I'm Zendaya. I play Marie.
I'm John David Washington,
I am playing Malcolm.
I'm Sam Levinson.
I'm the writer/director of Malcolm & Marie.
And this is "Shot By Shot."
Marie, you're angry.
Marie, what are you angry about?
Marie?
At this particular moment in the movie,
Marie has a bone to pick with Malcolm.
Marie, talk to me.
And Malcolm, he has to figure out
what exactly she's upset about in the hopes of resolving it.
What he doesn't realize is he's opening up
a whole can of worms.
She's kind of just living right, in like
a different world than he is living in.
And that kind of comes through when he's kind of going
on his rants and she's just very clearly irritated
with everything he does.
What?
- That was a fake ass smile. - No, it wasn't.
I swear to God it was.
No, it wasn't. It was nothing.
Bullshit, I can fucking read you.
I know when nothing is something.
Oh, maybe you can't read me.
He's looking for a reason to get back to celebrating
what this night's supposed to be about.
He's trying to make sense of what she's saying.
She's trying to "de-escalate" the situation while also,
I think, also kind of challenging him to ask her.
She's being a little tricky there.
Please, Marie. I really don't want to fight tonight.
Neither do I.
That is why I'm making you mac and cheese.
She's not "not" looking for a fight.
Exactly.
What does that mean?
It means that you are literally incapable
of de-escalating a situation unless it's work-related.
I remember having to get this position right.
- Yeah. - So that you could shoot it
in the mirror and still get John David.
And even then, it's 50-50.
I love the way John David walks off after her.
The way he's like...
To make ugly, to ensure that there's no reason
to fucking celebrate.
Really, you want to go there?
What I love about this scene is it's the warmup
to the kind of prize fight.
I love Marie taking off her earrings.
"You want to know?
It's your speech."
But, she doesn't tell him what specifically
about the speech.
She walks back out, goes down the hall.
It also has one of my favorite ad-libbed lines
from J.D. in it.
You're outside of your mind.
It was just such a great turn of phrase,
"Outside of your mind" is so much better.
I remember sitting behind the monitor being like,
"I'm so jealous that I didn't write that."
Oh, it's so good.
You're outside of your mind.
When I said you find the most minor fucking detail
to make it ugly, I meant it.
Part of her is not ready to, like,
settle down, and get comfy, and whatever.
'Cause she's still, like, "I'm still on edge a little bit.
I'm just going to take my shoes off, and my earrings,
and little moments here.
But I'm letting you know, I'm not ready to go to bed."
I think there's something theatrical about it.
This is a way to get her to pay attention
in a different way.
If I stay, if I keep a little distance from her,
let her pass.
But I'm not going to chase her, 'cause I just chased her.
And if I chase her now again, that means I'm losing.
So, I'm going to chase her a little bit
then I'm going to stay here
and establish my point of view and my argument.
And if she moves, do not move.
You are stationary.
I am impenetrable.
I'm tired of our fucking relationship and that show.
Oh, you can't be serious.
I'm dead serious.
You're psychotic.
You're hyperbolic.
It was an opportunity early on
to establish the sort of visual language
and the space of it,
and have them move through this house in a way that,
you know, feels like it's looping and it's circuitous,
so that we could essentially shoot these long takes,
and block them, and choreograph them
in a way that gave the film scope.
And I was making my bed, originally.
And then Sam was like, "I don't think that works.
Let's get, put some shoes, or something.
You're throwing something."
Well no, I just, I liked that motion of, like,
you're just keeping an eye on him.
But you just keep, like, flinging these shoes
and all your anger's coming out
through the tossing of the shoes.
I also love the shot of just J.D. in the doorframe.
And it's like, 'cause you get a real sense of, like,
how frustrated he is, trying
to figure out what it is that she's possibly upset at.
And there's always something really funny about frustration
when it's seen in a wide shot.
You see all of the physical movements and you're just,
and it just seems like there's an inherent ridiculousness
to an individual's, like, anger and frustration
when it's in a wide.
But every time I'd lean over and I said I'm sorry,
you said it was fine.
You squeezed my hand and said it was fine.
You said, I love you, don't worry, it's fine.
Well Malcolm, I changed my mind.
You say it's fine.
You say it's okay, I accept your apology.
But, it still bothers you.
And what I love about Marie's position in this is,
"Yeah, it was fine, and then I thought about it again
and now it's not fine."
It starts to crack open their dynamic
and it exposes Malcolm's vulnerability.
He wants her to know that she's loved,
and appreciated, and all those things.
But, Marie wants to dig a little deeper.
It really is this dance
of all three of us moving around each other.
And then when it's on you, I got to get around
and he's got to get to, you know.
And it's like we're all kind of dancing together.
What motivates me to move or what motivates Malcolm
to move is based off of a reaction.
It's based off of what I'm receiving from Marie.
I receive it different ways, different takes.
You embraced that, Sam.
And you and Marcel embraced that
and were able to work with that.
It was so liberating as an actor
because you get, anything goes, anything's possible.
Imani is not based on you.
Oh, so she's a 20-year-old drug addict trying
to get clean. What is that, just a pure fucking coincidence?
Obviously you getting clean was a part of the inspiration.
At 20.
Yes, and you were able to provide genuine insight
into that, what that was like.
But, Imani's not fucking based on you.
It's an amalgamation of all different things,
a whole bunch of things.
Who?
People.
What people?
A lot of different people.
So, we could shoot a whole sequence like this
where we block it out, we do 18 takes.
And then suddenly on the last take,
J.D. or Z does something that's like, fascinating.
And suddenly I go, "Maybe that's the blocking,"
and just throw out 18 takes and start with that last idea.
Do you think that the movie would be as good
as it is if we weren't together?
No.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
And don't forget to watch Malcolm & Marie,
available now on Netflix.