
TAMASY: Ask for more days now.
Which day of the shoot did you have the most fun, and which day was fucking brutal?
TAMASY: My favorite scene in the movie is actually when Tovia and Grace face off in the doorway.
I know it’s a very simple scene, but I just love the tension under that scene.
That was probably my favorite scene.
And the worst day of shooting?
TAMASY: The dog.
What was the dog’s name?
He was really a sweet dog.
That was part of the problem.
He was just too sweet.
Whose dog was it?
Did it come from America, or was it local?
TAMASY: It was local.
You talked about paring down the script.
What was something in the original that you wanted to do?
Were there any other big ideas?
Like I said, there were loads of flashbacks and narration.
These were all things I realized along the way, it just needed to be leaner and meaner.
I didn’t need all that stuff.
TAMASY: I did.
Did you cast him from that?
TAMASY: I knew from working with him onThe Outpostthat I was really interested in him for this role.
We’re about to do another movie together, he and I.
Will it be more than 18 days?
TAMASY: Yes, it better be.
It’s calledWhat’s Left Of Us.
He made the documentaryHigh on Crack Street[Lost Lives in Lowell].
In this movie, the story is about him kicking his crack addiction.
It’s a really powerful piece, and Taylor’s gonna be playing the part.
Taylor is not upset that Channing is older.
TAMASY: No, not in this case.
What was it about Victoria and the rest of the cast and how you picked people for these roles?
The minute I met her, I knew she was Grace.
She was literally everything I had imagined in my head.
She’s personable, beautiful, smart, accessible.
She was all those things and a talented singer, as well.
And the rest of the cast?
Alex Roe is also a friend.
We play soccer together and I knew Alex would be brilliant in this movie.
They said, This is Devon Ross.
She’s only been onIrma Vep.
And I said, Well, I love her look.
As you might tell, shes brilliant.
What was the hardest role to cast and why?
TAMASY: Definitely Tovia.
I thought I wouldn’t be able to find anybody to play her.
Then, to Jordan’s credit, Jordan Gartner said, You gotta meet Sasha Luss.
She’s the person to play this part.
When it’s an American trying to do that accent, it really can be false.
It’s a hard accent to do.
TAMASY: Most Americans struggle with English accents, too.
When you’re talking to actors on set, how do you direct?
TAMASY: I think actors are vulnerable creatures.
For me, I was a coach for many years.
I just wanted to be their best friend so I could really get to know them.
They will tell you, by the time we were finishing this film, we were like a family.
TAMASY: People got COVID during the movie about half the crew so that was wild.
And you still shot six-day weeks?
I’m assuming there are other scripts you’re developing.
What are you hoping to do in the future besides the project you mentioned?
TAMASY: I’m out with a big pitch right now that we’re actually going to cast.
It’s calledOperation Certain Death.
It’s a true story about the greatest rescue mission since World War II.
Its based on a book calledOperation Certain Deathby the same guy who wroteThe Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.Amazingstory.
Stacey Sher is producing.
Depravityis available to purchase on Prime Video now.
