Filmmaker Amanda Kramer and stars Juliette Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Samantha Mathis, Robin Tunney discuss their new film 'By Design' while stopping by THR's studio at Park City.
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00:00Carpet to me is a little sad.
00:02Wall-to-wall carpet is a...
00:05It brings me down a little bit.
00:10I'm obsessed with the log line.
00:12Did you write it?
00:14I did.
00:14Okay, incredible.
00:16I'll just, I'll read it as the embodied voice.
00:18A woman swaps bodies at the chair
00:20and everyone likes her better as a chair.
00:22Incredible.
00:22Is that how you pitched it to all the,
00:24this movie to all these folks?
00:26Or did you give them a little bit more?
00:27No, no.
00:28These are intimate relationships.
00:29I'm, of course, trying to lull them
00:31and I'm trying to create real bonds.
00:33I can't be glib with them.
00:35But with the American public and beyond,
00:37yeah, I'm pretty cheeky and glib.
00:39Because you need to be.
00:41Selling a movie or speaking of a movie in one sentence.
00:45Yeah, you gotta capture them.
00:46You do, you do.
00:47You can't talk about nuance.
00:49You have to get to it and reclaim.
00:52I always like plot under wraps.
00:54I'm a big fan of the log line plot under wraps.
00:58Oh.
01:00To create that mystery.
01:01But I went anti-mystery and was obvious.
01:04True, yeah.
01:05So what nuance did you guys get
01:07that lured you in on this one?
01:10We had a general meeting,
01:12which is very unique to have a general
01:15and then immediately have a project
01:17that resonated for me.
01:20I thought it was a poetic piece.
01:23And for me, it was a little bit about disappearing
01:28and so completely, passionately wanting to disappear
01:32and become othered.
01:34So much so to be useful and coveted.
01:39So all these themes spoke to me.
01:41And I was doing other jobs
01:43that were really into plot and plot and plot
01:46and not so much character.
01:47And then I found this one or she found me
01:51and then we entered this wild, magical world.
01:55This oasis with not plot.
01:59And there was zero exposition.
02:01It was such a joy and such a happy place to work.
02:05It made me fall in love with acting again.
02:08It was like every single person on the crew was an artist
02:12and you were there to play and you felt so free.
02:15And it's everything that Sundance is supposed to be about.
02:18This movie would not get made within the studio system.
02:21This is a movie that everybody is doing for love
02:23and not to cater to the lowest common denominator.
02:26It's just a piece of art.
02:28It's like video, it's beautiful.
02:32I remember my first phone call with Sam.
02:35I was so nervous and my voice was breaking
02:38and I even said to my manager,
02:40can't it just be an email?
02:41Cause I was so nervous.
02:43Could you tell?
02:44Oh my God, no, not at all.
02:47I was so in awe of her.
02:49I had read the script and just fell in love with it.
02:51And then I went to your website
02:53and I started watching your shorts and I was like,
02:55oh my God, this woman is an auteur.
02:59She has such vision.
03:01She's so unique and unto herself, so bold.
03:05And I just said, yes,
03:07I have to jump into this woman's world.
03:11I was blown away.
03:13That's me.
03:13Did you know,
03:14were you told about the physicality of your role
03:18when you signed on?
03:20Was that part of it from the beginning?
03:22I think everything was really in the script.
03:25You know, it just felt very abundantly clear.
03:29That's, you can't say that for everything,
03:30but with this, you know,
03:32there's an economy and there's a precision
03:35and a focus to everything.
03:36So do you kind of, I mean,
03:38you'd have to ask Amanda if we got there,
03:40but like, it just was like,
03:42okay, well, this is what it is.
03:43I'm not gonna question this.
03:45This feels right, so let's do it.
03:46And if she has an adjustment for me,
03:48then she'll tell me.
03:50Compare and contrast your own design aesthetic
03:53with your character's apartment.
03:55Oh, sadly, it's kind of similar.
03:57Yeah, oh God damn.
03:59Yeah, it's-
04:01You're a minimalist?
04:02It's just because I'm kind of,
04:03I've just been so used to being transient.
04:06Like I remember when I graduated
04:07or was about to graduate school,
04:09had a teacher, she was like, you know,
04:11it's important for the first five years to live lightly
04:13so you can go to a new job and, you know,
04:15just be free to be an actor.
04:18And I just continued that until my thirties.
04:20And so, you know, I need to stop.
04:23You need to get some, like-
04:24You know, buy some stuff.
04:25Do you want to go shopping?
04:26Let's go shopping.
04:27Let's do it.
04:28I can't wait to see it.
04:29Oh, listen, my God, I need some help.
04:32But no, I mean, the thing that I loved about Olivier
04:35especially was his taste.
04:38And I don't know if it had a lot to do with Marta,
04:40but his clothes.
04:41Yeah.
04:43The set design in your apartment was like just delicious.
04:47Yeah.
04:48But was that-
04:50I felt the second I, that is so special to,
04:54and I have not had a lot,
04:56I've not experienced this before
04:58where this space was,
05:01and the way it's designed was as much a character
05:05and gave you so much information about what you're playing.
05:09But it was like cotton candy clouds,
05:11a little, just the color scheme.
05:13And I've seen those, that palette before
05:16somewhere in the recesses of my mind.
05:20It is based off of Thierry Muglet's Paris apartment.
05:25That is what his apartment basically looks like.
05:28But kind of generally,
05:31I had said to the production designer, Grace,
05:35who is incredible,
05:36I said, we need a lot of carpet.
05:40I'm going to need a lot of carpet.
05:41I feel carpet is very important here.
05:43And she was like, carpet, we're going to be,
05:45you know, vacuuming nonstop.
05:47And I was like, yeah, I don't care.
05:48Don't care if it takes forever.
05:49I'm going to need the carpet.
05:51She's like, carpet's expensive.
05:52I said, bring it in.
05:53Because carpet to me is a little sad.
05:55Wall to wall carpet is a,
05:58it brings me down a little bit.
05:59No, I didn't mean to be an idiot.
06:01I was like, guys, we got to get rid of these carpets.
06:05You can't ever clean it.
06:07So it's like, it is sad.
06:08And it's nice to start in these homes,
06:10even though they're beautifully designed
06:12with a low sadness of carpet.
06:15I'm sorry to everybody who might.
06:17Carpet.
06:19Aesthetically, I want it in my movies,
06:21but at home, I would not be able to keep up with it.
06:24That's fair.
06:25Has anyone thought about what type of chair
06:28most connects with them?
06:29Like what type of piece of furniture?
06:32You know, guys, a nice lazy boy.
06:36Nice to take your feet out.
06:39With a cup holder or?
06:41Yeah, throw in a cup holder.
06:43Or a massager.
06:44It'll be fine.
06:45This is great.
06:46Yeah, it'll be fine.
06:48I can't, see, I can't shop for myself.
06:49Yeah, they'll help me.
06:50No, we're not getting you with those.
06:51That's terrible.
06:53A chair that, you know what I love?
06:57I love like those like 90s high back dining room chairs
07:02that have like a little bad upholstery,
07:05the tiny strip that almost looks like a Vegas carpet.
07:08They're a little zany, a little zany.
07:11They're a little Beetlejuice, a little bit Beetlejuice.
07:14That makes sense.
07:15I love a churner chair.
07:16Do you know what the churner chair is?
07:18And our chair really reminds me of a churner
07:21with those beautiful rounded arms.
07:24I mean, I don't know that I'm like a churner,
07:26but I aspire to be a churner, to be that elegant.
07:30And I want just a big, fat, cuddly, stuffed chair
07:34that I feel small in, whatever that says around me.
07:38That you can disappear in.
07:39Yes.
07:40Disappear in.
07:42You know, I'm not in charge of chairs at my house.
07:46The interior designer has been, so.
07:49Rights.
07:50You are given the, yeah, I'm given the need to.
07:53I don't decide about that stuff.
07:55Fair.
07:55OK, so our, let's see, my recurring question
07:57I want to ask you guys, does anyone
07:59have a movie that they watch over and over,
08:02whether for comfort or inspiration?
08:05Yeah, Your Name.
08:07Your Name is a Japanese anime by Makoto Shinkai,
08:10and it's one of the most beautiful films
08:11I've ever seen in my life.
08:12I highly recommend everyone to check it out.
08:15That's one of my favorites.
08:16He's so hot.
08:17I can't change the channel of Terms of Endearment, as I'm.
08:20That's such a good one.
08:21I can't.
08:21I saw it with my mother and my grandmother,
08:23and they're both deceased.
08:25So that's just so much sense memory for me,
08:29watching that movie, which is why I geeked out
08:32when I saw John Lithgow.
08:33I loved it.
08:35So beautiful, and that movie, I just got chills.
08:38Yeah.
08:42I'm going to go first, since I just saw it.
08:44What about Bob?
08:45There's a feeling behind this.
08:48I went through a very dark period of my life,
08:50or I was escaping a dark period, at 22.
08:54And I couldn't actually watch dark things.
08:58Almost Ren and Stimpy was too dark.
09:00So I watched What About Bob all the time,
09:05and Baby Steps became a mantra to live my life by.
09:10Yeah.
09:11Whenever I'm sad, I watch Planes, Trains, and the Lost
09:14Planet.
09:14It's a good one.
09:15It makes me feel happy.
09:17So there's moments that are really poignant, too.
09:19John Candy was so good.
09:21But it feels comforting, like you're
09:23in the arms of an old friend.
09:26I feel very stuck in an era.
09:29I feel very stuck in the 20th century.
09:32So it's all just everything, mostly 70s and 90s films.
09:38But I always will watch all that jazz.
09:40I always will watch The Player.
09:42And I truly will always watch Reality Bites,
09:46because it just reminds me of an era in my life
09:49when being cool was, I just couldn't
09:54get enough of, of which these three women are all
09:58in movies where the coolness is so overwhelming.
10:01When you're a young teen, you cannot
10:03believe that there are people that cool in the world.
10:06And you want to dress like them, and talk like them,
10:08and look like them.
10:09I always return.
10:11I'm not going to play them out, but they are each in one
10:14that I can call to memory right now,
10:16where it's like, if I could look like that character,
10:18I could be that character.
10:19All right, I want to hear it.
10:21OK.
10:22You guys want to get me embarrassed?
10:24Obviously, Robin in Empire Records, The Shaved Head.
10:29I did not have a friend who wasn't like,
10:32do we shave the head?
10:34And I was like, would you not?
10:37I mean, Pump Up the Volume is a deeply
10:40personal and gorgeous film.
10:43And for me, I'm terrified of Cape Fear,
10:45so I can't call that one out, because I
10:47have watched that movie like this, I think,
10:49as most people do.
10:51But Natural Born Killers.
10:53It is just, you know, it's iconic forever.
10:57Forever.
10:58So those movies I definitely watch over and over again.