Jeff Baena

0:06That's all right. Okay, where is she? Listen. She's not dead. I'm going to her grave. There's a hole in the ground. It's a miracle. It's a resurrection. There's a resurrection. Okay, and that's better why. Why is that the biggest from the Old Testament? I thought myself in boxes now. Hey. Beth, you're so beautiful. I'm so happy you're back. You don't want to eat me, do you? All right, now. I mean, like, really eat me. I don't want my parents around. Okay. It's not fun. It's weird. End of kiss, guys. So tell me about Wayne Blake and eternity. Okay, did I ever say that? No, I haven't talked to her yet. Okay, yeah, it's a poem that really deeply affected me. I think when I was younger. And I think it applies explicitly to this film. Like originally the title was Wing Life, which is one of the lines from the poem.

0:53Yeah, so the idea that if you hang on to something and you know, something you love or something you appreciate, if you hang on to it will destroy you. But if you sort of enjoy it in the moment and kiss it as it flies like the poem says, then you're in the right spot. Had you just read it and then like it inspired you to start that first scene? No, I remember it was younger. It's just a poem that always like, it's like the only poem I have memorized. So, yeah. Oh, that's crazy. So it inspired this? Yeah, to some extent, yeah. What kind of letting things go? I mean, the movie, I mean, it's a zombie movie, but it's not really a zombie. People who don't like zombie movies are gonna love this movie anyway, just because it's a story about letting go and like reconnecting and yeah, that whole thing. Yeah, I think, you know, if you think of it as sort of, obviously a metaphor instead of taking it literally, then, you know, when people die,

1:39it's usually just appreciate it in the moment and not hang on to them, you know, obviously after they've gone and wanting them to come back and then having that wish fulfilled is clearly not the best move. So, yeah. We don't have much time. So I just want to go the like the hardest scene to either write, to get right or during shooting. The hardest scene to shoot was probably the, well, I don't want to spoil her. I don't know, yeah. Hardest scenes were right. Okay. I know what your answer was for shooting, so let's go ahead. The hardest scene would be probably just the, God, none of it was hard. Like, I'm not saying, I'm not saying it was genius, but it wasn't like, I was like. No, no, but so it was in the script flowed. Yeah, the script flowed. How long did it take? I know it was written like 10 years ago, but it took like a couple weeks to write it. Is that typically quick for you?

2:25Yeah. I mean, usually it takes a couple of one story scripts. Yeah, this one just kind of flowed out. It was like kind of easy to, I'm not saying like, I'm a genius, but I'm just saying it was definitely not that much of a struggle to write it. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. Cause I heard Huckabee's was like 300 and some on page as when you were. 325. That's not. Yeah. It took like a year and a half to just cut it down. So like 117 or whatever it ended up being. Yeah. Dane is so good in this, cause he like, he doesn't come from the same world. Like, and I think you've said, like he was looking for the truth in the lines where everyone else is looking for the jokes. Yeah. As a director, what's that like when everyone else is looking for different things? Well, you know, for the most part, most of the actors have a comedic background and obviously Dane doesn't. But I don't think they're always looking for the jokes. I think they're more trying to look to be real and kind of present in the moment. And it, it, Dane sort of buttressed the whole world with his sort of grounded drama and obviously pathos.

3:15But yeah, no, Dane's a funny guy too. Like he's in real life. He just has an chance to explore that. So yeah, I think it was more just, I tried to get as many hybrid actors that were able to kind of vacillate between those two worlds, comedy and drama. And Dane obviously has only had that experience but he was able to do it as well. But from the most part, he was playing it really straight. I got to let you go. That's how these things work. But five quick questions. Yeah. One more to answers. Film or digital? Film. Writing or directing? Directing. Letting or McCartney. I guess London. Hach, how many of you George Harrison honestly? Harrison, okay. That's cool. A lot of people say that. Hach, cock or Kubrick? Kubrick. In one word, life after bath. Devastation. That's a good one. Yeah, I know. Thanks, Jeff. Yeah, I miss appreciated it.