We met up with this lama in town, we were initiated into the teachings of Buddha, and then given the opportunity to go on a retreat for two weeks. On teaching English at a Tibetan monastery when he was 19, and learning about Buddhismīy the end, I really wanted to engage in the thing I'd been a spectator of. I think it's a very, very heightened skill. And to be able to shift it and create something connected and present, when you're acting against so many elements that aren't there, when you're having to use your imagination, it's like being back in the bedroom again and just playing with characters that aren't seen, like we do in our childhood. I've watched incredible actors use an insane amount of skills on those sets to just be able to magically turn it on, be fresh with it. It's such a fragmented, piecemeal process, making one of those films. On the difficulty of acting with green screens for Marvel films And we came back to the work not only with a renewed vigor and focus, but just an amplification of gratitude to be able to work. And then the pandemic happened and we stopped, and our dreams became supercharged as the collective consciousness had this massive shockwave sent across it. My big fear was once we got to a studio in Auckland, I'd be having to clink across a car park in spurs and furry chaps and just feeling ludicrous, like I'm at some kind of Comic-Con convention of Power of the Dog rather than anything as real as the lived experience on that set on location was. My big fear was once we got to a studio in Auckland, I'd be having to clink across a car park in spurs and furry chaps and just feeling ludicrous. and I just felt utterly nourished by the placement of where we were shooting at. I had him in the movement and the breath of the cattle, the hair playing on the horse's back. I had him in the sound of the wind, in the grass. For an actor to be supplanted in that landscape with Grant's set, I mean, everywhere I looked, I had Phil. Our production designer, Grant Major, built a really masterful set. On shooting on location in New Zealand (standing in for Montana) and how that helped his performance I needed my concentration to be absolute. Or I'll wonder what the camera's doing or how that bit is going to be edited. So I'll lean into watching an actor's process, or I'll get interested in choices. Normally I think my brain, either as a producer, which I'm doing now as well, or just as a curious filmmaker, kind of creeps into other people's business a bit - not in an intrusive or negative way, just because I'm curious. You're narrowing the chance for distraction, so that your concentration can be more complete. What it does is if you're far away from who you are, it just gives you the ability to have a focus and a hook that's complete. On why he sometimes stays in character between takes (like he did with Phil) But to marry the brutality of being able to master the hard work in that hard landscape and those hard times with this amazing delicacy and sensitivity, I thought that was at the core of his character. whittling or whistling loudly, or the horse riding skills or any of the other kind of attributes this character has at his disposal. And those four species working together was just something profoundly affecting, and realizing that and the connection to landscape was really as informative as any of the specifics of. There was one moment when we were driving cattle and there were horses and there were men, there. extraordinary in the sense that it's often a coordination between four species. I knew I'd get snapshots or feelings of who Phil was from my encounter with people who actually lived that life in Montana, and who were graceful enough to let me into their world and educate me and give me an access to that extraordinary experience of working with animals. On going to what he called "dude school" in Montana But it certainly wasn't a playground role-play thing for me, and it wasn't something I grew up fantasizing about or knowing anything about. And then the revisionist era of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven began as well, which, for me, was at a very formative time in my cinema going experience. I thought, ah, here's deliverance from an unassuming hero in a way. But also, for me, I think where I really clicked into it was probably High Noon. I guess the first inkling I had of traditional Westerns, it was the more sort of John Ford tough man, the John Wayne. I had a little understanding of it from university, from studying cinema at that stage of my life. But no, I certainly didn't have a history of it. about as far from my lived experience as you can imagine, which I guess is part of the enticement of wanting to take this character and this milieu on. On his understanding of the American West prior to filming The Power of the Dog
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