Author-Director Oz Perkins ‘Longlegs’: Interview

SPOILER ALERT: This interview comprises plot particulars for the movie Longlegs

Oz Perkins didn’t imply to scare you. Regardless of creating one of many 12 months’s most jarring atmospheric horror thrillers, Perkins swears his cinematic concoction was cool and (allegedly) unintended. Longlegs, written and directed by Perkins, follows intuitive FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), who’s tasked with investigating a sequence of grotesque unsolved murders spanning from the Seventies to the current Clinton period of the Nineties being carried out by a possible supernatural entity often known as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage).

Right here, with Deadline, Perkins unpacks creating nuanced character dynamics, his fascination with girls in horror and utilizing his personal narrative to create scares.

DEADLINE: First off, this film is terrifying. How do you sleep at evening figuring out that you just’ve dropped a film that scares the hell out of everyone? 

OZ PERKINS: I subscribe to the identical ideology of “I didn’t imply it.” And I virtually imply it like a child who broke one thing and so they’re like, “Nah, I didn’t imply to do this. It was an accident.” I solely got down to make folks really feel good. I by no means got down to make folks really feel unhealthy, and I don’t know that any movie director does, however I do know that I don’t. And I believe folks don’t really feel unhealthy. I believe folks dig the sensation that they’re having, in order that’s nice. However my intention was simply to make one thing I assumed was cool. That’s all.

DEADLINE: Longlegs is a ’90s interval piece with many homages to Silence of the Lambs, Zodiac and different traditional movies of that nature. Why select this specific time interval?  

PERKINS: Whenever you’re an unbiased filmmaker within the noise of films and TV and streaming and the whole lot you’re competing towards, it’s such a loud environment. And should you’re like me, I wish to attempt to puncture that and break by way of and be seen simply to offer myself an opportunity to make a film that somebody will watch, even simply know to know that it even fucking exists. You’ve bought to search out methods to stack your deck just a little bit, proper? You’ve bought to search out methods to assist your self out from the get-go, what are shorthands which you can make use of to entry an viewers and permit an viewers to entry you. 

So, should you take a look at all of this like a crossword puzzle in entrance of you, like, you open the New York Occasions, you’re like, “Fuck, I don’t know the reply to any of those. That is tremendous tough…Oh, truly, I do know 12 throughout. I do know that Jack Kerouac wrote On the Highway.” My entry level for Longlegs was Silence of the Lambs. I used to be like, “Nicely, there hasn’t been a type of in a bit. That’s about as good because it will get. All people enjoys that. Let’s simply begin with that. I’ll lay that in.” And if I lay that in, then I do know sure different issues, or I can begin to make guesses, “Oh, it’s a feminine protagonist. She’s within the FBI. Oh, she’s bought a boss. Oh, there’s form of a wall of proof. Oh, they’re searching any individual. I’m wondering who that’s.” So, it simply begins to unfold that approach. The ’90s was a formative time for me. I used to be graduating highschool, these nice motion pictures had been popping out, my father died, shit was taking place, like numerous stuff was very a lot coming collectively. It was that transition from childhood to silly younger maturity, the place you don’t know something and also you’re out on the planet. So these components simply made it a superb time to be in. It appears good, too. 

DEADLINE: The movies that you just’ve written and directed, I Am the Fairly Factor That Lives within the Home and The Blackcoat’s Daughter, together with Longlegs too, give attention to girls who expertise a tragedy or a trauma mixed with supernatural components. Are you able to speak about making horror motion pictures that derive from terror and tragedy from the feminine perspective? 

PERKINS: I believe I’m all the time compelled simply by expressing some reality of my expertise. I don’t know if my expertise is healthier, worse, extra privileged, or extra broken. I simply know that it’s my stuff that I’m placing on the market and what I’m attempting to stick to once I’m writing issues. It retains me trustworthy, it retains me , and there’s a sure stage of reality, regardless of how fantastical the whole lot turns into. So, I’m all the time getting down to do one thing that’s about me. 

I select feminine protagonists as a result of it creates a further layer of curiosity, proper? It creates a further layer of romanticism as a result of I’m making stuff up. All the things I’m doing is about me, however all the duvet is all make-up, it’s all make-believe, it’s all taking part in with motion figures, it’s all portray, it’s all taking footage, it’s all creating stuff that doesn’t exist. So, to be within the seat of a feminine protagonist, for me, creates like a helpful distance from the fabric for me, a helpful curiosity. I can’t know what a girl is pondering, I do not know on a regular basis, and I imply that in the very best approach, and I wish to form of glorify that thriller within the motion pictures that I make by giving the middle stage to a girl who’s in all probability extra subtle, delicate, and intuitive than I’m.

DEADLINE: What scares you as of late? What do you eat, or what’s inspiring you proper now within the horror area? 

PERKINS: I actually don’t watch it. It’s not one thing I hunt down. I do know that will sound bizarre to folks, however I don’t see the horror motion pictures that come to the theaters. Each from time to time, any individual shall be like, “Oh, you’ve bought to see Speak to Me,” and I’ll be like, “Alright, I’ll watch Speak to Me.” However for essentially the most half, I don’t actually take a look at that stuff. True crime is abhorrent to me and virtually worse than that’s folks pretending to do true crime. I’m certain it’s actually brilliantly carried out, however I’ve zero curiosity in that form of grossness. I used to observe numerous sports activities, however I don’t actually have a lot time for that anymore. I attempt to watch older motion pictures that I’ve by no means seen. I’d by no means seen William Friedkin’s Sorcerer. You understand, you watch issues, you’re like, “Oh, this fucking factor exists?” and it’s wonderful. I attempt to simply make amends for issues which are nice.

DEADLINE: Again to Longlegs Alicia Witt as Ruth Harker, the mother character and supreme villain of the movie, I’m questioning what would you like audiences to take from her character arc? As a result of the nuance is so fascinating to me. Clearly, I don’t condone her conduct, however you’ll be able to argue that her murdering folks in an effort to maintain her daughter protected is the final word act of affection. 

PERKINS: You bought it precisely as her character is meant, which is to say that you just do what you bought to do. Mama Bear will do the factor that she has to do to guard the newborn bear. It’s simply innate. It’s simply religious biology or no matter you wish to name it, it’s instinctual. And he or she says in the direction of the top of the film, “I did it for you, and that makes it proper,” and for her, there’s no argument round that. It’s like, “I had a selection. I might both damage a bunch of individuals or allow you to be damage,” and for her, there’s no selection there. Does that make her unhealthy? Form of. Does it make her additionally like an excellent mom? Completely.

So, I believe anytime you’re in a position to exist within the dichotomy of one thing or exist within the binary reality of one thing, {that a} mom may be each the artistic and damaging power. God, folks have loads of these, proper? “Oh, my mom, who made me, can also be the one who destroys me essentially the most.” That’s a typical incidence. So, I believe that once you’re writing issues, creating issues, or working your approach by way of issues, the acknowledgment that there are poles and that each of the poles may be true on the similar time is extra fascinating than being like, “Let me inform you, let me clarify to you. It’s all the time like this.” There’s area in that.

DEADLINE: In deconstructing this movie, it’s fascinating that you just present the interior life, ideas, and loneliness of each Lee and Longlegs. A variety of horror movies as of late strive to not let the viewers know an excessive amount of about what’s happening with the villain of their day-to-day lives. However on this movie, we get just a little little bit of him with out actually figuring out the whole lot. Are you able to speak in regards to the decision-making that went into pulling again the curtain? 

PERKINS: When it got here to Longlegs, the best way we had been going to deal with his presence within the film was going to be two issues. It was going to be the hunted monster who since you by no means actually see him, holds an actual energy. As a result of he’s in a position to form of be omnipresent, and affecting everyone, and doing all these horrible issues, and nobody can perceive how, and also you simply can’t discover him. You may’t even see him. He’s just like the summative energy, the unseen hand. After which we wished to juxtapose that towards the actual fact of like, yeah, certain, he’s that, however he’s additionally identical to a shitty individual, and he’s a shitty one that’s been by way of the wringer. It’s not fascinating to have somebody who’s labored for the satan be like, “Ooh, man, you understand what I like? Working for the satan.” I believe it’s extra like, “Man, I’ve been working for the satan, and generally it’s actually scorching, and generally I actually get off on it, and generally it’s a fucking drag.”

Like life, proper? Like generally it’s actually an excessive amount of, and he’s pondering, “I’ve misplaced the colour in my hair, and I ruined myself with cosmetic surgery, and I’m fucking unhappy, and I’m simply attempting to be good to this little lady at a ironmongery shop, and he or she thinks I’m a fucking creep, as a result of I’m a creep, and I’m gross, and I’m lonely, and I’m unhappy, and I’m the monster, however I’m additionally lonely and unhappy.” And for me, that’s all the time about Darth Vader, proper? As a central, mythological, legendary character. We don’t must go to Hercules, Medusa, and all these issues, that are clearly wonderful, to search out the Darth Vader factor, which is like, “Yeah, that’s the monster, man.” It’s additionally like a fucking unhappy, scarred-up dad beneath there, and I believe that that, once more, to say that the space between these poles, completely in command, masked and lined Darth Vader, evil monster, that pathetic form of shriveled-up white dude, each are true.

DEADLINE: Nicolas Cage provides an especially uncomfortable efficiency that permeates the movie though it’s not in it very lengthy. How did you’re employed with him to create this dynamic of this character who oscillates between a childlike demeanor and intense sadistic conduct? 

PERKINS: Nicely, it begins on the web page. I don’t write scripts and be like, “Oh, it’s form of going to be like this. We’ll determine it out later. Nic, simply make all of it up. I belief you.” All the things is written, so the whole lot that Nicolas Cage says as Longlegs is written within the script when he will get it. And naturally, I say to him on the primary name, “Say, no matter you need, man. You’re Nicolas Cage. You don’t need to say any of my shit. You are able to do no matter you need,” and he says, “No, no, no. I wish to simply say what you’ve written, it’s instantly, you’re feeling good, you’re feeling good immediately, you’re feeling snug and protected and assured immediately.”

And Nic is simply as professional because it will get. He is aware of the whole lot about what he means, he’s seen each film, he can reference each efficiency that each actor’s ever given, he is aware of all of the music lyrics that you understand. He’s an especially sensible man. Like not all actors are clever. He’s extraordinarily clever and so fast. He doesn’t miss something. And so, it’s like utilizing a very sharp knife to chop one thing. You thank your good luck that you just’ve bought such an unbelievable collaborator, and also you simply begin constructing the factor. You speak, you usher in references, you say the belongings you like, you take heed to what they like, and also you attempt to discover glad mediums.

DEADLINE: Maika Monroe additionally has a nuanced efficiency in taking part in Lee Harker, who may be very by the e-book and never initially heat or inviting however cares very a lot in regards to the security of others. What was the choice behind making this kind of character and dealing along with her on this efficiency? 

PERKINS: Nicely, characters are simply expressions of what we’ve been by way of, proper? Just like the issues we select to say, the best way we take a look at folks, how we work together with the world is only a manifestation of our early experiences as youngsters and messaging that we get from our dad and mom and the world and the way we mannequin and what we expertise, proper? And then you definitely simply form of work it out continuously.

So, to know that Lee Harker had been form of hijacked by this man and all of his bizarre shit at a very early age and that she had form of misplaced a connection to her childhood, it’s just like the connection had been severed, so she didn’t actually even know herself in a approach. She had particular skills due to it, however virtually like somebody on the spectrum, she didn’t have a correct connection to the skin world. So, when that characterization is a results of the story, then you’ll be able to see it clearly, after which Maika simply is aware of, some actors simply know easy methods to do it. And I don’t imply to go the buck, however I additionally form of do, some actors are simply good at it.

DEADLINE: What was the problem of making a movie like this? Was there something particularly that you just didn’t suppose would translate effectively when you had been making it however then seeing it on display stunned you? 

PERKINS: The primary time she goes out along with her associate, she form of intuits that the suspect is in the home after which her associate goes and will get shot, and he or she form of has to go make the arrest. That scene was not in my authentic creativeness for the film. I simply didn’t have that scene. It went from her expertise of Longlegs when she was a child, after which the subsequent factor you noticed was the notion check. And the producers, my lovely, supportive, clever, delicate producers who know higher than I do numerous time, had been like, “You simply want an additional factor. You simply want one additional factor of her being particular, one thing that simply strikes up the ladder, one additional run earlier than you get into the notion check.” I used to be like, “I don’t need it. I don’t need gunplay, I don’t need her to shoot a gun, I don’t need her to determine the factor, I don’t must see this, it’s boring.” They usually’re like, “No, you want it.”

So I wrote it, we shot it, and it actually works, and other people actually dig it, and it provides a further form of like, “Oh, shit, we’re on this now,” that I didn’t see. That’s why a film is a collaborative expertise; you’ve bought to pay attention as a result of different folks know higher than you usually.

DEADLINE: What’s your secret to a superb scare when you’re writing or directing one thing? What checks and balances do you have got? 

PERKINS: I’ll admit that there’s confidence within the writing stage, after which within the taking pictures stage, I’m all the time feeling just a little bit like, “Fuck, I don’t know if we’re getting this or if this appears proper. Are we doing this? Do now we have sufficient protection of this? Are we getting the beat?” It’s a little bit of a multitude. Then you definitely get the footage to the enhancing room, and also you’ve bought an awesome editor, after which impulsively, the whole lot’s OK once more.

However it begins with the picture or writing… The written phrase, the whole lot begins with, and for me, it’s simply in regards to the uncanny, proper? Like, what’s just a little bit fucked up about this? Like Longlegs is form of a man, he goes to your child’s home on their birthday, and so they’re form of a magician however form of not likely, he’s like a clown, however he form of isn’t, and I form of can’t see this, however there’s one thing uncanny a couple of man who involves carry out at a party, however he form of doesn’t wish to be there. You simply form of get into these uncanny mixtures, “What if it’s a doll, however the doll doesn’t transfer? What if it’s actually inanimate, nevertheless it’s used for magic by some means, like an effigy or one thing? That’s bizarre. What if it simply appears and stares at you?” You simply begin to put collectively uncanny mixtures, and then you definitely come to carry your breath when you’re taking pictures it, after which it will get higher once more within the enhancing room.

I’m the one arbiter of what’s good, proper? I’ve to know that it’s good. It doesn’t matter. I’ve to consider within the factor that I’ve written and that it provides off the vibe of, “That’s cool. I wish to see that.” In any other case, what am I doing? 

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity]