The killing of a sacred deer
The director of The Lobster talks about the dark premise of his follow-up, working with stars lượt thích Colin Farrell & Nicole Kidman, & his unique sensibility.
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Yorgos Lanthimos first gained international recognition as a Greek filmmaker with a taste for a particular sort of black comedy, making movies (including Kinetta, Alps, và 2009’s Oscar-nominated Dogtooth) that had one foot in science fiction and another in body toàn thân horror, và yet still managed lớn provoke laughs with nightmare scenarios. He broke out in 2015 with The Lobster, starring Colin Farrell & Rachel Weisz, a surreal epic mix in a world where single people are sent khổng lồ a hotel to try & find love, & are condemned khổng lồ be turned into an animal of their choice should they fail. At once sweetly heartbreaking & mesmerizingly disturbing, the film was a cult hit that got a surprise Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Lanthimos’s newest film, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, re-teams him with Farrell in a very different role: While Farrell played the loveless sad-sack protagonist of The Lobster, here he’s a successful heart surgeon named Steven who has a beautiful wife (played by an eminently poised Nicole Kidman), two children, và an expensive home. Steven takes the teenager Martin (Barry Keoghan) under his wing after the death of Martin’s father on his operating table, and things turn sinister as the teen begins to exact an elemental sort of revenge, forcing Steven to lớn make a frightening choice about the future of his family.
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The film has all the hallmarks of a Lanthimos movie, including his curious skill with dialogue (his characters usually speak long, expository sentences with a flat, affected monotone) & his taste for macabre plotting. But it also feels lượt thích a fascinating new step for the director, one more heavily steeped in gothic drama than bizarre comedy, announcing itself with a startling opening shot of real-life open-heart surgery. I spoke lớn Lanthimos about his idea of the film ahead of its North American debut at the Toronto International Film Festival (it is scheduled for U.S. Release on October 27). This interview has been edited for clarity & length.
David Sims: I have to tell you, I saw the film a few days ago, và I had very strange dreams that night.
Yorgos Lanthimos: Good, so we went straight to the subconscious, then.
Sims: Did you first come to lớn The Killing of a Sacred Deer thinking about this terrible choice Colin Farrell’s character has to make?
Lanthimos: I think the initial thoughts were around the oddity of a very young person (Martin) trying khổng lồ get revenge over something an older person has done. & that kind of dynamic, that a teenager can actually terrorize someone grown-up và mature. And, also, the themes of justice and the ambiguity of the situation we choose lớn put
Sims: Martin—when he presents the rules of this scenario Steven is trapped in—feels lượt thích a sort of Rumpelstiltskin, or any sort of demonic figure in fairy tales.
Lanthimos: We didn’t set out to lớn create such a specific association or atmosphere—it was mostly about trying to make this young boy, this teenager, feel both as a young, innocent boy và as someone who’s very mature, with tremendous nguồn over other people. We’re trying to lớn create a balance, which you don’t find everyday in life. We didn’t want him lớn appear as evil or naïve; we wanted an ambiguity, with elements that you understand. Up lớn a point, you go with him, & you identify with him and his pain.
Sims: There are all these shots of long hallways, of the camera gliding behind characters. The camera is in motion a lot here, unlike your other films.
Lanthimos: You are right, there’s much more movement than in any of my previous films. I never think about it much, the visual aspect of it, until we start making the movie. I don’t really think about it when we write. When we finish, and I start putting the film together, và we pick the locations, I vị think about that a lot. On this one, I just felt the need for the camera to lớn be almost like another entity, in some ways. Lượt thích there’s another, otherworldly presence—very discreetly. I thought of these high angles, or very low angles, with the camera following people around, creeping from below or above. That was the initial feel that I thought was fitting khổng lồ the whole story. And then you face actual hospitals, they have long corridors, so obviously you work with that. What you thought of as an initial approach takes shape because of your surroundings.
Sims: You vì an excellent job capturing what can be a little frightening about a hospital: that it can be a little too clean, that it can be eerily quiet.
Lanthimos: The most important thing for me about the hospital was that it looked state-of-the-art & new, that it wasn’t a Gothic-type old hospital. Both as a juxtaposition to lớn the genre the film flirts with, but also in terms of the story, that was the most important part for me. I wanted nobody to lớn think that this was a terrible hospital, and that’s why nobody’s figuring out what’s wrong. It needed to lớn feel like all the scientific resources were there, that Colin’s a successful surgeon who knows what he’s doing.
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Sims: You capture that in his home, as well—that everything looks so pristine and modern & very classy và expensive, that despite all of that, there’s nothing he can vì chưng as his children begin lớn get sick. Which is very scary!
Lanthimos: Yeah, you feel helpless.
Sims: But this movie more exists in ‘the real world,’ versus something lượt thích The Lobster. Were you thinking of larger world-building, or was that less of a concern?
Lanthimos: No, you’re right, The Lobster is very particular, & we did need to lớn create a very specific world with specific rules so the whole premise would work. But the way we thought about this story, it seemed it would take place in the normal world; well, the world that we know. <Laughs.> I don’t know that it’s normal, but the world that we live in. Within this world that we’re familiar with, something odd và otherworldly happens. So it was important that it felt like the real world, so that the situation did seem extreme & strange & impossible to giảm giá khuyến mãi with.
Sims: Did you always figure on casting Colin again?
Lanthimos: No, we wrote this
Sims: It is a very different role in The Killing of a Sacred Deer. In The Lobster, he’s very befuddled, it’s a more outwardly comedic character, while here his character is on top of the world. What kind of an impression did you want him to lớn give at the start of the movie?
Lanthimos: We don’t talk much; I try not lớn say too many things with the actors. Not lớn analyze too many things about the film, because I think it’s better for the process. The way I work, & the material we work with, I think if you analyze too much & have too many specific ideas, it just becomes a little bit too superficial, và then performances might become too self-conscious và project relatively narrow things. Whereas I cherish ambiguity, và surprise, và actors that are present in the moment, và not trying lớn get through particular ideas in the scene, or in the moment. That approach limits the resonance of scenes in general. So I vị try lớn stay away, as much as possible, from having too many detailed discussions about what it is, & what the character is. Definitely no background story—all I know is what’s on the page.
“It just felt right—a film about a heart surgeon opens with a heart.”And of course, Colin knows that, from working together before. So he did have questions at the beginning, probably something lượt thích what you said. The only thing I remember, the only thing we discussed, is he said, “This is more of a grounded world, right? It’s more real?” và I said, “Yeah, yeah. But, you know.” và he said, “Yeah, I know.” He’s a very smart guy, he has a great sense of humor, he gets our work, and he gets the material. You don’t have khổng lồ go into great length trying lớn explain it or figure it out. It’s just about fine-tuning, about helping the actors find the right volume, or tone, or speed. So I work more in physical ways like that. Usually, I say, “This is too loud, or too slow,” I never go too intellectual with their performances.
Sims: There is a particular rhythm to your dialogue và how it’s delivered. So I assume you take care that everything is said in that rhythm.
Lanthimos: Yeah. That’s partially true, but I think the writing và the material also has a very strong imprint, it’s kind of there. All the talented và smart actors, they get it; as soon as it comes out of their mouth, they know if it’s right or wrong. If the writing has a particular voice, they get it, và they can hit it. I’ve been very lucky, & I’ve worked with great actors, và actors that know & appreciate my previous work, and that helps a lot as well. They’re aware of the universe, though every film is different, obviously. But I think they understand the intention.
Sims: Was that true of Nicole Kidman? Was she acquainted with your work?
Lanthimos: It was a similar situation; she was aware of my work, & we had met a couple of times before. Obviously, I admire her very much, & she’d seen some of my films, and we met & were always talking about doing something together. We started sending out the script, she read it và texted me saying, “I love it, và I want to bởi vì it.” & I just replied, “Okay.” & that was it! and the experience was great. She’s extremely committed and hard-working and talented, obviously. It was just about fine-tuning all these things. And she had a great relationship with Colin, và they went on, after we wrapped, a few weeks later they were on another set together
Sims: Have you seen it?
Lanthimos: No, I want to lớn watch it!
Sims: I was also very happy to lớn see Alicia Silverstone, in that one important scene as Martin’s mother. She’s an actress I’ve loved for a long time, & you don’t see her on screen as much these days. Were you thinking of her, when it came time lớn cast the movie?
Lanthimos: I have lớn say, I didn’t! My casting director thought of her. As you said, I was a huge fan; I’d seen Clueless when I was a teenager a thousand times, the Aerosmith music videos, and all that. But because she had fallen off my radar, I didn’t think of her, I’m ashamed khổng lồ say. But our casting director, Francine
Sims: That first shot of The Killing of a Sacred Deer, of open-heart surgery on an operating table, really announces the film in a particular way. What were you thinking when you decided to xuất hiện the film that way?
Lanthimos: I wasn’t thinking, really. <Laughs.> It just felt right—a film about a heart surgeon opens with a heart. & as you get into it, you think about the most impactful way of doing that, & the simplest way, at the same time. At the beginning, we wrote this scene that was much more elaborate, with many shots of the doctors, và scalpels, and the machines in the operating theater. But we shot the actual operation first, the shot that is in the film, a few days before principal photography started, because it took a lot of preparation, và there’s a lot of protocol, and everything had khổng lồ be sterilized. It was the first shot we did, it was the first shot of the film, & as soon as I saw it I just felt that I didn’t need to shoot anything else.
