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What made you want to set the film in or regarding the music industry specifically? Was it partially because of the rise of stan culture in the present day or the cult-like power that rock stars of the past used to hold over their fans? Was it some combination of the two? What inspired you to go that direction?
It’s a little bit of both of those points, which are really smart points, but mostly I wanted to pick something where it felt good. So part of my issue with tribalism, which is a thing that spans well past entertainment, is that it’s so divisive. I’ve never met you, Bill. You’ve never met me. Where are you from?
I was born in Massachusetts, moved to Michigan when I was 10.
So let’s say Michigan-raised, and I’m from the Midwest. We might be sitting next to each other in a movie theater. I’m probably older than you, so we’re different ages from different places, and we both love horror films, but outside of that, we’re just strangers. We’re strangers in experience. And I wanted to make something that felt like if we bobbed our heads together and we looked away at the same time, then maybe we would, through this very fun, wild ride experience, we would not be so reticent to have a conversation with one another, to ask a question, and for you to have a different answer than me, and for me to not be just repulsed by you, because we went through this experience.
And I felt like making the film as fun as possible is the most effective way to hopefully achieve this goal. And so that’s why I chose pop music, which created the issue of having to actually create pop music, which is an expensive, very difficult endeavor, but Nile and Dream and John [Malkovich] and everybody, all the engineers and the crazy folks at A24 that let me do this, the songs are so good. And that experience, I think, is elevated to a very fun place because of it.
I consider “Opus” to be amongst a group of films about fictional pop stars or fictional bands where the songs are legitimately as good as they have to be to sell that this is a major pop star in this fictional world. And you spoke a little bit about it already, but I was wondering what the process was in terms of getting those songs right, because it’s not just that they have to sound good, they have to be legitimately good, all that. But also I’m thinking, of course, about the listening party scene, and that scene works on several levels once you know everything that’s going on. So was there that consideration when they were going into the songwriting, too?
Ah, it’s so hard. It is one of the hardest things in making this film. Because you have no money, so you got to convince people that make millions and millions of dollars to do this for no money. And Dream and Nile were working with Beyoncé at the time, so I had to take time away from Beyoncé. Beyoncé, if you’re reading this, I’m very sorry. And so that in itself, just to get them to say they’ll try, is like damn near impossible. And then you have to get them to make these songs in your deadline. And also, they have to take direction. You got to send songs back that they love and be like, “No, it needs to do this,” or “It has to fit within the story,” Because at the end of the day, the story is king, that’s my boss.
And then if you can do all of that, which is damn near impossible, you got to get the actor to go in and for the way I shot it, to do it before the movie, before pre-production, and to go in and to sing these songs. And they have to do it. And it was really important to me that the first thing John do as Moretti was the music. So all of these things, all of these little baby miracles, have to happen in order for you to pull this off. And they did. And we did. It’s one of the most ambitious things about the film, but I just am so deeply grateful for everybody. And I listen to the songs constantly, still.
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