It's actually so hard to even make a film
that it's a miracle any films turn out good.
At the age of 27 Leigh Whannell had basically achieved all his dreams.
A lifelong movie nerd from Melbourne
he teamed up with his best mate James Wan
to make a movie from scratch.
That film was 'Saw'.
And it made over $100 million worldwide and spawned a bunch of sequels.
The question then was what do you do next?
Well for Leigh Whannell that was slightly less clear cut.
He's written and directed a brand new movie called upgrade
about a quadriplegic with a cybernetic and slightly murderous chip in his back.
And where do you take a film nerd to reflect on lessons from over a decade in Hollywood?
Well...
Over here is TV and Thrillers.
Where's the horror section?
But the problem with me is not going to be which movies.
It's going to be there's too many movies.
So after James Wan and I did Saw
you have this moment in the sun, your 15 minutes.
And all the cliches are true, you really do
you know
get taken into people's offices
and they sit you down and they say
"We love you. We love what you do."
And all that Hollywood stuff you hear about and read about, it's all true.
-But it's very intoxicating. -Yeah of course.
It's hard to stay strong in the face of flattery.
And if you've grown up with a love of movies, and suddenly the people that have made
and been involved in the creation of things you love, are leaning over and going
"You're talented."
It's hard right?
Yeah exactly like
There's this club over here that you're not allowed into
and all of a sudden the bouncer is like, "Come on in."
And so in the middle of that we ended up quickly signing on to do this movie "Dead Silence" for Universal.
That I think about 12 people saw.
Oh we're so going to find it.
We are 100% gonna find it in this store.
I kind of made all my mistakes in one movie.
Dead Silence.
It wasn't the right time for us to do that film, we rushed into it.
And at the end of that experience
I felt like I'd had this real up close experience
that taught me what not to do.
Which is the best thing to learn.
I think it's better to learn what not to do,
than it is to learn what to do.
Did you recognise it's value at the time though?
Cause it would've been a little bit devastating I imagine at the same time.
Yeah it...
I didn't recognise the value at the time.
It's all hindsight.
Now when I look back I'm glad that happened.
But when I was in it, it was really depressing.
For me, I was in my late 20s
I had just made this film
that people had gone to see and it was a successful movie.
And I wasn't happy.
And I remember thinking several times like,
"Wow, I should really be the happiest I've ever been right now."
This should be the peak.
You know, on the EKG chart of my life
this should be the biggest peak.
And it was just really a good lesson you know.
On how to go about things from then on.
Guess what I just found.
What did you find?
Oh, you just look over and see The Frighteners.
You know what, this is an underrated movie.
Such an underrated movie.
The twist at the ending is really a good twist.
I was also going to ask about the first time you watched a movie that you made with an audience.
How does that experience go?
Horror films in particular, give you this
visceral response.
Like the audience is actually screaming, so it's the best feeling in the world.
When you're standing at the back of the theater listening to everyone scream and jump out of their seats.
-It's like a drug -I know it works
Yes, you know it works.
You know, I can't imagine what it's like to direct a drama
and stand back in the theater and think what are they thinking?
Like are they loving it?
Are they hating it?
At least with comedy and with horror, you have this audible barometer for how you're doing.
And it's a pretty addictive drug.
I do love the tagline.
The only thing more terrifying than the last 12 minutes of this film
are the first 86.
-See they don't make taglines like that anymore. -They don't.
What's the tagline for your film?
-For Upgrade? -Yeah.
Not man, not machine, more.
There's no- they're not meant to be said out loud.
That's what I just realized.
You shouldn't say them out loud.
-Whats the greatest tagline for you? -In space, no one can hear you scream.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.
Hey, if you could change anything about the movie business, what would you change?
Oh man, that's a loaded question in 2018.
Um, I think there's a...
I think people are let off the hook and get away with infantile behaviour
bad behaviour too often.
It's tolerated to yell and scream at people.
You're the director or the actor who needs their space
and you hear stories from crews all the time about really bad behaviour.
And everybody knows who the bad people are.
You know, it's no secret that people like Michael Bay or James Cameron have a reputation for screaming
and yelling and so when you talk to crews.
When you talk to the technicians, grips and gaffers and camera people and costume designers.
They remember all that stuff.
They remember the people who behave badly and so
for better or worse everybody looks to the director to sort of guide not only the movie,
like what's it gonna look like,
what's it gonna sound like, but also the mood of the set.
You know, these directors who scream and yell at people and use the megaphone,
they create a really bad toxic vibe.
But they're the ones who created the vibe.
The vibe isn't there and they're feeding off it.
They make it like that.
You can choose not to be like that.
There is this idea of death and mortality that runs through a lot of your different work.
And I was reading an old, old interview with you
when you were talking about the first time where mortality became real to you.
It was about the age of 25 and you found yourself in a hospital.
-Yeah. -So take me back there.
What was going on in your life that put you in that hospital in the first place?
I was...
suffering from anxiety
and but I didn't know what that was at that time.
You know, that wasn't something I knew anything about.
And...
I was 25, so.
That's when you're supposed to be at your healthiest, you know.
-Invincible, 25. -Yeah you're invincible, you-you
You don't suffer from hangovers, you do what you want, you eat what you want, you stay the same weight, it's
It's this crazy, powerful age to be where you've just got nothing but energy and I was just
I was getting migraines everyday and like,
having like trouble sleeping and racing heart.
All this stuff that I thought was a physical problem.
In a million years I didn't think oh, I have anxiety.
I didn't even know what that was.
I was thinking there must be something wrong.
So now I'm in a hospital getting a CAT scan and I'm surrounded by...
I remember sitting in a hospital in Melbourne and there were people, you know
with shaved heads who you knew had cancer were going through that.
And at that age,
and...
given how naive I was, it was this real shock.
And so,
when I got out of that period,
I just remember having this really strong feeling of like...
It's almost like a really powerful feeling because you're like
There's no time to waste.
And I think that that ended up affecting the themes of my films
and even till now to this day when I look back.
There seems to be a heavy concentration on sickness.
It's not even so much death, it's more about illness.
Like the time before you die.
And in Upgrade, he's paralysed so.
It's cool to look back and go "Wow, that was unconscious."
It wasn't by design but it's there.
Hey Leigh, I think we could do this forever.
But can I just say thank you.
Cheers! Thanks for having me.