In Surrogates (available on DVD and BluRay today), the use of remotely-controlled androids called “surrogates” allows everyone to live in idealized forms in the safety of their own homes. Because damage done to a surrogate is not felt by its owner, surrogate use is safer and near-universal. The film stars Bruce Willis and is directed by Terminator 3’s Jonathan Mostow.
We were thrilled to catchup with Jonathan on the eve of the DVD & Blu-Ray release, which you can read after the jump!
Q: How did you direct your actors to have the ’surrogates’ effect? What kind of suggestions would you give?
Jonathan Mostow: When I made Terminator 3, I learned something about directing actors to behave like robots. And one of the key things I learned is that if an actor tries to play a robot, he or she risks playing it mechanically in a way that makes the performance uninteresting. So how I approached the issue in that film and in Surrogates was instead to focus on erasing human idiosyncrasies and asymmetries — in posture, facial expressions, gait, etc. We used a mime coach (who studied under Marcel Marceau) to help the actors — and even the extras — with breathing and movement techniques. The actors really enjoyed the challenge.
Q: What’s your recipe for creating a good action movie?
Jonathan Mostow: I wish there was a recipe! It would make my life so much easier. Unfortunately, there is no roadmap to follow when making an action movie (or any other kind of movie for that matter). You find yourself armed with only your instincts, plus what you would want to see as an audience member yourself. The place I begin is with story. If the audience doesn’t care about that, then it doesn’t matter how amazing the spectacle is. My central philosophy is that people go to the movies to be told a story, not to see stuff blow up.
Q: Are there any sci-fi movies that were inspirational to the tone, look and feel you wanted to strike with Surrogates?
Jonathan Mostow: For the look and feel of this movie, I found inspiration in some black and white films from the 60s — early works of John Frankenheimer — plus the original Twilight Zone TV show. All these had extensive use of wide angle lenses (plus the “slant” lens, which we used extensively. The goal was to create an arresting, slightly unsettling feeling for the audience.
Q: What’s the most rewarding thing you’ve learned or taken from making this movie?
Jonathan Mostow: Making this movie had made me much more conscious of how much time I spend on the computer. Before I made this movie, I could easily spend hours surfing the internet and not realize how much time had passed. Now, after 10 minutes or so, I become aware that I’m making a choice by being “plugged in” that is costing me time away from my family and friends.
Q: In Surrogates every character in the frame looks perfect: was it a big technical problem for you? How did you find a solution?
Jonathan Mostow: I talk about that on the DVD commentary — it was a big challenge. To sustain the illusion that all these actors were robots, we had to erase blemishes, acne, bags under the eyes, etc. In a sense, the actors were the visual effects. As a result, there are more VFX shots than non-VFX shots in the movie.
Q: How close did you try to keep the film to the graphic novel?
Jonathan Mostow: We talk about that in one of the bonus features on the Blu-ray. The novel was interesting in that it was highly regarded, but not well-known outside a small community of graphic novel enthusiasts. So that meant that we weren’t necessarily beholden to elements in the graphic novel in the way that one might be if adapting a world-renowned piece of literature. Even the author of Surrogates acknowledged that changes were necessary to adapt his novel to the needs of a feature film. Hopefully, we struck the right balance. Certainly, I believe we preserved the central idea — which was to pose some interesting questions to the audience about how we can retain our humanity in this increasingly technological world.
Q: You’ve worked with some of the most famous action stars to ever grace the silver screen, Arnold, Bruce, Kurt…when you approach a film or a scene with one of these actors, does your directing change at all?
Jonathan Mostow: I’ve been very lucky to work with some great movie stars of our time. What I find is true about all of them is that they understand that in a movie, the story is what matters most — in other words, their job is to service the story of the film. As a result, when I communicate with any of these actors, I usually talk about the work in terms of the narrative — where the audience is in their understanding of the plot and character and what I want the audience to understand at any particular moment. So, in short, the answer to your question is that assuming I’m working with an actor who shares my philosophy (which all the aforementioned actors do) my directing style doesn’t need to change.
Surrogates is available on DVD and Blu-Ray now.
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