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Spoiler alert: Some detailed questions and answers give awayMidsommars dramatic climax.
Its shocking, he says.
Its some hard-core shit.
(A representative for Aster tells Vulture the nudity was definitely in the script.)
I was like,This is it; this is the moment.
Florence saw it the night before we did.
For the first two-thirds of the film, we laughed at all the black humor.
For the final act, we sat in silence.
Its so funny.Theres a lot of black comedy in there.
Did you audition for this?I just met with Ari.
He had the idea that he wanted me for the character.
I watched his short films.
I read the script.
The script was as horrifying as the film is.
When he and I sat together, we both talked extensively about films.
Im a big cinephile as well
Oh, I follow@jrcinemania.
Well talk about that.[Laughs.]
He and I spoke extensively about films, which was great.
So whats the pitch you heard?
What I loved about it was that it was going to be in broad, blistering daylight.
There are no shadows to hide the horror in the corners.
Its all right in front of you; its all clear to see.
Finding the darkness in broad daylight.
He told me that thats how he wanted to do it: Everything was going to be really light.
Was that your experience, too?No, Id say the orgy.
That was the hardest scene for me.
Tell me about shooting truly the craziest sex scene Ive seen this year.It was pretty hard-core.
The vast majority of those ladies dont speak any English.
We shot the scene for a good 12 hours.
A lot of it had to be cut back for censorship.
Im sure there will be a directors cut where its a lot more graphic because it was.
They were very ambitious shots, as you’re able to see.
We got every single one of them.
It wascollllldin that room, and we were all butt-naked the whole time.
I was trying to break the tension and make some jokes and stuff.
I did, but the language barrier was akiller.
That poor lady whos getting down and pushing my ass into that girl?
I just dont think she wanted to do it!
But she did, she committed herself.
Everybody committed themselves to that scene.
Lets talk about the scene where you eat that pube.The pube wasapparentlysynthetic.
I dont know if I believe that.
I think it might have been one of Aris pubes.
It was a real hair.
All the food in the movie was prepared in a traditional way, so it was all fuckin gnarly.
It was all out in the sunlight, all day, every day.
They hadnt sprayed it with any glycerin or anything like that.
All the meat was rotting; there were maggots falling out of everything.
There were insects and wasps everywhere, and it was really hot, so it stank.
But the pube: I basically just had it in between my fingers, so I just faked it.
I did have to put it in my mouth every time, which was fucking disgusting.
Wills reaction in that scene is amazing; I just love it.
What do you make of Christians arc through this movie?
Hes aterribleboyfriend.I think that he is insensitive.
But when that happens, they become locked into a broken, toxic, co-dependent relationship with one another.
Had that not occurred, they wouldve broken up, probably sooner rather than later.
I think he is a guy who is well-meaning, but is just totally detached.
He isnt clever enough to navigate the situation in a healthy way.
Ultimately, in the sex scene, hes been drugged out of his mind.
Hes clearly very uncomfortable.
Its not an enjoyable sexual experience at all.
I think thats when he starts realizing whats going on.
He realizes his own guilt.
A lot of that had to be in the eyes, in the way I looked at her.
Was the bear costume heavy?The head was super heavy.
If I stayed in it for very long, my neck was, like, breaking.
It was really hot, too.
We shot lots of different stuff with that.
We came back and did reshoots in Utah at the beginning of this year.
My eyeball has exploded and my face is just melting, basically.
Im gagging and in excruciating pain.
We shot that on my birthday this year, which was a lotta fun.
He steals his friends thesis idea!Nowthatwas unforgivable.
Thats pretty fucking bad, too.
Oh God yourface![Laughs.]
These shrimp, from being in direct sunlight, were rotting.
It was very clear they were in bad shape.
The cast who had to sit down in front of them, started retching.
That was pretty rough.
That was just stinking, rotting, meat and fish, and people vomiting.
Because every glass just had sugary water in it, there was a herd of wasps.
Every glass had at least three or four wasps swimming around in it or dead in it.
You just had to be okay with wasps.
Did you get sunburned?Yeah.
Pretty bad, a couple of times.
I was cooking for myself.
Are you a good cook?Yeah.
When Im working Ill generally make a big pot of chili and keep it for a couple of days.
I cook loads of stuff.
I could sit here all day talking about what I cook.
I find cooking is something that is good for my mental health.
We would each cook for one another.
Florence would make ratatouille a couple nights of the week, wed sit down and have that.
I would cook a big salad, or whatever.
We kind of looked after each other in that way.
This was a film where mental health was critical.
It was really, really important because the material is so heavy.
Youve really got to look after yourself.
Now we have to talk about@jrcinemaniabecause I love it.Hey!
I dont have enough opportunities to talk to people about films where I live.
I set this thing up only a couple months ago.
Id love to have an outlet where people can talk about other stuff.
Theres a whole history of cinema out there.
I grew up watching films all day, every day.
Ive got hundreds of films, a lot.
I love buying physical copies of movies.
How do you even have a Blu-ray player?
I watch all my European Blu-rays on my PlayStation.
You go live every week.
Whats this weeks movie?Im doing one tonight, 8:30:Sonatine, by Takeshi Kitano.
You ever see that?
No, I havent.Its a hell of a movie.
