The latest collaboration between A24 and director Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar), Beau Is Afraid, is available now in wide theatrical release.
The “nightmare comedy” sends its protagonist, Beau (Joaquin Phoenix), on a surreal, genre-bending odyssey through guilt and repression as he tries to make his way to his mother’s house. It’s packed with creativity and endless surprises (our review), including a few that venture into horror.
For the film’s release, Bloody Disgusting spoke with Aster and Phoenix for a roundtable discussion on the film. The pair broke down what it was like filming the chaos and also discussed a surprising practical effect no one will see coming…
The first act of the film introduces Beau at his home, a crumbling apartment on a hectic street filled with bizarre denizens. Aster blocks and directs the chaos with seemingly effortless ease, providing the audience with plenty of sight gags to take in.
Aster and Phoenix behind the scenes/Photo Credit: A24
Aster explains his approach, “I just took a lot of time to build it out and think about what all those details could be, who all those people in the street could be. There was no background actor that was just standing there. They all had very, very specific directives.”
Phoenix adds, “I remember thinking in one sequence, ‘This isn’t enough; we need something else.’ But seriously, I was like, ‘Isn’t there something else?’ I’m running across the street. I feel like there’s one other little piece. They’re like, ‘Well, I could have a gun go off, and you could die.’ It still wasn’t enough.”
“I’m so happy with that. So yeah, it’s a great last-minute addition,” Aster tells Phoenix, then continues, “Yeah, that was a lot of fun. A lot of fun. When you’re shooting, it’s not fun because it’s so stressful, but it was a lot of fun to think about and to build out. No, it was actually fun shooting it. That was fun. That choreography there was, with you running across the street, that was such difficult choreography that I think everybody was very focused that day. The ramps that the camera operator had to run up to go through the window and then down again.”
“Yeah. Really cool,” Phoenix confirms.
Of course, a startling late movie reveal veers straight into nightmare territory. It’s so wild – we won’t spoil it here – that it begged the question if anyone voiced concerns about the choice.
Aster joked before answering, “People were like, are you sure you want to do this? And I was like, ‘Don’t make me think, just do it,’ and it just ended up there. No, if anything, that’s been in the script from the beginning, and I just never had the heart to even imagine the movie without it. I felt like I owed it to the younger Ari in his early twenties, who was so excited to build that 15-foot [redacted for spoilers] that I had to just do it. Yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, it’s based on a drawing I did a long time ago. I’ll just say Steve Newburn built that [redacted] because he’s really great. That prosthetic was huge and very hard. It was a puppet more than a prosthetic, but it was a trip to actually be in the room with that thing.“
Want to see the 15-foot practical effect in action? Beau Is Afraid is playing in theaters now.
The post ‘Beau Is Afraid’ – Ari Aster and Joaquin Phoenix on Controlled Chaos and a Monstrous Practical Effect [Interview] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.