My whole ear basically swelled up to this, kind of, red, kind of, leaking, disgusting
thing on the side of my head.
So, I really love George's robot family in the film and how the AI is at, like,
different levels of maturity. How much AI do you use in your everyday life and have
you ever had, like, a funny mishap that's happened? You know, like Alexa going off
on its own, like, when you haven't spoken to it or anything like that?
Yeah, I just got the new AirPods and I, I freak out because they read texts. If you
receive a text, they read the text to you.
Do they?
Yeah, it's really weird and then-, so it happened and I was walking and I thought
it was someone talking to me. So, I was like, 'What? Hello? What?' And it turned
out that it, it sent that message to the person texting me. It was really weird. I
have-, still have no idea how it happened. I don't know how to get rid of it.
God, scary. Alright, now and also, I, I feel like the most terrifying version is,
is we know that, like, everything good we use is listening to us, but when you've
been discussing something with a friend and then you go to Google it and, you
know, it, it's the first thing that comes up or there's an advert-,
Yeah.
Advertisement for it on the side of the, you know, screen. That's kinda terrifying.
Yeah, that's mad.
No funny mishaps, sorry.
Oh, I think that's a good thing, though. You don't want, like, tech spying on you,
do you?
This is a little bit different but do you ever have that thing where your pocket
vibrates like your phone's in there and it's not. Do you ever have that?
No, I've never had that happen to me.
I guess is it-, I mean, maybe is it more of a guy thing to carry in your front
pocket on your trousers. But, yeah, I don't know whether it, it's, like, phantom
ring or something. I have my-, I can feel a vibration in my leg, and it's like
you've got a text or something. But, you know, my phone's on my table over there.
There's nothing in my pocket. It's really weird.
Probably cause you're so used to it being there.
I don't know. Maybe it's the spirit world trying to get in touch.
Maybe we're all in an archive, who knows?
(Media
clip plays 1.50-2.06)
So, you wrote this movie, as well as directed it. Can you tell us how you came
up with the idea?
I had a weekend where it was a Sunday afternoon, doing a big spring clean, and I
was working as a freelancer, and I had two PCs that had all my work on. They were
like my life. And there was some kind of weird power thing and, basically, both
computers were on and they just, kinda, went bip and died. And I was really
annoyed about that and it felt-, I felt slighted by it. I felt like the computers
had done it on purpose, and that idea really stuck with me. Like, the idea of a,
a computer wanting to die. So, yeah, that then became me thinking about what if
somebody had created a human-, a human equivalent artificial intelligence, and
every time he turned it on, it just killed itself? And I thought that was quite
interesting. It was quite an interesting idea to me. You know, the story then is,
like, how do you keep that thing alive long enough to find out why he wants to
die? And, personally, I love sci-fi as a genre, and I love sci-fi stories about
people, that are really human-centric. So, I, it was just bouncing around inside my
head. Like, every day, as I was working, I'm making notes in my phone and the story
just, kind of, came out of that.
That's mad, that is, cause it's, it's just so mad how, like, something so random can
strike, spring up a whole idea for a film.
Yeah. I mean, it was a really good example in, in my life, of me being able to turn a
negative into a positive, definitely.
So, Theo, you have a lot of experience in films set in the future, like Divergent,
and apocalyptic films like How It Ends. How did working on Archive compare to
these?
I, I personally, you know, the smaller films, they're more satisfying because
you're-, I feel like the, the team and the crew and everyone you're working with and
the other actors, you're, kind of, all in it together for a singular goal. To make
the best product that you can. Not that that's necessarily true-, but not that
that's not true with larger films but it gets a little bit, kind of, watered down
in the wash, you know and there's a lot more fingers in the pie. So, I, it was a
really, really good and special experience for me.
So, memory is a big theme in Archive. Is there one acting mistake you wish you
could forget and what one acting moment do you always want to remember?
I mean, there are so many. I think that's the most amazing thing about memories.
That it also becomes such a personal thing, and your memory of an event becomes
heightened, in a way. Because you, kind of, feed on, on that.
When I was in my early twenties, I was travelling in India and I decided that I
needed to look, you know, like a travelling, backpacking type person, so I
decided to-, that I needed for that, you know, some travelling paraphernalia. So
I-, so I got my ear pierced, which looked terrible. But then,
and then, I decided to, to buy, like, a, a cheap, kinda, even more weird earring.
Like, a kinda dangly-ish one from, like, a market stall. And I put it in and then my
whole, you know, I didn't bother cleaning it or anything. I didn't think about the
ramifications of that. My whole ear basically swelled up to this, kind of,
red, kind of, leaking, disgusting thing on the side of my head. So, I would both like
to forget it and to remember it, because, you know, it was-, it was a point in my
youth that was special.