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Yorgos Lanthimos:It should feel like were being interrogated.
Its very intense in here.
Im like, How did he just put out another movie?Y.L.
:Well, Ill tell you.
I know at the press conference you mentioned Caligula as inspiration for this.
That started many years ago, right after we finishedThe Killing of a Sacred Deertogether.
Like, one man having such control over another mans life.
Then I think soon after we just had a need to experiment with form a little bit.
We started thinking of a triptych.
That happened over many years.
Jesse, can you tell me about receiving the script and your initial reactions to it?
There are a lot of very strange, sort of depraved things that youre asked to do.
What did you think when you first read it?J.P.
:Ive been an enormous fan of Yorgos work since I sawDogtoothyears ago.
Then at the end I was like,Why?
:Id just seen his work over the years and it was always in my mind.
Even forPoor ThingsI think we checked and he wasnt available.
J.P.:[Shakes his head].
But for us, its also that this kind of troupe is being created.
Just like the cult in the third section.Y.L.:[Laughs.
]Yeah, like the cult in the third one.
Were a cult now.
:The first time I read it?
Boy, I would love to talk to someone that felt that way.
Over time, do you feel like you came to an understanding of it?J.P.
:Yes, but its hard to articulate at the same time.
:This is a group mind.
:That was one of the few things Id actually talked about with you.
- J.P.:Basically, Dont go crazy.
Dont go crazy with the different characters.
You cant understand it, but subconsciously it happens.
So I think it enriches story after story, the fact that its the same actor.
Its almost like its a different life of the same character.
J.P.:A reincarnation, almost.
- :Yeah, like its a reincarnation.
No, I think that whenever I see the film.
Especially with Jesse, because the next one starts with him.
It does have that feeling.
Were not saying it and we dont expect everyone to think that specifically, but there is a connection.
So I think that was important and I shared it with all the actors.
Jesse, was that stressful for you or more difficult?
To play someone who was just subtly tweaked across the three stories.
So I thought that was an interesting parallel.J.P.
It was an exciting sort of balance to try and find.
The critical consensus is that this is sort of a return to form for you in that way.
Does that resonate for you at all?
YL:No, but I love the fact that people call
J.P.:Hes so Hollywood.
Were never making that film.
And now its Hollywood?
Of course we didnt compromise on anything in that film, either.
In the beginning, I was irritated.
I was like, Oh, nowPoor Thingsis the norm?
But then I went, You know what?
If I make something, its just a little bit random and circumstantial.
Of course they feel different.
