How torturous was this role? You went through a lot.
Dane DeHaan: Yeah I went through a lot, for sure. It was physically and psychologically demanding. It was a five month shoot and it was tough. But I like things to be tough. I mean there were torturous days, as there should have been, given the nature of what happens in the movie. But yeah, ultimately in the end it was really rewarding.
Is it possible that this could be a love story?
DeHaan: Well I never looked at it as a love story. That’s interesting. I never really looked at it like that.
What was it like working with Mia Goth and Gore Verbinski?
DeHaan: Mia is great, she’s really talented and she was really, I think, perfectly cast in this movie. She created such a great character, Hannah has to be this strange bird and I think she really captured that. She’s so present and organic, and talks and listens. You know she’s really everything you can ask for in an acting partner. She makes the job easier that way. Gore, it was great working with Gore. I’m in almost every single frame of the movie, so i was there every single day working with him for five months. He’s a very visual director, we were in collaboration about the performance and about bringing the audience along on this journey. Keeping it tense but not blowing the lid. He’s very slow and methodical and I can get behind that, I can be slow and methodical person as well. He’s so visual, in the end it became about bringing his vision to life.
Have you seen the final cut of the movie?
DeHaan: I dig it. When I read the script, it wasn’t a movie that I would have signed up to do with any director, but I really felt like Gore could pull it off. I really feel like he did, I really feel like he made something wild and crazy and terrifying and original. It’s exciting to be part of something like that.
Did you shoot in a linear form?
DeHaan: No we didn’t. One week I’m walking down the hall and turning the corner but we might not shoot the scene where I turn the corner for three months. That was a big challenge, making the performance make sense and have the right arc was more of a challenge with this one than with any other movie I’ve worked on.
How physically challenging was it to be in a cast and crutches for most of the movie?
DeHaan: It wasn’t the most physically challenging part in the movie, but yeah, it was an extra obstacle for sure. I grew to love them, I grew to those crutches, I really look at them as like a, you know, for an actor, any time you can have more obstacles almost the easier it makes the job. They were such a great obstacle to have, you know, when you have to run upstairs I feel it’s just more compelling to do it on crutches than to do it without crutches. Gore wanted me to do things faster a lot of the time and I just couldn’t do that. ‘Hey, can you run up those stairs faster? — Uh, no. I’m on crutches this is the fast I can go.’ I can’t say that I was happy to get into the cast every day. I look back fondly on those crutches.
What’s your consumption of water now?
DeHaan: Ha ha! After this I started drinking a lot of water. It hasn’t really changed my outlook on water so much as it has my experience with going to a spa, that’s definitely not that same, and I don’t think it will be for a lot of people who see the movie. Gore always said, ‘ What Jaws did for a day at the beach, we want to do for a day at the spa.’ He pretty much did that for me.
What was it like to work with such great talent behind the lens?
DeHaan: It was amazing, I mean Bojan Bazelli is amazing. That was one of the great parts of having five months to shoot this movie. Gore and Bojan were able to collaborate and capture these shots that are so beautiful. I didn’t like watching any of it while we shooting. I never watch while we’re shooting. I don’t play back, I move forward. I didn’t watch it, so now seeing it, it is a visually stunning film. Bojan is very particular, he’s always getting in there trying to make things better. He’s amazing, the movie looks great.
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Do you prefer shooting on location?
DeHaan: Well I think it helps shooting in a real place, I guess ultimately I would prefer that. But I also like to challenge myself in different ways. So sometimes the challenge can be having to use imagination more. But in a movie like this a lot of the stuff was practical and there was a lot of other stuff to worry about. So the fact that we were mostly on location, or even that the sets looked so real, was a huge help for sure.
Did you get to do anything fun in Germany?
DeHaan: We ate really good food, Berlin has awesome food, we took a boat ride, we took a bunch of boat rides, saw bunch of art, yeah did some fun things.
The theme about eternal life, did it speak to you?
DeHaan: Questions I ask a lot, whether it’s a pill or a juice cleanse, or whatever it is, why do people obsess over these things? At what point does it become unhealthy to rely on the cure? For me life is all about balance, that’s what I’ve learned. Not to be so healthy what you’re unhealthy, and not to be so unhealthy that you’re unhealthy. Be a balanced individual, that’s kind of what I strive for. It puts those questions in your head for sure.
In Hollywood those are the questions that are asked.
DeHaan: Maybe that’s the reason I don’t live in Hollywood.
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What would be the cure?
DeHaan: Balance like I said. It’s all about balance, it’s in a way it’s almost about not worrying about a cure. The cure is not worrying about the cure because the cure can be worse than the disease. There will always be side effects. The more you seek out wellness and betterness, in a way, the more you have chance of hurting yourself. It’s just about achieving balance.
What do you take away from this film? Peoples reactions are very different.
DeHaan: I think it’s really cool. All the art I like is polarizing, that’s exciting to me. That’s what creates conversation and reaction. I’m really happy to be part of something that’s so original and I hope that people go and see it an embrace it because i think it will allow is to make other original content. Whether you love it or hate it, you’re gonna be talking about it.
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