For his second feature
21 Grams, after the Oscar-nominated Amores Perros, director Alejandro
Gonzalez Inarritu decided to try filmmaking Stateside. For this adventure he
maintained many of his prior Mexican collaborators, including screenwriter
Guillermo Arriaga and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. He describes the group as
a “Mexican gang,” and compares their “sound” to that of Ron Wood and Keith
Richards.
The popularity of his first film allowed Alejandro to put together an A-list
cast headed by Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro. Although he was
working with a budget of roughly ten times what Amores Perros cost, he claims
that because movies cost so much more to make in the U.S. it was essentially the
same.
Speaking decent English, though occasionally pausing to think things through, he
explained, “There’s a law in cinema that there’s not enough money for any film.
You could do a $200-million film and you will still be struggling with money.
That’s the rule unfortunately. And I had the same limitations I felt during
Amores Perros. When I wanted more days of shooting, I couldn’t get it. The
United States is four or five times more expensive than Mexico. So it was
completely the same.”
The initial stages of putting together his second project were tense, but once
he got to work he was focused. “I was receiving a lot of projects – so should I
do this or another? When you have more possibilities it’s more stressful. That’s
what happens to me when I arrive in The United States and I go into the
supermarket. It’s really stressful. You have like a hundred and fifty cereals.
And my kids want all of them. In Mexico you have maybe ten. So, in the
beginning…but once I was there I was pretty confident.”
It also helped that he had an early supporter in Sean Penn, who actually called
Alejandro after first seeing Amores Perros. They subsequently had lunch
together and Sean invited him to take part in the September 11th series. Sean
became an easy choice when it was time to make 21 Grams.
“As an actor, he delivered something that I really was blown away by. As a human
being and a partner, he was really collaborative, really disciplined, really
generous with me, the crew, the actors. He was a big presence. Always made
people feel confident and myself too. He’s one of the most amazing human beings
that I have worked with. He’s such a powerful presence. A great sense of humor,
by the way. So it was great to have him. It was as complete and beautiful an
experience as any director could have. And Naomi and Benicio I could say the
same.”
Since 21 Grams is a pretty intense picture dealing with murder, drugs and
possibly salvation, he made clear to point out that the set was actually pretty
fun. “It was a great environment. A sense of humor. A lot of humor. It’s the
only thing to lose the stress with. It was intense, but it was nice. We had
great relations. I was really lucky. The actors loved each other. It was a very
beautiful environment to work in. Not these egos, these big star things going
on, stupid things. It really was work. I think one of the reasons was they got
along very well, but they also trusted the project. It was not bullshit. We were
really working. There was nothing to do but work. We were really concentrating
on what we were doing.”
This easygoing set was probably best conducive to his creativity, since he
claims to be completely unstructured in creative approach. In fact, even asking
him about it brought forth a mildly defensive tone. “It’s very hard for me to
talk about that because I don’t have any rational process. It’s impossible for
me to talk about my process literally, because it depends every day. Every day,
depending on my mood, the actor, the scene. I’m very clear with what I want. I’m
very clear about where I think the actors should go from one place to the other.
It’s very clear for me. Sometimes I’m very specific. Very, very specific. This
should be here. That there. Sometimes. Sometimes not. It’s very eclectic.”
The way he explained it made 21 Grams’ shifting structure seem like a
perfect representation of his psyche – switching from one place to another. He
was equally defensive about the film’s narrative, which he stressed was
determined by emotion not intellect.
He began, “I think it was very important to have this structure. We have a bad
habit of judging things too instantly. Then you judge it and you’re prejudiced.
Unconsciously, obviously.” He paused, thought a moment, then continued, “This
film obligates you, confronts you that you have to grapple with your first
judgments. To think again. Because the first 20-30 minutes, basically, it’s just
little cells to establish the code of the information. We get the code, then
those little codes start to have some meaning after that. I trust the audience.”
“I think, from my experience, all of the audiences that I have shown it to,
nobody has felt lost in the film. Probably the first 20 minutes. But nobody is
so stupid that they believe I will leave them hanging without nothing. Everybody
knows that something will happen. They begin to live in the project, if you know
what I mean? I trust them, and they trust in the film. What I was worried about
is that at some point it becomes an intellectual exercise, instead of an
emotional ride. But I think that doesn’t happen. That was one of the first
beautiful things that happened in the editing. People say they were emotionally
affected. That, for me, was one of the most important things – it was an
emotional ride, not an intellectual: Oh, how smart they are! I hope we achieved
the emotion. I think these ellipses, these holes between one thing and another,
people have to recreate and get closer to the characters.”
He should have had an idea it would work after both Sean and Benicio immediately
signed upon reading Guillermo’s script. Naomi, on the other hand, was a
different story. According to Alejandro, “Naomi, I didn’t send her the script –
she just accepted without seeing it. She believed in me. I really was lucky to
gain all their trust.”
Copyright 2003 Jamie Stuart
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