Duke Johnson knows he doesn’t have any of the answers. But that doesn’t stop him from asking “the same questions that a lot of people are interested in” through his films.
Universal questions about reality, art and love are posed in the ‘50s-set “The Actor,” which follows Paul (André Holland), an actor who wakes up one day in a small town in Ohio and can’t remember the first thing about who he is. As he begins investigating and questioning the people in his life, he falls in love with a costume designer, Edna (Gemma Chan), and gets wrapped up in a mind-bending odyssey. Which of his many identities are truly his?
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The film marks writer-director Johnson’s first solo directorial project after co-directing the stop-motion film “Anomalisa” with Charlie Kaufman, which was Oscar-nominated in the best animated feature category back in 2016. Kaufman’s influence on “The Actor” is clear from his executive producer credit and the film’s existential themes, but it extends as far as even knowing this story was out there in the first place.
When the two were working on “Anomalisa” together, Johnson asked for book recommendations and Kaufman offered up Donald E. Westlake’s “The Actor” after hearing about it on an NPR podcast. The book was posthumously published in 2010, two years after Westlake died.
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“What felt interesting to [Kaufman] about it was that it was in the guise of a crime noir, thriller-type story, but where amnesia is typically used as a device to propel the plot forward, in this book it was more of a way to explore identity,” Johnson tells Variety.
Ten years after the option rights to the book were sold — including a pandemic, years of post-production and a time when Ryan Gosling, now an executive producer, was attached to star — “The Actor” opens in theaters Friday via Neon.
Ahead of the film’s release, Variety had the opportunity to chat with Johnson about the “constructed realities” that fascinate him, why a discovery with his “Anomalisa” cinematographer informed his visual style and how even in the unpredictable space of independent filmmaking, he could always rely on the commitment of his lead star and executive producer André Holland.
I know you still had the support of Charlie Kaufman as an executive producer here, but what was it like stepping into the role of director solo?
Charlie is a mentor of mine, he’s a dear friend, and I call when I need advice. He’s really smart and gives really good advice and he’s always so generous, reading scripts and looking at cuts. I’m always so grateful for that. It was quite an adventure to direct my first live-action feature. I did millions of years of film school and made lots of short films and all that stuff, but it’s not until you’re on set, doing that, that you get a full understanding of the experience.
You’re working in a different medium here because it’s live-action, but were there any stylistic things you wanted to carry over from your stop-motion work on ‘Anomalisa’?
Not necessarily “Anomalisa” specifically, but I just have my own way I see the world and approach storytelling. I’m always drawn to more constructed realities and the world-building aspects of filmmaking. I’ve always loved movies where you can see the craft of the process. There’s something about the craft elements in the artistry of filmmaking that allows for metaphor in a way that can relate stories and ideas.
You’ve assembled a great ensemble cast here with André Holland, Gemma Chan, Tracey Ullman, May Calamawy, Joe Cole and many others, and it was such a fun discovery seeing the supporting cast play multiple parts. Why did that approach to casting feel right here?
I’ve only ever made independent films, so I don’t know what it’s like to have $100 million. But when you have a very small budget and big ideas and you’re limited with your resources, you can come up with a lot of interesting, creative solutions to problems. This film having a large cast was cost prohibitive, so in problem solving solutions to that, we simultaneously thought about the metaphors related to André playing an actor and what actors do, how they can transform and how that ability is related to personality and identity. It started to get really exciting and I started to fall in love with that idea. And it made the process of making the film really unique because it was only 15 people. [For example] because Tracey Ullman is playing multiple roles, she’s there almost the whole time and so everybody is. Everybody has one or two main character roles and then a lot of background roles, so we were all making it together all the time. It had this theater troupe energy that informed the creative process. I kind of always want to do that now.
André Holland is such a standout here, especially with all his mannerisms and how he portrays somebody who feels out of touch with his own body. What were the conversations like to nail the subtle details?
We talked a bit about what was happening narratively, but André is such an intuitive actor and he has such access to his emotional experience. He’s such an incredible person and an incredible actor. I really needed that kind of collaboration and that kind of support, you know? He’s also a producer on the film and he really embodied that role. And I just felt like we made it together, we were very much in flow with each other throughout the process. Anything I asked him to try, he would commit to it completely. And so while the production was very difficult and very challenging, and I was trying to do all these things that I couldn’t afford and couldn’t do, I always knew that I could rely on him.
This is such an interesting take on the noir/detective genre because Paul is investigating himself and, in the process, discovers things he doesn’t like about himself. There’s the moment, for example, when his friends retell his joke directed at homeless people and he’s the only one who doesn’t laugh.
Some of that came with the thought — if you forgot who you were, then you have to become a sort of detective and find clues. Paul is trying to get back to New York thinking that if he gets here, he’ll get back to who he was. But then he gets there and it doesn’t happen. So then it’s like, ‘Okay, who was I?’ I have to start mining what’s available to me. He goes through the stuff in his apartment and asks his friends about himself. But what if the things that you learn you don’t like or you don’t connect to? Being able to see it objectively, it doesn’t feel like who you are or who you want to be. What do you do then? For me, that’s something that’s kind of universal in a sense. How many times have you said something stupid at a party, or maybe you tried to make a joke but it’s actually kind of insulting. And then afterwards, you’re just like, ‘I don’t want to be that person.’
Let’s dive more into the visual look of the film. You’ve reunited with ‘Anomalisa‘ cinematographer Joe Passarelli. How did you two collaborate to create a unique look while also paying homage to old noir films? I especially love the moments when the lights go dark around Paul and Edna and it’s just them together.
It’s funny because I just love old movies, right? I draw more from older films in general than I do from newer stuff. But then you’re using new technology as well, so there’s always a blending, it’s not kitsch. You’re not doing it the same way they did it, but you’re inspired by that aesthetic and that look. Black and white as a medium is very forgiving in a sense. It allows you to get away with more fantastical elements because you don’t see it as clearly. So I try to do black and white with color, not in the sense that the colors are muted, but in the sense that you use elements like diffusion and things to blend the seams together. One of the things that Joe [Passarelli] and I were trying to do in “Anomalisa” is make it cinematic in a way that the puppets could feel more human at certain times, so we used a lot of diffusion to soften things. We liked the way that looked and what it did to the environment, so it kind of became our style, to a certain degree. I always want more. I want atmosphere, I want rain, I like snow, I like atmosphere, I like diffusion, I like blooming lights. I like all the things that help illustrate the beauty and the majesty of the natural world.
With the works of Charlie Kaufman and films like ‘The Actor,’ while you might not always know what is literally happening on a 1:1 level, you can feel the emotions and trust the filmmaker to take you along for the ride.
I saw this thing recently up on YouTube where there was a modern art exhibit and somebody just set a pineapple down on a pedestal. People started coming in and looking at the pineapple, taking pictures of it. I think even the art studio put a glass dome over it. Sometimes there’s just pineapples, you’re not trying to say anything. I’m not a philosopher, I don’t have any answers to anything, but I’m interested in the same questions that a lot of people are interested in. So I think if you have ideas that you’re exploring and you infuse your work with these ideas, there’s a collective unconscious that we can all connect to because we all have the same ideas and fears. Maybe it doesn’t solve anything, but it at least unites us together in some way.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
