Darren Aronofsky told us which TheWhale role was easiest to cast and which proved more difficult ...
Academy Award-nominated director Darren Aronofsky has a mighty powerful filmography with a range of projects that stretch from the feverish Requiem for a Dream to the empathetic and gritty The Wrestler, and then some. No matter the subject, Aronofsky’s projects often exhibit a laser focus on character as they navigate deeply complex, human challenges, and his latest, The Whale, is no different.
DARREN ARONOFSKY: I wasn't picturing the movie ten years ago. I think when I saw it 10 years ago, I was just so moved by the characters and in such an unexpected way. And that, to me, is the magic of cinema, is that you can enter the minds and the souls of characters anywhere on the planet and go on a journey with them and realize how similar you are to these people even though they are so different to you in circumstance or place or moment in their life.
I know Brendan said he was very intimidated by the project and had some fear about jumping into it. What can you do to put him at ease and give him confidence in himself, but also without completely vanquishing the inspiration and motivation that can come from knowing that you're about to jump into a high-pressure, challenging role?I believe it’s in the press notes.He's such a veteran. He's been doing it longer than I have.
You also have a phenomenal supporting ensemble here, too. Of all the supporting roles, which would you say was the easiest to cast, where the perfect fit magically presented themselves? But then, which role was the most challenging to fill where it took more of a search to find the right actor? It was something I think subconsciously came through to all of us. I don't know how it got through to Hong, but we did meet a lot of caretakers. I've also been a caretaker in my life and so I understand that mixture of love with frustration. It was such a brave choice to bring that to a character. Most actors would never go near something that dark, and she just thought it was right and we talked about it and she was like, “Yeah, I recognize it's scary, but it's the right thing.
But the real breakthrough on the production design was the idea of putting the couch in the center of the room, which, if you think about it, very, very few rooms on the planet have couches in the center of the room. They mostly put it against a wall. The brilliance of that allowed me to put Charlie at the center of the solar system, the sun in the middle of the room, and let all the other actors block around him as satellites and as moons.
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