David Cronenberg’s “Future Crimes” has a strong premise: As a disease called Rapid Evolution Syndrome causes unusual organs to grow inside the body of Saul Tinser (Viggo Mortensen), his partner (Lea Seydoux) surgically removes them in front of a live audience. Needless to say, world building is a bit complicated! Fortunately, the director and some actors shed light on the dark secrets of “Crimes” during a Q&A preview night in Manhattan.
Just like the audience, Cronenberg’s portrayal of physical independence wasn’t always straightforward for the main cast.
“I must admit I didn’t understand everything when I first read the script,” Seydoux said at Thursday night’s event. “I jumped in the pool, and I think that’s what David wants. He is a monitor of his work.”
She continued, “For me, it was also a metaphor for what it means to be an artist, which is why I’m associated with the movie. As artists, we give everything—our bodies and souls.”
Cronenberg said he “didn’t really care” if Seydoux or any of his actors understood the meaning behind his story because he wanted a raw performance.
“I’ve cast brilliant actors who are well suited for the role, and it doesn’t matter if they think they don’t know what they’re doing,” Cronenberg said. “I’ve had several actors say, ‘I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. And I say, ‘Yeah, you just keep doing that.’ I really want to see what the actors’ intuition is and what the actor brings.”
He continued, “We don’t have discussions, we don’t train, we don’t think. When I see what’s going on in the group, unless there’s something everyone thinks is derailed, I don’t say anything.”
Mortensen, who has now worked with Cronenberg on four different films, praised the director for his ability to instill confidence in his actors.
“He can support what he’s doing and explain if needed,” Mortensen said. “You know he has your best interests at heart, the character you play, at heart like nothing else. That confidence allows you to try things out without questioning so much that you might not experience it with other directors that easily.”
Cronenberg said Tenser, who puts his members on screen for people to see, is a true passionate artist.
“Tenser is really an allegory, a template or model of the artist who actually gives all he can give, opens himself up and gives what is the deepest part of himself hidden within,” said Cronenberg. “He shows it to his audience and is therefore incredibly vulnerable to ridicule, rejection, misunderstanding and anger. And to me, this is the model of a true passionate artist.”
Combined with an experimental depiction of creative expression, Cronenberg’s film is a larger interpretation of what the next step of human evolution might look like.
“I think we’re evolving, not evolving,” Cronenberg said. “I think our nervous systems are very different from humans 100 years ago. I think the use of screens, the use of digital technology has actually changed our nervous systems.”
Just as the climate-ravaged setting in “Future Crimes” suggests, Cronenberg said he believes evolution doesn’t always mean efficacy.
“When Darwin talked about evolution, he wasn’t talking about gradually leading to something better,” Cronenberg said. “Evolution doesn’t mean going for something better, it just means something different.”
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