In a short four years with just two films, Monsters Ball and Finding Neverland, director Marc Forster has become a major force in Hollywood with his films being nominated for nine Academy Awards and even winning a couple.
His latest picture is the mindfuck known as Stay. It stars Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling. In this psychological thriller, a distraught young man announces to his psychiatrist that he plans to commit suicide in three days. The psychiatrist's desperate attempts to help his new patient, lead him through the city on an incredible, nightmarish trip to the place between life and death.
Check out the official site for Stay
Daniel Robert Epstein: How did the script fro Stay come to you in the first place?
Marc Forster: I read the script just as it got sold because the writer, David Benioff, was a friend of mine. I read it and thought it was interesting. Then David Fincher had developed it for a while and he never could make up his mind if he actually wanted to do it or not. Eventually the studio went looking for another director and they offered it to me. I just thought it was interesting and an opportunity to tell a completely different story.
DRE: Are you a fan of the twist-ending genre?
MF: Yes and no. I wanted to try to get away from it a little bit in this film. I wanted to make it very clear when the film begins that youre not actually in reality. The film doesnt play in reality and we establish that in the beginning and there are clues throughout the film that what youre seeing is not reality so at the ending the audience doesnt feel tricked. I felt that if we based it all on the ending; it would be not that interesting.
DRE: The idea of the film not being wholly in reality was something you used in Finding Neverland as well. Did you develop it first with Stay then that led into Finding Neverland?
MF: Not necessarily. Im always fascinated with alternate realities and perception. I feel like we all perceive life so differently. We are overwhelmed sometimes with images and information all day long that our perception constantly shifts. These things have just always fascinated me because two people can see the same action, perceive it completely different and tell a completely different story. Ive always been fascinated by perception.
DRE: When did you finish Stay?
MF: I finished it in around February 2005.
DRE: I read that the film had been delayed though.
MF: No, I finished shooting the film in January 2004 and then we were working on the editing until the summer of 2004. Then I did all of the campaigning and press for Neverland so I didnt do anything for three months. Then I started to finish the sound mix for Stay in late 2004. We made the decision very early that didnt want to release Stay and Neverland at the same time so we werent in a rush. Then right after I finished Stay I went to Chicago to direct Stranger than Fiction.
DRE: Ryan Gosling is definitely the standout actor in Stay, what film did you see that made you cast him?
MF: The Believer.
DRE: Hes just amazing in that.
MF: Yeah, hes really special and incredible.
DRE: Is he very intense even for a young man?
MF: The wonderful thing is hes very intense and mature, but also very light and comedic and playful. He has really both sides to him and thats very refreshing. He doesnt take himself too seriously, but on the other hand he has the maturity and depth of someone much older. Its really wonderful.
DRE: Being that youve had two films which have been nominated and won some Academy Awards, did you feel there was any outside pressure on you for Stay?
MF: I didnt really expect that when I decided to make Stay that it would be an award film necessarily. I did it purely because I thought it would challenge me in a whole different way. I think ultimately to make a strong picture not set in reality is a challenge. To make something like Stay was the hardest thing ever because youre constantly doing instinctual directing. You never really can rationally direct the movie because youre constantly you have to figure out whats right or what might work. Ultimately its all a reflection of myself so that was really challenging as well.
DRE: Things like cinematography and editing arent really included in the script. How did you decide on the look and feel of the film?
MF: It was important to me to give constant clues. The film is also about identity. Since the first scene where Ewan McGregor and Ryan Gosling meet we were shooting both sides to establish that the two of them are the same person. Eventually you have all these clues throughout even with the clothing they wear. Then you see how Ryan perceives all the twins and triplets because his vision is double and triple. I just tried to layer these kinds of clues. There are tons of them in there.
I think there will be two camps with this particular film. There will be people who will hate the film and say its a waste of time. There will be people who will embrace it, love it and look at it more than once. For those people it will be fascinating to have these different layers.
DRE: With all the little clues and stuff your intention is to make people go see the film twice?
MF: No, films like this divide people. People in general who love a film might not see it twice in the cinema, but they might see it later on again.
DRE: Whats Stranger than Fiction about?
MF: Its basically about an IRS agent who has a narrator in his head who tells him hes going to die. Now hes trying to track down the narrator to stop his own death.
DRE: Theres a lot of death I think in all your films actually. What is it that keeps bringing you back to that theme?
MF: Mortality is something we all are ultimately going to face. Its something which is a root of a lot of our fears so if youre not afraid of death, it helps you to have less fear in life. Often we celebrate birth, but I think in our Western world we have lost our death right. I think its important to confront ourselves and deal with it.
DRE: Do you have a slapstick comedy that you want to do?
MF: Stranger Than Fiction is a comedy.
DRE: It doesnt sound like one.
MF: Its hilarious. Will Ferrell is in it.
DRE: I thought maybe he was trying to be all serious now.
MF: I love comedy. Comedy is the hardest anyways.
DRE: There was a lot of backlash with Finding Neverland because of J.M. Barries penchant for children. What specific reason did you decide not to include that very much in your film?
MF: The thing is he wasnt a pedophile. I researched a lot and if you speak to any historian they will say that the whole rumor of him being a pedophile came much later in the century. It came about because he took photographs of some of the children at a lake when they were swimming naked. But he himself never acted on pedophilia. None of the children accused him of pedophilia or nobody else. I think it wouldve come out or wouldve been a scandal at the time and it never really did. I think the pedophiles themselves tried to claim him one of their own.
I wouldnt have made a movie about him if I had known he was a pedophile or even been suspected of being a pedophile. But every expert, every historian, the families, everybody truthfully says he was asexual. He never really touched his wife. He never really touched people in general. He never really enjoyed sex or liked sex. He was a complete asexual man.
DRE: When will you direct The Kite Runner?
MF: Ill probably do it next year sometime.
DRE: Do you have any idea of your cast for that at all?
MF: It probably will be all unknowns.
DRE: Why unknowns?
MF: Because to a certain degree you have to play the film in Farsi because its set in Afghanistan in the 70s and you need to have the film in its original language.
DRE: Does every screenplay in town get sent to you now?
MF: No, but to be honest, its hard to read a lot because Im constantly working on different projects. I read the book of The Kite Runner and I loved that. When they offered it to me, I thought it would be really interesting to do.
DRE: Youve had such a meteoric rise from Monsters Ball to Finding Neverland and now Stay. How do you keep yourself grounded?
MF: I practice a lot of yoga and meditation and I just enjoy what I do. Storytelling is everything I do. I think one only loses the ground if you start to lose yourself. That mainly happens when you become very tangled with all the people and be very social and really dont spend too much time with yourself anymore.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
His latest picture is the mindfuck known as Stay. It stars Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling. In this psychological thriller, a distraught young man announces to his psychiatrist that he plans to commit suicide in three days. The psychiatrist's desperate attempts to help his new patient, lead him through the city on an incredible, nightmarish trip to the place between life and death.
Check out the official site for Stay
Daniel Robert Epstein: How did the script fro Stay come to you in the first place?
Marc Forster: I read the script just as it got sold because the writer, David Benioff, was a friend of mine. I read it and thought it was interesting. Then David Fincher had developed it for a while and he never could make up his mind if he actually wanted to do it or not. Eventually the studio went looking for another director and they offered it to me. I just thought it was interesting and an opportunity to tell a completely different story.
DRE: Are you a fan of the twist-ending genre?
MF: Yes and no. I wanted to try to get away from it a little bit in this film. I wanted to make it very clear when the film begins that youre not actually in reality. The film doesnt play in reality and we establish that in the beginning and there are clues throughout the film that what youre seeing is not reality so at the ending the audience doesnt feel tricked. I felt that if we based it all on the ending; it would be not that interesting.
DRE: The idea of the film not being wholly in reality was something you used in Finding Neverland as well. Did you develop it first with Stay then that led into Finding Neverland?
MF: Not necessarily. Im always fascinated with alternate realities and perception. I feel like we all perceive life so differently. We are overwhelmed sometimes with images and information all day long that our perception constantly shifts. These things have just always fascinated me because two people can see the same action, perceive it completely different and tell a completely different story. Ive always been fascinated by perception.
DRE: When did you finish Stay?
MF: I finished it in around February 2005.
DRE: I read that the film had been delayed though.
MF: No, I finished shooting the film in January 2004 and then we were working on the editing until the summer of 2004. Then I did all of the campaigning and press for Neverland so I didnt do anything for three months. Then I started to finish the sound mix for Stay in late 2004. We made the decision very early that didnt want to release Stay and Neverland at the same time so we werent in a rush. Then right after I finished Stay I went to Chicago to direct Stranger than Fiction.
DRE: Ryan Gosling is definitely the standout actor in Stay, what film did you see that made you cast him?
MF: The Believer.
DRE: Hes just amazing in that.
MF: Yeah, hes really special and incredible.
DRE: Is he very intense even for a young man?
MF: The wonderful thing is hes very intense and mature, but also very light and comedic and playful. He has really both sides to him and thats very refreshing. He doesnt take himself too seriously, but on the other hand he has the maturity and depth of someone much older. Its really wonderful.
DRE: Being that youve had two films which have been nominated and won some Academy Awards, did you feel there was any outside pressure on you for Stay?
MF: I didnt really expect that when I decided to make Stay that it would be an award film necessarily. I did it purely because I thought it would challenge me in a whole different way. I think ultimately to make a strong picture not set in reality is a challenge. To make something like Stay was the hardest thing ever because youre constantly doing instinctual directing. You never really can rationally direct the movie because youre constantly you have to figure out whats right or what might work. Ultimately its all a reflection of myself so that was really challenging as well.
DRE: Things like cinematography and editing arent really included in the script. How did you decide on the look and feel of the film?
MF: It was important to me to give constant clues. The film is also about identity. Since the first scene where Ewan McGregor and Ryan Gosling meet we were shooting both sides to establish that the two of them are the same person. Eventually you have all these clues throughout even with the clothing they wear. Then you see how Ryan perceives all the twins and triplets because his vision is double and triple. I just tried to layer these kinds of clues. There are tons of them in there.
I think there will be two camps with this particular film. There will be people who will hate the film and say its a waste of time. There will be people who will embrace it, love it and look at it more than once. For those people it will be fascinating to have these different layers.
DRE: With all the little clues and stuff your intention is to make people go see the film twice?
MF: No, films like this divide people. People in general who love a film might not see it twice in the cinema, but they might see it later on again.
DRE: Whats Stranger than Fiction about?
MF: Its basically about an IRS agent who has a narrator in his head who tells him hes going to die. Now hes trying to track down the narrator to stop his own death.
DRE: Theres a lot of death I think in all your films actually. What is it that keeps bringing you back to that theme?
MF: Mortality is something we all are ultimately going to face. Its something which is a root of a lot of our fears so if youre not afraid of death, it helps you to have less fear in life. Often we celebrate birth, but I think in our Western world we have lost our death right. I think its important to confront ourselves and deal with it.
DRE: Do you have a slapstick comedy that you want to do?
MF: Stranger Than Fiction is a comedy.
DRE: It doesnt sound like one.
MF: Its hilarious. Will Ferrell is in it.
DRE: I thought maybe he was trying to be all serious now.
MF: I love comedy. Comedy is the hardest anyways.
DRE: There was a lot of backlash with Finding Neverland because of J.M. Barries penchant for children. What specific reason did you decide not to include that very much in your film?
MF: The thing is he wasnt a pedophile. I researched a lot and if you speak to any historian they will say that the whole rumor of him being a pedophile came much later in the century. It came about because he took photographs of some of the children at a lake when they were swimming naked. But he himself never acted on pedophilia. None of the children accused him of pedophilia or nobody else. I think it wouldve come out or wouldve been a scandal at the time and it never really did. I think the pedophiles themselves tried to claim him one of their own.
I wouldnt have made a movie about him if I had known he was a pedophile or even been suspected of being a pedophile. But every expert, every historian, the families, everybody truthfully says he was asexual. He never really touched his wife. He never really touched people in general. He never really enjoyed sex or liked sex. He was a complete asexual man.
DRE: When will you direct The Kite Runner?
MF: Ill probably do it next year sometime.
DRE: Do you have any idea of your cast for that at all?
MF: It probably will be all unknowns.
DRE: Why unknowns?
MF: Because to a certain degree you have to play the film in Farsi because its set in Afghanistan in the 70s and you need to have the film in its original language.
DRE: Does every screenplay in town get sent to you now?
MF: No, but to be honest, its hard to read a lot because Im constantly working on different projects. I read the book of The Kite Runner and I loved that. When they offered it to me, I thought it would be really interesting to do.
DRE: Youve had such a meteoric rise from Monsters Ball to Finding Neverland and now Stay. How do you keep yourself grounded?
MF: I practice a lot of yoga and meditation and I just enjoy what I do. Storytelling is everything I do. I think one only loses the ground if you start to lose yourself. That mainly happens when you become very tangled with all the people and be very social and really dont spend too much time with yourself anymore.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
but DAMN!!!!! is this man hot. super hot!!!! he has a smile that whenever i see it i just get butterflies in my stomach.
[Edited on Oct 28, 2005 by Alisa]
Truth is when you were little, or younger, or a teenager there was a whole list of excuses why you could be on your own. Everything from over active/developing imagination to you being just too damn moody. Whatever, it was more okay to be alone and sometimes even lonely. As an adult or as a success it is less okay to be alone or lonely. You are supposed to have a life. But what if your life is a rich internal one? And what if what you do requires focus and listening to what's in your head and in your heart and maybe even time to process what you have heard from the people around you.
I'm trying to get this right, and I feel I'm making a mess of it when all I want to say to M Forster is thanks for the back up. I needed to hear it. And I needed to hear it, now.
Now, I'm all stoked to see your work.