Interviews With "Orion And The Dark" Stars Jacob Tremblay, Paul Walter Hauser, Director Sean Charmatz & Producer Peter McCown

[00:00:01] Nobody goes on vacation for the moments that are just...okay.

[00:00:05] That's why Sunwing vacationers go all in like it's a buffet of fun.

[00:00:09] Whether you're skimming the treetops like Tarzan's long lost twin.

[00:00:12] Or deep end swimming with your flippers and fins.

[00:00:16] Or maybe you're just perfecting the art of doing absolutely nothing.

[00:00:21] Whatever vacationer you are with Sunwing, you save more so you can do more.

[00:00:25] Book with your local travel agent.

[00:00:27] Or...

[00:00:28] Fanduil Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling.

[00:00:35] Winning.

[00:00:36] Which beats even the 27th best feeling saying I do.

[00:00:39] Who wants this last parachute?

[00:00:40] I do.

[00:00:41] Enjoy the number one feeling.

[00:00:43] Winning.

[00:00:44] In an exciting live dealer studio.

[00:00:46] Exclusively on Fanduil Casino.

[00:00:48] Where winning is undefeated.

[00:00:49] 19+ and physically located in Ontario.

[00:00:52] Gambling problem.

[00:00:53] Go 1-866-538-1-2600 or visit connexontario.ca.

[00:00:58] Please play responsible.

[00:01:00] You were listening to the next Best Picture podcast and these are Daniel Howitz interviews

[00:01:06] with the stars for the animated film Orion and the Dark.

[00:01:10] Jacob Trumblay and Paul Walter Hauser.

[00:01:13] Followed by his interview with the film's director Sean Charmats and the film's producer

[00:01:19] Peter McCallen.

[00:01:20] My name is Orion and I'm afraid.

[00:01:22] Afraid of what you want to know?

[00:01:25] It's most things to be candid.

[00:01:27] Girls in general.

[00:01:28] Being responsible for my team music.

[00:01:30] Ugh.

[00:01:31] Giving the wrong answer in class.

[00:01:32] Richie Panichi.

[00:01:33] Good night Orion.

[00:01:34] Ugh.

[00:01:35] But all the things I'm afraid of.

[00:01:37] Ugh.

[00:01:38] I'm most afraid.

[00:01:40] Of the dark.

[00:01:42] Ugh.

[00:01:43] Huh.

[00:01:44] Ugh.

[00:01:45] Ahh.

[00:01:46] Ahh.

[00:01:47] Ugh.

[00:01:48] Ahh.

[00:01:49] Ahh.

[00:01:50] Ahh.

[00:01:51] Why are you?

[00:01:52] Isn't that obvious?

[00:01:53] The room's dark.

[00:01:54] It's dark out.

[00:01:55] Hello.

[00:01:56] I'm dark.

[00:01:57] Of all the kids who are terrified you are by far the loudest.

[00:02:00] The most obnoxious and frankly, you're on a whole different level.

[00:02:04] You're keeping a list?

[00:02:05] Yes I'm keeping a list.

[00:02:07] You know how many kids are afraid of me?

[00:02:09] You come watch me do my job for one night and you'll finally see that I'm nothing to

[00:02:13] be afraid of.

[00:02:14] Are you in or are you in?

[00:02:16] I'm...

[00:02:17] Jacob and Paul.

[00:02:19] So glad to talk to you today.

[00:02:21] I really love the film so I appreciate your time.

[00:02:23] Yeah thank you.

[00:02:24] Thanks man.

[00:02:25] Well in the film Orion is scared of everything.

[00:02:28] He can barely function.

[00:02:30] He's so scared.

[00:02:31] So I feel like there's no better place to start today than with the obvious question.

[00:02:36] What were each of your biggest fears as a kid?

[00:02:39] For me it was chucky.

[00:02:40] I was really really scared of chucky.

[00:02:42] It's funny because I was so scared of chucky.

[00:02:46] I found like my kindergarten journal and it was just filled with drawings of me like throwing

[00:02:51] chucky into like a blender and just like getting rid of that guy.

[00:02:57] Interviewed Power Move because what that's communicating is that you are the one to fear and not stop you aka Brad Dorif.

[00:03:05] I thought the script there, yeah.

[00:03:06] Nice.

[00:03:07] Well, of course.

[00:03:08] Kind of low-righing, though.

[00:03:09] Which is interesting.

[00:03:10] Yeah.

[00:03:11] I was afraid of another horror movie icon in Tim Curry's portrayal of Pennywise the Clown in the TV movie TV series It.

[00:03:24] That I just, I saw like a three-minute clip of it when I was like seven years old, eight years old and it was way too young to see that and it messed me up for a good while.

[00:03:34] Yeah, wow.

[00:03:35] So, did you guys go on a journey with Chuckie and with Pennywise to sort of reconnect and realize there's not that much to be scared of much like Orion does?

[00:03:43] You handled it better than I, I think.

[00:03:47] Yeah, just kind of.

[00:03:48] You gotta just like be the stronger one, you know what I mean? You gotta like, it's weird because when I was younger I used to always like, I know it's gonna sound so weird but I used to always like, if I was feeling freaked out in my room because you know, you're hearing noises or whatever, I kind of like pretended that like, I was the scary one, you know what I mean?

[00:04:07] Like, I don't know, it sounds super weird to say, I've never said this before but I was always like, I'm the monster, you know, you should be scared of me and I would just like stare into the closet if it was open and just like, you know, sounds really weird.

[00:04:18] No, it's actually, that sounds healthy, that's reminds me of like, it's reminding me of Brian Cranston and Breaking Bad when he's like, I am the one who nods, you know, it's like, there's just such a-

[00:04:29] I am the danger, yeah, exactly.

[00:04:32] That's amazing, that's amazing.

[00:04:34] Well, as a dad, I really appreciated the storytelling sequences between adult Orion and his daughter and now sometimes parents, you know, try to oversimplify stories for our kids.

[00:04:45] Paul, I know your kids are pretty young, have you had to wrestle with that, you know, simplicity versus honesty yet with them?

[00:04:54] Yeah, I kind of, right now my kids are so young, you know, one of them's about to turn three, one of them's about to turn one in April.

[00:05:04] And I kind of feel like keeping them as innocent and out of the loop of reality as long as possible but then also when they come of age and they start asking questions, I do want to err on the side of being honest without going into detail.

[00:05:23] Because the internet is where everybody gets all the details and that's like a scary place to live, it's better to stay as pure and sort of at a distance for as long as possible before the world kind of takes hold of you.

[00:05:40] That's good, so not showing them chucky or it. I would do that myself with my own programming, like there are shows I used to watch or music I used to listen to that I no longer do because I don't feel it's good for my son.

[00:05:55] spirit or my head to have those lyrics in my head or to have those images in my in my tank, you know,

[00:06:01] sometimes you just got to be

[00:06:03] Growing up as a little kid, I was told be careful little eyes what you see be careful little ears

[00:06:07] What you hear it's like a song or something and it's like, you know, I think that's true when you're an adult too

[00:06:13] You got to be careful. That's good. Well, I wish I had more time with you guys one last question before I let you go

[00:06:18] I feel like there's there's a strong correlation between, you know, oh ryan's fear of the dark and all the scary possibilities

[00:06:26] That that could hold and the life of an actor putting yourself out there into the unknown

[00:06:30] You know putting yourself out there for roles or making movies and not knowing how they'll turn out

[00:06:34] How do you how do you both manage the the unknown in the life of an actor jacob? How about you man? I mean

[00:06:42] That's a good question. I feel like for me. I feel like at the start of production

[00:06:47] I always feel nervous because I'm like, man, I'm I gonna live up to these guys

[00:06:49] Expectations, you know, maybe am I gonna be able to deliver but I think uh, I think for me

[00:06:56] just it's just about being

[00:06:59] comfortable and and being confident and

[00:07:02] being being genuine and also just like committing and not being afraid to

[00:07:06] To to be or look silly, you know what I mean? Yeah

[00:07:10] Yeah, I think the scariest part of the unknown as an actor is not knowing

[00:07:15] when or what your next job is I think that's a little

[00:07:19] A little

[00:07:22] Tough, I think mentally emotionally, especially when you have kids and you're providing for

[00:07:27] other people it becomes a different dynamic, but

[00:07:30] similar to what jacob said the best thing you can do is

[00:07:33] Be authentic and and have some belief both in yourself and your surroundings and

[00:07:38] And then just commit, you know

[00:07:41] Commit and spend your time wisely the worst thing you can do is

[00:07:45] I think they say comparison there's a phrase comparison is the thief of joy

[00:07:50] So uh, don't spend all day online looking at everybody's highlight reels and

[00:07:55] Trying to compare your life to them go live your real life and

[00:07:58] And spend your time in a healthy way until that next thing presents itself

[00:08:03] Get ready for Las Vegas style action at bet mgm the king of online casinos

[00:08:10] Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same vegas strip excitement mgm is famous for when you play classics like mgm

[00:08:18] Grand millions or popular games like blackjack bakara and roulette with our ever-growing library of digital slot games a large selection of

[00:08:27] Online table games and signature bet mgm service

[00:08:31] There is no better way to bring the excitement and ambiance of los vegas home to you then with bet mgm casino

[00:08:38] Download the bet mgm casino app today bet mgm and game sense remind you to play responsibly bet mgm dot com for t's and c's

[00:08:47] 19 plus de wager ontario only please play responsibly if you have any

[00:08:51] questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you. Please contact Connects

[00:08:55] Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BEDMGM operates pursuant

[00:09:02] to an operating agreement with eye gaming Ontario. That's awesome. Well guys I appreciate your

[00:09:07] time and really I appreciate it. Movie so thank you. Thank you man. Thank you man. Take care.

[00:09:12] Pretty great right? Orion I'm gonna get you to overcome your fears if it kills me. And

[00:09:18] I'm immortal by the way so I've got all the time in the world. Allow me to introduce the

[00:09:25] other night entities. There's more. We're fun. You're gonna love us. You brought the

[00:09:30] streamer. You cute who's afraid of everything? Helping random children to boost your fragile

[00:09:35] self-esteem is not in our job description. Oh that isn't sightfully harsh. You really

[00:09:42] think you can fix everything I'm afraid of in one night? One night can change everything.

[00:09:47] Is it me or am I more excited about this than you are. Hold on. Go Orion. Open your

[00:10:00] eyes. No way. Come on. See how much better that is. Kid. How are you doing dude? Who

[00:10:12] is he? Flight. He's Dax nemesis. You gotta be kidding me. Makes me feel safe. Like I'm

[00:10:17] wrapped in a worm blanket. You know if you're into that kind of thing. Sean and Peter thank

[00:10:24] you so much for the movie. I really really loved it truly so I am excited to hear more

[00:10:29] about the movie. Awesome. Thank you. So let's start with the visual style of Orion in the

[00:10:35] dark. It's the movie looks quite different than the book does. So where did you guys get

[00:10:39] started with kind of developing the look of the film especially with Orion and dark?

[00:10:46] Yeah I think so. Our brilliant production designer Tim Lamb certainly took pieces from

[00:10:51] the book itself from Emma's beautifully illustrated book where you see a lot of watercolors in

[00:10:56] there and a lot of kind of fantastical looking. The shapes of the stars even we borrowed from

[00:11:02] her because they're so charming. But then I think Tim mined from New Yorker magazines

[00:11:07] from Searle and other artists that are kind of these pencils and 101 Dalmatians if you

[00:11:15] go back and look at that there's certainly some influence there where we started from

[00:11:19] and then the trick was like carrying that through saying yes we want that and translating

[00:11:22] that into a CG world which was difficult but you know you find a way and you're working

[00:11:28] with brilliant artists and technicians who help you do that and so we feel that it was

[00:11:32] a pretty successful translation and really exciting to to explore that. Absolutely yeah

[00:11:37] I love the look of the film I think it looks amazing I think what you guys did with the

[00:11:41] characters was wonderful and Orion in the dark is all about facing fears and exploring

[00:11:47] the unknown and and

[00:11:48] filmmaking is full of the unknown. And so for this film, you know, especially Sean, it's your directorial feature directorial debut, Peter, it's your first feature kind of leading out as a producer.

[00:11:59] How did you guys manage the unknown with jumping on to Orion and the dark?

[00:12:04] I mean, I think that for me, it was trusting people that have done it before and staying positive, and just kind of one foot in front of the other, I think is a really important attitude to have when you're making a movie, because like you said, there's plenty of things that are not going exactly how you thought they would.

[00:12:28] And the only thing you can control is how you react to those moments, and I definitely learned how to be better at that along the way, but I think having that attitude is the way you get a movie done for sure.

[00:12:43] Yeah, we all had the same goal. We all kind of knew what this movie could be and should be, and getting there, you know, is never going to go to plan when you plan something that's going to take you two and a half years or more.

[00:12:54] You're going to have to find ways to go left and then go right, you know, to get back to where you need to go, and just being adaptable and open to that I think was really important and what our crew had to kind of lean into.

[00:13:07] And we found out about ourselves that we were open for that challenge along the way.

[00:13:11] Yeah, everyone, all the leads Peter, myself, other production people that were a huge help.

[00:13:19] There was no quit and those people, no quit and me, no quit and Peter, there was no point where, even for a day or two, we're like, we can't do this or I give up.

[00:13:31] And so I think that attitude as well made it, made it work.

[00:13:36] Well, before I let you go, you know, I love the themes of, you know, how parents sometimes we oversimplify stories and make them more palatable for our kids.

[00:13:46] I especially love Orion starter calling out one of my personal pet peeves and animated the dance party dance parties or the marriage or the marriage and then a dance party.

[00:13:57] Exactly, exactly. I love those moments. But so I wanted to know as as filmmakers who work in animation, how do you balance that that same theme of, you know, making films that are kid friendly, but that still, you know, don't don't pander or oversimplify in negative ways.

[00:14:15] How do you, how do you balance that?

[00:14:17] Yeah, I think, you know, we didn't want to make a kids movie in the traditional sense. We wanted to make a movie for everybody and we hope kids certainly watch it, obviously, and I expect they will and hopefully they take something from it.

[00:14:31] But when you're trying to specifically make a film for kids, you're going to miss the mark on a lot of things that kids then can ultimately grow and relate to.

[00:14:40] And so I think it was important for us to kind of age it up a little bit, you know, for lack of a better story.

[00:14:45] term and I feel like we did that and yeah and like you know Kaufman is gonna

[00:14:52] already bring that energy of doing what he is an artist feels is is good and

[00:15:00] right and he's always gonna bring that energy and I think we I definitely felt

[00:15:06] that in the script and we just wanted to not water down you know Kaufman writing

[00:15:13] we want it to be you know we want to keep that just as just as beautiful as it

[00:15:20] is and I think we made that really important as we moved through all the

[00:15:26] all the doors and hoops and things that we we kept it feeling like the script

[00:15:33] absolutely well I appreciate it so much again I love the film so thank you so

[00:15:38] much for your time thank you everyone thank you so much for listening to

[00:15:41] dangle how it's interviews with the two stars from Orion and the dark Jacob

[00:15:46] Tremblay and Paul Walter Houser plus the film's director Sean Charmett's and

[00:15:50] the films producer Peter McCowan Orion in the dark is now available to

[00:15:55] stream on Netflix you have been listening to the next best picture

[00:16:00] podcast we are proud to be part of the evergreen podcast now work and you can

[00:16:03] subscribe to us anywhere where you subscribe to podcasts be sure to leave

[00:16:07] us a review on Apple podcasts and let us know what you think of the show we

[00:16:10] really appreciate your feedback and your support which you can also lend on over

[00:16:14] at patreon for one dollar minimum a month you'll get some exclusive podcast

[00:16:19] content from us thank you all so much for listening as always and we will see

[00:16:23] you all next time

[00:16:27] [Music]

[00:16:53] coming up on five-minute news I'm Anthony Davis you might think it's part

[00:17:14] of Zen because maybe it's critical of one side or the other but it's not just

[00:17:18] the truth and I think that's also something that's kind of unusual for

[00:17:22] Americans listening to the radio or to podcasts because the news landscape in

[00:17:28] the States has been so partisan for so many decades so five-minute news is

[00:17:33] verified truthful independent unbiased and essential world news daily