Sam Mendes and Chloé Zhao shared a touching moment after a screening of their film Hamnet in London on Sunday night, as they faced the “emotional cost” of being a director.
Mendes is one of the producers of “Hamnet,” which has been nominated for eight Academy Awards and 11 BAFTAs, including Best Picture and Best Director. The film stars Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and Jesse Buckley as his wife Agnes, and follows a couple as they cope with the loss of their only son.
Mendes, who is currently in the middle of filming the four-picture Beatles movie, which also stars Paul McCartney and Mescal, spoke to Chao after the screening and was equally candid about his experience as a director.
One of the most “difficult” parts of the job is “dealing with other people’s energy and their needs. You absorb a lot of other people’s energy, their concerns, their insecurities, their paranoia, just fear. And you have to absorb that, project an image of calm even when you’re not necessarily feeling it. That’s the director’s job in many ways,” Mendes confessed.
Mendez then asked Chao directly: “What does it do to you? Because it’s hard and drains you a lot, and how long does it take to recover? Have you recovered?”
After a long pause, Mr. Zhao replied, “What you’re saying is quite emotional, and I know you feel the same way. It comes at a price. And it’s only now, in my 40s, that I’ve been able to accept[that]and say, ‘That’s OK.'” I used to hate it and read as many self-help books as I could and thought, “I have to fix this!” But alchemy costs money. You can’t transform without killing something. ”
“I have a kind of life that I might have to give up,” the Oscar-nominated director continued. “Some of the things I grew up watching in the movies, you think, ‘Oh, I wish I had that. It looks so safe and inviting.'” That won’t happen. ”
“I used to think I could have it all. I thought it would be summer forever. I hate winter and things die and compost. But now I realize, no, something has to die. And like I said earlier, and we… In the movie I was trying to talk about, we live in a culture that hasn’t taught us how to let things go, how to let things die, and so I feel like there’s something wrong with me and I can’t make certain parts of my life work, you know, why don’t I have this? why don’t i have it? I started wondering if that would (really) happen even though I don’t really have kids. ”
Mendes then moved on to another difficult (or at least challenging) aspect of directing: not being able to express emotion while getting the perfect shot. “When you’re rolling the camera and an actor is showing you something great, you feel triumph and excitement and your heart starts beating faster. Or whatever it is, that moment of creativity and discovery for you, you can’t say anything because you’ll ruin it and ruin the take,” Mendes said, adding that he recently experienced such a moment in a “Beatles” movie (though he declined to elaborate further).
“The other day I caught myself and said, ‘Ah!’ Like this,” Mendes revealed. “Don’t make any noise. It’s only when the script director sees you punching the air or banging a chair that you go, ‘Yeah!'” or whatever it is. But while those are very nice moments, it’s a very strange art, craft, whatever you want to call it, that just doesn’t allow for shouting. The problem with directing, in many ways, is that there is no way out. You can’t scream. You know, the actors get to scream. I don’t mean literally shouting, I just mean expressing. ”
In response, Chao admitted that she often cries out of excitement on set. When Mendes asked if that would be distracting to people, she replied, “Oh, yeah. But I know technology is so advanced that you can actually mute my voice.”
“So when I say, ‘Cut!’ … it’s the loudest scream, running across the room, waving my arms, like I lost it. Paul (Mescal) would say, ‘If I don’t get it, does that mean it’s not good?’
When asked what was the most exciting moment she experienced on set while working on “Hamnet,” Chao said that although there were many, the scene where Agnes gives birth to twins was probably the most memorable for her. In the scene, Buckley, who was holding a real baby for the shoot, thought her daughter was stillborn, but minutes later realized she was breathing. “Magically, in a perfect moment, the baby started moving and even made little noises. We all have the same (emotional) expressions as Jesse, and then Emily Watson (and the other actors playing the midwives) come rushing in and the cameraman is crying and shaking. Those are the moments when you feel like the universe is with you.”
