Without repeating and without blowing, the category is Argentine directors who have succeeded in Hollywood. The challenge can test the memory of the most erudite movie buff. Recently, Damián Szifron premiered “Misántropo”. A few years ago, Lucrecia Martel tried to direct her own version of “Black Widow.” There are few cases. Hugo Fregonese in the middle of the last century, Luis Puenzo in the well-remembered “Old Gringo” and Alejandro Agresti with “La Casa del lago”, starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Precisely Muschietti, in one of his first works, was Agresti’s assistant director in “A night with Sabrina Love”.
Andy Muschietti He achieved what seemed almost impossible with a short filmography, but which includes his two adaptations of “It”, Stephen King’s novel of more than a thousand pages published in 1986, about a group of friends who learn to face their fears when confronted with a monstrous clown
Blond, light-eyed, almost two meters tall, he looks more like an actor than a film director. He’ll be fifty in a matter of months, but he has the youthful look of a college student about to take a midterm.
He walks quickly through the corner of Alvear and Ayacucho. Gracefully dodge a roller-skating mime handing out flyers from a shoe factory. He tries to cross the lobby of the five-star hotel without interruption, but is stopped by a request for photos of some Brazilian tourists dressed in Fluminense jerseys. A boy named Ralphie approaches him to sign a Flash comic. He goes up to the first floor where his sister Barbara is waiting for him, his eternal producer, his constant sidekick, the woman who helped him transform childhood games into massive and successful movies around the world. Together they are like Hansel and Gretel, united so as not to be devoured by the whims of the movie industry.
In a room specially conditioned for this purpose, Muschietti receives NEWS. A refreshing glass of water helps curb an incipient cough, a product of jet stress that Martín Demichelis will help to popularize.
News: In several notes prior to the premiere of “Misanthrope”, Damián Szifron was very critical of the studio system. How did you manage to insert yourself so well in Hollywood first with the “It” movies and now with “Flash”?
Andres Muschietti: It was a gradual process. My first movie, “Mamá”, was a Spanish-Canadian co-production, I had the support of Guillermo del Toro who introduced us to the people from Universal, but we were on our way to do the same in Spain. It was a learning path, I had been doing advertising for fifteen years, I had a lot of room in how the different professions move on a set, I had already dealt with English-speaking actors and crews. In that sense, the transition was not very difficult, beyond the difficulties of making a first film. I was feeling more and more comfortable and I learned to also deal with political issues.
News: Is dealing with studio politics the hardest part?
Muschietti: It is that it is not only a creative and technical question, it also plays a political variable because it is an industry. You learn to argue your actions and your point of view to convince them that this is going to work, you develop a kind of skill for persuasion that doesn’t come from the factory.
News: Did the success of “It” help you for all this?
Muschietti: Totally, something like that gives you a great accolade. This is already the third movie we’ve made with Warner, the first with DC. There was a previous relationship of great trust to the point of letting us make the movie we wanted without interference.
News: I remember that at the end of the 90’s his short film “Nostalgia en la mesa 8” was part of “Historias breves”. Can it be said that she is now fulfilling his dream?
Muschietti: Oh yeah, definitely. My dream has always been to make movies, not exclusively in the Hollywood industry. The good thing about doing them there is that you can access a project like this that has almost inexhaustible resources, so it is possible to exercise your imagination to unthinkable levels, something unattainable in other productions because your resources are limited.
News: How did they convince Michael Keaton to return to being Batman?
Muschietti: We invite you to eat. Obviously there were many calls before that, we presented the script, we sent it to him, he read it, but that doesn’t mean anything until the actor and director meet. Our lunch was very nice, we were Michael, my sister Barbara and I, basically I pitched him the film with my vision, I told him the whole thing, I told him my expectations regarding the character, with great respect because he had already played it in two films and he is its creator in some way, but I had very specific questions. The main one was how we found Bruce Wayne after thirty years off the screen. I had to convince him a bit because he needed a transformation within this movie, for him to be a reluctant hero at first and finally accept being Batman.
News: What he says refers to some westerns like “The Unforgivables”, where Clint Eastwood’s character wants nothing to do with his old life until something compels him to act.
Muschietti: As is, it’s almost like an archetype that adds a lot to the drama. It seems to me that the figure of the reticent hero adds weight to the plot, the extra stimulation of seeing Bruce Wayne in a place and at a time in his life that no one expected is a plus.
News: Another of the actors in your film is Ben Affleck, how do you address an Oscar winner who is also a director? Is it left or is it complicated?
Muschietti: He lets himself be directed one hundred percent. He is a guy who is very humble in that sense and understands the roles very well. He is an actor who has made a thousand films but he is also a director and there is added respect there, because he allows himself to be directed as an actor without muddying the job with his perceptions as a director, that role silences him when he acts for others, he was very generous In that aspect.
News: You made a very fiery defense of your protagonist Ezra Miller, who had public knowledge problems, you even argued that he should continue in the sequel, do you still think the same?
Muschietti: It wasn’t a defense, I just stated what I saw when I met him. I basically said what I think, that he is a guy with a big heart and a brilliant actor, an extraordinary comedian, that’s what I expressed. On the other hand, anyone who needs help, especially when it comes to mental health issues, deserves to be helped. What I said has more to do with that.
News: His first movie is called “Mom” and here the Flash character does everything to see his mother again. Is motherhood a strong topic for you?
Muschietti: Yes, it’s strong, it’s a topic that resonates a lot with me and my sisterNow that you mention it, it’s no coincidence that all the movies we make revolve around that relationship because it means a lot to us. And in “The Flash” the mother-son relationship makes up a unique emotional trunk, the reason for everything that happens. The explosions, the chases and the big battles are a bit the product of this character’s desire to share a time with his mother in which she is alive. If that heart of the story isn’t strong enough, the movie can be a mess.
News: You have already directed three films, you must have several projects in mind, but would you come to film in Argentina? Would you dare to do something here?
Muschietti: Eventually yes. There are many things from Argentine culture that I carry deep inside, they are very special, I cannot find them in other parts of the world. There are dramatic possibilities that can be generated here, even in genres like fantasy or science fiction. I would like to have Argentina or at least Buenos Aires as a background to tell those stories.
News: You’ve only been here for a few days, but since you’re a world-renowned Independiente fan, have you already been asked for money to help the club? Would he be willing to collaborate?
Muschietti: Nooo! (laughs), they haven’t asked me for anything yet, but I know there’s a campaign. We’ll see…
by Leonardo Martinelli
