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G21 INTERVIEWS: M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN - BRAD BALFOUR brings us the latest insights in the to auteurs new work, "Lady in the Water". View the film trailer by following this link.
New York, NY, USA - Though the advance word on M. Night Shyamalan's latest film, "Lady in the Water" hasn't been all that favorable, this director didn't establish his career doing films that seemed predictable or commercial. Yet this South Asian-born, Philadelphia-raised director has succeeded in become a little sub-genre all his own with surprise hits such as 'Sixth Sense" and "Signs."
Having made his films with a twist to his endings, Shyamalan again mines this notion, but the twist here is more like a puzzle than a surprise. So besides adding to his oeuvre, he provides a twist with both some scary CGI-generated monsters and a myth of his own making.
G21: This was originally a fairy tale for your kids and then it evolved into something darker. What was the evolution in your mind?
MNS: Well, when it was back at Disney [laughter], they were so stringent about what has the Disney label on it - to the point that it hurt the piece. So when [it] didn't happen [with Disney], it really freed me up to be more visceral.
When I was shooting the movie, I [thought[, "I'm starting to lose some kids, - it s getting scarier and scarier - stop. So it stops at around eight years old. For seven year olds, it probably will be too much.
G21: Where did this story come from? Does it come from the subconscious trove of movies, reading philosopher Joseph Campbell, or your South Asian background?
MNS: I think all of the above. Some hook always gets me - like... what if someone was living under your pool, why would they be there - [which] spawns a whole story.
G21: Are there any South Asian influences here incorporating some of the religious concepts such as karma, for example?
MNS: Yes. I am definitely big in the Buddhist thing. Hearing the story being told, I was like, "wow, it's more like an Asian philosophy." I don't know why I felt that, but it had more of an Asian philosophy and tradition. Asians believe in storytelling, whether it's the Hindu philosophy or Buddhist, and we know they're all metaphorical, but you believe them, not literally that each of those GodsăVishnu and Rama and all those othersăactually exist, but the reverence for them is extraordinary,
So when Young-soo and her mom are talking, Young-soo learns, she's acclimated for and wants to be an American - she's still trying on clothes, dressing like Britney Spears, whereas my sister [in the movie, Sarita Choudhury] and I are acclimated Americans - we are in the system. Young-soo is not in the system, but she wants to be, yet she's closer to her traditions than me and my sister are. So she makes that speech, where she says in the end, "You know, it's time to prove these stories are real." She's much more like her mom than she knows. She's wearing Britney Spears clothes, but she's just one step away from the old traditions.
G21: How important was storytelling to you as a kid?
MNS: I wasn't told stories like that as a kid. But I read a lot and wrote a lot as a kid, so I always thought it was very magical. I guess the storytellers were the filmmakers of that time - George Lucas, Steven Spielberg - telling those amazing stories when I was seven to twelve. I had the best storytellers in the world - they were telling me stories right when I was ready to hear stories. "Once upon a time in a galaxy far far away... " Yes!
G21: Do you read bedtime stories to your children?
MNS: I do that a lot, but not as much as I should.
G21: How old are they?
MNS: 9 and 6.
G21: You have a pivotal part in the film. [It seems] you really had something to say through that character.
MNS: This is my seventh film. In the first movie, "Praying With Anger," I was the lead in that, and it was a very tiny movie in India. Then came "Wide Awake" - I wasn't in that at all. Then in "Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" I had very small parts because I was learning to make movies in the big studio system. Then in "Signs" I had a big part. There were only five characters in it, and for me, it was an important part emotionally. [When I wrote] those two movies, I was like, "I really need to say that emotionally, that means something to me."
G21: What did you see in Bryce Dallas Howard that made you want to cast her a second time?
MNS: She has a regalness, an unusual otherworldly quality about her. She doesn't have the normal 24-year-old actress affects. She has strong dogma - her belief system is really like a monk. She believes in things to the point where you're like, " Come on, just be a human being! Just chill out!" She's like that and that was perfect for the story. She doesn't have to pretend to be otherworldly.
G21: And with Paul Giamatti - what attracted you to him?
MNS: Paul's kind of everyman brilliance is just great against the two of them. They both give off such different vibes, even as human beings.
G21: How was it working with Jeffrey Wright? It's said he can be difficult.
MNS: I've heard those stories, too, but he was an absolute joy for me. I've had a lot of actors in my movies who are supposedly difficult. When they know that someone's driving the bus, then they don't have to take the wheel. They don't want to. They want to ride the bus and go in the direction.
My movies are a lot like plays - a lot of dialogue, a lot of [rehearsal], and I hire only theatrical actors, especially on this one. They did it like a play, and they were amazing. We had two Jedis at the table - Paul and Jeffrey, and when we did scenes like the bathroom scene, the group was just in awe of these two guys who could do anything. They're limitless talents, those two.
G21: Did Bob Balaban enjoy the idea of playing this film critic character?
MNS: He loved it! [When] we met I said, "I'm going to say to you what I never said to another actor: I want you to start three-dimensional and become two-dimensional, so it becomes more of a parody by the time it happens. You're going to deconstruct as you go."
He [replied], "I'm totally into that." I gave him the script, and I didn't tell him what the part was - I just said "You're going to play the part of Farber." He called and left me this message. It was so funny, I wish I'd kept it.
G21: Was the scene of the smarmy film critic a thumb in the eye to critics?
MNS: I was in a very raw mood when I wrote the movie, and it came out very heightened and parody-like, and the movie had an eccentricity about it. [The critic] is part of a world where everyone is realizing their potential, but he's stopped learning. [Then] he realizes it's too late.
My favorite thing about "Lady" is that it changes and blossoms into [something] different. Farber's death is one of those moments when it starts going right on the edge of mania, and then starts unfolding in a way, where you're not sure what's going to happen. To be in a movie where you can stop the movement - that's a really cool moment.
G21: Do you read what critics say about your films?
MNS: I get a general vibe that if you get caught up in too much of this, you lose your mind, because it's all a momentary perception. These movies are so clouded by expectations that it can be damaging to you as an artist. What you think may be the critical response to my movies is very different from the reality. "Signs" is my best reviewed movie, then "Unbreakable," and next is "Sixth Sense" and then next is "The Village" and that's the order of the reviews. Also, "Signs" is my most popcorn movie. It's that aspiring to something higher that always gets everyone all riled up. The perceived realities are very different as you move on. If everything was re-reviewed now, [they] probably would be different reviews.
G21: Are you involved in the marketing of your movies?
MNS: Yeah, definitely. There's a certain integrity to them that I wouldn't want them to cross, so I'm involved with that, and I give them ideas that "you can try this angle or that angle" and "this is where I was coming from". But this time I just gave them my thoughts and took off to France.
G21: Is there anything you can tell us about your next project?
MNS: Well, the one I think I'm going to do is going to have a big star in it.
G21: Are you going to be in it as well?
MNS: You never know. it wouldn't be any bigger part than this. In fact, I feel a little bit more comfortable if it was like 15-20% less, so that the balance is just right for the directing, because it's difficult to do both. You want to just walk on the set and totally be that guy. But if they're going "are these curtains good?" You're like, "Hold on a sec. No, they're terrible!" That's a tricky balance.
G21: Do you wait until one movie is done before even thinking about your next one?
MNS: I wrote this one simultaneously with "The Village" . I have a full notebook of ideas.
G21: Do you have time to write while you're making movies?
MNS: I have notebooks of ideas. It's dangerous, because you may burn a great idea cause if you do it too early. Like all during "Lady", I had this great notebook [for] that I was certain was going to be my next movie. But a soon as I finished "Lady" I got another idea that has so much power, and it's new and fresh.
G21: Would you consider directing a movie by someone else?
MNS: I would definitely, but I think probably before that I would adapt a book. I've gotten close a few times to adapting books. "Life of Pi" was one of them.
G21: Has Warners hit you up to direct a Harry Potter movie yet?
MNS: You know, that Harry Potter dance has gone on a long time. The problem is that it is a living breathing thing now, all by itself. When it comes over to my camp, it needs to be handed over, adoption papers and everything. And that's a tricky move.
G21: Have you ever met with J.K. Rowling?
MNS: No, I haven't met with J.K. The first one was offered to me, but that conflicted with 'Unbreakable,' which was unfortunate.
G21: Do you really believe that filmmaking or writing can change the world?
MNS: Now with regards to the character in "Lady"... The idea of Harriet Beecher Stowe really caught me - this idea that you write a book, somebody like Lincoln reads the book, and other people in that time period read that book and you're creating change. Then someone who can make a difference decides to do something about it. Harriet Beecher Stowe didn't know she was doing all that, she was just writing a book. But it actually opened minds and created points of view.
The power of the writer is the wish that an angel would come in and say, "You think that that sucks right now? You should do it because down the line, the 80th person who [reads] is going to cause this [to happen] and this to [happen]. And you'll be part of a chain that you can't possibly know, but it's very important that you keep [being] proactive. If any one of us doesn't do our little link in the chain, the eventuality doesn't happen... .How do we know what part we're going to play in the chain? Just empowering positive energy moving forward will create an incredible network of things.
How many people don't believe that they're part of that inevitable chain of things. My babysitter once left a book by mistake that she was reading, about how people are having a hard time making ends meet because their cost of living is so high. It's called "Nickeled and Dimed" [by Barbara Ehrenreich].
So I went and I bought a bunch of low income houses and built them up and gave them to families in Philadelphia. [All] because my babysitter was reading it - because her teacher had assigned it - because the teacher was moved by this lady. Look at that chain of events, all from writers. It's a beautiful thing.
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