The final time we talked, you instructed me that your background as a CEO helped you study collaboration. How did that apply to your work on “Jules”?
It is true on each movie. Administrators get far an excessive amount of credit score. There are 100-plus folks which might be taking part in making the movie, and the director’s job is to verify all of us see the identical film. So, for me, that is one of many joys of constructing motion pictures. You are working with a workforce, and also you’re collaborating. Typically one in every of you’ll make a mistake, after which another person will choose it up, after which it’s going to flip, and it’s simply the other. And that is one of many actual joys. Plus, you get to work with all these specialists at issues that I am not an skilled at. Cinematography, manufacturing, design, costumes, all these completely different parts. I really like with the ability to take part, even when it is across the margin.
Your title character is an alien however very completely different trying from among the scarier aliens we’ve seen in motion pictures. What was your aim in designing the character?
It begins with the screenplay. In my thoughts, I envisioned an alien, not a creature. And most motion pictures which have one thing coming from one other place, they’re creatures, they’re fearsome with sharp nails and tooth. That is by no means what this alien is. That me very a lot as a result of then the alien can play as a catalyst for what actually is the guts of the film, which is the connection between these three primary [human] characters. And that is what appealed to me about Jules, that it’s a catalyst for connection. It helps them to hook up with Jules, after which later to attach with each other.
Two completely different parts. So, for the bodily design, I labored with the parents who did the prosthetics, and I labored with my manufacturing designer, Richard Hoover. And I instructed Richard, “I need this to be sensible, however extra than simply sensible, I do not need it to be CGI.” As Sir Ben Kingsley stated, “I am so glad that we’re not going to behave towards the ball on prime of a stick.” I needed to have an actual alien, and I needed to have an actual [space] ship. And so, for Richard, we talked concerning the aim within the very starting. He started drawing footage of the spaceship. I stated, take into consideration “The Day the Earth Stood Nonetheless” and “Flash Gordon,” and these basic ’50s and ’60s motion pictures. That was our reference. As a result of in any other case, it might have been too modern, and I needed it to really feel like a basic science fiction film.