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“The Last House,” a science-fiction horror from French director Louis Leterrier, is a movie born from Covid.
A suburban family of four, helmed by Jason (Wagner Moura)
and Ann (Greta Lee), is suddenly trapped in their home. With no understanding of the situation outside, and no way to know how long it will last, they must adjust to life inside.
Matthew Robinson wrote the first act during the pandemic, but when Leterrier read it, he thought there was something more to the story. “Let’s use the global experience and understanding that the pandemic brought on people, which is how we survived physically at first, but then most importantly, ours is how we survive psychologically, emotionally afterward,” he says.
The “something more,” as the family comes to realize, is the mysterious presence sealing them inside their house. As the days stretch on, they must work together to survive — physically, mentally, emotionally.
Ahead of the film’s release Aug. 7 on Netflix, Leterrier and Moura sat down with Variety to talk about the inspiration behind “The Last House,” the parenting perspective they brought to the project and the physical and emotional experience of shooting.
We see someone die pretty early in the movie. How did you approach these characters who experience those kinds of things really quickly, and then we have a lot of time left in the movie to play with?
Louis Leterrier: We had one breakfast, one happy breakfast, and then bam.
Wagner Moura: I read the script, and the Covid thing was for sure something that resonated real fast with me, because my experience with Covid was the idea of an external threat. In Brazil, it was a tragedy. So many people died. At the same time, I was experiencing something very unique with my family at home. I had never stayed so long with them and really had the time to be with them, look at each one of my sons, my wife. I had a very intimate moment with them, beautiful moments, intense moments. Then it was the Louis factor because I had this breakfast with him, and was like, ‘I want to work with this dude.’ I had an immediate connection with him. Also, I had never done anything like this before. For me, this is about a family, but it’s also a family movie that resembles those films that I grew up watching, from the ‘80s and ‘90s. It was a no-brainer for me.
Leterrier: Wagner knows, but one day I was in line for sushi, a gimmicky sushi restaurant next to where Wagner lives, where robots serve you sushi and drinks. And I saw him, and I was super starstruck. My wife was like, ‘You’re weird,’ because I know everyone in Hollywood, but I’d never met Wagner, and he’s so amazing in his movies. I was like, ‘Do you want to go have breakfast with me?’ And we talked about the movie in general, we talked about each other and we talked about life.
On that note of it being a family movie, I was really struck by a lot of moments where Jason and Ann are trying to decide if they’re going to tell their kids the full truth or not. How did you decide which things were going to be the full truth for those kids, and which were going to be kept secret from them?
Leterrier: It’s what you do as a parent. You guide your family toward your version, what you think is the right version of the world, and you try to protect them from the ugly truth. Sometimes the painful truth. But you don’t try to create a bubble for them. Although Jason and Ann, Greta’s character, are trying to build a bubble in the beginning. In Covid, there was the same thing. We didn’t know how long Covid would last, so that was the instinct in the beginning. There are levels of opening up and telling the truth, and at one point you just can’t hide it because your kids are so instinctive. They can see when there’s a problem with their parents.
Moura: It’s a difficult balance. One thing that really connected us, Louis and Greta and I, is the fact that we are all parents, and we understand what it is when your kid is sick, or I can’t even imagine having a kid that’s starving or anything like that. We would do anything for them, and one of the things is protecting them. Jason, he’s so focused on taking care of his kids. He’s a man that, at some point, he’s so focused on doing what he thinks is his job, to protect them, that he forgets about them. This is something that happens sometimes. I sometimes forget to listen to my kids, especially when they’re little, because parents, we have this arrogance, or adults in general, that we know the truth and we know everything. His daughter is telling him something since the beginning of the film, and he just doesn’t listen to her. Another thing that I realized is that in order to take care of someone, you need to allow other people to take care of you, and that’s the point where Jason breaks. It’s that he never allowed anyone to take care of him as well. There are so many different layers of what to be a parent is, or to be an adult in the world is, that I think this film brings.
Leterrier: It’s a very personal movie for all of us. That’s the way I feel about the world — maybe Wagner feels the same way — Jason’s starting point of not being able to control the world outside or being so lost with the situation. And when this happens, you’re able to grab the reins of the situation and then say, ‘OK, that’s the world. I’m able to do this.’ But then, by doing so, you go a little too deep. And as Wagner was saying, Jason loses himself and becomes blind. He becomes obsessed about one thing: feeding his family, survival.
I want to talk about that scene where Jason does lose it in the garage. That was one of the most striking scenes for me throughout the film.
Moura: No one is that tough. No one can carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. There are moments where Ann is trying to tell him, ‘Look at us. We’re here.’ And especially his daughter is trying to tell him something, and he just doesn’t listen. It’s only natural for me that he would break at some point. That was a very strong scene. Louis and I spoke about losing your ability to take care of yourself psychologically. At some point, I think the audience goes, ‘This dude is losing his mind.’ He’s breaking not only psycho-emotionally, but he’s going nuts. This film was unexpectedly hard to shoot physically. None of us expected this to be that. This scene, driving the car, crashing the car, coming back. We did it so many (times). But not only that, I wasn’t expecting this to be so — I’m not even mentioning the water part of it all — but it was very physically demanding. But it was physically demanding because it was also emotionally demanding.
Leterrier: You and Greta were so committed. There was some incredible weight loss, gaining weight again, losing weight again, getting old on camera. It was like stripping at the end. If I turned the camera on the crew, you would have seen the same effect. This movie was so hard because we didn’t make it easy. Sorry, my fault. I didn’t make it easy on any of you guys because I wanted everything to be real. Practical, practical, practical. The grass was real. The plants they grew were real. We worked backward, so we had to know what the house looked like at the end and then build on top of it. The animals were 100% real. They were biting. They were mean. George, that squirrel, is really not a nice actor. He’s the worst actor you have ever worked with. Wagner, you and Greta were so committed to this movie. It would have been easy to come in and out, go to your luxurious hotel room, come back and everything. We were like, ‘We’re focused on this movie. We’re staying in this movie, we’re staying in character.’ There’s only so much I can do as a director. I can brief Wagner and Greta, but when we start rolling, he has to interact with kids who are not actors, animals, rain, special effects. I’m throwing a lot of stuff in the air, and then Greta and Wagner are dealing with it and doing so well. So much of acting is reacting. There’s this real truth captured on camera on this one.
What’s next for you both after this?
Moura: Right now, I’m touring with my play here in Europe, which has been great. It’s a play called “A Trial — after An Enemy of the People.” It’s a play on (Henrik) Ibsen’s play (“An Enemy of the People”). This has been so great too, because this is happening throughout the entire summer, and I’m having my family here with me. It’s been so many different countries. And right after this, I’m shooting the “Oceans” film, which I’m very excited about. And then I’m gonna direct my film. Louis, did I tell you this?
Leterrier: Oh, amazing! “Last Night at the Lobster.” Amazing. Love this movie.
Moura: Finally financed. So, this is gonna be my year.
Leterrier: That’s how we met. We were talking about this movie, and we nerded out on this. I’m finishing a movie called “Liminal” with Vanessa Kirby, Yahya Abdul-Mateen, Tom Pelphrey, Tracy Letts, Paul Sparks, lots of kids too. It’s pretty amazing. Franka Potente, amazing actress. It’s a big sci-fi movie shot in New York. I don’t make it easy on myself. I always choose the difficult ones, it seems. Most importantly, I want to hang out with Wagner.
Moura: I want to hang out with Louis, too. He’s coming to France, and we’re gonna have some nice French wine and talk about the next project together.
Leterrier: While reading Variety.
Watch an exclusive “Last House” featurette below.
