“Mickey 17” director Bong Joon Ho is an obsessive storyboarder. He places an incredible period of time and power into making the movie in his head earlier than stepping on set, mapping out the exact compositions, motion, and edits — which, based on him, stay 99-percent intact within the remaining model of his movies. However whereas a visitor on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, director Bong defined that his perspective towards the actors’ work inside these pictures is totally completely different.
“When it comes to directing actors’ performances, I really feel like if you happen to’re Clint Eastwood, or if you happen to have been an excellent actor earlier than directing, then you are able to do it,” stated Bong on the podcast through translator Sharon Choi. “However I really feel like appearing is completely an actor’s realm, the director can present inspiration and set the final path of performances.”
The director defined that having an in depth visible plan forward of time relaxes him, liberating him up on set for discovery of the characters with the actors. For Bong, this strategy is significant for his movies, as that human factor grounds motion pictures that effortlessly shift amongst satire, pathos, motion, and style.
“I don’t suppose it’s good to regulate [actors] like marionette puppets,” stated Bong. “I need to guarantee that the performances don’t really feel managed whenever you’re watching it on display. I need it to really feel alive and uncooked and really actual. And, typically that comes into battle with how meticulously and exactly deliberate my pictures and designs are.”
As a result of Bong is aware of the place he’s going to chop, he doesn’t shoot conventional overlapping protection the place actors carry out their traces and motion throughout several types of pictures. For actors working with the director for the primary time it’s a giant change to solely carry out one or two traces at a time — coming into in the course of a scene or second — earlier than shifting on to the following shot. The director’s visible plan additionally requires exact motion, physicality, and pace within the efficiency. Within the “Mickey 17” press notes, actor Steven Yeun defined how the perceived contradictions is one thing actors can ultimately discover freedom in.
Mentioned Yeun, “Whenever you’re dropped right into a second, a particular body, he’s in search of a kind of visible that your physique language reveals, or a form of power or vibe. Typically it may be a problem, since you need to free-flow and see what occurs. However there’s additionally one thing so liberating a couple of very exact efficiency, like, ‘Hit this mark. Be right here on this a part of the body.’ He’s not directing you, saying ‘I would like this particular efficiency.’ I feel for him, it’s like ‘Listed below are the parameters. Right here’s your parameter and also you’re free inside these boundaries.’ I feel it’s really extra liberating, as a result of now I don’t have to consider a bunch of different stuff.”
It does take some adjusting although to get thus far, and director Bong warns actors at the start of their first movie with him that it could initially be a shock to how they’re used to working. Whereas on the podcast, Bong shared a narrative from the “Parasite” set — and the second he realized he would want to make adjustment of how he labored with actors — when he overheard a dialog between Cho Yeo Jeong, who performed the rich housewife, and the movie’s lead Tune Kang Ho.
The actress, in her first few days working with the director, confided within the actor, a four-time collaborator with Bong, that she was overwhelmed. The director recalled overhearing her say, “‘He’s asking you to be there and take a step there and all the flowery digicam actions, man. He has no concept how powerful it’s. Such as you simply memorizing the traces,’” to which the actor assured her, “‘It takes time, you’ll get used to it by the tip of subsequent week. It’ll be superb. You’ll be okay.’“
Reflecting on the dialog, Bong stated there was a lesson he took away this, “I didn’t suppose I used to be saying issues [that were] too sophisticated, however you understand, [working] with actors, you may’t make all these requests to them all of sudden. It’s important to be very concise with what you inform them. Whenever you go for a subsequent take, there may be like seven belongings you wanna say, however you must select like two or three. And even simply getting these two or three can be a win.”
The director then made the connection to his subsequent movie, his first animated function, which he’s in the course of engaged on proper now (with a pause required for “Mickey 17” press), and the way a lot he missed what actors convey to the desk, and the way troublesome it’s to attempt to management a efficiency when they’re absent.
Mentioned Bong of his largest frustration making the bounce to animation, through which he clearly misses his beloved actors, “Now I’m engaged on an animation [film], the place you really do have to regulate every character as in the event that they’re puppets. After which so, as a result of you will have the chance to, they usually’re not simply dwelling respiration creatures, I find yourself going into like how their joints ought to be shifting. So it turns into an excessive amount of of an obsession virtually.”
To listen to Bong Joon Ho’s full interview, subscribe to the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favourite podcast platform. It’s also possible to watch the total interview on IndieWire’s YouTube web page.