In Jodie Foster's Money Monster, a financial TV host and his producer are put into a deadly hostage situation when an armed, irate investor takes over their studio.
It stars George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Jack O'Connell, and has much to say about greed, capitalism and the superficiality of contemporary broadcast news.
Recently I sat down with Foster to discuss the film, the lack of working female film directors, directing other directors and her favourite movie ever, which happens to be from New Zealand.
I loved the aspect of the story playing out in this news environment we have that's sort of entertainment news. I wanted to get a sense from you how important this aspect of the story was to you? Yeah, it's sort of three worlds, as a backdrop. There's the world of the world finance market, the world of infotainment broadcast journalism and the world of high-speed technology. Those three things really all come together in broadcasting now. I think it's making for a very dangerous world, our media -- our news especially -- is so colluding in some ways, with the subjects they're supposed to be reporting on. And also that everything is so fast, it means you need more viewers, you have to do whatever you can do to make that happen. Also, you can't source anything -- nothing is particularly well-researched because it all has to be published or broadcast as quick as possible.
How exciting was that environment from a storytelling perspective? It was amazing, but it also made for a very difficult jigsaw puzzle to direct. You have an event that happens in real-time, and there's four broadcast cameras capturing it. There's also a film camera recording that, because we wanted to record it with a 'film look', even though it's not really film. We have all the monitors in the control room, maybe 30 of those, then you have all the monitors in the command room for the police. Then you have monitors all over the world; Korea, South Africa, Iceland, in every coffee house, all commenting on one event that happens in real-time. I can't tell you how difficult that is to actually do, to figure it out, because you have to plan everything ahead of time.
Working in collaboration must be a very important part of that, so the casting was incredibly important? Every element in bringing together a movie is important, obviously, but the most important thing is the people. The cast is more important than anything else, it's the one area that makes or breaks your movie. And that's what the film is all about, human emotions.
How useful is it having spent so much time in front of the camera for that casting process and then on set, as a director, knowing your actors? It really comes in handy to have been an actor for so many years, especially when you're dealing with actors that are this experienced. It's a wonderful collaboration to have actors with this level of experience like Julia Roberts, George Clooney -- they make it so easy. It also allows me to bring them in to the technical experience of the film, to tell them what I'm looking for. The nice thing is, I really let the actors be free. I tell them everything I need to ahead of time, but I really try to do everything fast so they have that spontaneity you don't get any other way.
Yeah I bet that's incredibly important, because there's just a lot of 'hurry up and wait' on a film set isn't there! Yeah it is and y'know, you can repeat things a certain amount of times, but after a while it just gets fake. There's nothing you can do about it.
True, but if you have someone like George who knows what it's like to sit in that director's chair, how is it directing a director? It's great to direct a director and I think any director will tell you they're always happy when directing an actor who has directed. Actors who have directed really understand everything that goes into it; the editing process, why the camera is where it is, why it needs to arrive at a certain line. They're able to accommodate all those things technically, to know when things matter and to be economical. That would take me too long to explain to anyone.
Jack O'Connell brings an energy to everything I've seen him in, he's amazing. Why was he perfect to augment Roberts and Clooney? What an incredible actor, I actually don't think I've ever worked with an actor that is that committed. It's just exhausting even watching him -- he goes through so much, he gives so much, there's just such a truth to him and a real rawness. It's a very difficult character that he plays, a character that is unstable, that is threatening, yet you also kind of want to just throw your arms around him. He goes through a lot in the movie and I'm really proud of his performance.
We're very proud in New Zealand of our female filmmakers -- Jane Campion, Niki Caro, Gaylene Preston, Leanne Pooley, Christine Jeffs for example. I'd like to know who has inspired you and who continues to inspire you? So many people. There are fewer female directors, of course, but how inspiring are the ones we know and love. Sofia Coppola, I was just thinking about Lost in Translation, sitting here completely jetlagged at 3am trying to go to sleep, remembering how wonderful that movie was. But certainly Niki Caro and you talked about Jane Campion; her The Piano is my favourite movie of all time. It's nice that there actually are women out there that you can look up to and say, 'Wow, I'd like to do what they do'.
I'd love your views as a female filmmaker working in Hollywood... you've been in the industry a long time, the issue of gender equality is finally being talked about at least. Have you seen many positive changes? Oh yeah, lots of things have changed. From the time that I was aged three, I never saw another woman's face. Maybe the make-up artists and sometimes the script supervisor, but other than that there were no other women anywhere, ever. It's made people happier to make films. It used to be a bunch of miserable guys by themselves, a boys camp that never saw their children. They never saw real human life, they just saw a bunch of guys. That being said, female directors in features is one area where there has not been many gains. I think it's getting worse. Maybe all this discussion will do something, maybe it could engender some kind of change. As the film business changes, the theatrical feature business changes, it seems there will be less women helming mainstream movies.
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Money Monster opened in New Zealand cinemas this week.
Newshub.
