The director dissects a pivotal scene in his noir-inspired screwball comedy, which is loosely based on the real-life story of a fake hit man who helped detectives bust people soliciting murderers.
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00:00Hi, I'm Richard Linklater, and this is my director's commentary.
00:04Hitman's the film noir meets screwball comedy,
00:07but kind of under the umbrella of a Hitman movie.
00:10Gary Johnson is this college teacher, introverted, intellectual loner,
00:17but then he gets pulled into being the resident fake Hitman
00:21for these undercover operations and finds out he's really good at it.
00:24My name is Gary Johnson, and I'm a fake Hitman.
00:31This movie just keeps going. It goes way out there.
00:34We gave ourselves permission.
00:36I realize not everyone fantasized about the same Hitman.
00:40Every sting operation was a performance.
00:43This whole world is fake. You know, it's fake Hitman.
00:46They don't exist at this retail level that people think they do
00:50when they're soliciting the murder of a spouse or a business partner for whatever reason.
01:01What are we doing? I got no notice. I got no research.
01:05I feel like I'm going in naked.
01:07He's summoned to do his job really quickly.
01:09There's a guy who seems in a bit of a hurry.
01:12All right, we did not get much on him.
01:15We didn't even have time to get a Title III warrant, so it's audio only.
01:19His name is Mike. He's already in there waiting, and he seems a little volatile.
01:23This is getting scary.
01:25Do we even know what this guy looks like?
01:27Do we even know what this guy looks like?
01:29No, but he said he'd be the guy sitting alone reading Catcher in the Rye.
01:32Which, historically speaking, is never a good sign.
01:35As he walks up outside, he sees the guy reading Catcher in the Rye,
01:38and he realizes, wow, that is my girlfriend's husband,
01:43and I think I know why I'm here.
01:46The view from the side was through tainted glass, kind of a partition.
01:57We see him walking there, and that was a piece that was in the actual restaurant.
02:01I said, oh, that's cool. I like that shot.
02:04They're almost abstract figures.
02:06Mike?
02:07Yeah, Judd?
02:08Eyes forward. It's for your own protection.
02:10People tend to listen to whatever the official hitman tells them,
02:14because they're now in a world of professionals,
02:17so it's amazing what the real Gary Johnson could get away with them believing.
02:22So tell me, Mike, how can I help you?
02:26So you're—
02:27I am.
02:29It's always kind of intuitive what to shoot, but I like that they can't see each other,
02:34so by shooting them on each side and not, let's say, doing a lot of camera movement,
02:39tying them together, I was trying to reinforce kind of how it felt from their perspective.
02:43I think that's what the camera should largely do.
02:46At this point, we're so into his mind.
02:48I just wanted—you know, this is all about the human face at this point.
02:52So tell me what you're thinking.
02:54How she came here for the pancakes.
02:57My wife.
03:03I—we're going through a divorce right now.
03:07Some of the humor in it we found in rehearsal.
03:11And so in the middle of this life-and-death conversation, it kind of just goes—
03:16So you're not technically divorced yet?
03:21What's it to you?
03:23A little digressive little bit like that wasn't in the script, you know, initially.
03:29You know, when you spend a few hours talking about it and running through the scene,
03:32you just get new ideas.
03:35The main thing we're trying to achieve is a little propulsive energy moving forward.
03:40It ratchets up Gary's entire metabolism about what kind of world he's in.
03:44He's been in a fake world of hitmen.
03:46But now he knows someone is really out to kill someone he loves.
03:51I want her to know why.
03:54Right before you do it.
03:56Just look her in the eye and say,
03:59this is from your loving husband.
04:04I want that to be the last thing she fucking hears.
04:14You know what? Maybe I'll throw in the boyfriend for free.
04:19What the fuck?
04:21What? It's very simple.
04:23You give me the money, I'll take care of it.
04:27I'll take care of this shit myself.
04:31Maybe I'm delusional, but I've never shot a film or even left a day of shooting
04:35and thought, OK, that wasn't very good.
04:37You know, I'm just going to work really hard and try to make it feel good.
04:40By the end of the day, I feel like, oh, you know, we achieve what we set out to do
04:44or we at least maximize it.
04:45If there's a fault there, it's mine.
04:47What I refuse to have on a movie is to be driving home after shooting and going,
04:51oh, I should have told him this.
04:53No, we've explored all that.
04:55We've already explored all that.