It’s almost time for Long legs coming soon, and if you haven’t been counting down the days, you must not be a horror fan. It stars Maika Monroe (It follows) as an FBI agent tracking a very peculiar serial killer, played by Nicolas Cage in one of his most memorable and shocking roles, which is saying something. You can check out io9’s review of the film here , and read on for an interview with writer-director Osgood Perkins (The girl in the black coat).
Cheryl Eddy, io9: Long legs made a big impression several months before its release thanks to its unusual marketing campaign. To what extent was this idea your idea and to what extent were you involved in this process?
Osgood-Perkins: None of this was my idea. I was as involved as they wanted me to be. When Neon took on the project, I could see how palpable their excitement was and I could see that they were really connected to the images and the materials that we had created. I trusted them innately and it really worked. The only thing I asked them to do was to keep the proportions of the image in the materials – and they did, and they kind of turned that square aspect into one of the main emotions of the film. And so, it all worked out well, but I don’t take any credit for the quality of that work.
io9: What was your impression of how people reacted to Long legs so far?
Perkins: It’s a little overwhelming. Everyone seems to enjoy it. I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t think it’s pretty good. And it’s a strange thing… I guess the strangest thing for me is how disturbing people find it, how haunted they are by it, and how frighteningly affected they are. I just tried to make a fun movie. I think it’s mostly funny. I don’t say that like I’m some sick person who gets off on other people’s misery. I just think it’s kind of pop and fun. And I guess people who are really scared get off on it in a pop way, so it’s good.
io9: A movie that came to mind while I was watching it Long legs was Thesilenceofthelambsnot only for the story but also for particular moments. Would you agree that your film has a special relationship with that one?
Perkins: It’s a deliberate one-to-one relationship. When I sat down to write the film, the question I had in mind was: What invitation can I give to the audience right at the beginning that will get people on the roller coaster. What lets them into the world? What’s the tip of the spear? For me, Thesilenceofthelambs It was a movie that had a huge impact. It came out when I was 15 or 16 (when) I really started getting into movies, and all of a sudden you’re given this pristine thing. I don’t think any of us who are that age and who are filmmakers will forget the effect of the perfection of that movie, just like, “Wow, they really pulled it off. This is so satisfying on so many levels.” I just cheated. I just used it as a cradle, as a way to soften or soften the audience, to say, “You know, this is This! You remember that.” And then, of course, turn left sharply enough that it’s not like that at all.
io9: Is that why you chose to set the main story in the 1990s?
Perkins: That was really it. The question was how to make this film look Thesilenceofthelambs and how can we use the credit that comes from that to our advantage? Both in terms of meeting expectations and deviating from those expectations. So, yeah, the idea was to make it look like Thesilenceofthelambs Or Se7enAnd I think it is.
io9: And setting it in the Pacific Northwest (we know it’s Oregon from the license plates) is that inspired by the history of real-life serial killers from that region?
Perkins: Yeah, the movie is inspired by the serial killer story. It was shot in Vancouver, so you get what you get, you know? Which is great. Vancouver is a great place to make movies. It also felt like a Gus Van Sant moment. The cinematographer and I are both huge Gus Van Sant geeks, and you know, when you’re making a horror movie, it’s kind of cool to say, “What about Gus Van Sant?” Instead of saying, “What about John Carpenter?” Or “What about Dario Argento?” Can you find references beyond the horror section of the video store? Can you go deeper? And so, by getting closer to some of Gus Van Sant’s great work…My own private Idaho Most of all, you just want to feel inspired, and that’s the kind of thing that inspires me.
io9: The main actors, Nicolas Cage and Maika Monroe, have very contrasting acting styles. How did you approach the staging to achieve this perfect contrast?
Perkins: Well, they only share one scene together, which he really animates, so I felt like we were going to be able to sort of find it in the editing room, where it all ends up. That’s where the movie really reveals itself, not until the editing room. And yes, I was aware that I had two very opposing energies, counterbalancing each other. But I think it becomes, ultimately, just that; you can balance your movie with two extremes. And, fortunately, as I said, I was able to separate them narratively, so there’s very little interaction. Then when they connect, it’s a very charged moment. And so their opposing charges work even better.
io9: Cage is also one of the producers of the film. When did you know early on that you wanted him to play this role?
Perkins: When you’re casting a movie, you try to find the best person for the role. Obviously, as a director, you try to help yourself as much as possible in choosing the actors. So when his name was mentioned as someone who could read the movie, of course, I jumped at the chance. And then, from there, he doesn’t get involved, he doesn’t impose rules on the process. He doesn’t try to change things. He doesn’t try to take control. On the contrary, he tries to take what’s written and make it work for him, rather than the other way around.
io9: It will certainly shock audiences who think they have seen him as extreme as possible. To what extent is his performance and appearance in the film your own and to what extent is it a collaboration?
Perkins: The collaboration was between me and Nic, the costume designers, the wig designers, the special effects makeup artists. And everybody’s doing their best and trying to do the coolest thing. I brought a lot of stuff to it, and a lot of it is written into the script. His pale face, his pale makeup has always been a characteristic. It comes from Bob Dylan and the Rolling Thunder Revue. That quality of someone who’s performing… The original idea of Longlegs was that he was someone who would come to your kid’s house for their birthday and do, like, a little dirty, shitty show that he wasn’t sure about. He had a kind of performance anxiety where he felt weird going into these houses, doing this weird little show. That comes through in the movie, when you first see him come into (a kid’s) house in the snow, his kind of shady unease is really clear. As far as vocals, (Cage) starts with the words as they’re written. It’s like getting any dialect and trying to figure out what the sound is like, what’s the cadence, where’s the punctuation?
In the dialogue of Longlegs, there are a lot of periods. There are a lot of periods that shouldn’t have been there, and I put them there because I felt like it said something about his inner life, something about his discomfort and his shame, in a weird way, about not being able to make complete sentences. It was to put a period in the middle of things. It’s just a weird thing that comes to you when you’re writing, and then you give it to an Oscar winner, and one of the greatest cinematic presences of all time. And you’re lucky if there’s a little bit of magic, and we were lucky.
io9: I have to ask about Long legs“The obsession with T. rex and Marc Bolan. How did it happen?”
Perkins: It’s one of those things where, as the creator of these things, I don’t pretend to know everything, and I don’t pretend to have control. You have to hold the thing with a certain restraint, or you’re going to break it. As I was creating this movie, this script, this world, and this character, T. rex was an artist that I didn’t really know very well and had heard of a few times, but all of a sudden, he was in my space. He came into this space. He was shown to me or played for me by the universe, by the source, by the muses, whatever you want to say. And I really think it’s my job as a writer, as the creator of the thing, to just listen to what’s going on around me. How are my kids talking? What’s my wife worrying about? What songs are playing? What movie did I watch? If you pay attention, it feels deliberate, like you’re being given certain things for a reason. And you better write them down.
Long legs hits theaters on July 12.
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