Director/Producer Stephen Moyer & Star/Producer Anna Paquin talk to The Inside Reel about approach, context, technique and intent in regards to their new dramatic film: "A Bit Of Light" from Quiver Distribution.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:11 It's all such a mess, isn't it?
00:16 It really will be alright.
00:27 [Music]
00:33 A piece of material has to speak to you.
00:36 And obviously, Stephen, you knew Rebecca before,
00:38 and I'm not sure if you did.
00:40 But can you talk about how this thematic and this story,
00:44 in all its varying layers, sort of appealed to you guys?
00:47 This piece of material that we did not currently have ownership over
00:52 because she was setting it up elsewhere.
00:56 That I would absolutely kill to be in,
01:02 but he's not allowed to show me stuff I can't have.
01:05 She was like, "Why are you talking about a play that you've written
01:09 that's amazing that we don't have the rights to?"
01:11 That you read.
01:12 So anyway, I had read it and just thought it was extraordinary.
01:16 I was very proud of Rebecca.
01:17 She'd won an award for it.
01:24 But I'd immediately thought, "Wow, I think this is a really interesting
01:27 cinematic world and window into a very difficult subject."
01:33 And the first person that I think of whenever I read anything is Anna.
01:39 And I just thought it would be an incredible piece of material
01:45 for her to explore as a mother, as a human, as somebody who has,
01:51 like all of us, been through so many different experiences.
01:55 True that.
01:56 Ella, she'd done lots of bad things.
02:00 A lot of people can't forgive her.
02:07 Hey, Ellis.
02:11 So where'd you get to?
02:13 You didn't answer in that part.
02:16 No.
02:17 Really?
02:18 No.
02:20 I have two daughters, but I don't live with them anymore.
02:24 The thing is, is that working with a child, having been a child actor
02:28 yourself, but understanding the instinct versus the technique
02:31 and experience you've created, that dichotomy with the young actor
02:36 who plays Neil is very dynamic in that way.
02:39 And then with you and Ray, because it's sort of like the continuation
02:42 of child, children, mother, father.
02:46 Could you talk about that dynamic and that psyche too?
02:49 Well, where would you like me to start?
02:53 Well, whatever, wherever you want to start, Anna.
02:57 I mean, I know you--
02:59 I mean, I obviously, because I spent a lot of my childhood
03:04 and all of my adolescence on set, I'm pretty fiercely protective
03:09 of any kids that come anywhere or set that I'm in any way involved on
03:15 or with.
03:16 And also, I don't-- because of the way I was sort of introduced
03:24 to the industry, which was other people who were vastly more experienced
03:29 than me, treating me like just another creative partner
03:35 and just the scene partner that you have and working with you
03:39 in a way that wasn't anything to do with you being a child.
03:43 And I mean that in the right way.
03:46 That's how I approach working with other younger cast members,
03:53 is that they're young.
03:56 They might not be as experienced yet, but that is only just a matter
04:02 of time and logistics.
04:04 And I just really adore Luca, and he's so good.
04:11 He was so obviously the pick for Neil.
04:17 We saw many, many, many people.
04:19 As you do when you're casting children.
04:21 You look at many, many people.
04:23 But then working with Ray, sometimes it's really nice
04:27 not to be the grown-up.
04:30 I've been doing this quite a while now.
04:34 And sometimes it's nice to be the person who does not have seniority
04:39 on set and to have somebody else who you feel like is able to anchor
04:47 the moments and the scenes so that you can play and bounce off them
04:54 and you know that they are rock solid.
04:56 And it's just two different dynamics.
05:00 [Cast talking]
05:09 Hello.
05:12 Hi.
05:16 Your hands are so small.
05:17 You should really be wearing gloves.
05:23 Hello.
05:24 I'm Neil.
05:26 Are you going to shake my hand?
05:32 Oh, cheese puffs.
05:34 Sorry.
05:35 Should have wiped.
05:36 Too late now.
05:39 I don't.
05:40 I don't either.
05:41 Do I look like trouble?
05:43 You sometimes stay until six.
05:45 What did she say?
05:46 Yeah, yeah.
05:48 Five or six.
05:50 What?
05:51 Ray too was--
05:53 It hasn't occurred to me actually until you mentioned this, Tim.
05:57 But Ray had started out as a young man who was discovered when he was 16
06:02 or 17, you know, and did this extraordinary film called Scum with
06:07 Alan Clarke, who discovered Tim Roth and Gary Oldman, you know.
06:12 And he's so amazing in it.
06:16 And it's so raw.
06:19 And Ray is kind of so up for the play element of work.
06:26 He also fell in love with Luca, and he was very protective of Luca,
06:30 wasn't he?
06:31 And so, yeah, I think as a director who's worked with kids and--
06:39 Has a bunch.
06:40 Has a bunch.
06:42 But also, we were very sort of keen on making--
06:49 I love sets to be a welcoming place.
06:52 I love my films and my TV, whatever I'm doing, to be a place where it's
06:56 a creative hub, where everybody feels free to do whatever they want,
07:00 including the crew, you know, to come up with ideas.
07:03 Best idea wins.
07:04 Best idea wins.
07:06 And so-- And it really did feel like just, you know,
07:13 a warm, comfortable set.
07:15 And Luca has certainly sort of expressed that many times since,
07:18 hasn't he?
07:19 Yeah.
07:20 But then you have the module.
07:23 To have agency, you know, to encouraging him to actually--
07:28 He actually came up with ideas a lot, didn't he?
07:30 No, it was great.
07:31 Like, it's fantastic.
07:34 Fantastic.
07:35 Well, you stay until all the mums have gone.
07:39 I sat next to you before, but you didn't see me.
07:43 And it didn't feel right to talk to you then.
07:45 It does now.
07:48 It does now.
07:51 I--
07:52 I'm not a nut.
07:53 I could walk you home.
07:54 What? No.
07:56 Actually, I suppose that would seem a bit nutty to you,
08:00 offering to walk you home.
08:02 Look--
08:03 I'm not going to punch you in the head.
08:04 What?
08:05 I saw on the news the other day,
08:06 this man just punched a woman in the back of the head.
08:08 They ran off.
08:09 They say there's a one-armed pedo hanging around here.
08:12 Just a heads up.
08:16 You look really sad.
08:18 I want to help.
08:21 But for you with the idea-- because the thing is,
08:23 is that-- I mean, for example, that scene in the bedroom
08:27 between you and Ray when you're curled up, I mean,
08:30 that's so primal and so raw.
08:32 And yet you almost, I would think, Stephen,
08:34 can't direct that too much.
08:36 You sort of have to set it up.
08:38 Can you talk about those kinds of scenes?
08:40 Because those-- or even one in the kitchen when,
08:43 Ann, you finally break down.
08:45 And then-- sorry, but like-- and then people ask me why I wanted to do
08:50 this job.
08:51 Because there's so many of those meaty,
08:53 like just throw it all at the wall.
08:57 Yeah.
08:58 See what--
08:59 There's three or four scenes.
09:00 Raw scenes.
09:01 I love that.
09:02 That's my-- that's my jam.
09:04 That scene--
09:06 I sound old.
09:07 That scene when he comes in, you know,
09:11 she has walked away from him.
09:13 She's left him at that moment in that specific scene that you're
09:15 talking about.
09:16 She's walked away and she's gone back to the sort of the Heidi
09:19 Hole of her room.
09:20 And she's closed the door.
09:22 And we have not seen him broach that door.
09:25 Without--
09:26 Without knocking.
09:27 Invitation.
09:28 Or, you know, we've seen him go to the door and be left outside it
09:31 and not choose to go through it.
09:33 And so she goes in there and she closes the door and she knows she's
09:37 safe.
09:38 She knows he's not going to break into that--
09:40 Except this time he does.
09:41 Into that space.
09:42 But in this occasion he does.
09:44 And just for viewers watching, you know,
09:46 listening and watching, you know,
09:49 Ella, the character, has lost the custody of her children.
09:53 And she is living with her father in his two-bedroom house.
09:58 In the room that he has for the children.
10:00 Yeah.
10:01 She's sleeping in their sleeping--
10:03 In their bunk beds.
10:04 And when that scene happened, we'd blocked it a couple of times.
10:11 And Anna had not gone to the emotional place that we had a feeling
10:16 that it would get to.
10:17 But I didn't know where it was going to get to.
10:20 Because we hadn't really--
10:22 You know, it's a 17-day indie.
10:24 You don't really have a chance to rehearse.
10:26 We had got to the blocking of it.
10:30 And when Anna had come to me before we started shooting and said to me,
10:35 you know, "What do you think this is?"
10:38 I had expressed in a way a sort of direction that I thought that it would get to.
10:48 And without telling her what I was thinking.
10:52 And I had actually told Ray to do something that she wasn't expecting.
10:56 And so it happened in the moment.
11:01 You know, what's extraordinary about that scene is we did like two takes.
11:06 And it's so--
11:08 Even now when I have had to sort of check color grades or something,
11:12 I go and look at that scene and it breaks me.
11:15 It kills me, that scene.
11:19 And they're two very, very seasoned actors who go about their trade
11:26 in a slightly different way but absolutely stand toe-to-toe against each other
11:31 in everything that they do together in the film.
11:33 - I'm going to beat you. - No, you're not.
11:38 - Oh, yes, I will. - No, you won't.
11:40 You look like a goldfish chewing out of your mouth.
11:43 What?
11:45 Do you remember what you did?
11:47 Yes.
11:49 You need to fight for them. Get out there and fight for your kids.
11:53 Because one day your life will be over and you can't go back and make it better.
11:57 [SCREAMING]
11:59 [MUSIC PLAYING]
12:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]
12:06 (dramatic music)
12:08 [BLANK_AUDIO]