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Richard Linklater doesn’t like to be asked about his upcoming take on “Merrily We Roll Along.”
“When I was doing ‘Boyhood,’ we worked in complete anonymity. No one knew about the film. This one, because it’s a Stephen
Sondheim musical, is very public. I will have to answer this question for 20 years while we are making it,” he said at Zurich Film Festival.
Its stage version, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez, won four Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical. Linklater is working with Paul Mescal, Beanie Feldstein and Ben Platt, and will be filming for many years, mirroring its decades-spanning storyline.
“My progress report is this: It’s nine sections in 20 years, and in a few months, we are filming a fourth. So see you in 2040.”
He realizes he’s “tempting fate” with such a long shoot.
“That’s the only way to tell this story, but people go: ‘What if someone dies?’ There’s always some extreme thing that would prevent it from being made, but it usually doesn’t happen. You’ve got to be collaborating with the future and just work that into the equation.”
Still, he got lucky before. “Boyhood” was shot over the course of 12 years.
“And I’m hoping to get lucky again, but it’s very different from ‘Boyhood.’ I’ve always made music films, and it’s fun to be making a full-on musical. And it’s about friendship, long-term.”
So is his famous “Before” trilogy, although for its protagonists Jesse and Céline, a day spent together turns into long-lasting love.
Linklater addressed Julie Delpy’s claims that she was paid a tenth of Ethan Hawke’s salary for its first part “Before Sunrise.”
“That’s not true,” he said.
“I actually remember fighting for it because I knew how hard the actors were going to have to work. I did have some producers saying: ‘Oh, Julie has no American credits. We don’t have to pay her that much – we can get her for scale.’ Ethan wasn’t getting much either, but I said: ‘Let’s get them closer.’ It was definitely the most she’s ever been paid. It was a little less than Ethan but not much.”
“I was like: ‘This actor is going to work so hard she doesn’t even know it yet, so let’s pay her, and both of them, as much as we possibly can. But no one was getting paid [much]. It’s not that kind of movie.”
At the time, Hawke’s star was quickly on the rise.
“Sadly, River Phoenix had just passed away, and Ethan was the biggest star in his age range. He had ‘Reality Bites’ coming up, he had already been in ‘Dead Poets.’ I met him backstage [of his play] and we closed down the bar. We started talking that night and 40 years later we’re still talking.”
He still asked him to audition, though.
“He was kind of offended because he was getting offered everything. He says: ‘Rick said I had to come audition. And he flew me coach!’”
Will there be a fourth part?
“We just missed our nine year [slot] by a long shot. But never say never.”
Linklater discussed his career during a masterclass, while also accepting Zurich’s Career Achievement Award. “It’s weird getting it, because ‘career’ and ‘achievement’ are two words I’m kind of dubious about,” he joked.
“I always want to be that guy looking forward, and not back, but something like this gets you thinking. All I can say is I’ve been so lucky to work with people in the film culture. Not just filmmakers, but film festivals, curators, teachers of film and just film lovers everywhere.”
“Film is optimistic. It’s people who want the best, who want to see something great and make something great. And we try to help each other in that.”
Linklater broke out with “Slacker” in 1990. To his surprise, Hollywood actually took notice.
“They don’t do that anymore. I had this weird film at Sundance that didn’t even have a story, and I remember they flew me first class. I didn’t know how to open the tray table, but I learned quickly,” he laughed, recalling first meetings that ultimately led to classic “Dazed and Confused.”
Instead of looking for established actors, he decided to “create stars.” That includes Matthew McConaughey.
“I could tell you a story about each one of them. Parker Posey walks in and I’m like, ‘I love her.’ But Matthew came in, my first impression was: ‘He’s not right. He’s too clean-cut.’ He was a fraternity brother at the University of Texas: firm handshake, male model good-looking, confident.”
Not exactly what he had in mind for the character.
“But in the audition, he told me: ‘I’m not this guy, but I know this guy.’ And then he just settled in and became that guy. I had this dark vision of a creep. Now, he’s creepy but charming. He never acted in a movie, but some people just got it.”
That’s what it’s all about, he said. To Linklater, the magic of cinema is precisely that “alchemical moment where the words on the page meet the person you cast and you see them start talking.”
“It’s like seeing a sculpture come alive.”
