Interview with “Talk to Me” Co-directors, Michael & Danny Philippou

Full transcript of Interview with “Talk to Me” Co-directors, Michael & Danny Philippou.

0:00KT: Oh my god. Michael and Danny, thank you so much. And welcome to the For Your Reference podcast.

0:14Danny: Oh, we're very honored to podcast.

0:16KT: It's an exciting time in world cinema, particularly in the genre of horror. Um, you might not toot your own horns, but I'll do it for you. Toot toot. Talk to Me. Talk to Me is that gal. Talk to Me is the moment just like Sophie Wilde.

0:16Guests: Oh yeah, we're pulling. We're pulling up. Yeah, we're very, uh,

0:16KT: how awesome was Sophie?

0:16Guests: She's so incredible. The best performer, the best person.

0:16KT: How awesome we're zooming in. If you're part of the fun, we're zooming in back to you. Um, so when we talk about the sub genre of conscious, psychological, social commentary, sort of horror, I want to talk a little bit about Talk to Me and where, if that fits in that sort of sub genre.

1:05Guests: Yeah. Yeah. Which sub genre specifically, sorry, of the like psychological social commentary. It's all got to do with like, uh, even, even the phrases that the hand says, like, talk to me, you know, I'm. Lonely and broken. I just need someone to talk to and I let you in even if you're bad for me Whether it's drugs or alcohol or sex like I'm letting you into my life. I'm letting you into my body I think that there's like an over reliance and even like a glorification of vices. Uh, like especially on social media.

1:05KT: It sounds like Insta stories at 3am.

1:32Guests: Yeah.

1:32KT: Lots of sneaky DNFs.

1:32Guests: But yeah, so like, yeah, it's all just very personal and meaningful to me. And then like, uh, was expressing how I was feeling at the time of writing it. Yeah, we wanted the film to work as a horror film, but then also as a drama film at the same time. So we wanted to work on both levels. Um, and we wanted it to not be just be like a splatter film or something like that. We wanted the script to have meaning and it to be layered because that's the movies. We like watching the stuff It's like oh, well a lot of thought went into this, you know, that's the stuff we love.

2:03Guests: We love watching That sounds so stupid. Yeah.

2:03KT: Well, thanks I want to talk a little bit about the tone, like horror is so expansive and you can play a lot in that sort of space. You have the serious sort of films, Hereditary, also shout out to Babadook as well. Big work on the Babadook. I do my homework. Hey! And then you also have the really camp sort of horror, like Jason X.

2:03Guests: Yeah.

2:03KT: And my personal favorite Seed of Chucky. So I want to talk a little bit about this.

2:03Guests: Oh my God. Is that the mum of his son? Glenn? Guess again, daddy. Glenda? That's my name. Don't you wear it out. Shit.

2:45Guests: Get in, get in there. Yeah. Oh my gosh. And they have a kid. That's right. Oh, how awesome.

2:45KT: Before it's time as well. It was like a non binary puppet.

2:45Guests: Yeah, absolutely. Oh my God. That movie was awesome. I love Seed of Chucky. Yeah.

2:45KT: Oh, I wish we had the time. I really wish we had the time. Um, but can we distill the tone of what you were looking for in Talk to Me?

2:45Guests: Yeah, we love it when, uh, films are brave enough to, like, jump around between tones. Like, we love Korean cinema and Bong Joon-ho and, uh, Memories of Murder is our favorite film. And, uh, the way that it, like, balances different tones, whether it's comedy and drama and even suspense and horror in that film, I was really inspired by that. And we didn't want our film to just be like one note, we wanted it to be like, yeah, there's horror in there, there's comedy in there, the drama's in there, we want to be able to have the freedom to jump in.

3:25Guests: Cause that's what, life isn't just one emotion, you know, life isn't just scary, or just funny, or just sad, it's a balance of everything. We're laughing, we're crying, we're having a good time. And that's the good thing about, like, say Bong Joon-ho, like, he gets you on side with the characters because you like them so much, and they're funny, you know, it's like, making relatable characters, so then when, you know, the bad stuff does happen, you're on side with them more. That's what we were trying to do. We're trying to get balanced genre. That's what we're attempting to do this guy useless Sorry,

3:55Guests: this is,

3:55KT: you can also insult me too. we're part of the family. The balancing, I want to talk about storytelling quickly. There's a sort of going and committing and going, if you'll pardon my language, full balls to the wall, or also refraining a character for a higher sort of impact. How is it balancing that?

3:55Guests: Yeah, yeah. Well, we like shot some of the more extreme stuff even more extremely, and then we pulled it back in the edit. Yeah. So there's like one scene where like a character goes to hell and that scene used to go for like two and a half minutes. Uh huh. And we cut it down to 20 seconds because it felt like it got too crazy and it was a bit like off putting or it felt exploitative or it felt like a shock horror for just shock horror's sake.

4:34Guests: Uh huh. So it was like finding that balance in the edit and then also in the scripting process as well, it was a lot. The original draft was a lot more. It was heavier. Graphic. Yeah, and it was like it was like yeah Just not wanting to be off putting and like having those moments have meaning and carry weight and not just be there to be there But you want it you want it to be shocking because it's a horror film But then also not just be gratuitous for gratuitous sake. Yeah, you want to earn those moments So it was a balance like trying to see It was a thin line, you know, to walk, but I feel like it's pretty, pretty violent, right? Yeah, it is. Maybe, yeah. Maybe on one side, not the other.

5:08KT: There was some, definitely some proverbial money shots and scenes that people will talk about for years that are inside of this film.

5:08Guests: Oh my God, for years. I hope so. That'd be amazing.

5:08KT: I call that me. Whether it's a personal belief or specifically in regards to Talk to Me, is there a balance between creativity and accessibility? You know, there's a big. Um, conversation about going independent, um, is it giving them that Hansel and Gretel sort of crumbs along the way? Or is it just letting it open for interpretation?

5:08Guests: Yeah, we like, we love everything to be open for interpretation and, uh, yeah, there's so many meanings to so many different parts of it, aspects of it that we just want to people to interpret it. Although like in some interviews we start talking too much about what it means to us personally, but like we like for it to be open and, uh, yeah, mean whatever it's going to mean to anyone.

5:08KT: The other hand's just out there. White people's shit, man, I tell You

6:00KT: I know my brown people don't play with that shit.

6:00Guests: Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we have our friends Tamani and John and, uh, they would. So it's like, uh, yeah, there was like so many different characters are based on people that I knew. And, uh, yeah, yeah, there was like our, our, like our friends, older sister, Nellie, who like really like raised us and like helped us grow up and like push us.

6:00KT: I saw it. That's such a gorgeous video. I cried three times by the way.

6:00Guests: Oh, did you really?

6:00KT: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

6:00Guests: Yeah, yeah. It meant a lot to us as well.

6:27Guests: That was, that was capturing our Sundance experience. But, uh, even, yeah. It just felt like a dream that, that, yeah, Nellie who like raised us and like helped steer us to filmmaking and not the other side, which was like, and like, beat the crap out of each other. Yeah, she really helped us. And she always spoke about Sundance. So, the fact that she lived there, and we hadn't seen her for 10 years, and then we were able to see her at the premiere, that was... It was awesome. She said, why would anyone do the hand?

6:55KT: Well, there you go. There's that brown connection. When we come up, we all come up together and it's such a gorgeous, beautiful moment. Um, I want to thank you so much for your time and wrap up with our final question. We finished our reviews with a recommendation. So what would you pair with Talk to Me as a double feature?

6:55Guests: Oh, well, it's a good question.

7:12Danny: Oh, Let Me In.

7:13Michael: What's that? Nice. Oh, Let the Right One In.

7:15Guests: No, what's the, what's the American version? It's Let Me In, right? Oh, Let Me In. I think Let the Right One In is better, I think. Oh, actually, no, no, no, they're both really good. Sorry, yes, yes, I, I agree. Let the Right One In or Let Me In.

7:15KT: If only, just for title's sake, Talk to Me. You know, Let the Right One In or let me, stop talking.

7:15Guests: No, it's good.

7:15KT: We'll send it to Bruno Mars. It sounds like a R&B song.

7:41Guests: Yeah. All right. Yeah. Something here. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

7:41KT: Well, thank you so much for your time.

7:41Guests: Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.