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The entire video not found. Wanted. I fucking hate these
talk in secret codes. They can shove it up their fucking ass.
1.
So we could start a bit traditionally, and I'll
ask the two of you about the origins of this project. Was the script written
and Steven saw it because you two collaborated before?
2.
Burns: I wrote, I started writing it a verylong
time ago. I was working on a TVshow, and doing research atBellevue[Hospital], and
I met a doctor namedSashaBarday, who was our consultant on the movie. And I
tailed him. He's a forensicpsychiatrist, so I tailed him aroundBellevue[Hospital],
and thefirstday I was there, there was a vampire, and it was about tenyearsago.
Thesubwaypusher was there. There were [was] a lot of fascinating cases.
And I became interested the world of forensicPsychiatry, and the story sort of ["]percolated["]
up out of that, and Steven was aware that I was writing it for the most of
thelastdecade, and I was hoping that I would direct it. Cough ofBurns. And that
wasn't working out verywell. Sound of laughter. So, one point, another project
that we were going to do, and that didn't work out verywell, either. So Steven,
you know, said that he read the script and he liked it, and said, Would I do
craftservice instead of direct the movie?
3.
Soderbergh: And produce.
4.
And what about this project appealed to you?
5.
Soderbergh: I think, well, what I, Scott, I knew
about it. I knew what Scott was up to, and I really, I really loved the idea
that he sort of taken a. Sort of socialissue, ["]veryzeitgeist-y["]
issue, [Fuckareyoutalkingabout? English, motherfucker, english.] and sort of
used it as trojanhorse to kind of hide a thriller inside of. So I've
been. I've been talking to him about it for a while, and we were going. We
worked for almostoneyear forManFromUNCLE, and suddenly and unexpectedly, it kind
of ["]blew up["]. And I called him immediately and said, I really, I
thought we were going to be working together in april. Can we switch? Will you
give meSideEffects? He said, Yeah. So. I just. I really. This was kind of movie
that used to be made a lot, and for some reason, sort of. I don't know if it
got priced out of existence or what? In the[19]80s, which I've talked about as
being probably theworstdecade in americanFilm. Sound of laughter. With the
exception of some great independent filmmakers who were starting to emerge, and
these kind of fun thrillers, likeFatalAttraction or JaggedEdgeThe, that were
just kind of great matineemovies. And like I said, they just kind of [disappeared]
went away. And I, I was really excited about the idea of doing an
updated version of that, that took advantage of the fact that we are. Let's put
it this way. I started my career by making a movie about someone who was seeing
a psychiatrist, who. And. In1989, the idea that AndieMcDowell inSexLies would
have been medicated didn't even occur to me. So here we are,
twenetyplusyearslater and the idea that she wouldn't be medicated wouldn't occur
to anyone. That's a big, I mean, that's a big, you know, in twentyyears, that's
a big movement, I think. [Movement? Fuck are you talking about?] And thanks for
coming. [He pretends to leave the chair.] Sound of laughter.
6.
Omitted.
7.
So interesting is that the movie is so ["]paired
down["] momentbymoment. I mean, it's so elegant and there's not an extra shotor
an extra line, and yet, everything is verycomplicated and ambiguous as far as
the characters go. And that's so interesting, you know.
8.
Soderbergh: Well, this is a big, you know, this
is a big ["]bagaboo["] of mine, watching what's happening lately,
because I feel like you should have a reason for
everyshot, you should have a reason for everycut, and if you don't, then you're
kind of, you know, you've broken some sort of. I don't know if you've broken a contract
with the audience, but you've broken a contract with me. Sound of
laughter. Because I feel like that's your job. The point is, Everything
matters, everything matters. So when you start ["]throwing["] up
shots and cuts, in which. I'm watching them as somebody who makes movies. I go,
I don't understand what you're doing. What, what, this is just noise. Like,
where is the signal? And that just makes me nuts, and what I loved about this
piece of material was it was an incredible opportunity to be, just to [remove
everything] take it all down to the
marrow, and have scenes in which. I could sit there as a director and go,
How few shots do I need ultimately to make this scene work, because more often
than not, it was two, you know. I'm not afraid to have
twopersons sit in a room and have a conversation and have it be twoshots if it
is a good scene. I don't feel insecure about that. And so. That doesn't
mean that it has to be boring, it doesn't mean that, that, it doesn't, it can't
be stylish. It just means that, as a director, you're supposed to sort of sit
there and have the ["]thirtythousandfootview["] [Another favourite
phrase ofSoderbergh.] of the whole movie and be able to ["]calibrate["]
[Calibrate what? Fuck are you talking about?], you know, how, how, the, the
shots and the cuttingpatterns are going to affect the audience? I'll give. I'll
do. A quick example. Thefirstshrinkscene with you two guys, right? Thefirsttwocompositions
were sort of odd. Above you. There's morenegativespace than you would
normallyhave in a shot. There's moreheadroom than you would have in a shot. There's
something notquitesymmetrical about the twoshots as the scene begins. Then she
goes into her monologue about meetingChanning, and we do a diagonal drop in which
the camera is still thesamedistance away from her, but when it lands, we are
muchmore-typical, -symmetircal shot of her, and when I cut around
toJude, I'm matching that, and everything now seems to be back to normal in
terms of the ["]grammar["] we're used to looking at when we watch the
movies. That, to me, that's the job, right? Is to use sort of these elements
that you have available to you sort of, start in oneplace. And the audience may
never be able to articulate that, they may never notice it, but they know that
there's something odd about thosefirsttwocompositions that they're nottypical,
and when the scene ends, we're calm, we're back to par. And so, that, that to
me, that's what you're supposed to do as a director, and when I see something [in
which] that has obviouslyneveroccured to anyone. Sound of laughter. I just go,
Well, you know, what have you been looking at, you know? I've gotten there
because I've watched a lot of movies, good movies that other people have made,
you know, and I'm standing on the shoulders of anybody who have made good
movie. And I'm stealing from, you know, them. So, that's the job, stealing.
9.
Shaw: Steven, why are you quitting directing
based on everything you just said?
10. Soderbergh:
Because. Sound of applaud. Because, you know why? Because I don't ever want to
be in the situation that's the solve [solution] again, you know what I
mean? I want to, I want to, I can't use that again. I used it there. I can't
use it again, and that was thelastgoodidea I ever had.
11. Shaw:
Sound of laughter. That's not true.
