PERRI NEMIROFF:Because we’re celebratingAshas a film festival debut, our audience might not know it yet.
Can one of you give a brief synopsis?
AARON PAUL: Are you ready?
Image via RLJE Films
A girl wakes up in a base camp on another planet, played by this brilliant young actress.
She’s very beaten up, she’s very confused.
She doesn’t quite remember who she is.
Image by Photagonist
EIZA GONZALEZ: It’s kind of a cat and mouse.
Yeah, stop there!
I am a big nerd and I read the press notes.
Image by Photagonist
Flying Lotus, there are a couple of things in your director’s statement that really caught my eye.
You brought up a conversation you had with Guillermo del Toro, who Ilove.
He’s a ray of light in this industry.
Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
He told you, “Don’t direct the movies that you’re gonna wanna make.
Direct the movies that needyouto make them.”
FLYING LOTUS: The way he said it, too, was just perfect.
Image by Photagonist
FLYING LOTUS: That’s a good question.
[Laughs]
GONZALEZ: I agree, actually.
This company, in particular, is kinda on a smaller scale, lower budget.
Image by Photagonist
PAUL: They’re doing their thing!
GONZALEZ: They’re trying their hardest.
How about for the two of you?
Maybe something about their backstory and how they got involved in this company that is informing what you do?
And just fighting for a better life.
FLYING LOTUS: You also were on your isolation tip.
Image by Jefferson Chacon
You’d been away in the orbital for a while.
PAUL: Yeah, he’s just kind of doing his thing.
There’s no right or wrong.
FLYING LOTUS: Being out in New Zealand, too, we were all isolated.
GONZALEZ: We were in that warehouse 24/7.
That tees up another quote that I wrote down from your director’s statement.
I love horror, but in particular, you were talking about survival horror.
Every movie has the sameAlien-looking sets and everything.
It just kind of infected us.
Let’s try not to… Alright, we’ve gotta do a little bit ofAlienright here."
[Laughs]
PAUL: I mean the set really did take us there.
The lighting every single day.
The reds, the blues.
It just was so hypnotic.
GONZALEZ: It’s also my favorite genre of movies.
Survival horror is my favorite.
It’s always been.
It just taps into the psyche of some dark, dark shit of our lives.
It’s all existentialism at its finest.
That’s why these movies do so well.
People go to it as, like, a moth to a flame.
PAUL: It’s transportive, too.
Things get a little too real on Earth, so it’s nice to get off the planet.
I’ll build on that very briefly.
PAUL: Is2001[A Space Odyssey] considered survival?
I mean, he’s surviving.
HALs pretty fucked up.
GONZALEZ: For me,The Shiningbecause it is a survival movie.
Nothing that you think is real or not…
I think that when you send the audience into that spin, it’s the best combination.
I feel like no one’s survivingThe Shining.
I know people do surviveThe Shining, but really, no one would.
GONZALEZ: Losing your mind is the kind of coolest survival movie, of losing that sense of reality.
I find that more terrifying than being chased.
FLYING LOTUS: Seeing the descent.
Do you have an example?
Well, you saidAlien.
Oh God, when I saw that movie.The Descentwas crazy.
FLYING LOTUS: Working with them, they’ve been through it all.
And Aaron looked at me like, “What if we dowhat?
We gotta to dowhat?”
I was like, “Alright, let me figure this out.”
So, I learned a lot about that and my own process.
That kind of creative enthusiasm is the best.
I know you have to get the work done, but also never lose that!
GONZALEZ: That was the nice thing about, honestly, working with him.
He just gave this sense of complete cool, calm, and collected.
It was very inspiring.
FLYING LOTUS: Or take away.
GONZALEZ: Or take away.
Aaron came so prepared and had so many ideas, and so did he.
His vision board was spectacular.
He believed in me.
I believed in us.
PAUL: We go way back.
Truly, it’s been such a dream.
GONZALEZ: And you need that, as you know.
I love how you just put that.
The first one I’m really excited about because it’s for you, Aaron.
His burning question for you was, do you know howWestworldwas meant to end?
PAUL: God, just rip off that Band-Aid.
Early in the morning, too.
FLYING LOTUS: Maybe don’t say nothing.
I knew sort of the broad strokes of it all, and it was really cool.
But we’ll see.
I very much like that reason for not spilling all the details!
Nolan is currently working on another sci-fi series, ‘Fallout’.
GONZALEZ: That is correct.
We start pretty soon.
I’m very, very excited.
Ive been speaking to Dan [Weiss] and Dave [Benioff].
To me, my favorite books are two and three, especially three.
So, we are doing two and three back-to-back, and I think that’s all I can say.
I am very excited!
And that ensemble too!
Are you able to tease what the sci-fi is?
GONZALEZ: No, I can’t!
But it’s definitely sci-fi.
I’ve been on a bender of sci-fi.
By the way, he’s so excited about our movie, [Flying Lotus].
He was so sweet about you, and vice versa.
He’s the best, man.
I have a strict rule of only working with fashionable directors, and it’s been living up.
It is just deliciously and utterly Boots Riley at its absolute finest.
Let’s figure it out.
We’re like, How can we?
Because we became a family.
We really had such a good time on that set, and I’m very excited.
I’m very excited about that movie.
Ash arrives in theaters nationwide on March 21.
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