but then we got to that set and it was
incredible the popcorn bags were period
the cords that tie the balloons were
according to period the chickens the
chicken sounds
was not happy
action i'm bradley cooper i'm guillermo
torre and this is no
scene yes
well i'm not going to blow the whistle
you didn't do nothing against me
let's come on now
come on i'm not going to hurt you
this is a at the end of the first night
at the carnival stanton is asked to look
for the geek which is this uh
wildman
uh that that is out of control and has
escaped and he's given a flashlight and
he's told to not approach him and call
upon help when he finds him because he's
dangerous so here he is
hurry
i'll let you in
i think the important thing here is uh
we're establishing this little fella you
know i remember when we when the when
the crane was raised yeah this is one of
the moments where we realized just how
wonderful the carnival was yeah just
this depth that you sort of get when you
turn on these lights it's just in value
this is all practical this isn't in post
you you know you created this world that
we all just uh inhabited so easily so so
often you have to use your imagination
yes nothing is digital everything is
real everything on this scene is a
movement as is in the rest of the movie
so what we'll see is we're always
mounted on a crane this is a techno we
are always moving and leading it this is
a great shot too because because he's
being led somewhere which he doesn't
even know yet
you go in there if you see him
push them through here we start with a
motif that becomes
central to the movie the circle which
echoes the geekbeat in which he will end
being drawn to and being attracted to
the the geekbeat which appears in the
movie circles and eyes the wonderful
thing from an acting standpoint where
clifton and myself is not only is the
rain outside but it's inside you know
guillermo put punctured holes in the
tent so as he's going through this
labyrinth of uh or maze-like uh funhouse
to try to find the geek there's just
rain constantly falling on him which is
a wonderful detail i'll meet you on the
other side
and here we are again he's gonna be
encircled by this which is a premonition
of the geek pit and we start including
the eyes that are looking at him we have
the
exterior in the real location and the
interior this is important is on a set
because we could not make all the
mechanics work
on the location one thing we notice in
the location is the tents breathe
because of the wind on the exterior they
change the pressure now we have a bunch
of cables replicating it replicating the
breathing of the tent mind you you can
see here the crane in action you know we
start on a wide shot and the techno
extends this close the beauty of the
techno is that it doesn't have tracks so
you can be on a wide shot you don't have
to avoid the tracks and then you can go
close enough without a problem
now this is important because the
movie the movie is about mirrors and we
start establishing it from the get-go
even phonehouse jack says let the mirror
show you who you are
who you will be
and and this is quite literally the
first contact with the mirror stan has
and that his destiny is telling him who
he is he doesn't look very long at that
mirror no
he's not ready
and here's just real quick this is just
a specificity of seeing the dripping
from
like that kind of thing is that it's
puddling at the top of his head it gives
it a sort of a realistic
every take everything we was we went
before we rolled
right up
right underneath the water to get that
droopy hat really a guy that is
weathered and also a guy that is used to
standing under the ring so here we have
the devil the same fellow on the outside
that is now going to swallow him and in
the fun house if you watch it carefully
there are all the sins gluttony lost
blah blah everything that he's gonna
have during the movie and he's gonna be
swallowed into a purgatory after this
uh
now in this in this type of scene we use
whether an actress with another actor or
solo part of the gaffering of the movie
of that those scenes is done with the
flashlight and uh
bradley and i have he's very very
precise being a director and actor you
can say you know hit the teeth of the
devil and if you see it in the beginning
of this scene he's lighting the the set
a little lighting the inside of the
mouth and the teeth and all that we're
basically using the actors as gaffers
you know we would get on the the set and
and and you know figuring out you know
what is telling us how it wants to be
and we would rehearse you know
and dan and we would look at him and say
no no don't light it
yeah and this was one of those examples
and precisely this one at their last
cinematography
we have dan had prepared this shot and
there was a little bit of light here
yeah and both of us is done take it out
and here's the incredible thing about
dan and we just said what just just do a
line just a silhouette of this ear in
the back and it was gonna happen and
that was it it was important for several
reasons in the movie we choose to
have him in the dark a lot and having
shot from behind a lot
because this is a character that doesn't
change
until the last few minutes of the film
so we we knew what he was thinking and i
think it's because of all the prep you
did and what the world you created that
when you walk into the world it just
starts telling you things
hey pal everybody's looking for you
well i'm not gonna blow the whistle you
didn't do nothing against me this is a
wonderful moment this is one of my
favorite moments in the movie it is and
it's purely it's purely cinematic
because you have that image and the
pulsating tent and he's basically
talking to a possible permutation
himself and one of the things bradley
does is to find the character the first
step the first part of that is the voice
when do we first
hear his accent his intonation his
inflection yeah the script tells us
because he says you're an oaky with
straight teeth so then it's about okay
well where and uh your first instinct
was mississippi in terms of the
geography of where he's coming from and
so that we worked on various parts in
mississippi and it was a little bit too
melodic and then we found canton
mississippi and tim monica's an
incredible dialect coach i've worked
with since american sniper has library
catalogs of all these people real people
that he's interviewed and recorded over
the years and he had this guy from
canton mississippi and we both said that
that's the guy and then and then you
know takes months of work well i'm not
going to blow the whistle you didn't do
nothing against me
let's come on now
come on i'm not going to hurt you
this is a great moment script-wise
because you think oh whoa he's got his
own moral compass that is not with
society he was just told to get this guy
the guy who gave him money
he gave him money who's feeding him and
all of a sudden he goes he lets you know
that oh he doesn't feel that way he's
completely against the system and he's
going to let this guy go because he did
nothing against him and it's a wonderful
like very quick education to the viewer
as to who this person could be he's
already proving that he's an independent
speaker yeah here we are again on the
crane and the crane is pulling back
we're revealing the the geek in the
foreground this is basically a new
introduction to this character we saw
him in the pit first but now he's
repeating a phrase that is i'm not like
this i'm not like this
you know which of course
will be
important dramatically for stanton
and that's great because now he's saying
something that he really wants to
believe and this is the first in this
duo you're seeing the first face yes and
he's saying i'm not like this telling us
in the audience i'm not like this when
stanton really is also feeling that i'm
pleased i'm not like this
easy
[Music]
so paul anderson is playing the geek and
he's he's incredible i mean we we lucked
out so much i mean
he mean he did this and there was
actually a wonderful stunt guy who did
the fall but remember paul wanted to do
it too like yeah but you can't do it
because he would have hit
that's okay
but the the thing is it's stunned that
looks fluid and easy and
quite effortless but it's actually very
grabbing him by the neck
it was insane i mean
this is a small grip i'm sure
this is not the final scene of avengers
but you know we obviously are slamming
him against the very
thin mat that would be right there but
the mat is removed in post but still is
an incredibly hard fall because he's
grabbing him on the nimbles by the neck
and then slamming him down
and uh
it is it is
a small stun but not without danger and
pain and this is an embarrassment of
riches because we have clem coming in it
was really great for clem with the depth
one of the things that we tried to
capture that would uh
have sort of a 50s a 40 sorry 30s 40s
feeling there's always depth in the
movie there's always something happening
in the foreground something happening in
the background there's always planes
moving around in all the planes of
background foreground mid ground there's
something
to look at always
hey
hey you're gonna kill him jesus kid
this is
the first moment of violence we see stan
and again is him going overboard he was
asked to not do anything just talk to
the guy and stop him and he's beating
him a couple of more times and he needs
to which is sort of an element of what
will happen with him later on in the
movie what i love about this moment is
he does it in a way that he's done this
many times this is not a this is not a
moment that that he has to then grapple
with with himself this is us getting to
know it's like oh and this guy does that
yeah it's like so there's these these
little bread crumbs that the movie's
telling you like also be aware this guy
is very dangerous because he's not like
his face isn't scrunched he's not this
is just like you almost killed me i'm
gonna let you know like you don't do
that keep you down and then we move on i
mean he's just it's very easy it's a
very effortless that's why the balletic
aspect to the way he picks them up by
the neck and throws them it's all just
so controlled and we talked about that
like it can't be a martial arts moment
no but it should have that sort of dance
like but the way he leads his voice we
talked about a guy that is used to being
that's right and he goes ma'am yep bam
yeah that's it one of his best
directions was he wanted you wanted me
to learn how to box uh and there's no
boxing scenes he's not a boxer but it
was just to for a man in 1938 how they
would have to handle themselves and it
was it was invaluable and i became uh uh
really uh into it i think the gravity
and the weight oh it changed everything
the way he understand himself in
conjunction to other people the distance
all of that and it's to me we see it all
over the movie and that is someone
that's an animal that's trying to
survive in the forest and is afraid yeah
that's afraid all the time and what it
gives you the the and gives you the
physicality and and that's something you
cannot simulate you have to you have to
have it yeah hey you're gonna kill him
jesus kid
oh geez is he dead
i don't need those shoe flies in here
cliff get him out of here another great
example of the the script just like oh
the the value of huma of human beings in
this world you know i don't need any
shoe flies get them out of here say oh
okay so i guess we understand what the
value of life we don't we don't see them
become passionate about the geek or talk
about him in human terms i think that
the the beauty of this sequence is that
it introduces
another layer of the carnival because
you have been in the carnival outside
and it's all merriment and this and that
and then this introduces the sort of
symbolic
heavy
intimate uh and also it's a sort of
small
it's like a microcosm of the journey
that he's going to go he's about to go
through the whole movie and it's all
done with symbols
and as his attention to detail guillermo
for everything is to story and this is
kind of a wonderful two minute little
piece that actually is the journey of
the movie and and i think that the way
an actor handles props or wears props
tells you
if it's period or if if
the actor was dressed by wardrobe and i
love the way you always adjusted the
hand the hat was such a part of his
personality the way you handle it in the
bus those are details that are some of
my favorites you can tell
a person wearing a costume and a person
wearing
clothes and because guillermo and all of
his crew create the world that is so
real um the truth is those things just
start to happen um it's not really
things i think about i mean the putting
the handkerchief in his hat was
something my grandfather did so we we
spoke about that and i thought you know
that always moved me too and so that was
a wonderful little detail but like for
example he would always do this thing
and that just happened that that just
happened and i know it just repeated he
does it throughout the whole movie every
time he puts his hat on
and you sort of wish for little things
like that to occur as an actor and i
think it's because guillermo had set the
stage in such a way all of us all of the
wonderful actors that are in this movie
uh
i think discovered those sort of things
by the nature of just doing it and not
premeditated i like it
check negate