Interviews With "Daddio" Star/Producer Dakota Johnson & Director/Writer Christy Hall

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[00:01:23] You are listening to the Next Best Picture Podcast and these are Dan Baer's interviews with the star from the new film Daddio, Dakota Johnson, and the film's director and writer, Christy Hall.

[00:02:19] Hi, this is Daniel Baer from the Next Best Picture. Dakota Johnson, star and producer of Daddio. Very excited to be talking to you about this film today. Thank you. Nice to meet you.

[00:02:43] Very nice to meet you as well. I've been a very big fan of yours as an actress going back to Ben and Kate, the dearly departed television series. Yes, rest in peace.

[00:02:54] Rest in peace indeed. And one of the hallmarks of your work as an actor for me has always been how much of an active listener you are. It seems like you're listening and reacting

[00:03:05] in real time to scripted moments and lines. And so I'm curious if the rehearsal time working on a script with actors like you had for Daddio helps or hinders that ability to be so fresh in the moment.

[00:03:20] We actually didn't have much rehearsal time. We kind of like talked through the script a few times, but we didn't have extensive rehearsal because we shot the film chronologically and each day we were just doing like a big chunk, like chunks and chunks. So we kind of had

[00:03:37] time to work through things and figure it out. But also Christie's writing is so, it's so there. Everything is really just there on the page. Also they're strangers. So it's not like we had to do loads together to kind of figure out our dynamic.

[00:03:52] And that's another interesting dynamic. They're strangers, but you and Sean Penn are very close members apparently. She found that you grew closer as a result of sharing these kind of really intimate moments, even though you're playing other characters.

[00:04:09] Yeah, I think the experience allowed us to even grow closer because it's such, it was such an intimate creative environment that I feel like we have this little secret, this little experience that we both had. Also like in between takes, we would just talk shit

[00:04:30] and I know a lot. I know a lot. You know where the bodies are buried. That's good to know. Your character that you play in the film that we just see listed as Girly doesn't have a name in the screenplay. Did you ever name her in your head?

[00:04:45] I did not. I did not. And I like that because part of me, you know, I don't, I feel like I don't have to explain why I didn't. But there is something about Girly that I wonder is like maybe representative of a lot of different women.

[00:05:05] Sure. Yeah, I like that. You also produce this film and I'm curious if what you look for in a project as a producer is similar or different to what you look for in project as an actor.

[00:05:21] It depends if I'm producing and acting. If I'm producing the film I'm acting in, there's a, I don't know. It's very different. It's really circumstantial. Truly. It's like a very, it depends on what the project is and who we're working with and where it's shot.

[00:05:40] And you know, there are also projects that are just films that I would want to act in that I'm not producing that I want to have the experience with the director or a writer

[00:05:51] or whatever it is that I'm drawn to with that project that I'm happy to not produce. You know, they don't need my production touch on it. But I think there are certain films

[00:06:03] that like I'm, I think I'm understanding that I have a taste. There's like a flavor that comes. It's like an investment in humanity that we inject in our projects. Investment in humanity. And one of the beautiful things about this film is that it's about

[00:06:20] how we can create a genuine connection with someone, even just by really listening to them, sharing with them what we've been through. Did you find that filming this sort of changed how you go about your daily life in any way? Thinking about those things?

[00:06:40] It definitely like, even if you are in, in your daily life and you embrace human beings more, I don't mean physically, totally do that if you want to hug them, but, and they are obviously consenting. But just not being, I think people have become very scared of

[00:06:57] each other and very scared of being vulnerable. And it's so much more fun and interesting and fulfilling to be open to other human beings and what their experience has been on this planet. And maybe you have something that you might connect over or learn about yourself

[00:07:17] from them. You know, it's just way more fun to be curious about others rather than full of hatred and fear. I couldn't agree more. Thank you so much for your time today with Delightful. Word of advice. Don't ever say the word love. All right?

[00:07:34] I just could not say it anymore. What's he supposed to do? Love you back? You got a good heart. I can see that, which is why I just gotta tell you, you're better off walking away. What about you? Well, it's time for me to ante up. Yeah.

[00:07:53] All right. Like, how'd you meet your wife? She threw up in my cab. She was like a summer day, you know? Not too complicated. Just beer and bag of chips and we were set. Do you miss her? I do sometimes. Yeah. You gonna be all right?

[00:08:20] I don't know. At the end of the day, everything comes into focus and then goes out again. But that's a story for another cab ride. Hi, I'm Dan Dyer from Next Best Picture. So happy to be talking to you, Christy. Hi, nice to meet you.

[00:08:41] Very nice to meet you, too. This film, Daddio, I know you were a playwright before this came out. And I'm curious, when in your conception of this did you realize that it was a film as opposed to a play?

[00:09:11] The Magic Potter and the Enchanted Child in Hamburg, where magic becomes reality live on stage. Save up to 30% now at magicweeks.de That drive is so visceral and visual.

[00:09:43] The ability to be in his point of view looking at her in the rearview mirror or her point of view looking at him. Like, the ability to really choose those things and to be up close and very personal.

[00:09:54] But as a playwright, I had yet to build a bridge to Hollywood. I wasn't part of the cinematic conversation at all. Because those are two very different worlds.

[00:10:04] And so I thought, well, maybe I should write it as a play and maybe I could leverage it as a stage play. And then it could become a movie. So for a very short time, it was formatted as a stage play that never got produced.

[00:10:17] It was never actually a piece of live theater. So then I got excited by the notion of, well, maybe it could be fully realized the way that I first envisioned it. So then I turned it into a screenplay.

[00:10:28] I'm so glad it turned out the way that it did because it's fully stepping forward in the way that I really saw it in my head.

[00:10:35] So yes, this is an original screenplay that at one point was formatted as a stage play that never saw the light of day. I love this journey for this piece of writing. Yes. And even, you know, it is a two-hander.

[00:10:52] And I read that you, Sean and Dakota kind of rehearsed it like it was a play. And if I was correct, in Sean Penn's living room? It was incredible. So, yeah, there were two days actually that Sean invited Dakota and I to his home.

[00:11:10] And the first day we kind of did table work where we had the screenplay in front of us. And we were doing a page turn and we were talking about it.

[00:11:17] And then the second day when we came, yeah, it was like, well, let's get it up on its feet a little bit. And, yeah, we were in his living room. And he had a he duct taped a hand mirror to a broom to like a chair.

[00:11:29] And then he sat in a chair and then Dakota was behind him on the couch. Because if you think about it, they're not actually ever really looking at each other. They can really only connect in the mirror.

[00:11:38] So I think Sean wanted to have a sense of what that would feel like. And so those were some of the two best days of my life. We didn't over-rehearse it, but we did get to enjoy those couple of days.

[00:11:48] And then we met on set and we kept going. How much of that time did you spend thinking about things like camera angles?

[00:11:55] How am I actually going to film what they're doing versus thinking about the characters versus thinking I'm in Sean's living room with him and Dakota Johnson acting my work? I think it's all happening at the same time. Right. So it was like this is a very indie movie.

[00:12:10] We had a very limited budget and we had very limited time. We shot this in 16 days. Right. So, yes, the director part of my brain is like we only have 16 days. And, OK, the cameras and da da da da da.

[00:12:20] And then, you know, the writer in me is like, OK, do I like that word still? Do I want to change that? And then, yes.

[00:12:26] And then the biggest part of me is like, how is it that I'm in Sean Penn's house hanging out with these two incredible actors? It's all happening simultaneously. And that's what makes it just so glorious and complicated and wonderful. Both of them are such talented actors.

[00:12:43] In this film particularly, Dakota is doing so much business with her hands, her hair, her eyes, her mouth.

[00:12:50] As a director and knowing that you want to get in close to her in these moments, did you ever have to step in and say, OK, you're actually giving me too much great stuff to work with? I can't possibly get it all.

[00:13:04] My style is I like to direct a lot on the page. And that comes from me being a playwright. Playwrights block the scenes. You know, they come in stage left. They turn on the light and they speak. So I had a lot of it blocked.

[00:13:17] He clocks her in the rear view. We're on the wheel, the hum of the wheel. He slams the trunk and we go to black. A lot of that was already scripted. And then when we did the table work, you know, we talked through it.

[00:13:28] But I will say once we get on set, I like to be the kind of director that doesn't helicopter too much. We've already talked about the intention of each moment. A lot of it is on the page. We'll do a rehearsal where we'll block it a little bit.

[00:13:41] But I have to say, like, especially for something like this, I found it to be really important to really also give them breathing room to explore and to have fun.

[00:13:51] So I have to say, Dakota gave me a lot of different options that I could play with and edit. Honestly, it was an embarrassment of riches when we got into the edit.

[00:13:59] Sometimes I'd step in and say, oh, can we try one where he's a little more cheeky and you throw it away? Fine. But when it came to their mannerisms, I think it was just really important to just let them explore.

[00:14:08] And I think you see that on screen, that they're just living in the moment. Absolutely. It feels like they are really having this conversation right in front of us. It's really great to watch. And I know we're coming up at the end of our time together.

[00:14:22] But I wanted to ask, you know, like in the Internet age with so many options available to us to participate in conversations about anything you could possibly imagine and arguably in the age of oversharing about our lives.

[00:14:37] Why do you think we still feel so uncomfortable talking about relationships and sex? You're right. We overshare online. It's easy to hide online. It's easy to hide behind our phones.

[00:14:51] And if this movie does anything, I hope it's a reminder that if we could put down our phones for a moment and really engage with another person, I actually think you can have really profound, potentially life-changing conversations even with a stranger, especially with a stranger, because you're never going to see them again.

[00:15:10] And that's the beauty of a New York City cab. It's different than jumping in an Uber or Lyft. It's a very specific experience.

[00:15:18] Those of you who have had this experience, I've had people run up to me after screenings and say, I have to tell you, I had one woman a couple days ago, she said the best advice I ever got was from a New York City cabbie.

[00:15:29] So and then those of you who haven't had that experience, I really hope like talk to your bartender, talk to a person that's riding the train next to you.

[00:15:36] Like this movie is an invitation to start really engaging with the people around you because we are losing something very special. We're losing the art of what it means to just talk to each other. We're not so isolated and alone. We're actually part of a big global village.

[00:15:51] It's a really beautiful way of putting it. And sometimes that village just exists in a New York City cab. That's right. That's absolutely right. Christy Hall, thank you so much again for joining us. It was so nice to meet you. Thank you for having me.

[00:16:05] Hey everyone, thank you so much for listening to Dan Baer's interviews with the star from the new film Daddio, Dakota Johnson, and the film's director and writer, Christy Hall. Daddio is now currently playing in theaters from Sony Pictures Classics.

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[00:17:53] Starring Heath Ledger, Marilyn Monroe, Chadwick Boseman, Robin Williams, Carrie Fisher, and Bruce Lee. Search for Death of a Filmstar in your podcast app. You've seen them tell stories. Now it's time to tell theirs.