Joe Swanberg
Joe Swanberg returns to the director’s chair this week as he helms his new feature film Drinking Buddies: a movie that has been playing well on the festival circuit over recent weeks.
We caught up with the director to talk about the film, how he brought his great cast list together and what lies ahead.
- Drinking Buddies is the new film, which is hitting the big screen this week, so can you tell me a little bit about it?
It is about two friends, a guy and a girl, who work at a microbrewery in Chicago, who are both in relationships but have a very fun and flirty workplace friendship/relationship.
So it is about the struggle of trying to balance your real life with your work life, and how complicated that can become when a lot of beer is mixed into that (laughs).
- That does lead me into my next question really. This is an interesting film because it looks at emotional infidelity and physical infidelity - which is something that you don’t necessarily associate with films in this genre - so where did this story start for you?
It came from… a lot of it is based on my life and a lot of it is based on some of the things that the actors brought into it. It was inspired by the film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, the Paul Mazursky movie: not so much the storyline but the idea of being able to make an interesting and complicated adult comedy.
I wanted to make something that got into the intricate nature of how people in their late twenties and early thirties interact with each other and what their expectations are. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice managed to do that so successfully, because it never forgot to be a comedy; so I was inspired by its ability to be complicated and also funny.
When you think of a complicated movie, you think it an independent drama that is very serious, but when you think of a comedy, you think of something that is light-hearted.
So, that film and Elaine May’s The Heartbreak Kid, both did a really good job of being complicated and funny.
- What made you want to explore these particular kinds of relationships? By doing if you have made a very powerful film - perhaps more powerful and emotional than people will be expecting.
I hope so. I do think that a lot of what can make something powerful is its unexpectedness. When you set something up to be powerful, you are creating a certain level that people are at when they walk into the cinema - in a sense you are shooting yourself in the foot as they are like ’I will be the judge of how powerful this is’.
When you are making a comedy, I think that you can catch people off guard with real emotions, and I suspect you have a chance to hit them in a deeper way because their guard isn’t up. When I go see 12 Years A Slave, I am expecting power, but also my guard is up to power as well. I am not necessarily going to be vulnerable in the same way because I expect that traumatic and terrible things are going to happen.
If I go and see something that I expect to be a romantic comedy, and then something really unexpected happens, I feel that it can seep past my armour because I have put up no walls of defence.
The Spectacular Now was something that did a really good job of then when I saw it.
I didn’t know too much about it, but it looked like a light and interesting teen movie: it was unexpectedly very powerful, as I wasn’t prepared for when it got dark and complicated things started to happen. It is just a nice way to see a movie.
I wish there was a better way to advertise movies, so they don’t give anything away. A trailer is the most successful way to advertise a movie, by default trailers give away almost everything.
- You have lined up a terrific cast as Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick and Ron Livingston are all on board. So can tell me a bit about the casting process and what you were looking for in these four central characters?
The casting process was fun: I worked with a casting director called Mark Bennett. We just met with such great people. I was looking for a few things: I was looking for people that I could communicate well with and had a rhythm with.
Then I was also looking for people who had rich and complicated lives outside of movies: people who had things to talk about that didn’t always revolve back to being on a film set. For Hollywood actors that is their job, and they do spend a lot of time in that environment, and so most of their stories and most of their experiences are filtered through being on a movie.
These four people are just into a lot of things outside of movies, or they have had a lot of life experience before they got into movies. I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with these four people, as they were just amazing.
- You are a director, who uses a lot of improvisation on the set, so why do you choose to work like that? In addition, how open were these actors to that, as it is not necessarily something that they will have done a lot of?
I choose to work like that because I started off making very small movies with none-professional actors: that was a tool that we could use to make the films real and different. Rather than trying to ask none-professional actors to read scripted dialogue, it would be more interesting if they had the idea of what I wanted the scene to be and then just put it into their own words.
Then I just kept working that way, even when I started working with professional actors. I discovered that I could get even more out of it with professional actors as there was not only that level of spontaneity and realism, but you can add all of the training that they have in terms of knowing how a camera works and to get most out of their bodies and their facial expressions.
It has just continued to be a really nice and fun working method, and the results just keep getting better and better, so I am encouraged to keep pushing in that direction.
It was a draw for the actors as it was a chance to experiment in a different way and do something that they hadn’t done before. I think that they probably were a little bit scared, but it was a cool opportunity.
- Olivia and Jake have a particularly great chemistry in this film, so how great was it to see that develop? And how did you develop that with them?
It was great. I mostly stayed out of the way because they found that very naturally; I didn’t need to interfere with that at all. They just make each other laugh. It was a really fun set to be on. Trying to create a fun atmosphere is one thing that I can do as a director, where people feel open to playing around, being vulnerable and sharing real stories.
They just naturally had it. When it happens, it is just amazing to witness: I don’t think that I am capable of engineering it; this was just one of the nice incidents where it happened.
- The movie has been playing a series of different festivals, so how have you been finding the response to the film?
It has been amazing. I am at a point in my life and career where I am happy to make something that people like. So, I am enjoying it, but I know that it is not going to happen every time. It is an especially fun project to be travelling around with because people do seem to be connecting with it.
I am enjoying it and then when I go out with the next one I will be prepared for not as enthusiastic a response. I have loved every movie that I have made, and you hope that everyone loves it as much as you do but that is not always the case.
- Drinking Buddies is an independent film but it is certainly the biggest budge that you have had to play with. How have you found moving in that direction and taking on a bigger project?
It was good. I was nervous going into it, as I thought that would get in the way of what I liked about the smaller movies. However, I discovered that all the extra money and extra people were there to help me make the movie that I wanted to make.
Rather than experiencing that as a hurdle towards the thing that I wanted to do, it just made it that much easier to get there in a quicker and more convenient way. It was really a great experience: it was the most fun I have ever had making a movie.
- Finally, what is next for you? Are we going to be seeing you take on bigger projects in the future?
I think that it will be a little of both: I will do things bigger than Drinking Buddies, but I think I will also keep doing films smaller than Drinking Buddies. I would love to keep making a movie or two a year, and those will fall into different arenas.
I did a movie since Drinking Buddies called Happy Christmas, I am editing it now, and it sees me reunite with Anna Kendrick. Lena Dunham and Melanie Lynskey are in the film as well. Ben Richardson, the cinematographer of Drinking Buddies, also shot this new one: I am trying to keep aspects of the team together. I just really want to keep working.
Drinking Buddies is released 1st November.