Check it out in the video above or read the full transcript below.
PERRI NEMIROFF: I’m so excited to talkHallow Road.
It’s something else.
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I was exhausted after watching your movie, honestly.
MATTHEW RHYS: That was like the shoot.
I can’t even imagine!
BABAK ANVARI: The film starts with a couple, played by the wonderful Matthew Rhys and Rosamund Pike.
They rush to jump in the car to go and drive to help her.
Strange things start happening.
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We’re experiencing these parents worst nightmare.
Even just hearing you explain it now, I’m getting all tense again.
ANVARI: It is.
All you have is your anxiety and your imagination, which is what we’re trying to tap into.
Oh, you play with that big time!
You’re working with William [Gillies] script here.
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ANVARI: I love tension.
Its good because I have a lot of anxieties myself.
It’s very cathartic to make other people feel …
RHYS: To inflict it on others!
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That was the fun challenge for us.
RHYS: “Fun” challenge.
Babak Anvari skillfully uses supernatural horror to reach more terrifying truths about parenthood and war.
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RHYS: It was more of a, How areyougoing to pull this off?
He chapterizes this whole film.
Its truly one of the most impressive elements of the film!
One thing I really wanted to follow up on from our production notes was the emphasis on Celtic myths.
That’s all I’m going to say.
I think people who are into their fairy tales and myths would immediately, hopefully, clock it.
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I’m going to start Googling after our interview.
Can you tease how their approaches differ?
RHYS: It was probably the improvisational work we did at the beginning.
We did some improvisational rehearsals.
Its kind of startling.
It’s so immediate and so deep.
I went, Oh, it’s time to step up.
Can you guys paint a picture of what the set looks like?
So, that was the plan.
We actually isolated you all.
You were surrounded by those screens, so you couldn’t see the crew members.
That must have felt strange.
RHYS: It was a real luxury.
You couldn’t see the crew, so it really was an isolated experience, which only helps.
We were like, “That’s so exciting!”
Then, on the day, we were like, Are we sure this is a good idea?
But we did it, and a lot of that take ended up being in the film.
It was a great experience for me.
RHYS: It was the first time we’d done anything.
Babak had said, Listen, this is what we’re going to do.
We’re going to put new cards in the cameras, and we’re going to run it.
It was, like, 50-something minutes as atake.
It was like doing a play.
I love the movie as is, but I wouldloveto just see that take.
RHYS: The director’s cut.
What is a seemingly small, everyday thing that is the toughest to replicate on-screen believably?
One of the examples I always give is fake driving!
You’re like, “Sorry, sorry!”
It does make it easier.
Youre genuinely following a road, but even then, I was still forgetting to do it.
Someone would say, Remember to change gears, because it was a stick.
Oh, yes, sorry, sorry!
Ive been in the States too long.
The other example I always give is fake sneezing.
Who can do a believable fake sneeze?
Or fake waking up?
RHYS: Yeah, that’s tough.
It’s all the things that give you anxiety.
The fake waking up, sneezing, coughing, laughing.
The laugh is killer.
Something about that made me a little sad, but I get it.
RHYS: But it is.
That’s a tough one to replicate.
Well, for what it’s worth when it comes to this movie, you drove very believably.
RHYS: Oh, thank you.
I drove Rosamund crazy.
What was it that inspired a choice like that?
ANVARI: When we’re outside the car, I shot everything on 16mm film.
Once we’re in the car, it switches to digital.
Go back, go back.
Wrong choice, with the arrow as the indicator.
We had a tremendous amount of fun playing with them.
It was just a balancing act with my editor, Laura [Jennings].
I want to go back to working with Kit.
We started working together on short films.
I always say he’s almost like half of my brain.
Already, he knows what Im after, and he brings his own thing.
I love highlighting filmmaking families, and growing filmmaking families.
ANVARI: His lighting style, even at the age of 18, used to blow me away.
When you’re that age, you only take a stab at copy other films.
We still do take inspiration from film.
RHYS: It’s a real joy to watch the two of them work because they are so simpatico.
They’re finishing each other’s sentences almost.
There’s this unwritten, unsaid, unspoken language that they have, which is a joy to watch.
ANVARI: Bad in-jokes, as well.
We were like, “Hehe, haha,” and everyone was like, “What?
That’s not funny.”
ANVARI: Hats off to Laura Jennings, my editor.
She’s done really big Marvel stuff.
We had a rough plan, but editing is trial and error.
Like I said, we experimented with a lot of different visual cues.
It was fun to edit it, and it was genuinely a challenge.
I think Laura did an incredible job.
Can confirm she did!
RHYS: You both did.
Quite a big world for such a small hero.
Then, she had to do it again in post.
She’s just so talented.
you’re able to speak on the collaboration with her.
RHYS:It’s gold to have someone who is willing to give you 110% oneverytake.
We always thought she was going to pass out because she was hyperventilating so much.
We were like, “Look after yourself!”
She has the technique, and she has the commitment.
ANVARI: She gave 150%.
Don’t Miss This After-Credits Easter Egg!
“You start rethinking what you just experienced.”
Can you maybe tease why you wanted to save that for then?
ANVARI: That was the plan.
You start rethinking what you just experienced.
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