Reuniting with former acquaintances after life has taken you down different paths is often accompanied by unexpected stress and tension, as all the trouble begins in the new IFC Midnight movie. barbarians. What begins as a series of passive-aggressive blows to some friends descends into an utterly horrific ordeal, rivaling any of the emotional angst experienced in the confrontations that unfolded earlier in the evening. Ewan Rayon stars in the film, written and directed by Charles Dorfman, with the duo recently recalling the process of reviving the project. barbarians In theaters and on demand now.
set over twenty-four hours, barbarians He sees the couple Adam (Rayon) and Eva (Catalina Sandino Moreno) waking up in their supposed dream house on Adam’s birthday. Lucas (Tom Cullen), a real estate developer and friend of the couple, arrives for dinner with his actress girlfriend Chloe (Ines Spiridonov), to celebrate Adam’s birthday and the couple’s purchase of a house. But secrets unfold during dinner, and when the doorbell rings, the evening takes a horrific turn. As morals give way to madness, the “perfect” evening of celebration descends into a dark night of terror; And it turns out that the group’s civilized dinner party is anything but.
ComicBook.com got together with the couple to talk about the challenges set, blending a variety of tunes, and their uncomfortable dining experiences.
ComicBook.com: This movie barbarians A dinner date is probably from hell, so for both of you, what’s the worst dinner date or worst dinner experience, the most embarrassing confrontation you’ve ever had to put up with, without naming names that could embarrass anyone?
Ewan Ryun: Without naming names?
I mean, you can name the names. Only you will be charged.
Rion: I had dinner once and this person went to the toilet and I thought they were gone, so I left, but they didn’t. It wasn’t great, though, in the end.
We’ll let our imaginations find out why they’ve been gone for so long. Charles, can you think of your worst?
Charles Dorfman: I’m not sure about the horrible, the horrible. I mean, to be honest with you, after closing, after not communicating with anyone for so long, every one at first felt awful. I think everyone was so awkward and didn’t really know how to make any conversation. So maybe a lot of alcohol was involved and embarrassed, but we’ve all been through it.
Well, it feels like compared to the events of barbariansYou both got lucky with how bad it could have been.
Dorfman: I’ve definitely been asked if I’ve been based on real experience and the answer is no.
Speaking of the development of the film, the script and the story, since there’s more emotional tension, confusion, and relational tension, but there’s also more overt horror, more typical, straightforward horror or home invasion elements, themes that came a little more naturally to you? Did it start as one thing and then get injected with something else or has it been a pretty organic process all along?
Dorfman: I think it was a development process where I developed it, basically sitting around my kitchen table, acting out the parts over a very long time. And I think I was interested in the idea of this character, Adam, and the idea of getting caught in a situation that, I think, has stopped emotional development. What will be the story of his coming of age for him? And without anything external forcing you to grow, you probably don’t need to, but then naturally you start to think, why do you need to grow? Well, because when the chaos comes, you have to be prepared for it. And so I felt a natural, short, sharp shock to the system to add this element.
Ewan, as Charles just spoke, your character is at a bit of a crossroads where you think you’re a way out, and that’s what defined you, but you’re likely to be tasked with leaving that behind perhaps to start a family or live a quieter life. Since you’re obviously an actor, you’re a musician too, you have other careers open to you, have there been times in your life where you’ve felt like you’re at a crossroads when it comes to acting, and thinking, ‘You know what? That’s something completely different I’m striving for,”?
Rion: Not with acting. It’s probably because… Yes, there have been times when I’ve thought, “Sh-t is this it? Is this going to happen? Is everything…?” Different stages, but I’ve always thought, I think it’s just something I’ve always been, that’s always been the path I’ve been on from a very young age. I think having music for me, as a background I do all the time and just something I love and there’s no pressure on it, it really helps make acting something that I do as a profession. I think it’s easier to deal with, and then easier to deal with those times when you’re asking yourself or asking if you’ll be able to do it, if it’s over or if you’ll ever work again, which is the actor’s biggest fear.
In terms of your personal connection to the subject, when you look for projects, do you look for things that are directly related to your emotional state at the time or do you find a concept that you find interesting and then you work backwards to see how you can connect emotionally with that character?
Rion: Certainly the latter. I think a lot of times with jobs, you can’t really anticipate anything and then something comes up and then you look at it and go, “Yeah, cool.” And then, through discussions with the director and working with the other actors, you find this, from the script, you find the emotional pulse of the character and then that’s where you start. But I definitely don’t – because you don’t know what’s going to be made, I think it’s really important to be completely open. Then when something comes up to them, they can decide, “Oh, well. Yeah, that’s something I want to do.” And if you’re lucky, if you’re lucky you can do it.
Over the course of the film, it wasn’t a whole tense, disturbing, dark, bleak, and stressful experience. There are times when it seems like a rivalry on the playing field between the main characters, they almost go back to the dynamic of bullying. So did she find it difficult to maintain the tone of not leaning too much into the comics, even though the antics they wake up to sometimes make them feel silly, or the tone honed in the editing process?
Dorfman: It’s a great question. I think I’m drawn to uncomfortable comedies, and that’s really rooted in the characters. I think the characters were defined by their relationship to each other and how they related to each other and the drama or tension or history with each other like what they were doing to themselves. The comedy is out of that, but I think the thrilling elements and the horror aspects of things are also the best, it works best when you get to know the characters and know who you’re dealing with, and then you can empathize and feel very anxious when they’re going through things and be more reactive to the storytelling. So this combination was sure to work in my mind or not, but it just felt natural to write it down. This is what I ended up doing.
Another one for both of you, looking back at the entire production, what was the most challenging day on set and what was the most fun day on set? It may be the same day for both of them.
Dorfman: It is not the same day. The most challenging day was the first day of the invasion. We had an issue where we didn’t have the first day of a day, and it was also the first day we’d be using a fixed camera. It was also the first day we were going to use the masks, the duct tape. So it’s over, there were a lot of logistical issues and we started late and it was very stressful. This was the most stressful for me. And I had a friend who visited for some unknown reason that day but that was the worst day, only because we started very late and there were a lot of moving parts and some things fell out of the cracks.
Best day, it’s hard to pinpoint the exact day, but I think doing the really long time around the dinner table and hearing the lines I wrote in these actors’ mouths was amazing. I just really remember, just like, “Pinch me. I can’t believe this is actually happening.” And it was a great day, great days. There were moments for sure, we really did, it took so long and it felt like an organic play and I loved it.
Rion: I guess in terms of my favorite days were those, I mean, I don’t know… It’s hard to tell which day, because there was one day in particular where it was just, because you didn’t move the camera much, so it just felt like it was incredible… We were doing Basically with this huge long sequence, but because we were rehearsing it and all the beat was just coming on and we were really playing with each other and all four of us really bounced off each other. So I really enjoyed that.
I guess the hardest day was the bloody fox, just… I mean, what day? Because we just had to keep recasting him and the Fox Agent was just too powerful. You weren’t allowed to look in a fox’s eye and all that stuff. fox method. Yes, it was difficult. It was only because it was so important to the text and you’re just asking a wild animal to do something, it’s just crazy. But yes, that was the biggest challenge I think.
But obviously when it was all, all things invasive, all I had to worry about was putting duct tape all over my face.
And Iwan Bey game of thrones Follow co-stars Kit Harington and Richard Madden in your footsteps by leaping into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you’re setting the standard…
Rion: Yeah. They always copy me there. They just want to be me I’ve stopped answering their calls now.
If you’re going to meet them back in the MCU, do you want to recreate a file in humans Role or would you rather take on a new character?
Rion: I’ll take anything, really. I’d like to get another crack in, I’d like to do Maximus again. I think he’s a really interesting character. I also feel sorry for him, because he’s still stuck on the moon, but yeah, I’d like to do any of those things. Any thing. I’m not fussy, give me anything.
barbarians Now on display and on demand.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. you can call Patrick Kavanaugh live on Twitter.
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