The Resident
Antti Jokinen has made a name for himself in commercials and music videos in recent years. But with The Resident he is now making the lead into feature films - he has also penned the script for this psychological thriller.
And for his first movie he has assembled an impressive cast of Hilary Swank, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Christopher Lee.
I caught up with him to talk about The Resident, working with Hammer Films and what projects he has in the pipeline.
- The Resident is about to be released here in the UK so can you tell me a little bit about the movie?
The movie follows Juliet, a young doctor, who has just moved into a new apartment and she starts to feel that things are exactly what it seems.
I was inspired by Roman Polanski's The Tenant and also Fatal Attraction and I wanted to make an American psychological thriller that had a European film hidden inside of it.
I also wanted to create a strong female character who doesn't settle for being tormented, every time there is a problem she does something, and I wasn't interested of making a film about someone who is being haunted and she doesn't do anything.
The Resident is also a psychological thriller about a woman who is ready to fight and willing to take on the battle - and I found that particularly intriguing.
And the final aspect of the film is those childhood fears like being afraid of the dark, claustrophobia and monsters lurking in the dark places under your bed.
Then there is a very sexual undertone in the film about you being seen in your private moments and that sort of sexually power that you have over another person when you are able to control their life.
- Well you have touched on my next question really as well as director you also penned the script so what was your inspiration behind the story? Did you ever look to the likes of Tenant for inspiration?
The inspiration originally came from the work of the likes of Hitchcock and Polanski and other directors that I really liked. But this was a big deal for me, I have studied literature and I have done documentaries and TV series but mainly I come from commercials and music videos, I wanted to make a film that was a filmmakers film, I didn't want to extend my commercial career. I wanted to make a film that had a point of view from a director and a writer.
The original idea came from a story that I ready in The New Yorker about a psychological doctor and therapist who was treating a woman for not being able to sleep because she was constantly afraid that there was something under her bed.
After five years of treatment the doctor said 'why don't you just f***ing cut off the legs of your bed?' she did and the doctor never heard from her again.
So i developed this idea of a psychological thriller of a woman who was in a very difficult situation, about imprisonment, but she is ready to take these steps, she is very streetwise and very smart, and she is ready to go after what the problem is. That was the very original seed that came to me when I started to write it.
- The film also boasts a great cast with Hilary Swank, Christopher Lee and Jeffrey Dean Morgan so can you tell me about the audition process. And did you create any of the characters with these actors in mind?
I completely wrote the film without anybody in mind, I had the ordinal idea for the film eight years ago, so I didn't have anyone specific in mind I just wrote it for a film that I could direct.
I had tried to cast it for a while there are some very violent and sexual aspects to it and it was not an easy casting process - I had some trouble fining someone who would be strong enough to do the scenes that I wanted.
But then Hilary was in the stage of her career that she wanted to make independent movies that were a little edgier and didn't want to tell stories in the same way that the regular Hollywood movies tell stories.
And she got in touch with me and I met with her and it was like a ray of light as she was exactly what I was looking for; a strong woman, beautiful and very sexy, and she was intrigued because she had never done a role like that.
Then we adjusted the script, after our first meeting, to suit her better and then we did some rehearsals and read-throughs - I was constantly re-writing and changing dialogue to suit her better.
She wanted to work with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, I wasn't familiar with his work, but I watched some of his work and I thought he was brilliant as he has that undertone of being a nice and good guy with that dark sensibility hiding under that smile that he has (laugh).
Christopher Lee was someone that Hammer Films wanted me to consider - and what is there to consider it's Christopher Lee? I sent him the script and he responded to the material, I spoke to him on the phone before we met and that was that.
- The Resident has this claustrophobic feel to it as Juliet becomes like a prisoner in her home so what challenges did you face shooting in such a confined space?
We knew this so we built everything, we built all the apartments, all the hallways, all the interiors in New Mexico - where all the sets were shot and all the exteriors were shot in New York.
So we always had that in mind, and I had an Oscar winning cinematographer in Guillermo Navarro and he designed all the sets to work for our purposes.
And a big other challenge, which was something that I was intrigued about and I think Guillermo was intrigued about as well, was so much of the happens in the dark hours of the day when there is no light and that was another challenge.
But we planned very much we went through ever scene and did a lot of story-boarding, designing things to work for us. In this type of film we had to shoot in a little bit of a rush but since we were so well planned we managed to do it.
- How did you create that closed in feeling - there is some quite interesting lighting used?
The biggest thing with the light it that we reflected every light, so there is not straight light in the film, to get that dimension and that indifferation between light and darkness - which I think creates that claustrophobic feel.
Also we chose lenses that had out of focuses lenses to it because I think that the imagination of those watching the film an be used to trigger those fears and it's more intriguing to have them imagine things than actually show them.
I don't like films that have a lot of blood and a lot of violence I like films that make you think of the violence that might happen.
I think it's very uninteresting to see an axe in someone's head we wanted to hint at thinks and create tension and claustrophobia - to do that we had to use darkness and light - to suggest things and now always hammer them home.
- Also the movie is very grounded in reality so how deliberate a choice was that?
It was very deliberate because for someone to feel psychological fear a person has to feel that it's real.
I also had that intention, as I explained earlier, I didn't want to make a movie that extended my music video and commercial career where everything is glossy and beautiful, I too all those things and threw them away, I wanted to make a very reality based film, like those of the seventies.
So yes I really wanted to that so it would have a very naturalistic feel, epically for a female audience but men as well, that this could happen to me. I didn't want to make hyper-reality because I don't like films that do that.
- The Resident is only the second movie from Hammer Films in thirty years so how excited were you to work with such a horror movie institution?
Well I was very excited about Hammer Films but I was also worried because they are a horror film company and I wasn't trying to make a horror film here I wanted to make a psychological thriller.
But when they had the same intention I was very excited - I think everyone on the film was excited that the film starts with the Hammer logo and we can always say that we worked for Hammer Films.
- And you have mentioned already that this is your first feature length movie after working in music videos, documentaries and TV so how did you find directing your first movie?
It's naturally a different beast completely making films, also the fact that there is a Hollywood company involved and I am a first time director so there a lot of fighting and getting your point across when you are making your first film.
The biggest challenge that you have is telling the story and since I was able to write the story, in a sense that Hilary Swank wanted to make it, I felt confident about the story.
But on a movie we shot thirty days in a row instead of just two or three so it was physically exhausting. Plus I have put a lot of pressure on myself making this movie as it is going to determine, it's already determined, the next twenty or thirty years of may career because I'm not planning to go back to pop videos and commercials I want to do films.
So in that sense it was different and difficult but I knew that going in so to me making your first film with this crew and cast was just brilliant.
- Juliet is a very strong female character so what did Hilary Swank bring to the part?
I needed someone who was strong and independent as well as sexy and vulnerable, I think vulnerability is very important to the film; and possible our biggest challenge as Hilary has done such strong female parts we didn't want to the audience to feel that if there was a problem she was just going to solve it.
But she was just immaculate and I loved working with her. We were constantly working together and she was very supportive throughout the production, if there were any problems she would take my side.
And for the character she was a doctor of emergency doctor, dealing with life and death, and she can pull that off - if Jessica Simpson was playing a doctor I think the audience would leave within five minutes (laughs).
- Finally what's next for you?
Well I have got two movies that are moving forward the first is Nicholas North with is an adventure film that I wrote. I'm also adapting a book by Sophie Oxenham into a screenplay it's a book about women during WWII and also in Berlin in 1991 and it's about human trafficking.
The Resident is released 11th March.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Antti Jokinen has made a name for himself in commercials and music videos in recent years. But with The Resident he is now making the lead into feature films - he has also penned the script for this psychological thriller.
And for his first movie he has assembled an impressive cast of Hilary Swank, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Christopher Lee.
I caught up with him to talk about The Resident, working with Hammer Films and what projects he has in the pipeline.
- The Resident is about to be released here in the UK so can you tell me a little bit about the movie?
The movie follows Juliet, a young doctor, who has just moved into a new apartment and she starts to feel that things are exactly what it seems.
I was inspired by Roman Polanski's The Tenant and also Fatal Attraction and I wanted to make an American psychological thriller that had a European film hidden inside of it.
I also wanted to create a strong female character who doesn't settle for being tormented, every time there is a problem she does something, and I wasn't interested of making a film about someone who is being haunted and she doesn't do anything.
The Resident is also a psychological thriller about a woman who is ready to fight and willing to take on the battle - and I found that particularly intriguing.
And the final aspect of the film is those childhood fears like being afraid of the dark, claustrophobia and monsters lurking in the dark places under your bed.
Then there is a very sexual undertone in the film about you being seen in your private moments and that sort of sexually power that you have over another person when you are able to control their life.
- Well you have touched on my next question really as well as director you also penned the script so what was your inspiration behind the story? Did you ever look to the likes of Tenant for inspiration?
The inspiration originally came from the work of the likes of Hitchcock and Polanski and other directors that I really liked. But this was a big deal for me, I have studied literature and I have done documentaries and TV series but mainly I come from commercials and music videos, I wanted to make a film that was a filmmakers film, I didn't want to extend my commercial career. I wanted to make a film that had a point of view from a director and a writer.
The original idea came from a story that I ready in The New Yorker about a psychological doctor and therapist who was treating a woman for not being able to sleep because she was constantly afraid that there was something under her bed.
After five years of treatment the doctor said 'why don't you just f***ing cut off the legs of your bed?' she did and the doctor never heard from her again.
So i developed this idea of a psychological thriller of a woman who was in a very difficult situation, about imprisonment, but she is ready to take these steps, she is very streetwise and very smart, and she is ready to go after what the problem is. That was the very original seed that came to me when I started to write it.
- The film also boasts a great cast with Hilary Swank, Christopher Lee and Jeffrey Dean Morgan so can you tell me about the audition process. And did you create any of the characters with these actors in mind?
I completely wrote the film without anybody in mind, I had the ordinal idea for the film eight years ago, so I didn't have anyone specific in mind I just wrote it for a film that I could direct.
I had tried to cast it for a while there are some very violent and sexual aspects to it and it was not an easy casting process - I had some trouble fining someone who would be strong enough to do the scenes that I wanted.
But then Hilary was in the stage of her career that she wanted to make independent movies that were a little edgier and didn't want to tell stories in the same way that the regular Hollywood movies tell stories.
And she got in touch with me and I met with her and it was like a ray of light as she was exactly what I was looking for; a strong woman, beautiful and very sexy, and she was intrigued because she had never done a role like that.
Then we adjusted the script, after our first meeting, to suit her better and then we did some rehearsals and read-throughs - I was constantly re-writing and changing dialogue to suit her better.