As Ive stated before in previous introductions I was in film school in the early 1990s. Therefore my friends and I had enjoyed Slacker many times on video and we all hit the theatre when Dazed and Confused came out. So Richard Linklater has had a very strong but also very subtle influence on me. I think it was after seeing those films that I first realized that it was possible to write a movie the way people actually talked and also for them to smoke out of a bong.
I also specifically remember seeing Before Sunrise in the theatre and thinking that Ethan Hawkes character was such a pussy. Did he actually think that him and Julie Delpys character could ever have a future?
Well nine years later I got my answer and it is a definite no. Jesse [Hawke] is now a best selling writer whos book is about the night he spent with Celine [Delpy]. He is on a book tour through Europe and in Paris he bumps into Celine again. They spend the next hour and half just walking through Paris talking about how they might have always been in love but they both had to move on with their lives since they were young, stupid and never exchanged numbers.
Before Sunset opens July 2nd
Daniel Robert Epstein: How much of Before Sunset reflects your personality?
Richard Linklater: To some extent Ive heard that all films reflect a directors personality. So thats probably fair enough. I think this film reflects Julie and Ethan as well as myself. They are my collaborators all the way down the line.
DRE: Is it split in the middle, are they your feminine and masculine side?
RL: I dont even think of it in those terms. I dont relate to one of those characters more than the other. In a lot of ways like life-wise I am more like Celine. I feel equally split though.
DRE: At this point in your career is it easier to do a dialogue driven film?
RL: It must be what I am innately interested because I keep doing films where all they do is talk. At my core it was something I was interested in early on, pre even picking up a camera, because I thought that what people are and are not saying was always interesting to me. Thats all we have outside of the artistic constructs we build to house stories. All we have is this communication, even now you have to glom onto what I am saying and judge my personality because thats all you are getting from me. To me thats life and the majority of our experience. We dont live in action films and we dont live in these hyper real worlds. Its much more mundane.
DRE: How often do you find yourself in a truly memorable conversation? Besides this one.
RL: Floating through life you have to make that decision all the time. When you say to someone, Hows it going today? Do you want to hear Fine then keep going or do you really want to sit and talk? Do you care enough about that person to be honest with them? There are all these different levels of what we are admitting about ourselves in the world and does it matter. I love to talk but I wonder what the value in it is sometimes. I wasnt ever the kind of guy who would sit in a coffee shop and have conversations with people. I was too busy reading and doing stuff. I didnt want to talk or hear other people talk. But when I went to make a film it was people talking all the time. It wasnt how I saw the world but thats how it came out.
DRE: What was the rehearsal process like?
RL: We talked about doing the movie for years then we outlined it very specifically and then we wrote it together. We were in the same room only sporadically but when we were together it was very intense and fun. We communicated by email, faxes and everyone jumped on the scenes they wanted to write. It was a long process, over a year.
DRE: What were the key points to making the movie?
RL: We were overwhelmed with the possibilities but they shrunk once we distilled it to a real time encounter. Hes catching a plane and then they run into one another. Once we got the parameters of that we were in the zone.
DRE: Was it tough shooting the movie like it was in real time?
RL: That was the cinematic trick we had to do. Every film has their own challenges both formally and content wise. That was the big idea of this film. I thought we could pull it off but it was still very tough. It was like being painted into a corner because nothing could be cut out. It all had to work geographical and also be like a play. Everything we shot got into the film. There will be no scenes on the DVD because there is nothing else.
DRE: What was the rehearsal process?
RL: It was interesting for Julie and Ethan to go from co-writers to actors because the enormity of their task was apparent and they had to make it seem as natural as possible. We wanted it to seem like we just turned on the camera and theyre talking. That took a lot of rehearsal and we had to plan it out to nth degree. It was like a puzzle.
I wanted the audience to not notice that they were acting or even that a film is being made. For it to seem like you are encountering an old friend and you're happy to see him. They were some pretty difficult Steadicam shots but hopefully they werent flashy.
DRE: Was there any improvisation?
RL: It was a 100 percent scripted. There is no room in the formal design of the movie to just keep going. Everything minute gesture was scripted. Ive never figured out how improvisation works in cinema form. I know other people have had luck with it but Ive never thought in those terms. Maybe its the writer in me.
DRE: How was it doing this movie without [Before Sunrise co-writer] Kim Krizan?
RL: It was just natural. Julie, Ethan and I all worked on the first script a lot as well. They had to give so much that it was just natural that we would all write it together. Kim probably could have worked on it but she elected not to.
DRE: When you finished Before Sunrise did you expect all this to happen to the characters?
RL: Naw I dont think I could have ever expected this. We didnt even expect to make another film. I think we had to live nine more years to see what happened. I think they may have gotten together six months after the first movie like they were supposed. Maybe Im just a romantic.
DRE: I think I liked the characters in Before Sunset more than I did in Before Sunrise.
RL: People can be kind of merciless on young people. They are tender on them up until about 17 then you hit a rough patch. No one has any sympathy for anyone thats 19 to 23 years old. Ive done several films about people that age because so much comes crashing down on them. If you're older you're glad you're not that age anymore but you have to go through it. They say you're personality is kind of formed by the time you are 25. I think its much earlier. Its a trying time in your life but its much more exhilarating.
DRE: How do you think people will react to the way you ended the movie?
RL: For what this is, short of going into a new movie, it has to end the way it does. Certainly that was the plan all along. I couldnt imagine going any farther than I did with this movie. Ive had so many people say that its the perfect ending.
DRE: Is Julies character the perfect woman?
RL: Ethan and I talked about that. We thought we might be making her too perfect but she does talk about how neurotic she is as well.
DRE: Shes kind of the imperfect perfect woman.
Will you be working with Ethan again on something non-Sunset related?
RL: No current plans but I would love to work with both of them again.
DRE: Do the characters try to seduce each other in the film?
RL: I think they do. Whats going on between them is this subtle interplay of flirtation and seduction. Thats what people do when they are attracted to one another.
DRE: School of Rock was a big hit. What did that do for your career?
RL: None of it makes sense on paper. But I love that I am able to jump and do different size films. A filmmaker who is making big films can make a small film but the question is, do they want to? Its just as hard, if not harder and there is no money in it. I am lucky because I have all these smaller films that I want to make.
On the other hand its fun to make a film that has a bigger canvas. On School of Rock I needed a light show for the end of the movie and we had the budget so I got it. If I need to clear a Andrew Lloyd Webber song, I can. Thats what that budget is for. These other films dont require as much.
DRE: How come people dont smoke pot in your movies anymore?
RL: [laughs] Maybe because it feels like a teenage thing to me. I dont really know. I did shoot a movie, which is like a drug movie. Its A Scanner Darkly and its set in the near future in the middle of a drug epidemic.
DRE: Are you a science fiction fan?
RL: I was when I was a teenager. I cant say I am in the typical sense but I do like Philip K. Dick. Ive read quite a bit of his stuff. A Scanner Darkly is one of my favorites of his, because it seemed the most personal. I was lucky enough to get an option on it a few years ago, so I just wrote an adaptation of it and thought it would be an interesting animated movie. Its not really that science fiction either. To me, it has one science fiction element, but beyond that, its pretty realistic. I love that about Dicks stuff, paranoia plus a generation equal reality. Its like were living in his science fiction as we speak, so it seemed really timely to me.
DRE: Many of Phillip K. Dicks stories have been turned into action films. What is going to be your take on this one?
RL: A lot of Phillip K. Dicks stories and novels have always been adapted, but usually, they are taking some cool idea and making it work in some genre like an action film, and that can work. I like that novel so much that I wanted to do that story and I want to be very faithful and tell the whole story. What drives me crazy is that I think Philip K. Dick is hilarious. Hes a really funny writer. I laugh when I read the books or I chuckle, and I wanted to make a movie like that. Its really darkly funny. Im kind of making a comedy, but its a weird comedy. Who knows how I pull it off, but I approached it like that. I hung out with his daughters a lot, and they liked my approach to it. They liked that someone was actually doing the story, not just plucking an idea and running with it. This is the story. This is that book. It feels pretty good. Keanu is great as Bob Barker, the lead character. Hes an interesting guy. His thinking is such that I thought he would be perfect.
DRE: [Thirteen director] Catherine Hardwicke was the production designer on your films, SubUrbia and The Newton Boys. Do you still keep in touch with her?
RL: Yeah I saw her a couple of nights ago in LA when had a screening of Before Sunset. I loved Thirteen but now she is shooting the fictional version of Dogtown and Z-Boys.
DRE: Will there be a sequel to School of Rock?
RL: [Producer] Scott Rudin told me he got a call asking for one right after the first weekend saying Sequel or series? But I dont think there will be a sequel. Maybe some things are better left alone.
DRE: Has [School of Rock and The Good Girl screenwriter] Mike White sent you any scripts?
RL: Not recently. He was a great collaborator so I would love to work with him again. Truth is, if Mike had a great idea for the story and Jack liked it then who knows.
DRE: Do you have any tattoos?
RL: No, none. Im not that brave.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
I also specifically remember seeing Before Sunrise in the theatre and thinking that Ethan Hawkes character was such a pussy. Did he actually think that him and Julie Delpys character could ever have a future?
Well nine years later I got my answer and it is a definite no. Jesse [Hawke] is now a best selling writer whos book is about the night he spent with Celine [Delpy]. He is on a book tour through Europe and in Paris he bumps into Celine again. They spend the next hour and half just walking through Paris talking about how they might have always been in love but they both had to move on with their lives since they were young, stupid and never exchanged numbers.
Before Sunset opens July 2nd
Daniel Robert Epstein: How much of Before Sunset reflects your personality?
Richard Linklater: To some extent Ive heard that all films reflect a directors personality. So thats probably fair enough. I think this film reflects Julie and Ethan as well as myself. They are my collaborators all the way down the line.
DRE: Is it split in the middle, are they your feminine and masculine side?
RL: I dont even think of it in those terms. I dont relate to one of those characters more than the other. In a lot of ways like life-wise I am more like Celine. I feel equally split though.
DRE: At this point in your career is it easier to do a dialogue driven film?
RL: It must be what I am innately interested because I keep doing films where all they do is talk. At my core it was something I was interested in early on, pre even picking up a camera, because I thought that what people are and are not saying was always interesting to me. Thats all we have outside of the artistic constructs we build to house stories. All we have is this communication, even now you have to glom onto what I am saying and judge my personality because thats all you are getting from me. To me thats life and the majority of our experience. We dont live in action films and we dont live in these hyper real worlds. Its much more mundane.
DRE: How often do you find yourself in a truly memorable conversation? Besides this one.
RL: Floating through life you have to make that decision all the time. When you say to someone, Hows it going today? Do you want to hear Fine then keep going or do you really want to sit and talk? Do you care enough about that person to be honest with them? There are all these different levels of what we are admitting about ourselves in the world and does it matter. I love to talk but I wonder what the value in it is sometimes. I wasnt ever the kind of guy who would sit in a coffee shop and have conversations with people. I was too busy reading and doing stuff. I didnt want to talk or hear other people talk. But when I went to make a film it was people talking all the time. It wasnt how I saw the world but thats how it came out.
DRE: What was the rehearsal process like?
RL: We talked about doing the movie for years then we outlined it very specifically and then we wrote it together. We were in the same room only sporadically but when we were together it was very intense and fun. We communicated by email, faxes and everyone jumped on the scenes they wanted to write. It was a long process, over a year.
DRE: What were the key points to making the movie?
RL: We were overwhelmed with the possibilities but they shrunk once we distilled it to a real time encounter. Hes catching a plane and then they run into one another. Once we got the parameters of that we were in the zone.
DRE: Was it tough shooting the movie like it was in real time?
RL: That was the cinematic trick we had to do. Every film has their own challenges both formally and content wise. That was the big idea of this film. I thought we could pull it off but it was still very tough. It was like being painted into a corner because nothing could be cut out. It all had to work geographical and also be like a play. Everything we shot got into the film. There will be no scenes on the DVD because there is nothing else.
DRE: What was the rehearsal process?
RL: It was interesting for Julie and Ethan to go from co-writers to actors because the enormity of their task was apparent and they had to make it seem as natural as possible. We wanted it to seem like we just turned on the camera and theyre talking. That took a lot of rehearsal and we had to plan it out to nth degree. It was like a puzzle.
I wanted the audience to not notice that they were acting or even that a film is being made. For it to seem like you are encountering an old friend and you're happy to see him. They were some pretty difficult Steadicam shots but hopefully they werent flashy.
DRE: Was there any improvisation?
RL: It was a 100 percent scripted. There is no room in the formal design of the movie to just keep going. Everything minute gesture was scripted. Ive never figured out how improvisation works in cinema form. I know other people have had luck with it but Ive never thought in those terms. Maybe its the writer in me.
DRE: How was it doing this movie without [Before Sunrise co-writer] Kim Krizan?
RL: It was just natural. Julie, Ethan and I all worked on the first script a lot as well. They had to give so much that it was just natural that we would all write it together. Kim probably could have worked on it but she elected not to.
DRE: When you finished Before Sunrise did you expect all this to happen to the characters?
RL: Naw I dont think I could have ever expected this. We didnt even expect to make another film. I think we had to live nine more years to see what happened. I think they may have gotten together six months after the first movie like they were supposed. Maybe Im just a romantic.
DRE: I think I liked the characters in Before Sunset more than I did in Before Sunrise.
RL: People can be kind of merciless on young people. They are tender on them up until about 17 then you hit a rough patch. No one has any sympathy for anyone thats 19 to 23 years old. Ive done several films about people that age because so much comes crashing down on them. If you're older you're glad you're not that age anymore but you have to go through it. They say you're personality is kind of formed by the time you are 25. I think its much earlier. Its a trying time in your life but its much more exhilarating.
DRE: How do you think people will react to the way you ended the movie?
RL: For what this is, short of going into a new movie, it has to end the way it does. Certainly that was the plan all along. I couldnt imagine going any farther than I did with this movie. Ive had so many people say that its the perfect ending.
DRE: Is Julies character the perfect woman?
RL: Ethan and I talked about that. We thought we might be making her too perfect but she does talk about how neurotic she is as well.
DRE: Shes kind of the imperfect perfect woman.
Will you be working with Ethan again on something non-Sunset related?
RL: No current plans but I would love to work with both of them again.
DRE: Do the characters try to seduce each other in the film?
RL: I think they do. Whats going on between them is this subtle interplay of flirtation and seduction. Thats what people do when they are attracted to one another.
DRE: School of Rock was a big hit. What did that do for your career?
RL: None of it makes sense on paper. But I love that I am able to jump and do different size films. A filmmaker who is making big films can make a small film but the question is, do they want to? Its just as hard, if not harder and there is no money in it. I am lucky because I have all these smaller films that I want to make.
On the other hand its fun to make a film that has a bigger canvas. On School of Rock I needed a light show for the end of the movie and we had the budget so I got it. If I need to clear a Andrew Lloyd Webber song, I can. Thats what that budget is for. These other films dont require as much.
DRE: How come people dont smoke pot in your movies anymore?
RL: [laughs] Maybe because it feels like a teenage thing to me. I dont really know. I did shoot a movie, which is like a drug movie. Its A Scanner Darkly and its set in the near future in the middle of a drug epidemic.
DRE: Are you a science fiction fan?
RL: I was when I was a teenager. I cant say I am in the typical sense but I do like Philip K. Dick. Ive read quite a bit of his stuff. A Scanner Darkly is one of my favorites of his, because it seemed the most personal. I was lucky enough to get an option on it a few years ago, so I just wrote an adaptation of it and thought it would be an interesting animated movie. Its not really that science fiction either. To me, it has one science fiction element, but beyond that, its pretty realistic. I love that about Dicks stuff, paranoia plus a generation equal reality. Its like were living in his science fiction as we speak, so it seemed really timely to me.
DRE: Many of Phillip K. Dicks stories have been turned into action films. What is going to be your take on this one?
RL: A lot of Phillip K. Dicks stories and novels have always been adapted, but usually, they are taking some cool idea and making it work in some genre like an action film, and that can work. I like that novel so much that I wanted to do that story and I want to be very faithful and tell the whole story. What drives me crazy is that I think Philip K. Dick is hilarious. Hes a really funny writer. I laugh when I read the books or I chuckle, and I wanted to make a movie like that. Its really darkly funny. Im kind of making a comedy, but its a weird comedy. Who knows how I pull it off, but I approached it like that. I hung out with his daughters a lot, and they liked my approach to it. They liked that someone was actually doing the story, not just plucking an idea and running with it. This is the story. This is that book. It feels pretty good. Keanu is great as Bob Barker, the lead character. Hes an interesting guy. His thinking is such that I thought he would be perfect.
DRE: [Thirteen director] Catherine Hardwicke was the production designer on your films, SubUrbia and The Newton Boys. Do you still keep in touch with her?
RL: Yeah I saw her a couple of nights ago in LA when had a screening of Before Sunset. I loved Thirteen but now she is shooting the fictional version of Dogtown and Z-Boys.
DRE: Will there be a sequel to School of Rock?
RL: [Producer] Scott Rudin told me he got a call asking for one right after the first weekend saying Sequel or series? But I dont think there will be a sequel. Maybe some things are better left alone.
DRE: Has [School of Rock and The Good Girl screenwriter] Mike White sent you any scripts?
RL: Not recently. He was a great collaborator so I would love to work with him again. Truth is, if Mike had a great idea for the story and Jack liked it then who knows.
DRE: Do you have any tattoos?
RL: No, none. Im not that brave.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
btw. richard if you happen to read this i was wondering if i can ask you a question about your movie 'tape'??.. was the female character raped or not?.. it just seems that all males i have asked say she wasn't, and females say she was.. anyway if you could tell me the answer so i can win.. or lose.. the bet i have with my friend that woud be so excellent!.. my email is siarasuicide@yahoo.com... THANKS...
[Edited on Jul 05, 2004 by Siara]
[Edited on Jul 09, 2004 by Siara]