Is it scary being a journalist so young? Just a question.
Yeah, no, yeah.
Yeah, let's flip this. So what's it like?
No, I'm just like, 'Wow, you're so young but so good.'
- Well done. - Thank you.
It's really exciting getting to meet all of you guys as well.
It's just really inspiring. Keep doing it, it's really cool.
People's opinions of Godzilla are always changing
so I thought we could play a little game based on that,
love it or leave it.
So superhero films, do we love it or do we leave it?
- I love it. - I'll leave it.
(laughter) Okay, 'cause we're two different people.
I would say-, I love them.
You know, I nerd out all the time,
but I'm glad that they're out of the way now
and that you get to focus on cooler things like kaiju.
Yeah.
I would say leave it because I've never been a fan.
I think I'm on the same side as you for that one.
I mean, if they put me in it, I'd love it some more.
(laughter)
Yeah, why not?
How about singing out loud?
- (whistles) - Love it.
What?
No.
- Bro! - No, you gotta leave it.
It depends on the situation.
Who's singing? 'Cause if it's somebody that's just-,
If it's just by yourself, that's weird.
- That's weird? I sing by myself all the time.
- If it's a group of people-, - You don't sing in the shower?
Oh no, I hum in the shower.
I can totally imagine that. Like, weird.
What about people walking slowly?
Oh, you've gotta leave them.
I kind of love them
because usually they're older people and I love older people,
so I feel like I help them along. - Love old people. (laughter)
I help them along their journey in a nicer way.
I leave them.
You know, a nice leg out, trip 'em.
Anything necessary to get me by.
- He's a horrible person, I'm sorry. - I get that sometimes, I hear that,
but move out the way, veer. - Move!
You're like, 'I have a place to be.'
Yeah, I got places to go, I got fast people things to do.
Okay, I just don't like it when people are walking toward you
and they don't move for you.
They just walk straight into you and I'm like,
you know what, this is a 50-50 situation.
We both make a slight movement to avoid each other.
I don't like, in the airport,
when I'm walking behind somebody and they stop.
Oh yeah, and then you trip on their suitcase.
Yeah, you've gotta do all that,
and also I used to kick rolling backpacks.
You've got a backpack on wheels?
I'm kicking this to the left, running to the right.
- (laughter) - If you're slow, get out my way.
Okay, so this one, pineapple on pizza?
- Disgusting. - Love it.
Ew, I was just-,
people who love that, incarceration is the only answer.
- Incarceration?! - Oh my god, incarceration?
There's a certain type of people in the world,
pineapple on pizza is just not the way to go.
It's called Hawaiian pizza.
No, Hawaiian pizza's got ham on there.
- Yeah, ham and pineapple. - I don't eat pork either.
All that can go.
Alright, well then we clearly know who's the weak link here.
That's why you didn't get invited back. (laughter)
Aloha, I'm outta here.
Family holidays and Christmas, how do we feel about them?
- Love it. - Yeah, I love it.
That's like the original team, you know?
That's a thing, that's the OG.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
How about biting your nails?
Oh, love it. See, I do that all the time.
I try to stop whenever I'm filming
because if they see your hands like, 'Oh my god, he bites his nails,'
it'll be everywhere, but yeah, I definitely bite my nails.
I bite my nails all the time.
I have to have nails on so that I don't bite my nails.
As soon as this is over, they're coming off.
(laughter)
So I have got a few questions for you.
Is it scary being a journalist so young? Just a question.
Yeah, no, yeah.
Yeah, let's flip this. So what's it like?
No, I'm just like, 'Wow, you're so young but so good.'
- Well done. - Thank you.
It's really exciting getting to meet all of you guys as well.
It's just really inspiring. Keep doing it, it's really cool.
I love that, as big as the story is,
it's kind of grounded with a family in the centre.
Did you explore other ways of giving the story a heart?
Yes, it's important to really find the balance.
We can't just show monsters for two and a half hours.
- I mean, we could. - I would have loved it.
I'm sure Shea would much enjoy that, very much.
But yeah, you've gotta have that human element.
- You want to relate to a movie. - It's gotta be relatable.
When I watch a movie, I always want to feel like I'm a character.
'Oh, I'm like this character,' and for me,
there are people that are going to want to be like,
'Yeah, I wanna be like her, I wanna be like him.'
For me, I think there's such a-,
the heart of the movie is obviously Godzilla,
but another heart is the quite literal human heart
that people need to feel connected to.
And I wanna be Godzilla.
I know you do.
I've heard this for too long. He wants to be Godzilla.
Who's most likely to enjoy playing with the props on set?
- Who's a fidgeter? - Me.
Ooh, yeah?
I've broken a couple of things on the movie, for sure.
I broke the Orca a couple of times, like, 'Oh god, it's not working!'
'It's not working, fix it!'
- That's good. - It's like, 'It's not opening.'
Yeah, I do that a lot.
The button fell off once in the middle.
- I was like, 'Guys-,' - 'Whose button?'
(laughter) 'Fix it!'
So definitely me.
What do you enjoy most about the cinema experience?
Oh, O'Shea is so good at these questions.
Go, O'Shea, take it away.
Well, as an artist,
I love that I'm able to express, you know, emotions
that, from afar, can inspire others to do great things in their lives,
and the money.
(laughter)
That's always important.
Yeah, gotta keep these lights on, gotta buy fancy shirts.
It's the most hilarious understatement
when the mum says, 'I know things haven't gone to plan.'
I'd just love to know what goes into making and plotting
utter destruction on the screen?
There's a lot of collaboration, it is a team effort.
I might be the director, but I had to work with
my production designer, visual effects artist.
It's an army of people trying to bring Godzilla
and the other creatures to life.
But that's the fun of it, that's the joy of it.
I got to turn my cohorts into Godzilla fans
and just enjoy the fun of almost throwing a Godzilla party
every day for three years.
God, yeah.
There's disbelief at how many monster discoveries have been made.
I'm interested, as an aspiring filmmaker,
what discoveries did you make about the filmmaking process
when working in fantasy like this?
Really good question.
Making a film is an emotional rollercoaster.
I think that the one thing, or many different things,
that film school never prepared me for
is the sheer difficulty of it on a personal level,
especially if it's something that you love,
and ideally, every film that you're making
should be something that you love.
You should never take a job just for the sake of having a job
or for a pay cheque.
Every now and then you might have to, that's part of it also.
But yeah, there was never a book or a class at film school
that really warned me how much it can hurt on a daily basis.
But, again, thankfully it's a collaborative effort.
If you're smart, you're surrounding yourself by people
who are smarter than you are,
who are more talented and more experienced than you,
who can help you weather than storm.
Yeah, I guess it's like the emotional investment
is always very important when making a film.
O'Shea's first monster reaction is so funny, that slow reveal.
How did the actors react to the concept material and design?
Oh, that was a really fun part.
I really enjoy bringing my actors into the concept art room
and showing them the maquettes and the statues,
the storyboards, the pre-vis animation.
It was important to me that the actors have
as many tools as they needed to imagine what's not there,
because obviously since most of our co-stars
are 400 ft tall CG creatures,
there were a lot of actors looking at green screens and laser pointers,
so I tried to program their subconscious
with as many different images as possible.
Yeah, and I can imagine it all being so amazing,
especially with all the detail and everything as well.
Yeah.
The story has so many levels,
exploring our relationship with nature.
Do you think others have found it impactful
on questioning the way we're taking care of the planet?
I hope so.
That's the whole intention of Godzilla,
beneath all the monster fights and roaring and screeching.
He's always had that message.
It's always been this examination of mankind's effects on nature
and vice-versa.
So as much as most people sit down to watch these movies
for the giant monster fights, ideally that message is creeping in
on some level, whether you're conscious of it or not.
Yeah, it's definitely a very important message.
I think so.
Godzilla's a real cinema experience.
What makes a film need to be seen on the big screen?
Gosh, that's debated so much these days.
There's a sort of strange split happening between films
that must be seen on the big screen to be experienced properly
and movies that might feel like they're better for Netflix.
Personally, I think that any really good movie
should be seen in a cinema.
There's nothing like sitting in the dark
watching a movie with a room full of strangers
and experiencing the same wave of emotions,
hearing the laughter, the shrieks, the screams,
whatever the genre might be.
But there's something unique about watching a film like Godzilla
or Avengers or Star Wars, because of its sheer scale,
that you know you couldn't get the same experience
if you were watching it at home on your iPad.
Watching Godzilla on your iPhone
would definitely cheat you out of 90% of the experience
because of the sheer scale and the size.
So yeah, I just think that with certain genres of film,
seeing it on the big screen is an absolute must,
and I think Godzilla definitely falls into that category.
Yeah, especially after seeing it on the big screen,
I can't imagine seeing it anywhere else.
Well, I think it's okay for later viewings.
I first watched Godzilla on TV as a kid,
on a very tiny, barely colour TV set,
and it still pulled you in, it still captured your imagination.
And thankfully, I think,
because today's TVs have gotten so much better for home viewing,
it's not the most ideal setting, but it can still be a really good one.