Making Of THE BLACK PHONE - Best Of Behind The Scenes & On Set Interview With Ethan Hawke | UPI 2022

It's very rare to say, the sentence I'm about to say is, it's kind of a scary movie with a heart of gold. You don't, a lot of scary movies don't have the same kind of heart and that this one possesses. And Scott's more mature as a film director now. You know, he's, he was already experienced as he, I mean, as a young man, you could tell that he was a serious film guy. But now he's had big time experience and it shows. And so I just really wanted to work with him. That was my main draw. If you try to touch me, I'll scratch your face. And whoever's coming, we'll see an ass whore. This face? You know, Joe Hill's short story was interesting to me because it combined a serial killer story with a ghost story, which I'd never seen done before. But I also thought it was an interesting opportunity to make a scary horror film that still had a lot of empathy and heart and almost inspiration because it's a true coming of age story. And, uh, and, and when I thought about combining that with my own memories growing up in North Denver in 1978, um, I thought there was an interesting film to be made. And that's, that's how this movie came about. I was really starting to like you, Finny. I almost let you go. I hate playing the baddie, you know, just the, and the reason why I don't like it is I like playing flawed characters and people who aren't likable and things that that's always drawn to me. But whenever you're overtly evil, you teach the audience how to see what's evil about you. And once you teach them that they can't unsee it. And they, they kind of bring it into every part you do. I have this theory about Jack Nicholson kind of he's not the same actor post the shining. You're like, once you see the shining, you look at everything he does. It's like, wait, is he going to chop off my head? Uh, and so it changes the way an audience relates to you. So I kind of thought, Oh, I wouldn't want to do it. But then when I felt the heart of the piece, and I also was really excited about the idea of playing a character in a mask. I mean, it seemed crazy to me. Um, it seemed like some strange abstract Greek theater piece. Uh, and the character became something I'd never done before. So I, the chance to do that with Scott with a script that works so well, it was easy decision. If someone's upstairs, with the door shut, no one can hear anything down here. I sound proofed it myself. So shout, if you like, you won't bother anyone. The grabber is very mysterious. You know, we don't, we don't get into his backstory. Um, to me, the best villains like, uh, you know, Heath Ledger's the Joker or Hannibal Lecter, you know, these are characters who, you know, very little about, you know, bits and pieces, but you certainly don't ever get any scene or any story that explains why they are so monstrous. Uh, so I think there's an element of mystery to them, but I think in the case of the grabber, his actions are so abhorrent what it is that we know he does. I think his, uh, need to wear a mask is need to hide himself, but also to have collected these masks or built these masks that allow for partial reveals at times is really interesting. And, uh, and I think that most importantly, this ritualistic pattern that he has for abducting his victims and putting them through a period of time of breaking them down with these things that he does is really harrowing. And that allowed Ethan, I think, to create a manner of speaking, a manner of expressing, um, a manner of emoting that's very, very unique. Um, and I felt like he took the story on wholeheartedly and came to set with an understanding of the grabber that certainly superseded my understanding of him. I mean, I wrote the words and I gave him the masks, but how he speaks, how he gesticulates, you know, how he moves, where he stands, um, all of these things were, were things that Ethan, uh, knew how to do. And, and the result is I think a pretty, pretty memorable villain villain. Have you seen this boy? My brother, he was taken by a man with black balloons. I didn't really understand what he was going to do with the masks when I first took the job because he hired this amazing artist to do the masks. And one of the surprises I'd kind of read it, imagining the mask to be singular. And Scott devised this plan where sometimes it's this half is covered. Sometimes it's this half. Sometimes it's this half. Sometimes it's this half. Sometimes he's smiling. Sometimes he's frowning. Sometimes there's no mouth. Sometimes there's no eyes. The mask itself is working in these, this strange symbolic universe that, I mean, you know, just even living through the pandemic. Now we've all noticed how masks change the way we relate to people and what you see and what you don't see. One of my favorite Bob Dylan lines is Scott loves this too, is that the great thing about wearing a mask is you, you know, the person is telling you the truth. When a person doesn't have a mask on, you know, they're lying. It's, it's, it's, it's a Dylan, uh, cone, but it kind of makes sense. It's because you have a mask on and I'm announcing that I'm hiding, you know, and everyone's hiding. In a, in a certain aspect. And so it was fun for me to devise what this person is hiding from. How did they become this damaged? You know, it's always the people who've been tortured that torture others. And while the film isn't really exploring that, it became part of my job to create an entity that you could read a backstory into. I'm a part-time magician. Would you like to see a magic trick? The supernatural, uh, certainly in the films that I've made works in conjunction with grounded realism. You know, the more grounded and realistic of movie films, the more powerful the supernatural is when you start to slide it in. And I think the idea of this phone that is ultimately a conduit to the dead, to speaking with the dead is really interesting. That's what that all goes back to Joe's short story also. And I think there's something about integrating the paranormal, the supernatural, the horrific with the ordinary everyday elements of life. That's also particularly scary. You know, um, uh, there's something about it being about a simple black phone being, uh, uh, uh, uh, a vehicle to speak to the dead. That's, that's inherently chilling. I made you some breakfast. What'd you put in that? Salt and pepper. A fascinating thing to think about somebody who doesn't want to be seen so much. They must really hate themselves, you know? Uh, and that level of self-loathing is probably what gives them the strength to hurt others because they're hate themselves so much, uh, that it's their only counterbalance. Normally I say that I'm always like to be my character's lawyer. If I was my character's lawyer in this case, I think I would, you know, I would resign and just let the guy go to the death penalty. You know, I mean, this is the kind of character that were he to be sentenced to prison, the other prisoners would kill him. Uh, I mean, he's, he's not a good person. Um, some part of his soul has been so eroded that he can justify doing things that most of us don't even want to think about. And so in a way, it's very hard to play that kind of blackness because, or darkness or malevolency, whatever the right word is you want to use, uh, because it's impossible to justify it. You know, it's, it's impossible to be his lawyer. You just have to be a wounded animal. You don't actually believe that story, do you? No. Because he can't hear you. He doesn't really take kids that safe. I know that. I said, I know. Are you chicken? It's honestly such an honor. And looking back and what we, how much work we put into it and looking at what we accomplished when we saw it, it's, and it's insane. And I really hope that when it comes out and everyone sees it, I hope everyone enjoys it. I think that before I even, you know, booked it, I knew this was something special and I would love to be a part of it. So, you know, when I got this opportunity, this was definitely, you know, like a no brainer. I love Scott and Ethan and Maddie so much. So I'm so glad that I got this opportunity. I can't wait for everybody to see it.