During
the press day for his new film, Maniac, director Franck Khalfoun talked to
collider about working with Elijah Wood and updating the stalking genre.
Maniac
stars Elijah Wood and Nora Arnezeder
“Jumping
into Maniac,
tell me a little bit about the decision to cast Elijah. Did you always
want to go with an actor that has kind of a nice-guy reputation?
KHALFOUN: Yes, I
always thought that for me the unassuming, friendly looking guy next door is
certainly scarier as a monster than the monsterish looking predator, because he
can lure people in, it’s easier. For me the Ted Bundy type is the
scariest type of serial killer because they’re charming, they’re smart, they’re
good looking, and it’s deadly. It’s absolutely deadly. Obviously,
look, the process of finding an actor is always difficult and there’s always so
many variables that come into play, but when Alix Taylor, one of the producers,
mentioned him and had a relationship with him I immediately thought of those
eyes, those blue eyes and how kind they are, really. If that can do evil
then there’s no stopping anyone, it’s possible in anyone. Also, actors
sometimes carry baggage, fans associate actors with certain parts, and if they
were ever going to do that with Elijah it would be great because we would
destroy all that and they would have this feeling that this is a nice
guy. I think predominantly he has a pretty good image out there.
Somebody said to me after a screening, “I feel like I just watched my puppy get
run over by a car.” And I said, “That’s great. I understand exactly
what you mean.”
…
For
me the scares came out of a bit more of a mental place than a visceral
reaction, especially because I’m a woman living in L.A., it was very scary for
me to see the simple and realistic way he would kind of find his victims.
KHALFOUN: The
stalking.
Yes – the online dating, coming out of the club, public transit, it’s all very relatable. So how much thought did you put into the ways that he would stalk them and sort of prey on them?
KHALFOUN: Obviously the online thing is more modern,
something from today. Then just driving around stalking from your van is
a throwback to how it was done in the 80’s, back in time. I wanted to
have a little bit of everything. I love what he says in the beginning
when he’s moving on to the next victim online he says, “It’s my first time
online,” which is what everybody says when they’re dating online, “I don’t do
this. It’s my first time.” So that made it that much scarier,
because everybody who’s ever been on those sites has got the “I don’t usually
do this.” Everybody says it, so be careful who that person is.
…
Since
Elijah’s on camera time was so little did you expect him to be as involved as
he was?
KHALFOUN: Yes. I mean, it wasn’t required of
him, but I expect all good actors to be involved more than what they are
contractually involved in. Some don’t care, some are good. I
expected Elijah – I heard that he was a great guy and really made me like
actors again. When you’re able to get an actor of Elijah’s caliber in a
film of this budget it’s because maybe you don’t need him the whole time, he
can just do a few days here and there, and since we had a POV concept it was
possible that he could just come in for those moments where you see his
reflections and stuff. I think he quickly realized that his character was
going to live through the other characters and if he wasn’t there to deliver
lines and participate that his character might suffer ultimately. So even
though he was contracted to be there for a few days he came every day and was
ready to go. He was very, very gracious in that manner and that really is
a big reason, I think, that the movie functions, that its successful, is
because he was every day he was there contributing.
…”
Plot
Summary:
0 Comments:
Post a Comment