Writer/Producer/Director Phil Hay has worked on films such as 'Bug' and 'Crazy/Beautiful' and was part of the writing team for Æon Flux. Phil Hay was kind enough to offer some helpful insight into the filmmaking process, and his experience while working on Æon Flux...
B2415: First of all, could you please tell us how you got into writing? Was it something you’ve always wanted to do or was it something that slowly grew on you?
B2415: Did you study somewhere, and if so, where did you do your studies? And for anybody interested in filmmaking (writing, directing etc.), what are the common requirements to get into a film school?
Phil Hay: I went to
Matt went to the AFI in the screenwriting program. Film school can be great if you approach it in the right way-- it's a chance to meet other people doing the same thing and make friends that will become colleagues, while giving yourself the time to write and/or make a movie. What it will not give you is a magic "in" to the business.
Most of the well known film programs (AFI, USC, UCLA, NYU,
B2415: When were you approached regarding the Æon Flux project?
Phil Hay: Matt and I were approached by an executive at MTV films in, I think, 2000 (!). She asked if we had heard of this bizarre show AEON FLUX—we were fans. We took the opportunity to really go for it-- we knew we wouldn't get the job unless we pulled out all the stops. Gale Anne Hurd got behind us and our take and off we went...
B2415: A lot of fans are curious about the Director’s Cut of the film. Will an Æon Flux Director’s Cut be released? And if so, is there any release date we can look forward to?
Phil Hay: I really hope so. The regular DVD has done very well, so that increases our chances. We and Karyn are doing everything we can to get that out there, as it is quite different and would provide a much richer experience.
I think it's a matter of a year or two, at the least. But I fully believe it will happen.
B2415: The Director’s Cut is rumoured to be around 30 minutes longer than the theatrical cut. Could you please give us detailed insight as to what was cut from the Director’s Cut, for the theatrical release – both major scenes and small parts that were added to the film?
Phil Hay: Absolutely. First, there's the matter of style and tone. The DC is a much more serious, much more epic-feeling, much more romantic effort than the theatrical cut. Unfortunately, all of the above were things the powers that be at the time wanted no part of. It's more ambitious in what it is trying to do. We spend time lingering on the beauty of the visual world, because it tells us something about the characters, as well. The dialogue plays differently-- there are fewer "quippy" bits, and those that exist are played more drily.
The action is cut in a very different way than the fast-fast-fast close-close-close of the theatrical cut. It's longer shots, longer cuts, allowing you to see more.
The voiceover at the beginning was very, very different. There was no title card bluntly announcing the situation. It was originally a really moody introduction to the world, with shifting images and Aeon's voice guiding us through.
I'll mention below a lot of the character-oriented changes and cuts; there were many.
A couple more specifics: the introduction of the pill and the Handler don't happen until after Una's death, and a year has passed, in the director's cut. The council scenes were both longer and much more revealing of the characters involved. The present day and historical romance between Aeon and Trevor was given much more weight—there’s a beautiful (in my opinion) and operatic shot when Trevor reveals their past, as well as a kiss before Aeon goes to the Relical, that were both removed.
And the big one-- Aeon, in the Cherry Grove, has a vision that she is pregnant. To us, it felt like the ultimate strange thing that could happen to Aeon and the world. It was also evidence that she should destroy the Relical-- what was once a symbolic gesture, a nihilistic one, was now necessary. That was, needless to say, fought over to the bitter end.
Finally, the DC ends, I think, much more elegantly. The entire sequence where Aeon rides the Relical into the ground was tacked on to provide more "action"-- to me (and Karyn) it seemed superfluous. In the DC, the point is that she gets out and we move to the emotional stuff, which is what is really important.
Again, there’s probably something in almost every scene-- a line, a shot, a reaction, a pause-- that changes the feel and the context.
B2415: Which secondary character/s do you think suffered the most in terms of character development when certain scenes were cut?
Phil Hay: First of all, Trevor's character reads differently after the cuts. In the DC, he has more of a malevolent and ambiguous edge. We introduce him as quite morally compromised-- when you first see him, you can easily imagine that he is the villain of the movie.
I think, in terms of the secondary characters, we lost a lot of Oren's torment and tragic nature, a lot of the dimensions of Jonny's performance. He really made you feel sorry for Oren-- it was clear his horrible actions came from a desperate and sad need. Of course, the studio was afraid that people wouldn't "get" him as a villain if he was too vulnerable. So he was forced, by the cuts, into a much more simplistic box.
Giroux was quite an important character to us, and with limited scenes was actually quite instrumental. His arc is still there, but super truncated. In the DC, it's clear that he's Trevor's most trusted friend, 3rd in line of succession, and that he's kind of Trevor's moral compass. In their first scene together, Trevor stands by and approves as Oren basically sentences Giroux's lover, who has been discovered as a Monican, to death. So Giroux is very angry with Trevor, to say the least. But he's got a real sense of morality-- he is suspicious of Oren's takeover, and in the end, he leads the counter-revolution. I'd say half of his material was cut (but exists in the director's cut.)
Freya was cut less, but we lost some of the tension and romance between her and Trevor. It's much more a thing in the DC that she and Trevor have been-- um, "intimate"-- and that she's jealous and enraged at Aeon.
And, unfortunately, we have to include Aeon on the list as well. Charlize created so many subtle moments of internal conflict, so many wordless gestures of torment or longing-- and many of them were forced out of the film. There was no patience for the ambiguous and the weird by the end of the process.
Tragically, a character played by yours truly was completely cut. His name was Lt. Links and he had two lines-- he was a brave (scared), heroic (hiding behind a wall), and ultimately unsuccessful (though he survived) pursuer of Aeon. It was some damn fine acting, in my completely unbiased opinion.
B2415: And on a different note, were there any ideas you and Matt had while working on the script that were eventually omitted?
Phil Hay: Many! Some for very good reason, too. It ain't all gold.
Seriously, some things were changed because of budget (the original garden crossing involved these huge, swaying, tendrilly towers) or because the vision evolved (there was a vehicle chase component that fell out because Karyn felt that Bregna would have no need for personal vehicles. There was to be much more use of the pod-like monorail cars, a vision of how they would work through the whole city. The assault on the house where the baby lives changed many times-- it went from a traditional raid, to them using a fuel-air explosive and completely wiping out the house, to the sonic weapon we ended up with in the film.
There was also an appearance of the Nargyle at one point-- a bizarre creature from the show, just as a grace note, but that ended up not fitting in for several reasons.
B2415: The marketing of Æon Flux was possibly the film’s biggest downfall, mostly because it was marketed as an action film with an (exaggerated) emphasis on the whole revenge motive. The trailer and the TV spots were all quite deceiving. An audience expecting an action film were mostly disappointed, whereas the audience looking for a more intelligent sci-fi plot seemed to be satisfied but were unfortunately not the target audience in the marketing campaign. Who is responsible for the trailers for a film and who has the most power when it comes to influencing the way a trailer looks? Would a director be in more control of the marketing aspect if it were an indie film for example?
Phil Hay: I have to agree with you there.
There was so much hostility toward the director's cut (the "arty" version) at the studio, that then translated into a desire, even after they had forced the action-action-action version into being, to really dismiss it. It's hard to explain why there was so much ill will surrounding the project at that point-- except that there were major internal politics going on within the studio and we were one of the first films to bear the brunt of the "new regime."
The marketing, and especially, the refusal to screen it for the critics, created a context where it was really hard for anyone to take it seriously. But those are the people who like the movie-- people who see the more imaginative/intelligent version as they watch.
The trailers come from the studio marketing department. They may do things internally, they may hire the job out to a trailer house, but they retain control over the campaign. The director usually has some influence, but at this point Karyn was fighting an uphill battle on everything. Even in an indie film, the director doesn't get the final say. There's always a distributor (well, if you're lucky) to deal with.
In terms of our marketing, it's an illustration of some of the problems with testing and marketing movies today-- there's this desire to make the movie into something it isn't to lure in a big audience-- of people who will never like the movie. There's a tendency to do this, casting a huge net, instead of focusing on appealing to people who don't need to be tricked-- people who actually will like the movie and will spread positive word of mouth.
I think in the end, it’s pretty simple: the movie was orphaned, as so many are, when studio leadership changes. Then it becomes something to get off their plate as quickly as possible.
B2415: There are a lot of fresh ideas/concepts in this film when it came to the technology and all of them seemed interesting and logical. However, there’s one moment where I wasn’t quite sure what something was – could you please explain what that solution was that Aeon poured into the glass in the bedroom scene? Is it just something to showcase the development of foods/beverages in Bregna? Or does it have a more specific explanation – such as a medicinal solution?
Phil Hay: The solution was an idea of Karyn's (and by the way, it isn't a special effect-- it's a real chemical compound) creating a kind of liquid/solid food. The point is that Aeon is denying herself the pleasure of all the real delicious food Bregna has to offer. She just has no desire to enjoy life at this point in the story-- the food she eats is for sustenance only.
B2415: Even after recovering from her injury on set, Charlize performed almost all of the stunts. For interest’s sake, could you please fill us in as to which stunt/s Charlize did not perform herself? I know they used a CG Charlize for some of the Relical exterior stunt work, but I was wandering if there were any other stunts which were not performed by Charlize?
Phil Hay: I'm not sure, but I think she ended up doing all of them. She was pretty insistent about it-- they were all made to be safe by the stunt team (and the insurance people, at that point!). She's a pretty tremendous athlete, and it became one of those points of pride—she didn't want to sit on the sidelines.
B2415: You had the opportunity to be on set during the filming of Æon Flux – what was it like seeing how ink translated into live-action film?
Phil Hay: It was really great. Writers should be on the set more often-- if the director is confident and secure, the writer can be a real ally and help as things evolve on the day. And it is a thrill to see the words become real, it really is.
B2415: Being on the set of a film such as this one must be pretty exciting – do you have some on-set stories to share with us?
Phil Hay: Well, first of all, it was fun to be in
Here's something that happened on set: we had this contest every Friday where the crew would write their name on a 5 Euro note and put it in a raffle bucket. At wrap, someone would draw -- and whoever's name was on the note won the whole pot. Because usually one of the producers, or the director, or writers, or Charlize would kick in a sizable bonus, the pot could get to 1000 or 1500 Euros or more. One week, one of our PA's had been hit by a car and was in the hospital, unable to work. A bunch of people put his name on their entries and he ended up taking home a much-needed bonus. All that to say, the crew were really cool people.
B2415: Germany presented some beautiful locations, but if you had to choose, which real life location would you say was your favourite during the filming of Æon Flux?
Phil Hay: I'd say the Tierheim, which was the site of the climax but it was so cold when we were there that I am scarred by the experience. The Crematorium was also a really special place.
B2415: And which Studio Babelsberg set did you favour most?
Phil Hay: I loved Trevor's chambers. Beautiful, beautiful set design by Andrew McAlpine.
B2415: Could you please tell me where the monorail escape sequence was filmed? From the time Aeon & Trevor enter the subway, to the point where they climb up the ladder leading outside.
Phil Hay: All of that sequence is shot in the Velodrome-- the main monorail station and the ladder escape. The interior of the car was on a stage at Babelsberg. Another point of difference in the Director's Cut—the monorail attack and its aftermath were much more brutal and bloody. The following scene where they recover and Aeon pulls the bullets out of Trevor was shot at the
B2415: I think the cherry orchard scene towards the end of the film was beautiful and possibly my favourite scene. Do you have a scene which you favour the most in this film?
Phil Hay: I love that scene as well. I think, for me, the scene I gravitate toward is the confrontation/seduction scene between Trevor and Aeon in his chambers-- I think it embodies all the contradictions and weirdness of Aeon and Trevor's relationship.
B2415: Theodore Shapiro was originally attached as the composer for Æon Flux and his music can be heard in earlier released clips such as the original ‘Jailbreak’ clip and the ‘Storming the Complex’ clip. Do you perhaps know why he did not continue working on this film? I heard he was dropped due to lack of material but I wanted to clear this up with somebody working on Æon Flux.
Phil Hay: Well, it certainly wasn't for lack of beautiful music. In all of the controversy and struggle over the direction and identity of the film, I believe Teddy's musical direction was seen as "too serious," "too dramatic," and "too epic." (!) The studio was looking for the movie to be much more popcorny, and the music was one of the main battlegrounds. It's becoming more and more common, unfortunately, that composers get thrown under the bus when studios are looking for big changes. His music was incredible music for the elevated version of the film. Teddy's a tremendous composer, his work on "Flux" was awesome, and we'll definitely work together in the future.
I should mention that Graeme Revell did a wonderful job under tremendous pressure. His closing theme ("Aeon Flux" on the soundtrack) is, to me, really stirring and exactly what I was hoping for.
B2415: Is it true that you and Matt are working on another film with Karyn Kusama? If so, could you please tell us a little bit more about it, and any other projects you’re working on? Do any of them contain burlap-wearing citizens huddled around burning trash cans or sector 7 moments? Because I know you like those…
Phil Hay: Oh, yes. Sector 7 or even potentially Sector 8 moments, if we really want to blow people's minds.
We are working on another film with Karyn. It's a war movie, set in the very near future-- we're very excited about it. We're also doing two studio projects for Universal right now with directors we love, RIPD with David Dobkin and The Talent Thief with Shawn Levy. We're also finishing a horror script that we want to direct. So, thankfully, pretty busy.
B2415: Well, this could be seen as a shameless plug or a question based on pure interest’s sake (I would say it’s the latter) – do you visit Bregna 2415 once in a while? And do you know if any other people attached to Æon Flux have seen it?
Phil Hay: Oh, yeah! I love it, man. It's moving to me to see it. I sent Karyn the link and I know she's seen it. It's really cool that you've created such a place-- makes it feel worthwhile after all the struggles to know that there are people out there who get it and love it.
B2415: According to an interview chud.com conducted with you and David Gale, Charlize Theron is signed on for more than one Æon Flux film. Does this mean we could expect to see a sequel sometime or are the chances of a sequel at this stage not that great?
Phil Hay: I wish there would be, but realistically the chances of that are nearly zero. It's too bad, because Matt and I had a pretty deeply worked-out concept of where we could go from here-- it involved the seed of something Oren planted generations ago that has outlived him, and what is going on outside the walls of Bregna, and the fact that all of Bregna’s problems were not solved by the destruction of the Relical and the return to natural pregnancies.
B2415: Thanks for your time Phil. I wish you all the best with your future projects.
Phil Hay: Thanks, Dwayne. I appreciate it. Hopefully soon, I'll get to talk to you about the Director's Cut release. And thanks for all of you who are interested. I really appreciate it.
*** EXCLUSIVE TO BREGNA 2415 ***
21 JANUARY 2007
INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY DWAYNE
Still Photographer, Jasin Boland has worked on films such as ‘The Bourne Identity’, ‘The Matrix’ and ‘Peter Pan’ among many others. He is the man behind all those great Æon Flux stills and on-set photographs, and some of his work on ‘Æon Flux’ can be seen in the B2415 Gallery. Jasin was kind enough to answer some of my questions, giving us insight into his career and sharing some cool information regarding ‘Æon Flux’…
B2415: First of all, for those who haven't seen your featurette (Craft of the Set Photographer) on the 'Æon Flux' DVD, which brand of equipment do you use? And which model in that range is your favourite to work with?
Jasin Boland: I shoot exclusively Nikon, on Aeon I was using the D1x which was basically the 2nd generation of Nikon profession DSLR's. I now shoot with the D2x which is the closest thing to a film camera ever made, it has an incredibly fast frame rate and also has the added bonus of a high speed crop which when actuated means that the length of my lens is doubled, I am the action guy so this is perfect for me. The D2x also has much better low light capability, much better than you could ever get out of film. Personally the D2x is my dream camera and digital has revolutionised the way I shoot! With film at times you had to err on the safe side and when I was shooting a big action scene I wasn't able to push the limits in the same way that I can with Digital. When I shot film it was always transparency so I never had the luxury of messing with exposure it had to be spot on every time whereas with the Digi I can force a bit more from the camera and retain detail with that added latitude. Incidentally when I travel on holiday the only slr camera I take is a 1965 Nikomat and a 50mm lens, I leave a red filter on permanently and shoot B&W film TCN 400. I was also born in 1965 so we are almost twins!
B2415: How did you get into photography? Was it something you've always wanted to do, or was it a passion that slowly grew on you?
Jasin Boland: I did the mandatory school year book and my work was horrendous we actually used to go to the dark room switch on the ‘do not enter’ sign then nick off from school to go surfing. No one ever clicked – I think the teachers were just glad they didn't have to deal with me, I was constantly in trouble for not conforming and when I left I had 5 Saturday detentions stored up, they even tried to make me complete them. Anyhow I come from a newspaper family and they all thought I had this huge interest in photography so they helped get me a part time job on the local Sunday Newspaper as a darkroom tech. I knew absolutely nothing but I worked it out and was given a cadetship. What I loved about photography in school was it allowed me to do things others couldn't like go surfing when everyone else was in class, now that I do this professionally I have a more complex list of things were photography can take me. When I was a kid I told Mum I wanted to be in the circus, she told me I couldn't, she was wrong! Photography definitely grew on me but as mentioned earlier I suspect I had ulterior motives. Now of course it is my whole life, the old every breath you take syndrome!
B2415: Where did you study photography and for how long?
Jasin Boland: I had a cadetship which is basically a trainee, part of the deal is you have to do a study course, I lasted about 45 minutes - on my first day the teacher went around asking everyone what sort of photographers we all wanted to be, when it got to me I told him I wanted to be a war photographer. He said, "Well there is no place for you here and you can leave my class." 6 weeks later I won the Australian Cadet Photographer of the Year. I stuck with my cadetship for 18 months out of the 4 years. I was offered a grading on a new daily newspaper and jumped at the opportunity.
B2415: Was there ever a time where you had people saying "Are you sure this is what you want to do?"? Have you ever had to deal with any negativity like that?
Jasin Boland: Nah, I was always pretty good. I did get told to slow down and think about my images a bit more but I loved the spontaneity of news so I never had time to think I just had time to shoot. I play the game and shoot what the client wants then I throw in my own stuff, everyone ends up happy that way.
B2415: How did you get contracted to be a photographer on 'Æon Flux'? Who contacted you and when did you first hear about the project?
Jasin Boland: I work for
B2415: Did you ever get a little homesick while working in
Jasin Boland: I spend a heap of time away from home, at the time I only had something like 60 nights in my own bed in nearly 5 years. The joke is I live in a hotel and holiday in a house. I love being on the road and it is definitely one of the things I am grateful to photography for! The experiences that the film industry has given me are things that money just can't buy! Don't let anyone tell you it's not glamorous, anyone that does obviously isn't working it to their advantage.
B2415: All the real-life locations where 'Æon Flux' was filmed are stunning, but which location would you say was your favourite to work in, and why?
Jasin Boland: Mmmmm, I think the wind tunnel, the way Stuart lit it was beautiful! There were so many curves the light just wrapped around everything allowing me to find little pockets that were not being used.
B2415: And which Studio Babelsberg set was your favourite to work in?
Jasin Boland: Ahhh, the bedroom was damn cool but of course it may just have been what Charlize was wearing!
B2415: There are fans of the film (and of the animated series) who are really curious about a few of the still images released for this film - could you offer us some insight with regards to these stills:
Una walking in a park carrying an umbrella
Jasin Boland: Una and the umbrella was actually a shot that I set up for the art department for a series of images to be flashed on the screen as examples of life in Bregna. I loved it so much I sent it in with my unit coverage.
Aeon and Sithandra stretching by a wall: is that meant to be a scene where they were warming up before crossing the garden frontier?
Jasin Boland: That was actually quite a sexy cool scene, it is in the film but only the part where Sithandra tosses Aeon the guns. Sithandra turns up, they stretch, she shows off the hand-feet then it is off through the frontier garden.
Trevor in his laboratory
Jasin Boland: Well you have to have Goodchild in the lab scene! You just don't have to use it!
Trevor and Aeon in the Cherry Orchard, and Trevor's keeping Aeon at bay
Jasin Boland: I think she wanted to kick some butt, but Trevor was trying to talk his way out of their mess. I guess Aeon won that argument!
B2415: While all your photography for this film is amazing, are there any still photographs that you favour looking back at your work on 'Æon Flux'? If so, which photographs are among your favourites?
Jasin Boland: The shot of Charlize in the bedroom where she is lying on the bed, it was lit to shoot the fly in the eye shot.
I asked her to take an eyeline to the camera and I think it ended up as one of those classic actress beauty shots. I knew it was going to be a cool shot the second I looked at her through the lens.
B2415: Are you contracted for an 'Æon Flux' sequel if a sequel is on the cards? According to an interview chud.com conducted with Phil Hay and David Gale, Charlize is signed on for more than one film.
Jasin Boland: That’s interesting, I would do it in a heartbeat, you sure your contact is good for this one?
B2415: How did Charlize's neck injury that she suffered on set affect you? That was around the tenth day of shooting if I'm not mistaken. Did you return to
Jasin Boland: The poor thing – everyone was so worried for her she is just such a delight to work with. My girlfriend is from
B2415: What's the longest time you've spent working on a film set, for a given film?
Jasin Boland: Peter Pan was well over nine months but the last two Matrix films were shot at the same time and that was for 13 or 14 months, something crazy anyhow.
B2415: So what's lined up next for you?
Jasin Boland: Back to
B2415: Any words of advice you can offer to aspiring photographers?
Jasin Boland: Yeah being a still photographer is damn hard, it is more an end position as opposed to a career beginning.
Don't form an opinion on ANYONE or ANYTHING for 2 weeks, be patient, only get in someone’s face when you really need to and come home from work amped everyday and ready to attack it again the next!
*** EXCLUSIVE TO BREGNA 2415 ***
4 AUGUST 2006
INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY DWAYNE
Describe Aeon’s look.
Charlize Theron: She was created by someone who I think is a very talented man, Peter Chung, and I wanted to take those elements of what he created for her and celebrate them as much as possible to what I was capable of doing in the world of film. Because, obviously the hair that he had created for her was somewhat impossible for us to do. But I wanted to, whatever decisions we made on her physically, to always reflect on what he created. So we tried to stay as close to that as we possibly could.
What is her quest in the film?
Charlize Theron: I think she’s a woman who is very strong, and quite a free-thinker, and someone who doesn’t quite always trust everything around her, questions a lot of what’s happening around her in the society which she lives. And I think the greatest arc for her is that she thinks that this one thing, this one mission will change her life and make things better. And then, actually what happens is it just opens a big can of worms as to her existence. And she has to make some really tough decisions.
How did you prepare for the role?
Charlize Theron: I trained for about three-and-a-half, four months with Charlie Croker, who is the stunt-coordinator, and his crew Mika and Terry. Terry studied with, or performed with Cirque du Soleil for 20 years and he really helped me with the gymnastics aspect of it and acrobatic work and trampoline work and wire work. And Mika really helped me just getting – I had just done Monster and didn’t do anything with my body for 2 years, so physically even though I had lost the weight, I had to really go and build some muscle back and get some strength back – so Mika was great in helping me just kind of strength-train and just get physically to a place where I felt stronger and capable of doing the things that I had to do in this film.
Why did you decide to do your own stunts?
Charlize Theron: It’s important to me. I mean, I was a ballerina for 12 years and it took me years to figure out why I loved ballet so much and it wasn’t because I liked the technical aspect of it, I just like to get onstage and tell a story. And for years I did that with just using my body. So for me, the physical aspect sometimes is so much more important than what I’m verbally going to say.
SOURCE: Æon Flux Promotional Interview Clips
(On the subject of doing another action film)
Charlize Theron: Yeah, I’m open to anything, you know. I’m taking some time off right now, I have no idea what I want to do next and, you know, what I found in my career is you just wait long enough, something will come that kind-of puts a fire underneath you and gets you really excited and when that happens, then I’ll know what it is.
(On the subject of Aeon’s costumes in the film)
Charlize Theron: I have to give incredible credit to Beatrix Pasztor who did our costumes. It was really comfortable. She created a costume that I could really, I could stay in the entire day and I could really do all of those movements and that was a really, really tough job. And she, I think, had the most impossible job of everybody on this job. So I really want to take my hat off to her. She did an incredible job at making me very comfortable and covering my bits.
(On the importance of online sites in the marketing of a film like Æon Flux)
Charlize Theron: Very important. You know, I think there’s a reality when you’re dealing with something like this. Peter Chung has an incredibly loyal fan base and there are all these little nooks and crannies where those kind of – that crowd get their information from. I think it’s a great gift because it’s so accessible and it’s become such a part of our society, more than television, more than anything really. And for me to say that – and I am so an uncultured-technical person. I’m very bad when it comes to any of that technical stuff. I still look at a fax and I go, “Wow…it’s pretty incredible!”. So for me to say that, it’s pretty huge.
(On if a literal adaption of Æon Flux would be possible)
Charlize Theron: Well, because animated – the medium of animated versus film is just completely two different things. And you can’t – I think we love them for their own individual elements but I think there are things that you just couldn’t do. You just couldn’t do it. I mean, that an incredible artist could draw but the human body just couldn’t do and even if you did it, in that 3D aspect it just wouldn’t look real. I think there’s a reality that – sub-reality or whatever you want to call it – that you have to pay attention in film…that you don’t have in the animated world.
(On what her one word would be in Æon Flux – since in the animated series Aeon only spoke one word per episode)
Charlize Theron: It’s probably ‘no’. I think she’s the first person in this world to say no. I think there’s so much propaganda in this world of Bregna. The government has done such a fine job of kind-of manipulating everybody into this gilded cage of believing that they’re living this utopian life. And I think she’s brave enough to kind-of look at that and ask a bigger question: “Is this really a life worth living?” And I think her answer is no.
(On preparing for her role as Aeon Flux)
Charlize Theron: It’s not that different – I mean, at the end of the day you’re playing a human being and that’s, I think, the kernel that when somebody goes to see a film, that’s the thing that they relate to – and whether it’s futuristic or whether it’s contemporary, whether it’s based on a real person who really lived or fiction. I hate that word ‘fiction’, because they’re all people, they’re all real to me. So this was real to me because Peter Chung created this woman and I wanted to celebrate that and I think it’s just a combination of doing the research and kind-of familiarizing yourself with the world. And then going with the core of understanding the obstacles of this person and the complexities and the flaws and their conflicts within themselves and within the world and basically asking as many questions as you possibly can.
(On voicing a video game character)
Charlize Theron: Very surreal. But quite interesting, you know. I can’t wait to play it and control myself. I’m looking forward to that.
SOURCE: Video Clips from Official Æon Flux Site
(On what attracted him to the role of Trevor)
Marton Csokas: Well first of all, the animated series which I knew and loved…Peter Chung’s work. That was the thing that sparked my interest. And when I heard that there was a movie being made, I read the script and was happy to see that it wasn’t a replication of the animated series. And talking to Karyn Kusama, who directed it, some of her ideas and the things that we discussed made me confident that we were going to put it somewhere else – in another world and basically carve out its more human dimensions, which the genre of the feature film demands. That was the thing that attracted me to the film per se. The other interesting things about the script that were attractive was the political dimension, the sexual deviance and the sort-of self-discovery, the self-individuation process that occurs with an oppressive regime. That’s what I liked about it. The character, well he’s a duplicitous human being, you know. He’s multi-faceted as we all are and he’s presented with the society as being a dictator and not a good person. It’s revealed that, in actual fact, when Aeon Flux and Trevor Goodchild stand opposite one another and that first instance when she tries to assassinate him, that actually they are individuals that had a past and all is not what it seems – either as individuals or collectively. And then the love story begins, or it has been going on for some time although they’re not quite sure where they are. And I think the pleasure the audience may gain from this is exactly that because the world is in a transitional time. They are lost, they are confused but they have things to hold onto and they’re forging through that.
(On how he identifies with Trevor)
Marton Csokas: I identify with his journey, which is true of us all. I mean, why are we here? What are we doing while we are here? And how we’re going to live our lives and what are we going to put our energies into. I think I identify with the character in that way.
(On the original animated series)
Marton Csokas: I love the subversiveness of it. I love that it was sort-of good vs. evil. And of course you have this woman running around in nothing and that’s exciting too.
SOURCE: Video Clips from Official Æon Flux Site
(Marton on the world of Bregna)
Marton Csokas: Bregna's an isolated society. There's a degree of sterility within it because they're maintaining a false existence. It's a stasis in order to arrive at another outcome of existence. Their eating habits, leisure activities and way of living are all quite conditioned, whether they're aware of it or not. Some people - the Monicans in particular - have attempted to rise up against that, while others are looking to maintain it (and consider) the Monicans selfish.
(Marton on the relationship between Aeon & Trevor)
Marton Csokas: Aeon and Trevor's relationship has gone on for a long time, and one person knows much more about their history than the other, which is an intriguing place to start. Then when they meet again, many of these things are brought to bear - how they accept or reject (choices), like any relationship I suppose - and that determines what goes on within the story. They never really know what the other is thinking because of the circumstances and things that prey upon their minds and spirits. So it's a game of chess with emotions, psychologically speaking.
(Marton on the relationship between his character and Freya, played by Caroline Chikezie)
Marton Csokas: It's alluded to. There was a piece of direction in the screenplay - after Trevor and Freya have already had various conversations - that read, 'The connection is broken.' I went, “Oh my God, they've been having an affair. They're lovers!” When we discussed those things in rehearsal, I was keen to maintain Freya and Trevor's relationship. And then I realized it was actually a communications device. That led to a connection which had depth and meaning, and we worked on that.
(Marton on the transition from the Æon Flux cartoon to the live-action film)
Marton Csokas: Obviously, an animated series connotes certain (expectations) within the genre and there are aspects that are similar. But it's a devised world. Stylistically, there are shadows from the animated show, but the film takes the harder, more simplistic lines of the series - which are very good, fine laws unto themselves - to a different place. However, one style parallels the other.
(Marton on the challenges of playing a character like Trevor Goodchild)
Marton Csokas: The human aspect was the most important and challenging to me, because I knew about the series and explored it further. There have been many things written about all of the characters, Trevor included. At one point, I remember thinking, “I have to leave that alone. I'm trying to do two things at once and getting frustrated.” I wouldn't go there, and instead tried - with Karyn's directorship - to steer toward the intrinsic truth of what it means to be a human being. So we inhabit the style based on what I presume would be the same future. The only reference point for me in playing this role is the animated series, which I recall from many years ago. Karyn wanted me to keep it in the human experience, so that it's more of a psychological journey than the action-packed animated version.
(Marton on the subject of him not being influenced by the cartoon Æon Flux)
Marton Csokas: It didn't influence me. I saw the TV series a long time ago, when I was about 30, and I loved it. I was surprised a film was being made, and although I didn't quite get why, it quickened my interest. But after reading the screenplay, meeting with Karyn and hearing her ideas on where she might take it, I understood the reasoning. It was a leaping-off point, rather than a replication of the show.
(Marton on the screenplay and Karyn Kusama)
Marton Csokas: The screenplay embodied archetypes and had a strong structure. Like all good stories, you can extract the myths that have been told before as well as add your own unique twists. Karyn has a sensitivity - which comes from her knowledge of literature, art and music - and a broad knowledge of life that's interesting. Her ability to express and communicate that is very strong. She uses anachronisms - which are important to any work of art - and has a sense for the romantic and the
(Marton on playing a less-challenging physical role than usual)
Marton Csokas: In ‘
(Marton on Charlize as Aeon Flux)
Marton Csokas: Charlize brings a precision and great deal of professionalism to Aeon. She reacts primarily to things and knew the script and story. Charlize had things very much together, and understood exactly what she wanted to do with it, in collaboration with Karyn. She should have been a lawyer. Charlize sees things in a broad scope and has wonderful access to her emotions. She can maintain a sense of trajectory and attention while being present within the scene. What I most admire is (how she handled) Aeon's physical exposition. Charlize is like some kind of insect in the body of this great expressionistic character.
(Marton on a love scene that occurs between Aeon & Trevor)
Marton Csokas: We shot a scene the other day where Aeon and Trevor chew each other out. They try to figure out what's going on, and have to make a choice. There was a great deal of emotion in that sequence. Charlize took the sum of Aeon's hate and love, while being in (a state of) physical restriction because of the (situation) and paranoia associated with her circumstances. Her primal instinct is a remarkable strength.
(Marton on working with Charlize on Æon Flux)
Marton Csokas: Aesthetically, it was very pleasurable. It was tough to get up in the morning. Technically, her physical abilities are extraordinary. I understand Charlize comes from a dance background, so her physical vocabulary is expansive. We have an interesting relationship in the film - loving and fighting and fighting and loving.
(Marton on the cast taking refuge in humor to balance out the often-surreal intensity)
Marton Csokas: It was lots of fun. A sense of humor had to be maintained, otherwise it would have become boring and regimented. The beauty of this film is that it's based in a kind of realty, and as the creators of that reality, we can't divorce it from logic and truth. As much as Æon Flux is stylized, it has those elements.
(Marton on shooting in
Marton Csokas:
(Marton on Æon Flux being unique and original)
Marton Csokas: Everyone wanted to extract the things that make Æon Flux unique, because this could have been just another replication of the superhero comic book genre. I think this movie would be destined to fail if we had done that.
SOURCE: Marton Csokas.net
Kam Williams: What attracted you to this project?
Sophie Okonedo: When I first read Aeon Flux, I had never seen the MTV cartoon, so I didn’t really no what to expect. But I thought it was very unusual and interesting and that it sort of dug a bit deeper than the typical sci-fi, futuristic movie. So, I thought the script was quite intriguing in that the story wasn’t handed to you on a plate.
Kam Williams: How did you prepare for the physical demands of this role?
Sophie Okonedo: About five weeks before we started filming I arrived in Berlin, and started a training regime which was incredibly enjoyable until about the third week when I came to wonder what I’d let myself in for. In order to get the part, I hadn’t let them know that I was quite scared of heights. They said, “You look very fit.” And as an actor, you just say, “Yes, I can do everything. I can ride a horse.” I never let on that I was quite scared of heights. And the first day, I was 50 feet up on a wire, and I had to leap off into mid-air. That certainly cured my fear of heights.
Kam Williams: Tell me a little about your character.
Sophie Okonedo: Sithandra, is a soldier, first and foremost, I suppose. And she’s very disciplined and very focused. And she is completely in awe of Aeon, and is her protégé. So, she wants very much to be like Aeon. She’s a bit of a machine, Sithandra. She’s got the assignment and, whatever gets in the way, she wants to complete the assignment. She doesn’t quite understand going off course. She’s not one to improvise.
Kam Williams: What makes this movie unique?
Sophie Okonedo: It’s quite a shadowy script. Things aren’t simply good and bad. This person is this, this person is that. It’s not formulaic in the way that many action movies and futuristic movies are. It has a bit more nuance, and shade and light. Also, the very physically strong characters are women, which is quite unusual.
SOURCE: BlackNews.com
AboutFilm: And you’re now working on Aeon Flux?
Sophie Okonedo: Yeah. I’m having a great time.
AboutFilm: What are you playing in that?
Sophie Okonedo: Charlize Theron’s sidekick, I suppose. It’s quite difficult to describe, but I am...a bit of an action woman. It’s a science fiction, futuristic film with a dark edge to it. It’s quite interesting. It’s not your run of the mill.
AboutFilm: Are you shooting now?
Sophie Okonedo: Yeah. I’m heading back to Berlin on Sunday.
AboutFilm: A lot of blue screen?
Sophie Okonedo: Blue screen, but we’ve also used a lot of locations. We’re in Berlin, and we’re using the architecture there. It’s so futuristic, and modernist. We’re using it a lot, the architecture. And Charlize is just a hoot. She’s brilliant. She’s really down to earth. Really normal, and I’ve made another friend. It’s very nice.
AboutFilm: And what do you have after Aeon Flux?
Sophie Okonedo: Oh absolutely nothing. I don’t know.
AboutFilm: Do you think you’ll go back to the stage?
Sophie Okonedo: No no, not for a year. I don't like more than a year going past without doing a play, because that's where I hone my craft.
AboutFilm: What are your activities with the Royal Court?
Sophie Okonedo: Board meetings. Social events. Fundraising. Negotiating the direction of the Court. And having emergency meetings when some emergency arises. (laughs) And I go and see everything there. I've got to know a lot of the writers there, and I still do a lot of workshops there. I partake in the workshops with the education department.
AboutFilm: Do you have preference for the stage?
Sophie Okonedo: Oh no. Just good stories. I mean, there's nothing worse than being in a crap play that you've got to do for the next six months, eight shows a week, and there's nothing worse than being in a crap film that you've got to do for the next six months. They're all bad, and I want to do something great. It doesn't matter what the medium is. You don't get paid very much in the theater. So, it was very difficult to live on it. And I did for many years. But it is difficult with a child.
AboutFilm: How old is she?
Sophie Okonedo: She’s seven.
AboutFilm: Do you think she’ll follow in your footsteps?
Sophie Okonedo: She's not interested at all. In Aeon Flux she's been on the set quite a lot, and she's like our set mascot now, but she's very well behaved. She's taken very much with the cameraman, so she spends a lot of time with the cameraman. She's very interested in all the blue screen and the CGI. She's very into computers, all that behind the scenes stuff. In fact she did a school play last week and she spent the whole time looking at her shoes. She said she couldn't bear it. (laughs)
SOURCE: AboutFilm
(Caroline Chikezie on the fight that takes place in Trevor’s library)
Caroline Chikezie: For the fight scene, it’s basically a fight between my character, Freya, and Charlize’s character, Aeon. And I had to undergo some training because I’ve never done anything like this. I had to jump from a big 15 to 20 foot balcony. So yeah, I had to train for the jumping off the balcony and every morning the team of trainers, the stunt team, they were fantastic on this job – they would lead me through some stretches and some physical-strength exercises just so that, you know, I can take all the force that’s going to be thrown at me on the day.
For me, it’s great because I’ve never done anything action-oriented - I’ve always wanted to, so this is a great opportunity for me.
SOURCE: ‘The Stunts of Æon Flux’ Featurette'
Frances McDormand plays The Handler, Aeon’s commander in the Monican rebellion.
Frances McDormand: She’s an ambiguous character. How much of the plot does she actually know? How much can she direct Aeon, and how much is left in Aeon’s hands? What is predestined, and what can they control? I think that ambiguity fits the themes of the film.
SOURCE: Æon Flux Production Notes
Academy Award® nominee Pete Postlethwaite sees his character as someone who has rebelled against the government he serves for a long time.
Pete Postlethwaite: The Keeper is someone who has fought against the system, really. Generations ago, he saw this was the wrong way to go. I think he decided to stay alive so long in the hope and with the knowledge that there were people still available who could put this right, one of them being Aeon Flux.
On what attracted him to the script.
Well, I liked the idea that there was somebody writing about something that is actually fairly – is happening. We’re all becoming, you know, kind of blasé about life. We’re becoming ‘clones’, if you like – even now. So it kind of said something to me about this is looking at how we live and how we treat each other. And that appealed to me.
SOURCE: Æon Flux Production Notes and ‘Creating a World: Æon Flux’ Featurette'
Beatrix Aruna Pasztor was handed the enviable (and some might say easy) job of making Charlize Theron sexy. The veteran costume designer says that Theron had many ideas about how to bring the character’s unique costumes to the screen.
Beatrix Aruna Pasztor: Charlize has very good taste; she’s very fashion-conscious and she knows what looks good on her. She needed to do a lot of running and excessive movements, so we had to think about comfort and practicality. She had a lot of input on her look.
In keeping with the director’s vision of an organic future, the costume designer shunned synthetic materials in favour of natural fibers.
Beatrix Aruna Pasztor: Cotton is still around. It makes sense – people would rather wear cotton than vinyl.
Pasztor designed a total of five outfits for Aeon, including a white body suit and a long, flowing costume with a cowl. Another stands out for Pasztor...
Beatrix Aruna Pasztor: I love the unique costume Aeon wears in the marketplace. The chest plate on that costume is leather, hand painted…it’s gorgeous.
In designing the looks for Trevor, Oren and other members of his government, Pasztor found herself turning her ideas inside out. At an early fitting with Csokas, Pasztor turned a '40s-style coat inside out to show Kusama some ideas about cut and structure. Both Kusama and Pasztor were struck by the inside-out look and Kusama encouraged her designer to start with the 1940s look and mix it up with modern stretch fabrics and unusual proportions.
Beatrix Aruna Pasztor: It was basically a combination of a '40s coat with 18th century cuts and distinctive stitching. With Marton, we also made a shorter jacket, which is a little bit more modern design. We didn't want to go with big shoulders, so we found that this cut had a militant look, which sits very tight with the body.
SOURCE: Æon Flux Production Notes
(Charlize Theron’s coach Neal Rodil on Charlize performing the stunts for Æon Flux)
Neal Rodil: There is a scene in the trailer (and in the ‘Map in Aeon’s Arm’ clip) where she flips over, wraps her legs around someone’s neck and then snaps it. It’s an extremely advanced and dangerous move – but she can do it. She went from knowing nothing to being an extremely good martial artist who knows some pretty deadly moves. It was very hard for her in the beginning. She struggled, but her perseverance and commitment was amazing.
SOURCE: Mirror.co.uk
This seems like an odd choice for you after winning the Oscar.
Charlize Theron: I think odd is good. I don’t think actors, I mean, speaking for myself, I don’t want to go and just keep doing the same thing, you know? I think that challenge is always good. I knew nothing really about the genre. And just in that, that was enough of a challenge for me to work with a filmmaker that I really wanted to work with and I thought was a really interesting choice for this genre. Those were all elements that were really important to me. So, you know, it’s odd, but that’s good, I think.
What was it that drew you to this script, this story?
Charlize Theron: The element that really attracted me is the fact that at the end of the day, it’s bottom line a love story. It’s a human story, and the struggles and the things that this so-called futuristic story takes place in had all the elements of human struggle that I’m really interested in. I’m not interested in playing a robot. These are real people struggling with things that I think a lot of people can relate to.
You’re going to be the next big action heroine.
Charlize Theron: That’s going to be me! Watch out, Arnie! But I think that even though this is very physically demanding, it’s definitely not lacking in the acting department. If it was, I wouldn’t be here. I couldn’t see myself going through four months, five months, now almost eight months of this if I didn’t have the creative satisfaction that I do need as an actor.
For the human aspect of her, she is a killing machine but she also falls in love. Talk about how you balance that.
Charlize Theron: As an actor, I think it gives you a nice range. You get to go from one place and build quite a nice arc, and to have that already embedded in the character makes it easier for me. She is pretty self-destructive and I think sometimes thinks of herself as indestructible, so I can kind of get into that. I like that.
It must have been tough when you injured yourself.
Charlize Theron: It was an accident. These things happen. I think you can talk to anybody who works on an action film – when you do these things you don’t expect, but it could happen. Nothing bad came from it, I’m healed up completely, and I think in the long run we used it to our advantage to come back even more prepared and ready to make sure there were no kinks anywhere. It was a little frustrating. There’s nothing worse than being in the middle of a film and having to take six weeks off. But for me you can’t take it off, because your mind is still completely connected to it. That was a little hard, but in a way very good because I could utilize that time, because for three months before starting this film I focused on the physical aspect. I really spent that six weeks thinking about where that woman is going. I used it to my advantage.
Besides the physical stuff, what’s the most challenging aspect of the role?
Charlize Theron: It’s all pretty challenging. Physically challenging. Sometimes, although I have to give Karyn a lot of credit because she tries to stay away from green screen, but that stuff is always challenging. The weather’s been very challenging, in my ‘layered outfit’. The work has been challenging, but good. It’s interesting to take something that’s loosely based on something that’s quite familiar and I think quite known for not really having a linear story and trying to put it in a linear story.
How important is it that the role must challenge you?
Charlize Theron: It’s very time consuming. I have ADD, so for me to go and really dedicate myself to something for a period of time, it’s very important for me to like it, to like the people I’m working with and really leave every night and – because at the end of the day I have no idea if this is going to be a success. At least I know whatever happens with this, I made my decisions based on something really satisfying to me. I think that’s the best gauge you can go with – if it’s satisfying to me, I think it’ll be satisfying to you. I like to make movies I would want to go see, so I hope that’s what we’re doing.
With Æon Flux, how much is based on the cartoon and how much is new?
Phil Hay: I would say that in terms of specifics – plot specifics and the architecture of the actual story – not very much (is based on the cartoon), but what we tried to do is really be inspired by the show. The reason we got involved is that Matt and I are fans of the show. That’s one of the reasons that David and these guys brought us in to work on it. I think it’s important for the fans to recognize images; there are action beats that are versions, takes on specific stuff that happened on the show. A lot of the character dynamic. The architecture of what the show’s about is all there. The show, as you know, is built on a kind of an anti-narrative. It’s about questioning straightforward narrative. So what we talked about with Peter – Peter Chung was here for a set visit recently: We didn’t talk to him during the process but Karyn (Kusama, the director) and David talked to him for years now about this, where our ideal is that these two things exist as parallel worlds to each other. For us, we’re really conscious of the responsibility you have when you try to adapt something that’s very special. The show itself is very special. A way to protect it is to do your own thing that tries to do justice to the thought and the feeling of the original, but you take it in such a new direction that the two things can exist on their own. The movie isn’t a bastardized version of the show. The movie is its own thing.
David, how did Charlize get involved with this? It seems like an odd follow-up to Monster.
David Gale: I think that because we had such a strong script it started getting around Hollywood, and we had many actresses coming after us to do the movie. It’s very rare to have a smart, strong female character that’s engaged in action but isn’t just a 2-dimensional action hero. The really interesting aspects of the cartoon did, I think, make it into the script. But at the same time it’s a really compelling story. It’s very much a sci-fi story, it’s got a love story and it’s got a kind of a combination of factors that got actresses interested in it. We did approach Charlize before she won the Academy Award. She was really intrigued by the script and what I think cemented it is when she met with Karyn, and Karyn gave her the vision that she has for the movie, which is very unique, not at all like any action movie that you’ve seen. So you’re right, in some ways it would initially seem odd that somebody of Charlize’s acting caliber would want to do an action movie – but it’s not an action movie, it’s a really intelligent sci-fi movie.
David, the cartoon was on TV well over a decade ago. Why now with the film?
David Gale: Why now? Hollywood takes a long time sometimes to go from the initial idea to actual production. I started at MTV nine-and-a-half years ago and Æon had just started its run as a full-length half-hour on MTV. It had had this great life as a short and had developed a cult status. When the show was first airing we loved what it was and said, let’s develop a movie. It took a really long time to get something that paid enough tribute and built in enough of what the show was but still allowed us to make a pretty significantly big movie that an audience – a broader audience than the initial fan base – would like, while still holding on to the initial fan base. It took a really long time. Phil and Matt were the ones who really clinched it for us.
The film has themes that resonate with us today. Could it be viewed as a cautionary tale?
Phil Hay: I think that in a way, as we’ve worked on the script it’s changed. Matt and I have worked on the script almost four years now, and a year and a half of that with Karyn. All of us – as our world changes the world of the movie changes. Some of the things that were in the subtext have come to the surface because of the way the world is, but the core things of this movie are like, how do you retain your humanity and all the great things that make you human in the face of all the strife in the world and in the face of technology that tries to dehumanize you. It’s the battle to save what is human in everybody. There is a lot of stuff, in science and politics where people ask what is it to be safe? Can you trust what everybody tells you? Whose side are you really on – governments and rebels - and how they can turn over and change? Today’s good guy is tomorrow’s bad guy.
There’s a lot of subtext about weird sexuality and bondage in the cartoon. Is that in the film as well?
Phil Hay: Tastefully done! I think Aeon’s sexuality is a big part of the appeal of the show and what we hope of the movie, but it’s more – I venture to say that it comes more out of her character, out of stuff that is happening to her and Trevor Goodchild. It’s less stylized, not as aggressively stylized as the show. But we hope to make a very sexy movie.
Aiming for a PG-13?
David Gale: We are. The great thing about the film, I think, is that the story makes it more universally appealing than a lot of writers would have done with it. It’s got the great love story, it’s got the action, it’s got the science fiction. To undermine that with an R-rating and to take the 14, 15 and 16 years out of the equation was difficult. We weren’t going to make a compromised movie at the same time. So what Matt and Phil did, they knew the restrictions of the rating and they wrote with that in mind. So instead of saying, “…we’re making an R-rated movie, let’s figure out how to scale it back…”, we did it this way and you don’t feel like you’re missing anything. You have to be careful. ‘The Matrix’ did a great job, and it was an R-rated movie, but so often you do leave out a big part of the audience.
Karyn isn’t the first person you would think of to direct a science-fiction action film. What does she bring to this?
David Gale: I kind of like to tell the story about when Karyn’s agent suggested that we meet with her for this movie and I was like, why? This doesn’t make any sense to me because there was nothing in her background that I had seen that would make her appropriate. She came in so prepared, though – she had a world that she had created pictorially, going through imagery that she had found in different parts of the world, and different ideas. She had so thoroughly thought this movie out and she had a visual presentation and then she came with an intelligence that was so much more evolved than the other directors we had met with. So we had to decide to take that chance, which you sometimes do, to believe in the vision and that she can execute it. We put her on the movie and she started working with [Phil and Matt] and the script became so much better and each step along the way she passed the hurdle. In a movie like this you’re waiting for them – you say, ok she was great at that stage, but can she get to the point where we let her make the movie. She kept getting past those hurdles and showed that she was a great director.
How would you sum up the vision?
David Gale: I think she has a photographer’s eye. She’s got a visual perspective on the world. Then she combines that with a really deep intelligence so that every scene she’s composing has a meaning. She’s not just slapping together action sequences and love sequences. The script is so complex on so many levels because you keep shifting realities. The scene you saw being film today has a reality shift. It takes a really special director to have their eye on what they’re shooting at that moment and what the scene is ultimately going to become. It’s all Aeon’s point of view so you have to see the world through a particular person’s viewpoint, so it was really challenging to find someone who could do that.
You say that the film is going to be less stylized than the series. One of the things that made the series so popular was that it was kind of opaque – you had to watch the episodes a couple of times. Are you abandoning that?
Phil Hay: I think it’s actually not that we’re less stylized, we’re differently stylized. I think there is continuity between them because what we want to maintain from the show is the sense of mystery, that somewhere there’s a dreamy logic where everything makes sense, even though in the show it’s very buried. If you watch the show 400 times over and over again like Matt and I have it starts to work on you, you start to see that. There’s a coherent intelligence behind the whole thing. What we tried to do is take what we discovered spending all this time with the source material and try to turn it into something more understandable on a story level. Twists and turns of the story and revelations at certain points make it so that you watch the movie and at a certain point say, “Wait a second, now I understand.” We tried to turn that into a more understandable thing but maintain a sense of mystery, which the show has. We talked to Peter Chung about this too, is that we see our characters have the show as their dream world. Our characters in the movie operate in a more realistic world.
Speaking of Peter Chung, what kind of feedback did you get from him?
Phil Hay: I think David can confirm this - with us he seemed to take himself a step back and wait and see what happens. It’s clear to him the difference, and it’s important to him to maintain the difference, between the two mediums. I can’t speak for him, but I think that’s’ something he’s interested in, how different mediums work and how things change, from a novel to an animated series, from his own animated series from the shorts without dialogue, basically silent movies, to the half hour versions that are very different. We didn’t have a ton of interaction with him up to more recently because it seems like he wanted to let it be what it was and focus on his own stuff. Recently when he came to the set it was really great because I think he did really get attached to what was going on here.
David Gale: He was involved, but as Phil said, it became apparent at the beginning of the movie that in order to make it what we wanted it to be, which is a movie that could appeal to a mass audience while keeping what made the show great, you need an experienced screenwriter. What we have is a bible of information and material that these guys studied, which were the episodes and shorts themselves. That is really rich in what this is. There’s a logic to it. Peter gave these guys a tremendous amount of notes and background. He was involved.
David, when Charlize got hurt did you think that might be the end of production?
David Gale: I don’t think we ever got to that place. It took a week before we knew the extent of her injury, and fortunately it turned out it was an injury that would heal and the question was, how quickly. The doctors thought it was the most remarkably quick healing process ever. We didn’t have time to get terrible despondent. She was able to get stronger and get back to doing physically what she was planning to do, most of the major stunts having been shot. She still does running and fighting and things that are important.
How did it happen?
David Gale: She was doing a stunt. She was doing most of her own stunts in this movie, and she was doing a somersault – what’s really amazing is how great Charlize is at this stuff – and she was doing a series of flips. It was a rehearsal and we were kind of sorry that we didn’t have the camera rolling because what she did was so great we didn’t even know she was injured. She didn’t look injured.
Phil Hay: She’s so great at the stunts that it’s really difficult to find stunt doubles as good as she is.
How did you feel when it happened?
David Gale: Personally terrible. My only concern was that she was going to be ok. Neck injuries can be serious so until we heard from the doctors that she was ok it was really scary. Who cares about the movie, it’s not something you think about. You gotta shut the movie down, shut the movie down. You don’t take a chance. But she was like, “Don’t let them do that stunt without me!” As she’s being taken out!
There are some nods to the original show in the movie. How hard is it to fit those in? Where is the line you draw?
Phil Hay: There are little visual moments. There’s a signature thing on the show, it’s on the cover of every video box, where she captures a fly in her eyelashes. We do that. To me that’s like the heart of the show. That image is the weirdness and the mystery of the show. It’s going to be really great in the movie. Things like that, details that fit into what we’re doing, but true fans will say, “Oh that’s in A Last Time For Everything”. The characters themselves, while they’ve evolved and are different in some ways, many of the characters are inventions, they’re not part of the show but we always thought they would have fit in some way – there’s a lot of character stuff, the constant tension between these two characters, Aeon and Trevor, who love and hate each other. They are enemies but who clearly love each other in some way, these two battling forces. That’s what the show is about, these battling forces, one which represents science and order and learning and the other is chaos and anarchy.
Are there aspects of the script that are exactly like the show? And what aspects are completely different?
Phil Hay: I think the basic relationship between Aeon and Trevor is very much like the show. A lot of the look – her hair is a great example of what has been done. One of the signature images of the show is that she has this insane hairstyle that’s like ram horns, this thing which you could never put in a film, it would look ridiculous. Or the costumes, which in the show are skimpier than any human could possibly wear and look right in. The idea is to take the adventurousness of the costumes, and the hairstyle particularly, and they’ve created is what I think is a great vision of it. The hair in the movie has lines that recall the original hair, but it’s the kind of hair that a real future person could wear. Maybe not today’s person, but in the future you could wear it!
David, you’ve been developing this from the beginning, and Phil, you came on four years ago. Can you describe the process?
David Gale: It’s just a typical Hollywood process of taking a really long time to do virtually nothing. I say that somewhat facetiously. It takes a long time to find writers who understand the material, so you do a lot of interviewing and you get a lot of pitching. We started with one writer and that didn’t feel like it worked, but Phil was just the second writer.
Was there a concern about losing the built-in audience?
David Gale: The built in audience that was there I think is still there. The people who are fans of the show – when they hear about it, it didn’t age. It’s one of these things that they remember and now that they hear there’s a movie it’s kind of cool. What we’re going to do is build a new fan base and bring back the original episodes, put them on DVD. We’re talking to Peter about creating some new stuff. What he loves about the process in many ways is the revival of Æon Flux. That’s really great is to be able to say to him that while we have a parallel thing going on we want to get people interested in the show.
Do you envision this as a franchise? Is Charlize signed for more than one film?
David Gale: She is.
How many is she signed to?
David Gale: I honestly don’t remember.
How much thought are you giving to the fans? Are you following the online reaction?
Phil Hay: We hope that the movie will satisfy them. I will confess to you guys that I spend a ton of time on all of your websites, actually. I’m the kind of person who spends a ton of time reading about stuff – I’m just interested. I’m a science fiction and horror fan. I’m aware of the landscape, too. Matt and I are always talking about, look, we have to do our best and realize that there will always be a subset of people who will flame it and hate it. It doesn’t matter what we put up there. There’s also going to be a subset that will come to its defense, I think, if they see that it’s something made by people who take it seriously, and we’re not just trying to make a science fiction movie because there’s a lot science fiction movies that make money. We are fans, so we know both sides of it – unfairly hating something and unfairly loving it.
(On why Karyn Kusama considered Charlize Theron for the role as Aeon Flux)
Karyn Kusama: In 'Monster,' she could play someone who had a tremendous amount of pride and humiliation and violence and tenderness in her soul at the same time. I found it to be her most committed, honest performance I think I had ever seen. That commitment to ambiguity to some degree is why I think she is perfect for this role.
SOURCES:
Chud.com
Dark Horizons
MSN Movies
Peter Chung: Aeon Flux, when you see that character you know what she’s about: Just the way she’s dressed, the way she moves, the things she does – she’s fascinating to watch.
Gale Anne Hurd: Aeon Flux was developed by Peter Chung on MTV and it has that anime sensibility which was ahead of its time. She’s truly a provocative character and she’s an action heroine that we haven’t seen before.
Charlize Theron: She’s a woman who is very strong, quite a free-thinker, and someone who questions what’s happening around her in the society which she lives.
Peter Chung: She’s a force for freedom and she defends that freedom in any way she can.
Karyn Kusama: Very few people could actually play that role. I mean you definitely need physical grace and strength. So we needed to find an actor who had that kind of spontaneity physically, and Charlize is probably one of the most gifted actors in just the pure physicality of it that there is.
Charlize Theron: The physical aspect of this movie was something that I got very excited about, to see how far I could actually push myself and how many new things I could learn and to really physically feel like I was this character.
Sophie Okonedo: It feels like a huge show because there’s just so much going on, but actually it’s quite intimate because it has something to say about the human spirit.
Marton Csokas: It’s not a typical science fiction film. I think that’s its strength. So it is otherworldly and it is in a realm-fantasy but the characters are grounded in humanity.
Karyn Kusama: The city of Bregna is situated 400 years in the future – it’s the last city on earth. And the leadership of the city is brutal and oppressive.
Karyn Kusama: Aeon Flux is given a mission to assassinate the leader of Bregna, Trevor Goodchild, and she finds herself unable actually to kill him.
Peter Chung: Trevor Goodchild is the most powerful man in the world and Aeon is someone who refuses to be controlled. And I think because of that they’re irresistibly drawn to each other because they see each other as the ultimate challenge.
Karyn Kusama: It’s a really interesting journey I think, for her character, because she has to question her motives and question the mission and that becomes the real journey of the story: is Aeon Flux sort of discovering more about the world she lives in and more about her own origins.
SOURCE: Video Clip from Official Æon Flux Site
Charlize Theron:
Yeah, I had to definitely educate myself. I grew up in
Well she lives in the world of Bregna which is 400 years from now and this world is created because of world hunger that was actually solved through a scientist who comes up with a corn that will cure world hunger, but what it does in reverse is cause a sterility. And so the world has died down to about 5 million people and they now live in this walled environment – complete government control – kind of glass-gilded cage. And how this population is surviving is quite a mystery. And there’s a group of rebels called The Monicans who are basically asking bigger questions and are kind of suspicious of what’s happening to their society and to their people. And once they kind of find out the core of something that’s wrong, they go after the government. And Aeon is their lead assassin and she gets the assignment to assassinate their leader.
I’ve always been fascinated and excited about telling a story with very little dialogue and this felt like the right opportunity – this felt like a character that kind of originated that way and Peter Chung created her that way. I come from a – my history of being a ballerina for 12 years and kind of telling stories with my body for 12 years and this felt like a really nice throwback to that. So, it felt like a really nice challenge.
I was given some great tools. I mean, I got to work with a great gymnast to learn gymnastics; a great Capoeira teacher to learn Capoeira Martial-Arts fighting and I had a great teacher who was part of Cirque du Soleil for many years, who trained me in gymnastics as well but also just really helped me to get as supple as I possibly could in a very short time. He was basically just there to rip me into shreds…(laughs) so that was his job.
This was one of the hardest films I’ve ever had to make and I think people were very quick to judge these films and to look at them and have preconceived ideas about them. And I can tell you right now – it’s hard, and I will kick your ass and a lot of work goes into these films, and this is the longest I’ve ever been on a film too. I have a great respect for the group of people that you have to kind of pull together to tell a story like this, and as an actor you work extremely hard on a film like this.
At the end of the day, this movie is about human survival. And you can’t tell a story about human survival without utilizing human beings and that’s such a huge element to this futuristic world and sci-fi world.
SOURCE: MTV Making the Movie ‘Æon Flux’
Marton Csokas:
He’s often caught sitting down, I might add. He’s the chairman of – the political leader and a scientist who resides and leads the city of
It’s very sexy to see a strong woman dressed in next to nothing wielding ‘don’t-f**k-with-me’ weapons. And all the things that that suggests and emanates - I think it makes for a very interesting version of Romeo & Juliet, and that was very attractive. And of course you have Charlize as well who is indeed a spectacle to be hauled in her own right. She was wonderful to work with – she utilized her physicality extraordinarily well and her dance background set her in very good stead to do all the things that were demanded of her. And I loved when she and Trevor came together because he has – he is a sentimentalist, a romantic, very much a nostalgia, but as a scientist very aware of the future and what’s required. And that character bridges the gap between this futuristic woman and her human roots.
I also was attracted to it because of Karyn and her ideas. She’s cinematically very savvy, she draws from all kinds of art – whether that be painting, sculpture, literature, poetry…obscure things in my mind like weaving – which, you know, she’d come up with these, “Have a look at this!” and it would be some very odd thing that I can hardly make sense of and then, “Oh, I see, I see the image”. And it’s done in flacks from the 17th century by the Swahili people who, you know, transported themselves astrally and arrived in
The locations that we filmed in range from an animal shelter, which I don’t imagine you would identify as such in the film at all, and a World War II wind tunnel where they tested aircraft. What else…a crematorium which was the most beautiful building…
(rest of transcript missing)
SOURCE: MTV Making the Movie ‘Æon Flux’
Jonny Lee Miller:
I’m the brother of…sorry, Oren is the brother of – I get confused – Oren is the brother of Chairman Goodchild, so he’s the second in command of the whole society really, as it is.
Well, it’s the last city on Earth coz disease has wiped out most of the Earth’s population and they’ve retreated to this one little enclave. And there’s about 4 million people left there, or something. So it’s a dictatorship really – they have great control over the people and I’m second in command.
Well, she’s part of the revolution – there’s a group of people who know there’s something wrong, that the government’s up to something – and she’s one of the freedom fighters, if you like. And she is sent in to assassinate the chairman and realizes that all is not as it seems.
Yeah, it’s the first time I’ve really ever done anything like that. But I like the story, I like the script, I like the part – so yeah, I like the opportunity to work as well so that’s always good.
Yeah, very well. I mean, you know, tough job to do, I would say. But, you know, you’re playing a cartoon character – I think she does an awesome job, yeah.
Well, it’s a political situation and there’s political situations everywhere. I don’t think there’s any great statement but, I mean, it’s a dictatorship in the movie and there’s dictatorships all over the world. So there’s always parallels to be drawn about that. But it’s a story about human relationships really, I think more than politics.
SOURCE: MTV Making the Movie ‘Æon Flux’
Is Æon Flux straight sci-fi? A superhero film? A cartoon-come-to-life? All (or none) of those things?
Peter Chung: I always felt like there was a complete disconnect between things that were fun and entertaining to watch and things that were more thoughtful and philosophical. I never understood why you couldn't have a James Bond movie that dealt with psychology and metaphysics. My description of my own agenda (for the Æon Flux cartoon) was 'James Bond’ directed by Ingmar Bergman.
(The writers of the live-action Æon Flux on the relationship between Aeon & Trevor)
Matt Manfredi: These two characters that Peter created are such particular and weird and interesting people, and I really don't think we've seen (characters like them before). Their relationship in such a very strange, love-hate connection, and that's what drives a lot of our story.
Phil Hay: Definitely! I mean, it's like they're enemies, but they're crazily attracted to each other. Their relationship kind of had to be the center of any story we were going to tell, because of the shifting, very serious, very charged dynamic between the two of them. And Charlize and Marton Csokas bring that dynamic to life in the film. It's not a soft, fluffy, romantic relationship. It's a really intense, interesting kind of take on a so-called romance.
(Peter Chung on the character, Aeon Flux)
Peter Chung: The thing about Aeon is that she makes a lot of mistakes based on the fact that she's not willing to be guided by any kind of ideology. It was very important for me to create characters that weren't just the stereotypical black, white, good, evil stereotypes, and I think that's what makes it an adult show: the fact that the characters are ambiguous. People are like that in real life, and I can't imagine doing it any other way.
(The writers on adapting the cartoon into live-action)
Matt Manfredi: What Peter did with that show and what he did with his animation was so unique that, in a sense, there was no way to make that into a live-action film. And so our goal, the whole time, was to make something that stands beside it, as a companion. The two visions complement each other.
Phil Hay: Peter came to visit us on the set and he and I spent most of the day together just talking about the TV show and what he did with it, and what Matt and I have been doing, and what Karyn was doing in terms of the look of the film, and I think we came to a really good understanding, a theory, of how to approach adapting something so unique. Peter's Æon Flux and ours don't replace each other — they're two similar works of art in different mediums. I think that all of us kind of look at it that way — that they can stand together and support each other.
(Charlize had not been familiar with the cartoon Æon Flux when it first aired, but the filmmakers were happy to give her a crash course)
Charlize Theron: When you make a film, you have to pay attention to your audience, and we did. I wasn't aware of the show before I started this film, but I really related to the story. I really liked it. If you like the old (series), then I think you will love this. I don't think that you have to know it or be a fan of it to enjoy it, because I certainly knew nothing about it and had to really educate myself.
(Charlize on the oversized, jet-black left eyeball that Aeon has in one of the film’s scenes)
Charlize Theron: It's a lens that she keeps in her head. She can drop it in at any time to kind of magnify things for her, like her own little lab. She's got a lab eye.
(Charlize on her character’s costume)
Charlize Theron: I did all my stunts, and there's no way that you can do all of that stuff with a G-string and two flaps. That was the reality of what we had to do. We wanted to put a more modern spin on it. I still think that there is that kind of sexual fierceness about what she wears, and she doesn't just wear one costume in the thing. It's still sexy, but it's not as revealing as the cartoon, because it's just impossible to do what I had to do in that little bit of clothing.
(Charlize on the live-action Æon Flux)
Charlize Theron: Look, it definitely celebrates a lot of the original 'Æon' stuff, and that's why we wanted to make the film. We didn't throw all of it out; we didn't throw the baby out with the bath water. But I think that there is some new stuff to it that very much feels like the original, that I think people will be thoroughly surprised by.
(Karyn on the film’s target audience)
Karyn Kusama: I think there's an assumption that action movies that appeal to 15-year-olds have to be dumb. I simply disagree with that. I think there's a way to make engaging, dynamic movies where everyone in the audience feels that they've been taken care of. It will be a really interesting experiment to make a movie that has a fairly muscular sense of pacing, a fairly thoughtful sense of storytelling and action that feels really satisfying to everybody. And I do believe the time has come for a film like that.
SOURCE: MTV Movies
The last time we talked on the record was on the set in
Phil Hay: I think that in many ways it’s still one of the best experiences I have had, even though it was so tumultuous and changing all the time as we progressed through many, many different obstacles and insane developments that throw a spin on things. It was a huge lesson in making movies, basically. So that I’m pleased with, and I’m pleased that we were able to stay involved the entire time. More the way the movie was put out was the difficult experience.
What was the most surprising thing you learned?
Phil Hay: Something surprising was to learn how deeply complicated… I kind of was aware of how complicated the process of post and moving into the whole realm of marketing and distribution and publicity and that stuff was, but in our case it was tremendously complicated. What’s surprising was how many twists and turns that part of the story took.
Can you walk us through some of that?
Phil Hay: For me something interesting and dismaying that happened was that for whatever reason a lot of the advertising – all of the advertising, actually – and all of the distribution efforts were kind of describing a movie that the movie wasn’t. It was creating a context that wasn’t representative of what the movie was. It was kind of a lesson in how much an effect things like the context a movie is put out in [has], what they’re telling you a movie is – which in our case was action, action, action, action. Our movie has a lot of action in it, but I think that kind of advertising doesn’t reach or embrace the audience that might embrace and love this movie, which might be a more serious science-fiction audience.
Where did they get the action, action, action thing from? Was it something where the marketing people walked in one day and just decided to sell it as a big action picture? How does that happen?
Phil Hay: The goal is towards making the most commercially viable strategy. People disagree on what that is, but everybody is trying to do that. I think at some point they decided through their research that the only audience for this movie was going to be an action audience, whatever that is. And that the only way to promote the movie was through making it seem very much like a comic book type of movie, or like an action extravaganza, re-inventing the wheel of action. The movie went through many changes during the process of post that also made its nature veer around in a very interesting way, but to the people I always thought would be interested in this movie, the people I hoped would check it out on DVD, are the true science fiction people. The people who are going to be looking at the movie for its ideas, and who are looking at the movie for its future world, which I don’t think was evident from the way it was framed. I think that kind of translated into a general reception of the movie that was fairly dismissive, certainly critically. And I don’t think it had to be that way.
Did you guys talk to the marketing people at all, letting them know that this isn’t a slam bang action picture, that’s it’s a real science fiction movie?
Phil Hay: I think there was a lot of conversation about that. I wasn’t privy to it in my role as a writer, but I know that the director and the producer and the studio – many people were arguing for many different things. It wasn’t that there were battle lines drawn very clearly, it was an evolving thing. Originally the plan was to market it as more of a serious science fiction movie, and I think that the web site reflects that strategy pretty well. But at some point they decided the action movie was the way to go.
It’s interesting that they moved the picture’s release date around a bit. I thought that when they settled on December it meant they were going to sell it as more serious, but I guess they decided to sell it as counterprogramming to the Oscar stuff.
Phil Hay: Right. That’s kind of what I thought too. Again, I think that anybody involved will tell you that everybody involved is doing what they think will best serve the movie. I have no way of knowing what the best strategy ultimately is, simply because we don’t have a parallel universe generator to see such things, but it seems like that that was the idea. I think it’s interesting that a lot of things that were sold as action recently don’t really perform the way they could if some of the more esoteric elements of them were emphasized more.
The critics were not kind.
Phil Hay: They weren’t?
Sorry to break the news to you. How do you deal with that? When you see that you have 12% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, how do you as a creative person deal with that?
Phil Hay: Part of you doesn’t really care and part of you does care. Obviously you want everybody to love everything you do, but in this case I take solace in that the way that it was framed… I was disappointed in reading many of the reviews were focused on how the studio didn’t provide a preview [screening] for them. Much of the text was about the disappointment and the anger of a movie critic sitting in a movie theater on a weekend, watching it with other people. That doesn’t really teach me much about the filmmaking process.
For me, I know what the movie is to myself, and I really do love the movie. I think the director’s cut of the movie would have been a totally different ballgame in terms of the reception critically and the reception by people. It’s a very, very different movie, so there’s a disappointment that that movie didn’t get released, as it’s quite different. What it comes down to is that when you’re in our position, what you’re hoping is that you’re going to be able to put your best foot forward and people are going to be able to see it. If they don’t like it, you take your lumps and if they love it you feel good about it. But frequently it’s more complicated than that.
Do you read the reviews?
Phil Hay: Selectively. But in the long run I get around to reading most of them. I’m interested in the context of movie criticism right now; I think there’s a crisis in movie criticism right now. I gravitate to the people who write an essay when they’re writing about film, as opposed to a restaurant review or something, which is what I think the vast majority of movie criticism is recently.
I have to agree with that. I hate when you read a review and you realize that all you’re getting is Consumer Reports and you’re not getting any thought about the movie.
Phil Hay: Of the movies we’ve worked on, the [reviews] I’ve most loved are the ones that get the movie, whether they like it or not. I think you can write an interesting essay about culture, about a movie that you may have problems with, but you can use it to talk about culture.
As a writer it’s tough because, as you know, things are so mobile and changeable in a movie script. You have people pointing out and critiquing certain voiceovers or lines of dialogue that they didn’t like, and you’re like, ‘That was written by an editorial assistant!’ The ADR process creates a lot of interesting opportunities for the continuity of something to be disrupted.
That’s the biggest thing I’ve learned from writing about movies for a couple of years now – it’s hard for me to say when a script is good or bad, because very often what a writer hands in has little relationship to what ends up onscreen.
Phil Hay: It’s kind of amazing and it’s really true. I speak about it to my writer friends all the time; in a way in the filmmaking culture we live in it’s irrelevant for a reviewer to talk about the script as an entity unless they’ve read the script. That would be interesting, if a reviewer would read a script and then watch the movie and have something to say about the difference between the two of them. In some ways, unless it’s a writer/director that you’re dealing with where you can be more sure that it’ll be closer to what that person is looking to do in the script, it’s really hard to pinpoint and be specific in your critique. Again, Karyn’s director’s cut was a very close rendition of the script, and that was a very positive feeling. Again I’ll say that the cut that’s out there now is a direct representation of the script, but subtleties and context and tone changes can make a huge difference in how something is perceived.
How big of a difference is there between the director’s cut and the film that’s being released on DVD?
Phil Hay: In a way there are many big differences, which I can talk a little bit about. The basic storyline is very much the same. It’s more of a case of emphasis, tone, mood and pace. The director’s cut is about twenty five minutes longer and contains more back-story of secondary characters, a lot more political discussion of the situation of the world, it’s elucidated more clearly and complexly. Relationships have more room to breathe. It’s a matter of mood – the cutting style is very, for lack of a better term, more serious. It’s a much more serious-minded epic tone, as opposed to the more pop tone – which I think often works – in the theatrical cut. It’s just a fascinating thing to see them as two different enemies.
For example, the action – the way that Karyn planned the action was in much more the balletic world of ‘Crouching Tiger’ or something, as opposed to the very quick cut traditional action style that ended up in the final cut. The way that we always envisioned the tone of the movie, and the tone that’s in the director’s cut, is more of a samurai film. That was always the tone all along. We were trying to make basically a samurai film in the future. There are certain conventions and tonal, operatic stuff that work more properly if given the room to breathe and you’re allowed to feel your way into the characters and into the very heightened style of everything. I think people often have a difficult time with anything that isn’t naturalism in terms of performance style or tone, and this movie, the interesting thing, is that we’re not dealing with naturalism. There’s a much more theatrical, operatic thing going on. Again, I think that in the director’s cut you see the spaces and silences and quiet moments. We had the benefit of so many actors who were great at internal moments, being able to act from within and being able to hold the scene with that stuff.
How late in the process did Karyn’s director’s cut become something different, and how involved was she in the final cut?
Phil Hay: She was involved the whole time. There are a lot of different forces at play, and everybody’s operating from their own sense of good will. It becomes a matter of taste, really, and everyone has a very valid – to them – and coherent reason for doing what they wanted to do. As with every studio movie it’s the battle between art and commerce, what people think is going to be the thing that’s going to be the most popular.
What I don’t understand about this is that you didn’t hand in a fake script, and Karyn didn’t lie about the kind of movie she was going to make. What made them change their minds about a film that they had, up until that point, paid for and supported?
Phil Hay: Its’ a very simple and classic answer: the studio turned over almost one hundred percent in its leadership in the time we were filming the movie. The people who signed on to the movie and the artistic take were gone by the time we finished filming. With the exception of our main point person, who was a great ally throughout the entire thing. When you have situation like that you’re in a precarious position because everyone has such different taste in movies and everyone has such different ideas, especially about genre movies and what they’re meant to do and what they’re meant to accomplish. So when new leadership comes in who in this case didn’t exactly agree with that take it became a process of trying to find something everyone could get behind.
The director’s cut exists – will we ever get a chance to see it?
Phil Hay: I do hope so. It seems fairly common these days that you get a director’s cut down the line. We’re all trying really hard for that to happen; honestly I think it would be a very fascinating thing for people who are interested in film to look at and see how the context is different. I hope that it has a chance to come out, and that could happen if people go out and get the DVD with the theatrical cut.
What I find interesting is that if you watch the theatrical cut with a little bit of this information, and a little bit of an intuitive application of imagination you can see through the cracks to some of the directions it was yearning to go, and get a glimpse of it.
How has the experience of this film changed the way you work, changed the way you’re approaching your future projects?
Phil Hay: I don’t know yet. This movie that Matt and I are writing together to direct is smaller in scale but is still a big genre concept, which I think might be an answer for us in some ways. We’re also working on a very big kind of comedy science fiction movie for Universal, which I’m excited about. We have a director aboard, David Dobkin, who’s great, and to have him and the producers and Universal on the same page from minute one is a very nice thing.
The internet is the flip side of legitimate criticism. I was talking to James Gunn recently, and he was saying that when he wrote the Dawn of the Dead remake he was getting death threats pretty regularly. Do you check the message boards to see what people are saying? And how do you deal with that?
Phil Hay: I do check those things. I can’t help myself, I guess. But they’re very amusing, and they help you separate your work from yourself. Draco42 doesn’t really know much about me, but I can’t take what he has to say very seriously.
But in terms of ‘Æon Flux’ there’s this great fan board called Monican Spies, which was about the TV show and expanded to be about the movie. Some of the most beautifully written and interesting reviews of the movie – loving it, hating it, being in the middle – were written by the fans at this site, the kinds of great essays you hope someone in film school would be writing. Like I was saying earlier, when people are that engaged with the ideas, wherever they come out on the film, that’s very gratifying.
Do you interact with people on the boards? Do you sign on as yourself or is there a secret name you use, which you won’t disclose?
Phil Hay: It’s Devin Faraci. No, on the ‘Æon Flux’ boards I identify myself because I think it’s very specific. But I never get involved on the Talk Backs and other things. I just read and enjoy.
There’s been talk that maybe the best step for Karyn might be to return to indie, character based films after Æon Flux. So she wants to keep going big?
Phil Hay: I think she’s interested in it all. She’s got a million things she generated herself and coming at her from other people, and it’s funny because some of them are intimate movies and some are bigger movies. I think it’s just going to be what situation feels right for her. The one we’re doing for her is a war movie, but it’s a very intimate scale. It’s a weird combination of ‘Guns of Navarrone’ with ‘The Fast Runner’. It’s something that could be done at any budget level, basically.
SOURCE: Chud.com
From Monsters and Critics.com
By Maura Reilly
Moderator: I’d like to go down the panel and ask each one of you how you became involved with the film and what drew you to the project.
Peter Chung: I created Aeon Flux back in 1990, when it was a segment of shorts on Liquid Television on MTV. In 1995 it was extended it to a half-hour series. Pretty much soon after that they started talking about a live-action movie version. And it’s been that long, since about 1996 that this has been in development.
David Gale: We’re MTV Films and 10 years ago when I started at the company this show was on the air. It was the most phenomenal program I’d ever seen and that we should make it into a movie. Ten years later we’re working on it.
Gale Anne Hurd: I was a huge fan of Peter Chung’s Liquid Television animated series. When David Gale approached me and said “this is something we should bring to the screen”, I jumped at the chance. I’m thrilled to be here and have this become a reality.
Karyn Kusama: I was just lucky enough read an incredible script, an adaptation of the series. I thought it really captured the sort of weirdness and spirit of the series. I was very, very lucky to get this opportunity.
Marton Csokas: Well I had the good fortune to see the animated series. I thought that was astounding and wondered why the hell were they going to make a film adaptation out of it? It was a fine piece of work. And then I met Karyn, it had a very good script. And [I] was assured that we were going to draw from intentional devised and other men in conjunction with the Peter Chung’s work.
Charlize Theron: I was approached by Sharie Lansing actually and she brought the project to my attention. Then I had a meeting with Karyn Kusama and Gale Ann Hurd and really loved where they were going with it. I was looking for something completely different, (this was right after ‘Monster’). This kind of [film] was night and day from that for me. So I felt it was quite a challenge to take on and I was lucky to be a part of it.
Gale: I wanted to say hello to everybody who came out today at Comic-con. As you can see, no one on our panel came in costume. I really wanted to, but my colleagues talked me out of it. I’m sorry.
Charlize: So that’s where my suit is.
Gale: It’s in my closet.
Charlize: Okay.
Gale: On behalf of Charlize, Marton, Karyn, David and Peter I want to thank you for your support of the property from its earliest days on MTV. We’re here to share with you this early look at the film Æon Flux.
Fan Question #1: I was wondering how the characterization of Aeon Flux in the live-action film compares to her characterization in the anime series?
Karyn: The writers tried to find a parallel character Aeon Flux that could be human. The challenge of an animated character is bringing her to life. I think what we had preserved from the animated Aeon was her recklessness, her kind of instability, her unpredictability and her humor. She had a very dry sense of humor and a strange practicality despite [having] a surreal quality. I think Charlize really tapped into that.
Charlize: I think Peter did such a great job setting up this character [that] very easily could be into so many horrible situations. I think the core of who she is and how she thinks what I took away from the anime was that she was questioning authority and always questioning what’s happening around her. I think when you have a character like that it’s fun to play because there’s never just one answer, one scenario. It lent itself for me to have this character in situations constantly within the linear story to always be very curious, always thinking of where she’s going, she’s questioning that even. So that was an element that I really liked.
Peter: I’ll answer that question by saying that during the run of the animated series, I kept reinventing the character. For example the MTV version of Aeon Flux is very different from the half-hour animate series version of her. The way she looked changed. Her agenda changes from episode to episode. I think 10 years on that re-imagining her and re-inventing her again is very natural for this character. She is a character who is constantly in evolution. What she is about isn’t based on any kind of set ideology. It adapts to the various situations that she finds herself in.
Fan Question #2: Charlize, this movie looks very sexy and I was wondering how you juggle being so sexy in this movie but remaining such a classy starlet?
Charlize: That was nice. I think with the people who are involved, from Karyn to the producers I knew that this was going to be a classy project. No matter how sexual this character is and how comfortable she is with her sexuality, obviously we knew we couldn’t go as far with the outfits that Peter had designed for her. Certain things must be hidden. We still tried to stay true to that element and the knowledge that she’s very independent, very comfortable within her skin and that she also used that. She’s not shy about it. She’s a very strong person. I think that when you play with those elements of sexuality, if before you know what it is, it makes I really fun. I hope. I mean that’s the only thing that my mother used to tell me.
Fan: You are a classy lady, Charlize.
Charlize: Well thank you very much. I think I just blushed. I haven’t done that in a long time!
Fan Question #3: This question is for Marton. I’m a fan of Trevor Goodchild from the series. I was wondering how that character influences your character in the movie.
Marton: I tried to avoid looking at things that were in the series: his downfall and some of the motivation. But then instead what you’re left with is essentially the foundation of the character. So it was almost in conjunction with everybody else, taking certain pieces and twisting them and reshaping them and hint to what happens in the story being told in the film. So it was very much a dry and devised observation of his character.
Fan: Thank you very much.
Marton: I could go on.
Fan Question #4: During your preparation for this character, did you find yourself likening to any non-fictional or fictional characters also?
Charlize: I think the most important thing is to find the truth. I wanted to stay as true as we possibly could to Peter’s creation. And at the same time, like he said she’s constantly evolving. For me it was finding what her motivation was through the story, not so much based on any particular character aside from the Aeon in the anime. [It was] more just the female spirit of where we’re going in the future, what we’re going to represent 400 years from now and what that voice is. Like I said, [I’m] just really trying to come from a real place. That is always important for me as an actor to not think of it as far-fetched or futuristic. To me all of this was very real. The situations that I found this character to be in felt very close and near in our society. It was more important to be asking questions about what will this female icon represent for women in the future. I thought she was very strong and I tried to stay true to that.
Fan Question #5: This is for both the actors. Was it hard playing established characters from a series rather than characters that you get to create yourself?
Charlize: For me it’s a little bit of both. You look at it as a little easier because you have kind of a blueprint. And at times I think that you have to be careful because you can never forget in this art form the outline isn’t concrete and you can go so far with a character, with any character. It is nice to have kind of an outline for somebody and I’d liked what Peter created. Obviously trying to stay within the same character because I just loved that character, it was so unusual, someone I’d never seen on film. But yet you mold it like it were a piece of clay and you play around with it. You’re open to it. You’re open to that blueprint and you’re open to what’s going to happen on the day and open to what happens when communicating about the story and the character.
Fan Question #6: Since you have covered the costume and hair being changed I was wondering to the director and Peter Chung why you didn’t choose Jonny Lee Miller for Trevor instead of Oren? [audience reacts] Hey, Jonny’s not here to answer.
David: What’s your name?
Marton: Good question.
Karyn: I think when you see the film Trevor and Oren (the character that Jonny Lee Miller plays) sort of act in some ways in some of duel elements of the same entity. In a funny way the chemistry of Marton as Trevor and Jonny Lee as Oren felt right. Both are absolutely wonderful actors.
Fan Question #7: This question is for Charlize. With all the world’s problems, plaguing us today: the war in Iraq, terrorist attacks, famine in 3rd World countries, ethnic cleansing in parts of Africa, I was wondering where on earth did you get that fabulous dress?
Charlize: It’s not a dress. It’s pants, baby.
Fan: [her cell phone rings] I’m sorry, it’s my mum. No, no you cannot talk to Charlize Theron. She just wants to hear you say ‘Hi Mom!’
Charlize: Hi Mom.
Fan: [still on phone] Ok, ok I’ll try to get her autograph. Thank you.
Fan Question # 8: This question is for Karyn and Peter and also deals with the characterization of Aeon. One thing that I always find myself liking about the animated character is her moral ambiguity, not just in the sense that she has a dark side but you know that at the bottom she’s a good person, but there are situations where you ask yourself, is she really? There are some seriously immoral or questionable things she does. I find myself a little worried that in the movie there would be this inclination to make her this traditionally straight-forward heroine that might have some rough edges but would never question what is wrong or right at all times. I’m wondering if you might allay some of those fears?
Peter: Well she’s a killer. So that in itself is already morally on the edge. It’s always a question of how you justify her actions which are very often violent. That was something that I tried to keep up to the viewer to believe depending on the situation. Sometimes you find out that maybe she’s not justified. But she’s willing to take responsibility for her own actions and for the morality of what they are. To her being free and having responsibility for her own actions is more important than abiding by a particular set agenda. I established some difficulties that were the driving force behind her actions. I think that aspect of her, the fact that she’s a violent character and that she’s an assassin is something that is very, very prominent in the movie.
Karyn: I would agree with Peter that for Aeon Flux in both the animated series and as Charlize portrayed her, the expression of her free-will is a radical expression of herself. In this particular culture of the film, [it is] the most radical expression of all. I think in a way she still holds that moral ambiguity. We see that what makes her ambiguous is that she’s capable of changing. That she might start or land in a certain black or white ideology but ultimately is capable of moving outside of that and seeing sort of [disease] in the world which I think all of us can sort of strive to get through now.
Fan Question # 9: This question is for Charlize. What was your workout regimen for this movie?
Charlize: This is one of the most physical things I’ve ever done. I had a very short period. I started in mid-April and for 3 and a half months worked out sometimes 6 days a week for 4 and a half to 5 hours. And it was loosely based on Capoeira and then I was working with a trainer from Cirque du Soleil to learn gymnastics, and some really, really intense stretching. I think the first month was the hardest because I had come off ‘Monster’ and for that entire time, for about a year I hadn’t done anything with my body. I had gone and gained 30 pounds. For about a year and a half I hadn’t exercised. So the first month, I couldn’t walk, I literally couldn’t walk. I really didn’t know how I was going to get through it. I broke through it and got better. Then it became like a drug, I mean I really got a great high from it. But it was pretty intense. At the same time it wasn’t just about getting my body to look a certain way it really was learning a whole new craft of dance and martial arts. I started really enjoying it. I had some great trainers who were very encouraging because it was pretty intense. I tore many things but they’re back.
Fan Question # 10: Charlize coming off of Monster and doing Aeon Flux how is it different for you? There is a fine line between the Monster character and Aeon Flux because of them both being so dark. Can you talk a little more about that?
Charlize: For me the journey is always different and I don’t try to divorce from the feelings or anything. For me it has to be organic. The people that I’m surrounded by: my director, my actors, the writers all of that plays a huge part for me. To me, this job isn’t one that you do by yourself. You get inspired and influenced by the people you work with. So you have to be smart in choosing who you’re going to do that with. For me the biggest thing is to become a sponge. Like you say, some times it’s very, very close. You can look at any character and find the similarities. I didn’t go into this thinking that. I went into this trying to be as much obsessed as I possibly can with this world and this woman. I tried to cover my bases completely and soak up as much information, ask as many questions as I possibly could, and try to cover every corner and lift up every rug. That’s the process I use for every film. You just keep asking questions and trying things out and work with people who are willing to work that way, and encourage that, and push you. As an actor you push yourself to a certain level but it’s always great to work with people who can actually push you beyond that. It’s in the choices that you make. That’s one of the most important thing I’ve learned in my career: who you work with and who is going to be that person to take you to that next level where you go: ‘I could have never seen myself.’ I mean I’m pretty disciplined and I’ll take myself to a place where it’s disciplined. But to have someone come and take you there is pretty incredible and important.
Fan Question # 11: I have two questions. I was curious about the process. And Charlize I was curious to know what made you decide to take do this project?
Charlize: It took me a while, to be honest because this was so extremely foreign to me. I had never done anything in the genre and I didn’t feel like an expert in the genre. It was not a genre that I necessarily thought that I could compliment in the 10 years that it’s been in [development]. So it took me a while to sit with Karyn to understand how I was going to service this. I very rarely jump onto something and go: ‘Oh my God I know I have to do this.’ And that’s usually a good sign for me. I was extremely scared because I knew from what Peter had done with this character that there is a huge following (as you can see). I wanted to respect that and I wanted to know that I could bring something good towards it. Once I got to a place with Karyn where I understood how she was going to utilize me how we were going to tell the story together then I was on board 110%.
Fan: I was curious was the process to make the movie, was it difficult to get made?
Gale: No movie is easy. The key thing is to start with a tremendous, compelling underlying source material, like Peter Chung’s animated series. That was a terrific template for us to follow. On the other hand you have to get the right creative team together: you have to find the perfect writers to adapt the material, a visionary director, the right actors to bring the characters to life, as well as all the behind the scenes personnel. That includes every film especially a film in which you’re creating a world. It’s a difficult task. MTV and
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Shira Lazar: We’re at the Cinerama Dome in
Shira Lazar: What challenges did you have in doing this film, because I know there’s so many stunts?
Yangzom Brauen: For me it was like very easy – green-screen. I never played in a green-screen.
Caroline Chikezie: Yeah, well I had to jump off a building which was 15-feet high. So that was the most challenging thing I had to do.
Jonny Lee Miller: I didn’t have to do any stunts at all…
Shira Lazar: …you had it easy…
Jonny Lee Miller: Yeah, I had it easy.
Caroline Chikezie: And I had to cut down on what I ate, which was the biggest challenge of all.
Shira Lazar: You studied ballet. How did that help you with the physicality of this role?
Charlize Theron: It’s something that I think is in your blood, you know. It definitely helps, even though I haven’t done a class in 10 years…
*Betty Okino: I’m a gymnast, so it wasn’t very difficult to jump into the gymnastics moves. It was kind of second nature.
Shira Lazar: Are you a sci-fi fan?
Jonny Lee Miller: Not specifically so but, yeah, I like the odd bit of sci-fi.
Betty Okino: Not really.
Jonny Lee Miller: I’m not like a mad science-fiction freak or anything like that.
Caroline Chikezie: Yeah, I can’t believe it. It’s a surreal experience actually to be here.
Betty Okino: Oh, I’m so excited!
Shira Lazar: So what was it like to finally see it now as a feature film?
Jonny Lee Miller: Yeah, well it’s good man! It’s ridiculous – I’m in it! Weird.
Charlize Theron: Well, I think we celebrated what people loved about it and then tried to create a linear story that would maybe take it to a new level.
A variety of roles has demonstrated her (Charlize’s) skill and versatility as an actress. A role in Æon Flux demonstrated her physical agility.
Betty Okino: Charlize, coming from a ballet background, she took to movement very easily.
Charlize Theron: Even though I haven’t done a class in about 10 years, it’s something that kind of just – it’s in your blood, you know.
I feel great about it…I mean, you know, I wish I could take credit for it but Peter Chung did an incredible job creating this character and I just tried to fill her shoes.
SOURCES: Cinema Electric and Wireimage Podcast
*Betty Okino appeared in the film briefly as a Monican, but she was also a stunt-double for Sophie Okonedo at one point in the film. Look out for a scene which plays out towards the end of the film, involving the character Sithandra – which required gymnastic abilities.
Charlize Theron gives a small speech at the Tokyo premiere of Æon Flux:
Charlize Theron: Thank you so much for coming out tonight! Making a film is such an intimate experience – with your crew, and your director and your cast. And this is really a joy to be able to travel the world, and for me especially, to come here to Japan and to bring this film here. Because I really, truly believe that this is the home of Æon Flux…I feel like this is the audience. So it’s a great joy to bring this film back here. Thank you so much for coming tonight!
SOURCE: Video Clip from Japanese Official Æon Flux Site
Charlize Theron: What did I gain most? Well, the realization that – I mean, I’ve always felt this way but this film was a great experiment for me – is that the body can tell a story so much better than words sometimes. And I was trained as a ballerina for 12 years of my life and that was where my love for storytelling came – being on a stage and not being able to use words but to be able to dance, to perform the story. And that was part of why I kind-of wanted to go back to that. I’ve had wonderful writers write me great monologues in films but there’s an incredible challenge in trying to convey a thought or an emotion, not through words but through the physical aspect of storytelling. And that was kind-of my challenge every single day, because Aeon Flux is not a woman of many words. But I like that. You know, the most fun honestly was Friday because that meant we had a weekend. And like I said before, the physical stuff was incredibly demanding on all of the actors. So Friday night we all used to – that was our one night that we could go and go and have dinner and have a drink and not have to be disciplined. So Fridays were definitely the most fun on the shoot for all of us actors. And, you know, even the least – it isn’t really the least part because I did enjoy the physical aspect of training every single day even though some days were harder than others – but I did enjoy that.
SOURCE: Video Clip from Japanese Official Æon Flux Site
Æon Flux - an action film based on a popular US animation and set in the near future. Charlize Theron plays a revolutionary fighter struggling for freedom. The climax of the movie is a dramatic battle beneath cherry blossoms.
Charlize Theron: It was so incredibly beautiful to have the juxtaposition of cherry blossoms exploding because of gunfire and this incredible violence happening, but not happening with blood and something gory; it was happening around incredible beauty.
Where did this unusual sense of beauty come from?
Charlize Theron: Well I've visited a lot of places in Tokyo and I understand the love for cherry blossoms here. And I have a love for cherry blossoms. I have a cherry blossom in my yard.
Charlize was born in South Africa, and went on to become a top model in Europe. These days, she works mostly in the US but travels the globe as a true cosmopolitan.
Charlize Theron: I am a South African, so that's the kind of blood that flows through my veins. But at the same time, I can very easily be in a different culture and feel, not feel strange or not feel out of place.
I mean I'm a traveler at heart. I love to travel. I love to throw myself against that wall of a completely different culture and to kind of try and live that way when you're there. Not to bring your preconceived notions of what life is into a different world or a different culture.
Traveling the world with an open mind.
That's the hardy sense of adventure you need to make the most of life. Thank you, Charlize!
SOURCE: NHK
From her Oscar-winning performance in ‘Monster’ to her revolutionary mineworker in ‘
It’s a great pleasure to have you here.
Charlize Theron: Thank you for having me.
So this is set in 2415 – 400 years from now…410 years from now. So what’s it like in 2415? Just so I can be ready.
Charlize Theron: (laughs) It’s interesting, you know. A lot of how we get to 400 years in the future in this film is really taken from events in today’s life. And I think it really reflects on the issues that we have to pay attention to today because it could be very similar to, I think, what Bregna is. It deals with how we’ve become a population of only 5 million people – and that’s because of world hunger, and coming up with, you know, quick schemes to cure big diseases like this and then realizing that there isn’t a quick thing you just kind of have to pay attention to, these things…otherwise we’ll just die.
I’m somewhat sorbid (sp?) by the fact we’re down to 5 million people, coz that – I was worried for instance, 400 years from now, there’s still baseball?
Charlize Theron: No, there’s no baseball -
- oh..
Charlize Theron: Yes. Awww, you guys are so sad…
Morning television shows?
Charlize Theron: Nope, none of that. No, no…
Movies?
Charlize Theron: No, no films.
You’re out of work.
Charlize Theron: No, we’ll be under complete and utter government control. We will be completely controlled.
You’ve actually led me to the clip here, which is you threatening – well, you’re confronting – the head of the last city on Earth, who you think killed your parents…who was responsible for the death of your parents. Let’s take a look…
(‘Why Am I Here?’ clip plays…)
Is it weird watching yourself with dark hair? It seems very strange – it’s a shock!
Charlize Theron: I’ve always kind of changed my hair colour, so it wasn’t the first time that I’ve done something that drastic.
That’s really dark though! Do people treat you differently when you’re - ?
Charlize Theron: Not that I can tell. I mean, it’s very liberating. I think women should really, just really do something like that every once in a while in their lives. It’s very liberating to kind of just – I remember the day I went to cut it all off and I was in traning, and it was just really, it changes everything. I mean, there was something about this haircut that made me feel like a warrior, and it’s so helpful. Yeah, I felt very strong.
So it gives you a different persona?
Charlize Theron: Yeah, and the tights helped too, you know.
We’ve been looking at people doing stunts all morning long, and extraordinary stunts that they did. Were you doing that stunt in the movie? (Clip plays of a stunt-woman dressed up as Aeon Flux performing stunts)
Charlize Theron: Yeah, I got to do that move.
You did?
Charlize Theron: Yeah, the back – the monkey-flip they call it in Capoeira.
You had ballet training?
Charlize Theron: Yeah, I was trained as a ballerina for 12 years of my life – ballet and flamenco.
And does that give you the skill to be able to kick people like that?
Charlize Theron: Anger is a good reason to kick somebody. (laughs) Yeah, that’s about all you need.
That takes you along as well… So how much of it did you actually do? Coz I know you got hurt during the movie -
Charlize Theron: Yeah, I trained for about 3 months – a little over 3 months – with just an incredible group of people. And I think that was the greatest gift that I got out of this film, to receive all of these great tools all of a sudden. Just having this incredible staff of people around you who just dedicate themselves to you, and listen to you whining and moaning every single day because you’re in pain – and still kind of believe in you and they really kind of pushed me which was really incredible…really a great gift!
Well, I’m dismayed by the fact that there’s no baseball 410 years from now. Other than that, this sounds quite good. Aeon Flux is in theaters this
Charlize Theron: (laughs)
SOURCE: ABC News Clip
She played a serial-killer in ‘Monster’ and she won an Academy-Award for it, then this year she played a steel-miner taking a stand against sexual discrimination.
And now she’s bringing the mysterious animated heroine to life. Joining us now live, Charlize Theron, who plays Ee-on – Ay-on Flux – I keep on, is it Ay-on Flux?
Charlize Theron: Ee-on.
It is Ee-on Flux? But Mark said it was Ay-on…why do I listen to him? It’s nice to have you with us. Now, it’s kind of a physical role – I heard that you trained with Cirque du Soleil for it. Is that right?
Charlize Theron: Yeah, an artist from there. He came from
Doing trampoline-training?
Charlize Theron: All of it, yeah.
Hey, if nothing else, you’re getting paid to work out right?
Charlize Theron: Exactly! It’s a great gift, you know. It wasn’t just transforming my body. I mean, they basically said, “We want you to learn these skills. We want you to be able to do gymnastics and do Capoeira.” And so it was a great challenge to really go and learn things that I’ve never done before.
Let’s talk about the role and what you are in it. It takes place in the future – a couple of 100 years into the future – and a genetically engineered disease basically wipes out a good chunk of the Earth’s population, except for this one – it’s like a walled-in city/state, right?
Charlize Theron: Yeah, it’s where the last remaining 5 million people live.
And then what does Ay-on…Ee-on Flux – what is her role in this whole thing?
Charlize Theron: She runs a hot-dog stand and… (laughs)
Seriously?
But what’s a girl to do in the future, you know? You gotta be your own businesswoman, yeah.
Charlize Theron: No, she is the perfect assassin – she is kind of the leader of this rebel group called The Monicans and they’re kind of this small, kind of, anarchist group, anti-hero group that ask bigger questions about what the government are really doing to maintain this kind of perfect society. And she actually gets the assignment to assassinate the leader.
So I guess you were injured? You do your own stunts in this movie, for the most part, and you hurt your neck during one?
Charlize Theron: Yeah, that was on the tenth day of shooting – so, it was right in the beginning of filming. So, it was a little bit – but it was – I mean I have herniated a disc, flew back to LA – we shot this film in Berlin – and came back and just healed for about 6 weeks and did intense physiotherapy, and then went back and finished the film.
Oh, wow!
Glad it’s ok.
Hey, thanks for joining us and good luck in the movie – it sounds phenomenal. Look for ‘Æon Flux’ coming to theaters. Thanks!
Charlize Theron: Thanks you guys!
SOURCE: CBS News Clip
Our first guest is an Academy Award-winning actress. Her new film Æon Flux opens this Friday. Please welcome back to the program Charlize Theron everybody…
You had a neck injury and this is so scary. You tell people this is during the filming of this Æon Flux movie and you flipped over and landed on your neck or something, is that right?
Charlize Theron: Yeah.
And it was a herniated disc or ruptured disc?
Charlize Theron: Yeah, herniated disc.
Where?
Charlize Theron: Here between my fifth and fourth…
But are you ok now?
Charlize Theron: Yeah, I’m completely healed and it was just one of those fluke accidents, and all good now.
And you landed right on your neck?
Charlize Theron: Yeah, I did a – I learnt gymnastics for this film and I did a back-handspring, which is where you kind-of jump off and you reach back and you’re supposed to land on your hands. And my feet slipped from underneath me, so I couldn’t reach onto my hands and I basically went back and just landed with all my body-weight on my neck.
Yeah, that’s awful. You’re very, very lucky. So what did they do immediately? Did they take you to the hospital?
Charlize Theron: No, because I trained really intensely like 5, 6 days a week, 5 hours a day for this film. So I had gone through quite a little bit of pain already and pulled a couple of things. And I thought that, “No, maybe it was just a neck spasm…” It happened on a Friday actually, and we had been working so hard and being so disciplined, so the cast and crew kind-of decided to go out for a drink after work. So I was very excited about that, and I said, “No, it’s just a neck spasm. I’m gonna see you guys later, it’s going to be fine.” And then I was in a neck brace and I was like, “No, no, no you guys. I’m going to see you later ok? It’s good.” And then I was in an ambulance basically waving, going, “I’ll see you later tonight!”
SOURCE: Video Clip from Charlize Theron Central
Charlize Theron is one of the most versatile actresses in
And Charlize Theron is with us. Good morning.
Charlize Theron: Good morning.
So this is based on an MTV kind-of anime, right?
Charlize Theron: Yes.
And it’s a full-fledged action movie in which – well here’s the anime – they decided against having you in costumes like that apparently.
Charlize Theron: I actually wanted to be in them, they just wouldn’t give them to me. That’s what it really was. I want to wear that little piece of string! No…Peter Chung, the creator of Bregna and Aeon, did a really incredible job. I mean, you have – the freedom with anime is that you can always kind of manipulate and you can’t really do that with realism.
We should set this up – this takes place about 500 years from now, there’s one city left in the world, it’s kind of the perfect place…
Charlize Theron: So it seems.
…but it has hidden secrets. Your job is to kill the leader of the world, right?
Charlize Theron: Yeah, I’m part of this kind of rebellious group called The Monicans, who are a few people who kind of ask bigger questions. And it has become kind of like this lockdown, seems really like, you know, the greatest place on earth but deep down inside I think a lot of people are kind of asking what’s really going on. And she’s part of this group that basically gets an assignment – and she’s an assassin – and she gets an assignment to kill the leader.
There’s so much physical stuff in there! I know you trained for years and years as a ballet dancer. Did this come into play then with all the green-screen, and the hooked up to pulleys, and all of that stuff like that?
Charlize Theron: It is, yeah – I haven’t been in a ballet class for about 12/13 years – but it is something that, you know, just having that background, I think it’s something that stays under your skin. And there was something very graceful about this character that I liked – that she wasn’t just kind-of like this stocky fighting machine. She was kind of elevated in the air all the time. It was fun.
Is it fun to do or is it unbelievable hard work?
Charlize Theron: It’s very hard but I like that kind of discipline and that was why I wanted to do it. There was something physically very challenging and there was a story that was very dark but yet not dialogue-heavy. And I liked the idea of going back and telling a story with my body.
Is there something attractive to you about being able to become a chameleon like that? Because the things you’re most famous for – this latest film, North Country – this one we don’t just see you, like the one you won the Academy Award for, we don’t just see you, there’s more there. Is it easier for you or is it more challenging for you as an actress to have a costume, for lack of a better word?
Charlize Theron: No, I think it’s very helpful. I would be completely lost without wardrobe and makeup and hair and just walking into a set. I mean, I think all of those elements are what kind of helps you transform and become. And, you know, it gets harder the longer I’m in the business because you become more recognizable and then, you know, I don’t want people to go and watch a film and watch Charlize Theron.
Mmm…ok. Well you won’t have an argument with me…I’ll go.
We will look forward to seeing you in Æon Flux. Nice to see you.
SOURCE: Video Clip from Charlize Theron Central
You went brunette in this movie, huh?
Charlize Theron: Yeah.
Well how do you feel as a brunette? Is it different for you?
Charlize Theron: You know, it’s weird. I’ve always kind-of changed. It wasn’t the first time that I went that dark, but I like it, you know. And then you always kind-of think, “Oh, it will be great because you will kind-of become a little less recognizable” and then I realized people were recognizing me from other things. Like I’d be like, “No, no, no, I get that all the time!”, and then my mom would be standing next to me and then they would recognize my mom and they’d go, “No, you’re her coz that’s your mom.”
Well you do a lot in Æon Flux! I mean, you are all over the place kicking-butt. And that movie takes place, what is it, 400 years in the future?
Charlize Theron: Yeah, around 400 years in the future.
But as well-choreographed as the stunts are, you were really badly hurt during the film, I heard.
Charlize Theron: I did – yeah, unfortunately it was around, I think, the 10th day of shooting so I still had the whole film to do. I learnt gymnastics for the film and did a back-handspring and didn’t quite land on my hands. My feet slipped from underneath my body and I landed right on my neck and herniated a disc in my neck. Look at that (moves head from left to right), I’m all good.
SOURCE: Video Clip from Charlize Theron Central
(Charlize on Aeon not speaking much)
Charlize Theron: In many ways Aeon Flux never speaks. I read the script and I said, “I hardly speak in this movie”. And then I realised, what a great opportunity to tell a story with your body and not use words. I was very fascinated by that.
(Charlize on what drew her to the film and what issues the film deals with)
Charlize Theron: The issues that the film deals with are very strong issues. Issues that I care about in our everyday life, so that doesn’t make it frivolous to me. Also, the director, Karyn Kusama, comes from the world of character filmmaking. I never did this genre, I think her films are very complex when it comes to human nature. So I knew it wasn’t going to be frivolous and running out with my t**s hanging out and kicking things, ‘cause I’m not good at that. I knew that she would find the core and then, when the script came in, the whole film questions our humanity, which again is what I’m fascinated by.
(Charlize on the physical aspect of the role)
Charlize Theron: I come from a ballet background. I did ballet for 12 years and I consider that my theater. I told stories with my body for 12 years and then came into this industry. I couldn’t let go of that and it’s still important to me. I really wanted to learn the skills of what Aeon had. I wanted to learn gymnastics. I didn’t want to just be on wires and fake everything. I learned some skills I never thought I would learn.
SOURCE: ComingSoon.net
(Charlize Theron describes her character, Aeon Flux)
Charlize Theron: She’s a strong thinker. She’s an independent thinker. She’s comfortable being independent and a soul trader. She’s comfortable in that role. Even though you always wanna play the love interest, and play those things in a story, what I loved about her was that she was very much independent, and I liked how ferocious she was. She’s like an animal, she functions in instinct. Why does a lion kill her cubs sometimes, you know? There was this natural force in her that I was very attracted to, that you couldn’t sometimes justify… her belief in freedom was something that I really liked too. That she was a freedom fighter, she was ballsy.
(Marton Csokas describes his character, Trevor Goodchild)
Marton Csokas: The character’s name is Trevor Goodchild. He’s the leader of Bregna. It’s the last bastion of civilization four hundred years from now, and the natural rhythms of life and society have been messed with. Trevor Goodchild recruits scientists, he tries to address the balance and also maintain the life in the forms that we know it. Unfortunately there is a huge dilemma, because within the society of Bregna, the collective unconscious, if you will, rears its head in the form of Monicans – Aeon Flux being one of them. And they clash with Trevor Goodchild’s government and Trevor Goodchild as an individual. And what happens at the meeting point…
Does making a film about controversial government and terrorism make anyone nervous? Or are we just reading too much into this?
Marton Csokas: Rebellion, and revolution, and the unification of common beliefs, is very important. There are certain individuals who have far, far too much power, and the masses meanwhile lumber around being mediated and pacified.
Charlize Theron: I think it’s pretty hard to make a film based on the future and not question and touch upon the social issues that we’re faced with today. I think behind the whole point of the character and the story is the idea that it’s an awakening, of someone who is actually questioning what’s happening around her, who is brave enough to not watch propaganda or get sucked into what the government is telling you. She actually questions these things and becomes a fighter against it. That was something that I very much liked, because the anime is so non-linear that you need it to base some of this on factual things that are happening today.
The cartoon was innovative in more than one-way; the animation, the characters, and the storyline were all graphic, eerie, and at times, grotesque. It’s not something that translates easily to film, which was one of the major hurdles the filmmakers had to overcome.
Peter Chung: I don’t think that I imagined that the live-action version would be exactly like the animation, because honestly, the animation was designed to be something that would only work in animation. Her costumes, for instance, her hair, her movements. As an animator, I tried to make use of the animation to show things that you can’t do in live-action. I think the approach has captured the look and feel of the animation without it becoming unbelievable.
The director, Karyn Kusama, whose only other directing credit includes 2000’s “Girlfight”, had a daunting task in front of her to try to recreate Peter’s animated fantasy world.
Karyn Kusama: On my end, I was really excited by the visual landscape, and really surprised by it. There were so many choices in terms of real locations. And we actually had to shoot a lot in real places. We had to find places that had an uncanny quality and otherworldliness.
(Karyn on the physicality of the characters in Æon Flux)
Karyn Kusama: The main characters sort of finds their most essential self in their physicality, it was definitely important for me to be able to talk to the actors about how we understand who they are through their physicality, or their precision, or lack of precision. Charlize was a great actress to be working with in that arena.
(Charlize on finishing all her own stunts after her neck-injury)
Charlize Theron: The physical aspect of the character involved is very important to me. It’s like, if you’re going to do ‘Monster’, you have to play the character correct physically and emotionally. I felt the same way about this. I felt that the physical challenge appealed to me as much as the emotional challenge. For me it’s very important to feel like I am this person in order to be that person. If you were to call it ‘method’, or crazy, I don’t know. But it was important for me to take enough time off after my injuries to go back and do what I needed to do physically. It was so much of the character. I can’t imagine not doing the physical side of it. And also, just believe that you see that in a movie, when someone is not throwing themselves into it. I never want to see that in a film. I always want to feel like I have given it everything physically and emotionally.
(Charlize on the subject of her worrying whether she would be a good Aeon)
Charlize Theron: The most important thing to me was to deliver a good film. I didn’t want to think about sequels or dolls, or anything like that. Because sometimes you can get ahead of yourself, and to me that’s like putting the cart in front of the horse. I just wanted to take what Peter had created and make a good linear story out of it and make an entertaining film.
(Karyn Kusama on creating a film totally unique to sci-fi)
Karyn Kusama: The movie I want to make is a maybe that has a sci-fi inquiry unto the world, and work on the classic sci-fi notion, a different kind of technology, an origin story that explains how we get to a very extreme place in the future, but that also had a heart and that had some fresh take on what the emotional landscape of sci-fi can be. That it had more gray areas and it could be more varied, and be kind of epic, in scale, and that it could include things like memory and the nature of memory as part of the inquiry of sci-fi. That’s what attracted me to it - that it seemed like that was something that was possible with this script.
SOURCE: Freeze Dried Movies.com
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