In 2014, David Fincher managed Ben affleck in the psychological thriller Girl is gone. And apparently, Affleck, quite a director himself (Argo, The city), has been cooking it ever since.
“My theory about you, after giving it some thought,” Affleck began to Fincher in a Variety Directors on Directors chat, “is that you have these two incredibly powerful competing instincts as a filmmaker. An idea of how you think it will work best and how you would like it to be. And the other is this deep desire to discover something accidental, different and new in the process. I think that’s the root of the famous Fincher incessant amount of takes. Am I totally out of place? ”
Fincher paused before answering incredulously, “Relentless number?” Affleck’s response? “That’s a kind characterization. ”And then the two friends and collaborators burst into laughter, which is exactly the kind of energy I want from such a silly cinematic roast.
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The two then seriously discussed Fincher’s process of filming many, many takes during the making of his movies, with Fincher hoping out loud that people wouldn’t frame him as “punitive.” Affleck’s response was passionate support for Fincher:
“I don’t think it’s punitive at all. I love it. I’d rather be doing shots than watching someone light up or sitting in my trailer. It was wonderful. It also relieves you as an actor of this notion that there is an end line, there is an end, ‘ we’re going to get it, and there’s a whole, and it’s going to be achieved, ‘so you’re constantly looking for something. Rather, you can just relax and keep doing it … It’s so ridiculous what we do, and try to make that happen. feel real and relaxed and normal is a great battle. And I think that that process that you do, you understand it, you achieve it. Most of the people in your movies, it’s their best performance, because they’ve had the opportunity to really explore it and do it. ” .
You are not mistaken, as evidenced by your work on Girl is gone So clearly being his best performance!
And Fincher, speaking to the actors about their multi-shot and multi-shot process, had this to say, “You’re not doing anything wrong. We’re going to spend three weeks rehearsal, we’ll do a table reading, we’ll open out of town, we’ll have at least three previews, and we’ll do all of that today before lunch with this teacher. We’re going to go over all of that so you can get to a place where you say, ‘Yeah, I’ve tried this, I’ve tried that, and really, it’s here.’ And everyone can feel good about this. [being] what we are trying to adjust. This is the piece of coal that we are going to try to turn into a diamond. ”
Check out the full clip of Affleck and Fincher chatting below, at least to see Fincher cover his mouth with his hands and bow like an excited kid on Christmas.
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