Part one of the interview.
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| The Linguini Incident |
I'm from New York,
where we are very polite and rude at the same time. I'd like to think
New Yorkers are more polite than we are given credit for, but we are
abrasive and that's just how we are in general. There's a totally
different energy in Japan but I love it. It doesn't feel forced. It
feels very cultural and real. I like that sense of order. I like that
sense of elegance. I like that you can get a plate of fish and when
its served, so much effort went into the presentation. Part of my job
too as a filmmaker is to put effort into everything. It's not
something you can slop your way through, although some do. I think
consumers appreciate it and can tell when extra effort and passion
has gone into something. So, I love the elegance and attention to
detail in Japan, which you can see in the scene where the bartender
prepares the cocktail, but I also love this wonderful mix of chaos
and calm that Japanese has.
I see travelling as a
romantic thing, so wherever I am in the world, I tend to see the romance in it. I
joke that every time you have a cup of coffee in a new place, it's
always the best you've ever had. Your brain is thinking in a
different sort of way. The first time I went to Japan, I could
imagine living there if I spoke the language, and I don't get that
feeling everywhere I travel. Another thing I love about Tokyo is that
like New York you can get a delicious meal whether you have a lot of
money or very little money.
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| The Matador |
Because we were so
small, we had no permits and thus no red tape. I direct on the TV
series Girls, and Girls ended up shooting an episode in Tokyo (Japan). I
didn't direct that episode but I went with them when they shot it.
When I wanted to do TOKYO PROJECT, I reached out to the Japanese
production company that HBO had hired on that episode, and I told
them ''We have no money. We have the exact opposite budget of Girls
(which was millions of dollars). I can pay for the plane ticket and
for the rental of the van, but that's about it.'' We got a lot of
great people to volunteer their time, which was great, and they told
us ''Listen, we are so small that we don't need to play by the normal
rules. Nobody will even know we are there.'' Because they had that
rock and roll attitude, it enabled us to do it. I can imagine a
bigger movie having some real issues. They take a long time to say
yes in Japan, whereas in most other countries if you ask to shoot at
a particular place, you'll get a quick yes or no answer, depending on
how much money you have. T-Site was the hardest location to get in
Tokyo. To get them to agree to let us shoot there for an hour was a
lot of ''Let's have a meeting. Let's send a fax. Let's have some tea.
Let's send another fax. '' They had never let anyone shoot in there
since it had first opened. Big movies can solve issues with money. On
a small movie, you have to accept the 'no' and find another solution.
How personal a story
is TOKYO PROJECT to you?
Well, thankfully I have
never gone through the death of a loved one like that, but I related
to it even though it wasn't my story. Like a lot of creative people,
I am interested in the rebirths of relationships, and how to give a
second life to a relationship that may appear dead. I was interested
in this need to try to invent yourself and how you can actually do
it. It can give a spark to a relationship. I always talk about when
you have a great first date with someone you feel like you can rob a
bank. That feeling very quickly goes away into normal life even if
you're in love with someone. I wanted to explore the answer to the
question ''How do you get back to that place?'' These two characters
managed to get back to a place where there was no past between them,
and that was what was cool about it and personal and why I was able
to write it and to voice it.
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| Dom Hemingway |
Definitely. And one has
to be careful, because it can cripple you in a way. The loss of
innocence is more than just a saying. It can affect you. As an
independent filmmaker, if I lose my optimism, I literally can't work
because, for example, I have to be able to delude myself that
millions of dollars are going to find their way to a bank and allow
me to make a movie. I have to trust that people who say they're
going to be somewhere on a certain day will be there. I've done so
many movies that have fallen apart, there have been so many actors
who have dropped out of projects, and there has been so much money
that was promised but never came. If I looked at these situations in
any realistic way, I could never do it again. I would just wither
away. Part of my job is to force myself into this delusional state,
and it does help me in middle age in that you have to be optimistic
in a way. When something new comes into my life, it gives me a jolt
of energy. I'm not just talking about a project. I'm hugely into art
and I go to every new exhibition, and every time I go, I get this
jolt of energy because it's new, and I'm not someone who doesn't love
revisiting old things.
Travel gives me the
same energy, and with TOKYO PROJECT I didn't just want to do a
romance. I wanted to do a love story about the power of travel.
Travel can be deeply romantic, even when it can be deeply sad and
solitary. At the beginning of the movie, Ebon's character is a little
solitary, he's by himself, he's leaving a message to Lizzie saying
''I wish you could meet me for dinner, but you're never going to be
with me again.'' And I know what that is like, having made movies on
location my whole adult life. I know what it's like to be alone and
missing your family. It's the middle of night where you are and there
is literally nobody to talk to. It's like a black hole. That
loneliness was definitely something I wanted to show.
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| One Man's Trash |
It seems the go to
thing because it's more arty and I guess more realistic. I felt that
the movie earned that feeling at the end, because she leaves the note
and signs it with the name she has created. She's basically saying
''If you want to keep going with this, I'm open to it. But our past
is over. '' That indicates that they might have a future together.
Lizzie really wants to do a sequel and I told her ''I'm not
interested in seeing where they are in a year, but let's get back
together and see where they are in say, eight years. '' Whenever I
speak to Lizzie or Ebon, they always say ''Seven and a half years to
pre-production!''
How much has your
experience directing for television, especially on Girls, influenced
your approach to directing TOKYO PROJECT?
It really did influence
me. On Girls I had been given a number of scripts that were these
little two-handers, whether it was the Patrick Wilson episode (One
Man's Trash), the Allison Williams 'Panic in Central Park' episode, or
the Matthew Rhys episode (American Bitch) last season. They were like
little short movies and I got used to exploring what I could get
emotionally from a thirty-minute movie. I was astounded, quite
frankly by how much you could get. It can almost give you the
satisfaction you get from a full feature. With thirty minutes you can
really transport people. When I had the idea to do a short, I just
started writing it without thinking how long it was going to be, and
it ended up at thirty pages. I think I was just so used to being in
that headspace for the last couple of years on Girls. The Patrick
Wilson and Allison Williams episodes were both bitter-sweet romances
and I liked doing both of them very much. They influenced me in that
they gave me the belief that I could try something like TOKYO
PROJECT. I never wrote any of the Girls episodes. I was just the
director, but I was very much part of the process. I wanted to make a
two-hander short film that was my idea from start to finish, for good
or bad.
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| Tokyo Project cast and crew |
Part three of the interview.
TOKYO PROJECT is available to watch on HBO. Here is the trailer.
Money Into Light's previous interviews with Shepard: Part One , Part Two and Part Three.
Interview by Paul Rowlands. Copyright © Paul Rowlands, 2018. All rights reserved.
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