"Metropia" animated film News Conference Notes from Tribeca Film Festival, NYC 2010

“Metropia” Film News Conference, 4/25/10

Francesca Maxime for Film Slate Magazine

Attendees: Juliette Lewis (actor), Tariq Saleh (director) Alexander Skarsgard (actor, “True Blood”’).

Tariq Saleh is Metropia’s writer/director. He grew up in animation studio. Saleh’s background is documentary filmmaking. He went to Guantanamo 2003, before Abu Graib scandal when it was a controlled environment. He interviewed young American soldiers just 20 years old. Saleh says he could tell they’d seen things they shouldn’t have seen. While taping at the camp, they heard people screaming inside. Turns out the Pentagon/Rumsfeld was holding press conference, that day in April 2003, and declared that “we have won the war.” It was the same day when the statue of Saddam fell. A relative of his said in Egypt that once the statue fell, that’s’ when the war started. Saleh says they were working on Metropia at the time, and the film is about the world, and people going insane. “When you are scared, people do insane things. The movie is about fear.” It all started during and after 9/11. For the film, Saleh sayd he wanted “real actors, not voice talents: the best actors and actresses… That they’d approach it for a real acting job. “

Juliette Lewis: “I’m just into radical and unique points of view and any fresh voice. I’m also into things that question the status quo. So I love the sentiment about where these voices come from, how they get into your head.” Animators, process of using human eyes, the governmental figures… using real human eyes (as part of the animation.)”

Alexander Skarsgard: “I didn’t have anything to watch, it wasn’t animated yet. It wasn’t about lip synch or hitting certain beats. But it was quite surreal first time I saw the movie in October, over a year after we recorded it and it’s really weird b/c you sit down and you watch it and suddenly there’s a face and a reaction with other characters.”

Tariq: “We started doing animation in 2002. We used old animation. The whole thing is 2-D. This is the most flat film you will ever see. One dimensional almost. We move the eyes ears nose mouth at different speeds to create the illusion or turning. I like that idea. I like the idea of doing the film. It’s like hypnosis.”

Question: It’s not really science fiction, but how did u develop the back story?

Tariq: I found a folder in the Swedish Metro. “I think a lot of public transportation companies are in the crosshairs of the corporate, private, and the state… They talk to you like a child.” What if a public transportation company became the most powerful organization in Europe. With (the recent) volcano, Europe was like Metropia for a month. Roger of course is based partly on myself; I like to think of myself as a little more sympathetic than he is. “

Juliette: “When he used the word film noir, I got it. Vocally I’m trying to achieve what I’m normally trying to achieve which is a real reality and something honest, so I used my regular voice. Usually for characters I’ll pitch it higher or whatever. I have a very base voice (like my fellow ‘deep voice ladies’ like Lauren Bacall). “



Tariq: “A lot of actors and actresses sound the same when they take away their faces, but all the Metropia cast isn’t that way.”

Juliette: “It’s a hyper-reality. It’s a universe that’s exaggerated with its color, its sparseness, the sterile nature (of it). You can do these things… create a hyper-reality, an aesthetic… that heightens your feeling of eeriness, paranoia, alienation. The color in it: the lead character, I fell in love with him when I first saw it. I was drawn to this funny character. I’d never seen anything like it.”

Tariq: “Animation gives you so much freedom to do this kind of storytelling. It brings you emotional proof. Animation shows you how things feel, not what they look like. My favorite film is Dumbo. It’s about child abuse. His mother goes to jail. I cry every time I see this film. When the clowns abuse him… Animation is not what it looks like, it’s about what it feels like.”

Tariq: The biggest inspiration for me is “the process” by Kafka. I misunderstood it as comedy when I first read it. With “dream logic” – there two kinds of dreams… if I dreamt about pigs, it’s uninteresting. If I dreamt about you, it’s interesting. I wanted the film to feel like that: when you wake up from Metropia, it’s real, but wasn’t real.”

Film Slate’s question to the actors: How do you prepare for an animation role differently than a “regular” acting role, have you done animation previously, and would you do it again.

Alexander: “Creative freedom, there are no boundaries – we could play around with it, we could do with it whatever we wanted. Tariq’s an old friend, we talked about it for a long time, for this dark/bleak idea. It’s not so far from where we are now, like in the states. People trust big corporations more now than the government. To me it wouldn’t be interesting if it weren’t related to our society.”

Juliette: “My process is a very instinctual, imaginary place, my faraway place where things come alive. And I love complexity and subtext, so even in my character you have all that because she’s not really helping him, she has her own personal vested interest. She’s an opportunist in a way, but she’s benevolent in a way, b/c she doesn’t kill him. She’s self serving in a way, but in the end you get the feeling that in the end she’s gonna go out and do something more corrupt than the father. So I really rely on my director, and it’s always a game of trust. I really am a big believer in the choices of the director, so I’d ask him if she should be more or less angry here. I did a voice once for Japanese animation once. I’d love to do more (animation).”

Question: What character do the actors relate to the most in the film?

Juliette: “I relate to Roger. Some small portion. And then projects, I was just making music and writing songs and touring with the last five years and I just started making movies again a year ago. So I’m approaching it with a deep love, a rekindled love, this experience. I just worked with Drew Barrymoore and Ellen Paige, and Mark Ruffalo. And I’m gonna be in two big comedies, one with Jennifer Aniston called the Switch. I’m just drawn to charcter work. My dad’s a character actor. I’m doing another comedy, with Robert Downey Junior.”

Alexander: “What: what character did I identify w/ the most? Stephan? Cold delivery. Not a very sympathetic character, but a very amusing one.”

Question (to Alexander): True Blood: people are curious what you’re doing.

Alexander: “We’re shooting season three right now. We’re doing that for another few months. Season 3 is about vengeance. I’m flying back tonight.”

Question: What is the process of directing an animation movie really like compared to “regular” films?

Tariq: “Animators are like actors and actresses. It’s a problem b/c they are like actors. They put themselves in it. You have to cast the animators. If you have a shy animator, you’ll have a shy character. If you work with great people, they’ll bring it back to you.”

Juliette: “It’s the same in a way, visionary – the difference in this work is that it’s all voice, you’re doing it in this finite part of time. You’re using one aspect of your instrument.”