Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios
Despite a late-November release, Emerald Fennells Saltburn has quickly become one of the years most talked-about movies, already generating Oscar buzz. Ahead of the films screening at Austin Film Festival last month, The Daily Texan sat down with the Academy Award-winning writer-director to talk about her new film.
The Daily Texan: What was the most important lesson you brought from your first film, Promising Young Woman, when making Saltburn?
Emerald Fennell: With Promising, it was (made in) a short amount of time and I had a specific idea in my head that wasnt obvious to other people initially. We had an amazing time, but there wasnt time to have the moments of collaboration, which means you end up with really special, interesting and complicated things. We were running against the clock. This time, having more time in prep so I could dig into the production design even more than I had in Promising Young Woman let people be their best.
DT: Did having that extra time benefit your writing or directing process more?
EF: The writing process is always the same. Ive been visiting Saltburn in my head for eight years it was one of the imaginary worlds I visited a lot. I live in the world and go there as Oliver, and then bit by bit, the story and the characters coalesce and then after years and years, certain scenes are done. And then things change and once it stops changing, once the story is finished, I write it down. In terms of directing, I didnt want to make something with an insane budget (or) an insane amount of time because that makes it a bit slack. Youve got to be up against the clock and up against the budget, making everything work and having to be imaginative all the time.
DT: What was your intention with the mirror symbolism that permeates the film?
EF: So much of it was me and (cinematographer) Linus (Sandgren) talking about doubling and not only the idea of the doppelganger, but our identities and how unbelievably fractured and elusive they are. It made sense that you would always be seeing somebody looking at themselves but not quite themselves or seeing versions of them duplicated. But also, theres something about this genre and the nature of those houses which lends itself to voyeurism. The idea of these houses is that there are eyes everywhere but you never see them and there are hands that you never see clearing everything away because the staff only appear once the family leave. Theres a sexy voyeurism built into the architecture of the houses. And of course the thing about the mirror thats so important is that you can break it but it just gets fixed you can never really break it.
DT: What made Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi the right pair to put at the center of this film?
EF: So much of its about chemistry. Barrys got this extraordinary, fascinating, enigmatic charisma. Jacob is similarly charismatic but (hes) much more open. Theyre a brilliant pair because theyre both doing something very different but equally powerful. I hadnt seen Jacob in Euphoria when I met him, but I like to speak to people before I talk about a project. Im interested in how honest people are. Thats not to say were not all lying to each other and ourselves all the time, its more like, are we going to be able to have a real conversation? And its difficult because its personal and complicated. There are lots of people who do want to get into that kind of stuff. But for me, to make something complicated, honest, difficult, sticky and sexy in a disturbing way, youve got to be comfortable talking about things.
DT: What advice do you have for student filmmakers?
EF: If theres something you dont understand, or you feel like theres an itch you cant quite scratch, the best thing to do is to write it or make it because the likelihood is other people feel the same way, and theyll want to talk about it too and connect with it. Its going for the thing that feels complicated and interesting, whatever that is.
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Emerald Fennell talks mirrors, chemistry in 'Saltburn' The Daily ... - The Daily Texan
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