Q&A WITH ARI ASTER
Ari Aster quickly established himself as one of the most exciting American filmmakers working today with the expertly directed horror films Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019). Since then, he also directed the psychological extravaganza Beau is Afraid (2023). His new film, Eddington, is a modern western set in rural New Mexico at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as a disgruntled sheriff who mounts a grassroots mayoral campaign against his town’s democratic incumbent, played by a sly Pedro Pascal.
Eddington is now in theaters across the country.
Q. It feels natural that the film is set in the American West, which is storied as a site of lawlessness and showdowns. How did you come up with the idea to situate today’s political and ideological schisms in this setting?
A. I grew up in New Mexico and I’ve always wanted to make a film set there. New Mexico is a very specific and interesting place. It’s a blue state, but most of its smaller towns tend to be red. I wanted Eddington to function as a microcosm for New Mexico, but I also felt that New Mexico was an interesting microcosm for the rest of the country.
I started writing this film at the end of May, beginning of June 2020, and the project was to make a film that got as close as I could to reflecting the environment in America, especially online, without sacrificing coherency or neglecting to tell a story.
Q. While Eddington invokes the cinematic traditions of westerns in the United States, there is also something extremely modern about its depiction of social media content and conspiracy websites. How did you work these contemporary elements into the look of the film?
A. The project was to make a film that functioned as a western that was inflected by a modern realism, which is to say that all of the characters are living on the internet. Just by setting a film in New Mexico, especially in a small town that has so many open spaces, it’s not hard to find a look that calls back to those classic westerns. That happens automatically. But, it’s also a film about people who are pretty media literate, or maybe who are not so conscious of just how media dependent they are.
For instance, the main character, played by Joaquin Phoenix, would be aware of all the classic westerns. He would’ve grown up with them. That’s probably one of the main reasons he became a sheriff. Because he sees himself that way, like in an old movie, like High Noon or John Ford’s My Darling Clementine. Those films would inform, not just the way he sees himself, but his stance in this town. I think that can be said about most of the characters in this film: that they are all living in different movies.
Q. Joaquin Phoenix delivers another great performance in your second collaboration to date. Could you speak to your working relationship and how you came up with this confused, but clearly incompetent lead character?
A. Joaquin and I have something of a working method that involves going over the script, talking a lot, and him asking questions to keep pushing his performance on set. For me, a big part of making this film involved me traveling around New Mexico and going to different small towns, counties, and pueblos, as well as talking to sheriffs, mayors, police chiefs, and other public officials. I wanted to get as broad a picture of the political landscape in New Mexico as possible.
I ended up meeting a sheriff that I found to be really, really interesting. He was the sheriff of a vast county in New Mexico with a very small population. I had a feeling Joaquin was going to find him interesting, so I flew back out to New Mexico with Joaquin and introduced him to this sheriff, among a few other people that I thought he’d find interesting. The character of Joe Cross is very informed by this man that we met. Even his wardrobe is inspired by the way this man dressed. We also had him come to the set a few times as a sort of consultant.
Q. Your film introduces the construction of a data center happening on the outskirts of Eddington that goes unaffected by the town’s tribulations. There’s this sense that the townsfolks’ political squabbling distracts them from this ominous, big tech venture. Is this something you’ve observed in American society?
A. This is something that has been happening all over the country, especially in smaller towns and counties. I would say that in the context of this film, which is about a community of people who are also less than a community given how divided they are, it’s about navigating a crisis. This community is navigating a crisis and on the periphery they have another crisis that is developing unbeknownst to them. In the end, all of these stories in the movie are basically just training data for this new thing that is coming. The movie is in many ways about people living through the collapse of something and standing obliviously on the cusp of something massive.
Q. What is the last film you saw and loved?
A. Afternoons of Solitude by Albert Serra. I think it is a masterpiece.
Q. What’s a project you’d like to make someday, however impossible it might seem now?
A. I have an idea for a sort-of sequel to Eddington that I feel would be tricky to get made. But, I’d love to do it.
Q. If you could choose to organize one retrospective, whose would it be?
A. Paul Verhoeven.
Q. What image would you like to end this interview with?
A. The photographer Gregory Crewdson came out to take this photo with Joaquin. I think it represents the film really well.
