He was supposed to be the new Spielberg. But after iconic successes like the Sixth Sense,
Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village, it all started to fall apart.
How about trying to write a movie without a big twist ending?
M Night Shyamalan has been a critical punching
bag, with some of the worst reviewed movies of the last decade. But the twist is that
his brand new film The Visit, which he shot entirely in secret and paid for himself, follows
two kids visiting their estranged grandparents, might just be the first step towards the redemption
of M Night Shamylan. There's someone outside the door... what the hell was that?
How comfortable are you being known as The Twist Guy?
It's not how I think of myself at all, it's like, he does the moonwalk, he does the moonwalk, he does the moonwalk! Do the moonwalk, do
the moonwalk. You're like, oh jeez. But I don't think of it that way. It doesn't burden
me when I write. So I don't really think of it as that. I get that that's what people
say, or a bunch of people say, but breaking that is just as exciting as fulfilling it.
Whether there is something dramatic or not dramatic that happens, a paradigm shift that
happens is unimportant to me. It's really about the characters and their journey that
they're going, and if I'm listening to them... have I fully listening to them, or have I
put my agenda on it, which is always the struggle that goes on. That's my job. Lady and The
Water is literally without hyperbole one of the worst motion pictures in the history of
film. Fuck it. Historically bad, a terrible film, I think we can all agree. Yes. I hate
this movie with a passion. I hate it so much. Before you made this film you were saying
you were trapped inside your head; what does that mean? When you say you were trapped inside
your head what did you mean by that? I'm a super self-reflective guy about dealing with
the repercussions of fame and expectations; all of those things are really suffocating
but I always strive to try to understand them, not beat them, you know what I mean? Your
survival gut tells you to try to win, win, win; but really when you're at peace you're
just understand it, you know, and then you're fine. Cut, and scene. Reset. Good. I would
like to believe that I'm the guy that can go, I just now came up with an idea that I
know is going to be subversive and polarising, and I have to make it. Could you clean that
oven for me Becca? But the cowardly side of me would say, no, you probably would tack
away from that and try to be a little more accepting.
But making smaller movies has allowed me to break free of that kind of thinking. So, you
made a film kind of in secret, and you paid for it yourself.
You know, it was just a desire to,
you know, I would like to believe if I was a professional basketball player I would have
in my contract that I'm allowed to go and stop at any playground and tie on my sneakers
and go play basketball. In fact the opposite is true in the NBA contracts, you're not allowed
to go play, anywhere, because they're scared you're going to get hurt. But to keep in the
game, is what I'm talking about. To keep the love of what you do, and this was that kind
of... I always said to myself, like, I would love it to be like, let's take everyone in
Hollywood, and say, you have only X amount of money, and your imagination. Go do whatever
you can. And for me that's all you ever need. Is a minimum amount of money and your imagination
and go tell this incredible story. So it's kind of an exercise in, can I make this from
my raw skill. Yeah. For me, the other stuff, you know, the trailers, the cranes, all those
things that come... that's all fun and wonderful, but it isn't storytelling. And it doesn't
end up on screen, most of the time. A lot of the money doesn't end up onscreen. And
in The Visit, obviously, every single dollar ended up onscreen and that's so satisfying.
here's something about, literally eating a sandwich and sitting on the set and waiting
for everyone to come back from lunchbreak, that reminds you what you'ere doing. For whatever
reason, you're sitting there and you're going, huh. I wonder if I did this shot, and I wonder
if did that shot, or you come up with the exact thing you want to work on, or something
that was nagging you from the morning, and that's the version of the filmmaker that you want to be. All in.
I know every film you do is a quite personal, it's a piece of you
that you put onscreen at a certain time of your life - what is this film saying about
you right now in 2015? That's a good question. The first thing that came to mind is what
happens as a writer, I do, that is I write a scene, or I write an outline, or I write
a character moment, and I go why is that working so well for me? And then I analyse it. Why
does that feel like a sweet spot? Why does that feel so comfortable? Why does that feel
so right? And then invariably, I have a board in my library and I'll write down gut things,
not from your analytics, but your intuitive... you don't even know why you're writing it.
And I'll write down forgiveness. And then I'll say, wow, you know that scene's also
about forgiveness. This whole thing is about forgiveness. You know what, this whole thing
that's going on is about forgiveness. And then I realise, that's the movie I'm making.
Where in the world do you feel most creative?
When I'm not thinking of it as a business, when I'm thinking about me going and seeing
I felt when I saw Raiders Of The Lost Ark in the theatre and that kind of awe, and coming
back and pretending, oh, the pillow is falling on me, it's a boulder, ah! When you're a kid;
that thing, that's the same thing - the need to say, that's the boulder,I have to run for
the boulder. That need to tell that excitement of the story, becoming another character,
wanting to be that character... it's the greatest feeling in the world. When you come up with
a great idea, or a great moment, a great scene - that high you get? You can't beat it. M
Night, thankyou so much. It was lovely to meet you. Thankyou.